Princess In The Palace

1. Prologue

"They will definitely find Yì Róng if we sent her back to the Wéi family! They will kill her! They do not know that she is still alive! Take these with you! Please! Go now! Go! Before they come and find me!" Crown Princess gathered her boxes of jewelry and wrapped them into a fine piece of silk before she passed them to her servant. She also gently held her baby and passed her only treasure to her servant, in hopes of her child's survival.

"Yo-Your Highness...!"

"GO!" She pushed her servant away, out from the back doors. Fear was crawling up her body, her tears were dropping profusely, endlessly, her hands were trembling uncontrollably. She sobbed, she wept. She wept for her life, for she had gone through nothing but pain. Her heart was shattered into pieces when she found out that she would never be loved by her husband. She led a life as miserable as an abandoned concubine, despite being the Crown Princess. So she groped her way through the furnitures and walls into her bedchamber. She dropped her body in front of the low table and lifted the lid to her box of jewelries. Her fingers reached for the gold hairpin that was traced with pieces of ruby. She stared at it, crying for her fate. The colour of ruby was a beautiful shade of bright red, and she wondered how beautiful was it compared to her blood?

She would know soon. It was something that she had always wondered since young, anyways. So she went ahead, with a smile, then with a pained a smile that she endured. The colour...was indeed redder. It was no wonder to her, then, that people in the palace killed one another, because the colour of blood...was just so beautiful.

---

Several days had passed. It was the money she got from selling bits and bits of her master's jewelries that kept her and the princess alive. She was shocked, she was surprised remembering what happened. Never in her mind had she thought of such disaster that may befall upon them.

She spent days travelling far away from the Capital city, passing by the greens of the nature, far to the northwest.

It took her days but she finally did. The small and green village before her was what her master had told her of, the place which that woman was hiding in. The village where she was living despite many people who believed she had passed away.

She spent two whole days scouring the village, finding any signs of her. That was when she saw someone familiar, someone who definitely did not belong here. Someone who used to be at the palace, her servant. That person had just finished buying three packs of medicine from the local village physician. Thus she pulled up her cloak to cover her face and hid the baby behind it. She followed slowly from the distant and she saw her entering a small hut, before seeing again another woman exiting the hut.

It was the same woman. That very same face, that very same existence. She was indeed still alive. She bit back her lips a little, regretting and grieving for her master who must have left this world by now. Instead, this woman was still alive. It was such a pathetic life that her master had led, for in the end she had no one to trust but this woman.

Thus she waited till the night had fallen. She knocked on the door to the hut and it was her servant who emerged. The sight of a mysterious person hidden behind the layers of cloak had her increasing her cautions, especially when she saw a big bump behind the cloths.

"Long time no see." She unveiled herself, revealing her familiar face to the servant. Of course she still recognized her, the face of the lady-in-waiting to the Crown Princess Wéi Qiàn. She was left gawking, utterly speechless that she would find the most unexpected person at such a hidden place so far away from the palace.

"Who is that, Pī Yáng?" She emerged from behind her, that very same face that vanished suddenly from the surface of the earth. And she saw her, Xiǎo Rù, standing at their door, pulling away her cloaks, revealing a baby deep in her sleep in her arms. Immediately she forced the baby onto her and she had no choice but to carry the baby, awkwardly, for it was her first time ever.

"Her name is Yì Róng."

"What?"

"Liú Yì Róng."

"L-Liú? You say...this baby's surname is...Liú?" She was surprised by the Imperial family name that the baby held.

"She is Crown Princess' Princess." Those were her last words before she went away and vanished into the darkness of the night. Despite countless times they screamed for her name, she never returned and she was never seen again. They were left with a baby and thousands of questions floating on their minds. What has happened?

---

Seasons had changed and years flew by in the blink of an eye. It was difficult for them to raise a baby, for they were both inexperienced. They needed helps from the villagers, disguising the princess as a baby they found on a basket floating down the river. She grew to become a beautiful girl, a girl who was oblivious of her birth secrets, a girl whose birth secrets only three people know of right now.

She was the joy, she was the sunlight, her innocent laughter was the source of hope they had. They watched her grew her teeth, they watched her crawl, they watched her first stood up on her own, then walked and talked. Her developments as a baby to a girl were fascinations to them, especially to her.

They had been trying to find out news from the villagers, of the new Emperor, the Emperor Míng. However, for it was a village located extremely far away from the Capital City, the villagers knew nothing except that there was a new Emperor called Emperor Míng, and that Emperor Shì had passed on.

"Aunt Ān!" Her giggles could be heard from outside of the hut they were living in. She was known as Aunt Ān to her, but will she ever tell her who she really was? She smiled and put down the embroideries work in her hands and lifted Yì Róng who was running in her directions, carrying two stalks of white flowers and sat her on her lap.

"What did you do today?" She asked.

"Picking flowers!"

"Where is Sister Pī Yáng?"

"I am here." Pī Yáng appeared from behind the doors as well and closed it as she dropped the basket of firewood and herbs on the floor.

"Alright. Let us put you to sleep now, Yì Róng, shall we?" She took the flowers away from her little fingers and placed it aside, while Pī Yáng positioned the little girl on the thin piece of cloth on the floor, slowly and gently patting her back to sleep. When they were finally sure that she was asleep, they sat further away from her and started whispering.

"Aunt, are you going to keep waiting here for His Highness to come?"

"...."

"It has been five years. Five years since Yì Róng came. His Highness could have come during those time."

"Something must have happened, that is why His Highness could not come." She finally spoke, holding on to the last bits of positivity she had, even though she knew that almost all her hopes had been crushed.

"This is only my assumption, but I guess that Crown Princess must have passed away. She must have been in danger, including the Wéi Family too. That is why she sent Yì Róng here."

"...."

"And for that to happen, the same thing must have happened to Crown Prince, or else His Highness would have tried to find his lost Princess."

"Five more years. I have waited for five years already. Five more years, and if His Highness still had not come, I will go. We will go, to the Capital City. However, if His Highness no longer recognised me, we will return, and I will permanently go back to being Yè Ān."

Even though she knew that her actual name was Yè Ān Yù, and that Yè Ān was just a name she disguised under. However, for years, she had been known as another name, a name that perhaps had cursed her for the life she had. She had thrown that name away, with the luxury that came with it, and also her love.

---

Hi! This is the first chapter of Princess In The Palace. I guess this story will start out slow, maybe? I'll try my best to update it regularly! Please do tell me what you think so far though! :)

By the way, what do you think about the cover? This cover requires more edits than Love In The Palace lolol but I think Love In The Palace's cover is still nicer... it's so hard to make a cover!

Anyways see you in the next chapter! :)