Scent of Cherry Blossoms (Ongoing)

Chapter 9 - The Wedding (Part 2)

“Ruo’er, this is not the time,” said Zhu Ehuang. While her daughter was going off “beauty this” and “beauty that”, Zhu Ehuang had felt her son’s body stiffen and lean more into her arms.

“What? I was just trying to lighten up the mood.” She whined to her mother and then looked at Xiao Ming’s face full of dread. “Oh,...I’m sorry Ah-Ming. I only meant to cheer you up.” She turned her head and looked at her feet in shame.

Zhu Ehuang turned her attention to her son and patted his back tenderly. Her heart ached to see her son in such a dreadful state. Marrying him to a man was like thrusting him into an inferno. She believed like many others that such a life was no life at all. Her son would have no children to dote on or to love and care for him in old age. People would judge her son and stare at him with disgust for something that was out of his control. Her heart and soul truly ached for him.

Seeing that their madam wanted some alone time with her son, the middle-aged woman tactfully signaled to her assistants and withdrew from the room.

“Ming’er,” said Zhu Ehuang in a raw, tender voice. Her eyes reddened and tears flooded her vision. She gathered her son’s cold, fisted hands and held them in her warm ones. Heavy tears dropped from her eyes and landed on his hands. Xiao Ming’s fisted hands relaxed and unraveled. His eyes turned upward to gaze at his mother’s and saw the streaks of heavy tears on her face and the pain within her eyes. “Mother…,” whispered Xiao Ming in a shaken voice that seemed to foreshadow tears. He was afraid and unaccepting of his near future. He felt humiliated and dishonored. Being forced to marry another man made him feel incompetent and less than a man. And, then to see his dear mother, who was always smiling and cheerful, cry with such pain in her eyes made him feel helpless and contrite.

Zhu Ehuang’s lips trembled. She said, “Ming’er, I cannot bear to watch you live an unhappy life.” She smiled sadly at her son and reached out to caress his face. She breathed a heavy sigh that seemed to have emerged from the roiling sea of emotions within her heart. Her graceful brows snapped together in resolve. She grabbed Xiao Ming by the arm and dragged him to the double doors. This sudden action shocked both Xiao Ruo and Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ruo stared at her mother dragging her little brother to the doors with wide, curious eyes. “Mother, where are you taking Ah Ming?”

“Ming’er, you must run away! Quickly!” She shoved the doors open wide, shocking the middle-aged woman and her assistants outside the bedchamber.

“Madam, Young Lord.” said the middle-aged woman.

Zhu Ehuang ignored the greeting of the woman. She only repeated to her son, “Run far away from here! Go!”

The middle-aged woman and her assistants gasped in fear. Run away from a marriage arranged by the Emperor? Treason?!! Too shocked and scared to mouth anything, they all bit their lips and looked down at the ground. They closed their ears and pretended they never heard what their Madam had uttered from her lips. If words of treason were to get out, death would be their only end.