The Untouchable Prince | A Norenmin FanFiction

一百一

One Hundred One
Updated: November 27, 2023

Every building, every wall, every room was decorated with white. White cloth hung from walls, replacing curtains and framing doors, white flowers replaced the colored ones, decorating each corner with a spec of white, and white clothing was donned by every person in the Imperial City, creating a sea of what looked to be snow-people. It seemed like the color white had rained down upon the City within just a day, drowning and covering almost everything it could touch. It was like a blanket. A blanket of mourning and death that will last for the better of three years.

However, there was one place in the City where not a single white color could be seen. Those who walked in and out of this place were forbidden to wear white no matter what was happening outside of it, and those who did, were flogged until they were unable to walk for the next week. Not a word of the processions outside of this place could be said or mentioned. Inside this place, it was like death had never existed, as if death could not even reach its inner walls, untouchable.

For two weeks, Renjun remained in his room while unbeknownst to him, the funeral of his father proceeded outside for half of that time. People dressed in white paraded through the entire city and sounds of people mourning followed, only going mute when passing the Palace of Longlife Purity. No one was allowed to bother this palace, under the strict edict of the Empress and of the Imperial Doctor.

After the funeral processions, Emperor Lee and Emperor Na left to make the journey to return to their empires. Although they had been managing affairs from Huang, it had been piling up in the past year, and they could no longer remain in Huang. Their sons and nephews remained, having to stay to assist with the more complicated matters that were left after Emperor Huang's passing.

The effort against Kang had used up a lot of resources and taken up a lot of the time that was supposed to be attended to. A famine in the south that started at the beginning of winter was starting to take lives, refugees of the battles were having a hard time getting relocated, and the national treasury had suffered a great deal.

Since the death of Emperor Huang was known, not a single member of the Imperial family rested peacefully. They constantly ran around the City, attending to one matter after another. Xuxi, the two crown princes, and Jisung spent their days with the court ministers and their nights sorting matters on paper. And, slowly, day by day, the amount of affairs that built up was becoming more and more manageable, despite more being added to the pile. And, Shufen, despite her growing pregnant body, continued to work as head of the inner court, managing servants around the City and organizing stocks with her two nephews. She worked as hard as her body would let her until even her servant had to beg on her knees to get her to rest for even an hour.

Chen Jianxi had remained in Huang to assist in military affairs, lending more than ten thousand of his men to Huang.

After Renjun's return, Youngho was granted a large reward that also included Yongqin's. They were rewarded with more than enough money to retire for the rest of their lives including two estates: one in Guanghua and one in the more rural and scenic north area of Huang. However, with Yongqin's death, Youngho felt the estates would be too empty, so he opened both to allow for refugees to take shelter and decided to continue to reside in the Imperial City to continue to work despite the opportunity to retire. In the Court, he was promoted to Prime Minister of Huang after the previous one was found to have been smuggling money out of the national treasury.

When the funeral processions ended, two bodies were delivered to Huang's doorstep. One was kindly placed in a coffin while the other was crudely thrown into a body bag, and even without names, everyone knew who these people were, in fact, the letter that came with the bodies confirmed it.