My Soul Is In The Sky (Completed)✔️

22. Steal Rain

For the next week, I spent all my time painting.

I made the canvas with a linen cloth and applied rice porridge as the primer. The walnut oil Jinu got for me works great when mixed with colors. It is a painting about the celebration of Shang Si Festival. With Empress and her sisters and Princess Ping Yang dining in the background, the focus of the painting is around Empress Wei's four kids: three sisters chasing the butterfly while little Prince Liu Ju, with his clothes all wet, praying by the water with a dead fish by his feet. The sun and the wind give the similar feeling as of Monet's Woman with a Parasol, light, breezy and nostalgic.

"I can't find myself in this painting. Where am I? Where are you?" Huo complains when he can't find himself in the painting.

"You were not at the gathering." I laugh.

"But I'd like to be on this painting." He insists on me putting him in. "It looks really good."

Only after I promise I will paint a portrait for him, he doesn't press on anymore.

I ask Princess Dangli to bring the painting to her mother as a gift for inviting me to the Shang Si Festival. Along with the painting, a cream cheese cake is also sent to Prince Liu Ju.

By the end of March, General Wei comes back from the front and sends me a message to see him. When I find Princess Pingyang is there, I know she must have been upset since I have not given her any answer.

"Have you had enough time thinking about what I had said to you?" She looks crossed.

"Not really." I answer her politely.

"How much longer can it be?"

I stay quiet.

General Wei looks at me and then at Princess Pingyang.

"Don't push her." He finally says to her when he realizes I do not plan to answer her question. "This is something she has never dealt with. When I agreed that you talk to her, I thought we had the understanding that she can turn it down."

"Why do you speak for her?" She suddenly raises her voice. "If she is as smart as you said she is, or if she is as loyal as you described she is, why can't she help? It's not for me. It is for you and your family."

"Your Highness..." General Wei flounders by her sudden anger.

"If you are going to defend her, then go ahead. I will never get involved with you or your family anymore." She stands up. Both General Wei and I stand up too.

"Your Highness..." General Wei mumbles. It seems like those are the only two words he can think of at this time.

"That is quite all right." She says to him with a tone of disappointment and sadness. "You and your family are all set. You don't need me anymore. And that is also a relief for me as well. I don't need to constantly worry about you or your family either."

I cannot believe how Princess Pingyang behaves like a heart-broken woman. I glance over General Wei. He looks embarrassed, worried and tormented by what she said.

"That is not true. It is not like that." He keeps mumbling to her.

But she refuses to listen and storms out.

He tried to chase her but stopped by the door.

"I am sorry for everything. Her temper can be bad when she is upset. But she is a good woman." He explains to me.

"I understand," I say to him, "She is just upset and jealous."

"Jealous?" He looks puzzled at me.