Chapter 24.
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recap: in the previous chapter, Emperor Míng visited Ān Yù's funeral and this aroused curiosity from Yì Rán. The girl asked her sister what was the relationship between the Emperor and her aunt, but she refused to answer and said that she would tell her when the time was right. The girl was invited to the palace for a lunch with Consort Yú, First Princess and Second Prince, to
comfort her after the passing of her aunt. She saw a birthmark on the neck of First Princess that resembled the wound from hairpin. Second Prince later volunteered to send her back and gave her a hairpiece with a white peach blossom jade on it.
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They continued to walk along the corridors in silence, the occasional petals of flowers that were brought by the wind, fluttering in the air were their companions. The chirping of birds, melodious and sweet, were the rhythmic music of spring, because the flowers had just bloomed like a love that had just been born. With the everlasting gentle breeze, even the sun was warm enough, just like the heartwarming feelings that grew with time.
When they passed by the gates of a wall, they both encountered the mother of the Empire, the phoenix, who just walked past the bridge to the manmade river, catching their eyes. The girl instantly dropped into a curtsy while keeping her face down, hoping that the Empress would not recognise her. Second Prince bowed his body deeply upon seeing the highest woman in the harem.
"How are you lately, Second Prince?" the phoenix took her steps slowly while her servants followed closely behind her, keeping their distance right. She noticed the young prince paying respects to her, but her eyes took notice more of the girl standing right beside him.
"Your Son has been well. Empress looks healthy and seems to be in a good mood today." Second Prince straightened his body and met the Empress' eyes, smiling away any negative feelings he harboured towards her.
"This spring comes early, the flowers have blossomed and made me extremely delighted," she elaborated expertly, a true conversation-holder she was indeed. She turned her eyes to the girl right beside him, putting on the facade of confusion.
"Who might this girl be?"
"I am the daughter of Minister Yú, Yú Yì Rán." Empress stared at the girl stern and long, she was just amazed by how lucky this girl must be.
First, Empress Dowager took her in. Now, she becomes the adopted daughter of Minister Yú. The world is not so beautiful, young one.
"Rise," the Empress said shortly. The girl promptly rose from her position and stood with her back straight, her eyes on the grounds, not daring to meet the phoenix's.
"You are indeed beautiful."
"Th-thank you, Your Highness."
"How old are you?"
"I am seventeen years old, turning eighteen this year, Your Highness." Her answer was just too satisfying for her to hear, because the lost princess would have the same age as her.
"What do you say about entering the palace again?"
"Huh?" Both Yì Rán and Second Prince looked up at the Empress, surprised.
"Empress Dowager used to like you so much and you look just like the younger version of her. Since I do not have a princess to accompany me, I would like a companion as well. You are turning eighteen soon, I can also arrange for your marriage."
Because that way, not only can she completely sever the hope First Prince had to have this girl, she could also have her eyes always on the girl and then send her far away from the palace, never to return. What was the chances of people dying from a long-distanced travelling anyway?
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"No! No! She cannot get near Empress!" Pī Yáng exclaimed immediately the moment she heard of the unpleasant news from Rù Yáo, who still had her cloak on. The sister seemed to have aged slightly, her eyes looked tired and the colours of her face signified high levels of fatigue.
"I know, but the Empress had voiced her intentions. If she really wanted, we could not defy. If she was really brought in by the Empress...she could really become a princess..." the thoughts that the princess could finally return to the palace had blinded her reasoning. She had been trying hard to at least send her back as a princess if she could not eliminate those who stole the throne forcefully.
"No! Not the Empress!" Pī Yáng adamantly insisted, her arms holding tight on Rù Yáo's. The latter found her overreaction unusual and freed herself from her strong grip.
"Why are you being this way? Is this not the best for-"
"Empress knows something!" She whispered, as if afraid that someone was listening even though they were clearly at the hut by the graveyard, a place no one would visit.
"W-what do you mean?" Rù Yáo tried to smile away the colours that was losing from her face. Her heart had been increasingly beating when she felt those words carrying more danger than what she knew.
"Before Mistress died, Empress ca-came to find us. She found out that we were still alive and..."
"And what?!" Rù Yáo's lips began trembling, as if she was already able to anticipate the worst answer.
"She seemed to have figured out who Yì Rán is." The madam of the Yú family shook her head viciously, her hands holding her own body tight, her fear had shot up her own body that even she herself found it difficult to breathe.
"She is Emperor Míng's person, she is definitely going to kill her! What to do...what to do?!" Rù Yáo screamed uncontrollably, both of them looking for traces of hope in each other's eyes.
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I will try to find a way and persuade Minister Yú to refuse Empress' request. You should do something on your part too, whatever it is, I am sure you have a way too, am I right?
Pī Yáng looked at the piece of cloth in her hands and stuffed it in her sleeves as she ran as fast as she could, out of the premises of the graveyard and into the main path. She looked to her left and headed straight without a doubt, towards the palace.
At the gates, she looked at the guards who gave her their eyes filled with disgust. However, she was not the least bit afraid anymore, she was firm in her own stand.
"I want to see Eunuch Wǎn."
The guards still had not gotten rid of their disgusted looks and pointed fingers at her, "who are you? Beggar? Go away!"
"I said, I want to see Eunuch Wǎn!" She shouted on top or her lungs, she was too much in a hurry. The guards covered their ears, hearing her loud scream that was deafening. Their hands were on the handle of their swords and they were ready to unsheathe when the head guard came out after hearing the scream that attracted his attention.
"What is going on?" The guards all turned around and made way for him to walk through. He casted a discerning eyes on the woman standing right in the middle of the gates and walked slowly towards her.
"Go in," he said.
"Huh?"
"Go in. Eunuch Wǎn had said if you ever come again, just go in."
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She nervously waited in the small room located at the corner of the palace, a room not usually used at the part of the palace people rarely frequented. She touched inside her sleeves, ensuring that the piece of cloth was still there. Suddenly, the doors were opened slowly, the creaking voice was low and it let small amount of sun rays into the room. She instantly dropped onto her knees, her head was glued to the floor, not daring to meet the eyes of the one before her. The doors were closed before the person before her moved.
"What is it that you want to talk to me about?"
"Your Majesty!" She mustered all the courage she had left and lifted her head, looking into the eyes of the dragon. He seemed to be able to sense trouble coming from the servant of Mistress who had died.
"What happened?"
"Please, stop Empress from taking Yì Rán into the palace!" Emperor Míng took his time and slowly walked over to a small cushion placed by Eunuch Wǎn just for him and positioned himself comfortably on it.
"Empress wants to raise Yì Rán as a princess and I have thought about it for some time. Should we not return what was originally hers to her?"
"No, Your Majesty! Her Highness Empress seems to know something..."
"What do you mean?"
"Before Mistress passed away...Empress came to find us and...and asked about Yì Rán..." Beads of tears rolled down her cheeks, out of fear and out of sadness. Emperor furrowed his eyebrows as he thought, his eyes were deeply set on the woman kneeling in front of him. He breathed in deeply and calmed himself down before he said, "it was Mistress who refused to meet me after what had happened. Tell me why should I help her?"
Emperor found his lips trembling as he uttered those heartless words, as though the friendship between them both had died together with her. Pī Yáng's heart sank when she heard of his words, but she bit her lips and reached into her sleeves, pulling out the cloth and handing it over to him.
"What is this?" he opened the folded cloth and read the words written on it, the handwriting was not familiar but the sentences formed by the words definitely were.
Leaves flutter, birds fly away from the earth
River flows but petals stay still on the water
The sun and the moon miss each other, rain is their tears
Only at dawn and dusk can they be reunited, just for a moment to witness their loved ones fade away
He remembered that poem, it was a poem An Yu had composed when Seventh Princess had left the palace for good. She composed it in light of his love for Seventh Prinfess and gave it to him, but he had lost it some time ago. It was her first ever gift to him, and also the last. He felt a surge of guilt rushing up his body as his fingers trembled, just then a smaller piece of cloth fell from the unrolled part of the cloth. He curiously picked it up, inside was definitely the same handwriting as the one of the poem.
Third Prince
A promise unkept can only be amended by another promise
If the life of her father could not be saved
At least save the life of the poor girl as a repayment
May our past friendship lives on even after I died
May we be friends even in the next life
Third Prince, he still remembered his title before he became Emperor Míng. He was never made the Crown Prince, but he still ascended the throne because the Crown Prince died at the hands of Empress Dowager Xīn.
A small patch of wetness was formed on the cloth, a tear had dropped onto the letter the Mistress had wrote in secret during her last days. He knew how the Mistress had been suffering during her life in the palace, she had told him almost everything she could not tell her lady-in-waiting. He too, had told her the difficult life he led as a sinner and as a prince. She had kept her promise of not hating him, but he broke his promise of saving the life of Crown Prince for her.
It was true, that he should at least save the life of the princess they had died to protect.
"How did you have this?"
"It was...Princess, who found this when she was still a servant in the palace." Emperor folded the cloths back and held it in his hands, firmly and tightly.
"I guess...I have owed the Princess a debt." And thus he smiled.
"Th-thank you Your Majesty!"
"However, to take her away from Empress, I need to put her at somewhere she could never touch." Everything came with a price. In order to save someone's life, perhaps the sacrifice was that person's life itself because when humans try to change their fates, they were presented with worse ones. That was the inevitable punishment for going against the Heaven's will.
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Sorry for the long update! Ok as promised, I'm gonna explain about the First Princess' birthmark that leave a lot of people confused.
Okay, first of all the birthmark looks like a stab scar caused by hairpin. Secondly, it's said that birthmark shows how one died in the past. Lastly, who in this story died by a hairpin? Why not go back to the first chapter? :) I like to leave hints all over my story and don't explicitly explain what happened.
Also, I leave bits of hints in the poem as well. Rain is Emperor Ming and Moon is Seventh Princess. (Ok the Rain part will only make sense to Chinese and original Love In The Palace readers, basically Emperor Ming/Third Prince's name is Liu Yu and Yu sounds the same as the Chinese word for 'rain').
Ok that's all! Hope you love this chapter!
See you in the next one!