22 years ago
"Your Majesty, we have achieved the impossible! All that's left for us to do now is to ambush the Empress Mother! Then everything will be yours once and for all! Everything!" The court official's voice rang clearly in the enormous Throne Hall, but his enthusiasm was only met with tense silence.
The regal-looking man that the exclamation was directed at only stood quietly on the shimmering platform at the front of the hall. He was clothed in the emperor's Dragon Robe which was disheveled and unfastened at the waist. With his back towards the rest of the room, the man surveyed the throne that was placed in the middle of the platform. It was swathed in gold and was exquisitely carved with ferocious dragons intertwining with each other in harmony. With his eyes hooded and his face shielded, no one else in the room knew what was currently etched on his handsome face.
The man turned his charismatic thin eyes towards the court official who had just spoken. As the man lazily inspected the court official, he realized that he couldn't recognize him, let alone remember his name. His eyes grazed past the hundreds of people standing behind the court official, other court officials who were supposedly on his side.
Without uttering a single word, the man let out a sudden burst of mirthless laughter which echoed throughout the large hall. The officials below the platform eyed each other nervously at the sudden shift in the air.
The man on the platform continued his demented laughter until he suddenly stopped, bringing an abrupt silence to the enormous space. The court official who spoke earlier was the closest to the man on the platform and he was the first to notice the sudden change in the man's demeanor. It was in the way the man's eyes turned bloodshot and the way his pupils shrunk. That was the last thing the court official ever saw.
It took less than a flutter of an eyelash for the man to descend the platform. With a swing of his sword, he beheaded the court official without even a single trace of hesitation. The court official's head fell to the ground with a prominent thud. The rest who were present were instantly frozen in their places, the air in the room pregnant with the primal fear of hundreds of men. Several moments passed before the floodgates of chaos were released. Everyone in the room hastily scrambled over each other to reach the only exit to escape the Throne Hall, but none of them had the chance to even touch the wooden frame of the doors.
The man struck each and everyone down, his hysterical laughter returning in full force with every strike. He had been trained in swordsmanship under the nation's best swordsman ever since he was young, while those officials were mainly middle-aged men who have had one too many years of overindulgence. They didn't stand a chance against him. In less than five minutes, the shimmering hall was drenched in warm, slimy blood. The acrid smell of human blood seeping through every single surface and orifice in the room.
The man somehow lost one of his boots during the ordeal. But that didn't stop him from dragging his bootless feet across the blood-spattered floor back up the platform. Once he reached the top, he propped himself on the throne and surveyed the lifeless bodies lying all over the room. The gruesome splatters of blood on his face couldn't compare to the crazed glint in his eyes. He took the view in hungrily as if he was enjoying what he was seeing while savoring the metallic tang that hung in the air with his eyes closed like the mad man that he was. Then, his bloodied face suddenly broke into a self-derogatory smile as he scoffed and plunged his bloody sword straight into his own heart.
"How could this heart still hurt so much?" A tear rolled down his face as his eyes finally revealed the brokenness that he had held deep in his heart all this time. The ominous red blood moon shining through the window was the only witness to the man's last words before he closed his eyes once and for all.
*******
Morning light shone through droplets of melted snow on a bald tree branch that was overlooking a vibrant street. It was just like any other morning in this city. Birds were chirping cheerily and steam was piping at intervals of the street as vendors sold breakfast.
"Fresh buns! Fresh buns! Only three Yuan each!"
"Come have some porridge with you tiao! Fill your belly so you'll be able to work like an ox for the rest of the day!"
In a breakfast tavern, business was running as usual. The place was packed with people who were just starting their day. At one of the tables, a well-dressed man was having breakfast with a beefy man and his pregnant wife.
"Have you heard? There was a coup at the Imperial Palace late last night!" The well-dressed man said in a hushed voice to his companions over the din of the tavern.
"Is it true? Is the emperor dead?" The beefy man asked in reply, astonished.
"Shh.. Do you want to be beheaded? Besides, there isn't any announcement. We shouldn't be making any conclusions." His wife scolded him.
An elderly woman who was dining with a scruffy man who looked like her son on the table beside the group overheard their conversation and decided to join in. "Sorry, I couldn't help but overhear your conversation. I do think it's true though. We live near the Imperial Palace and there was definitely some commotion late last night."
"What about the Empress?" The beefy man's wife asked worriedly.
"I heard that she passed away too." The scruffy man who was accompanying the elderly woman chimed in.
The rest of them let out a collective gasp.
"And the baby she was carrying?" The beefy man's wife continued, more concerned as the conversation went on.
"My friend who has a cousin who works as a kitchen helper in the palace told me that the Empress actually gave birth to a prince before she was slaughtered in her birthing room." The scruffy man replied gravely.
"How awful!" The beefy man's wife exclaimed while she rubbed her pregnant belly nervously.
"A prince! It should have been a day of celebration!" The beefy man exclaimed.
"Then what happened to the prince?" The well-dressed man asked curiously.
This time it was the elderly woman who answered. "Not sure. I think he's safe?"
"Wait, then is he our emperor now? A-day-old baby as our emperor? We'll be the laughing stock of the region!" The beefy man said.
His wife slapped at his arm angrily. "Shh! Your life's goal is to be beheaded, isn't it?"
"I understand where he's coming from. I can't imagine the rest of the imperial family agreeing to this." The well-dressed man mused.
"As long as the Empress Mother lives, no one would dare to even pip a squeak. Especially so close after this coup. Besides, the rest of them are just distant relatives. They probably have no say over this." The elderly woman said from the other table.
The scruffy man then looked around nervously before gesturing everyone to huddle closer as he whispered. "I also heard that the mastermind behind this coup is actually..."
He didn't get to finish his sentence when all of a sudden, there was a commotion down the street. People were dropping to their knees, howling and wailing. Some of them were even crying.
In a distance, in the direction of the Imperial Palace, the grand eunuch was waving the emperor's blood-stained robes on the rooftop of the highest building in the palace, bellowing "Your Imperial Majesty! Don't leave! Please come back to us! Your Imperial Majesty! Please come back to us!"
The group in the tavern looked at each other in shock. The weight of the reality finally sinking in.
"Dear heavens! So, it's true. It was all true." The well-dressed man mumbled, his voice barely a whisper.
*******
On the balcony of her private residence at the West Palace, the Empress Mother's gaze swept over the vast compound that was laid out in front of her while donned in her white mourning clothes. Her facial expression was somber, her eyes cold. She was an imposing woman but seemed to have aged drastically overnight with white hair peppering at her temples and fine wrinkles lining her eyes. Behind her, a young woman bowed deeply.
"Your Majesty. You asked to see me?"
Compared to the Empress Mother's composure, Governess Hsu looked extremely distraught. Her face was streaked with dried tears, her eyes bloodshot from crying.
"How's the child?" The Empress Mother turned to face her and asked coldly.
"Well and healthy." And still oblivious to what has happened.
"I believe that you're aware of our.. arrangement?" The Empress Mother continued.
"Yes, Your Majesty. But.." Governess Hsu replied, lifting her head up at the end.
The Empress Mother's eyes flashed. Governess Hsu quickly averted her eyes and directed her eyes towards the ground again.
The Empress looked away. "Tend to it. I am putting you in charge of the child. Hire whoever you need to hire. Make sure the people attending to the child directly are all mute and illiterate. Preferably without any family or loved ones."
"Yes, Your Majesty. I will take care of it." Governess Hsu came to a deep bow again.
"Good."
With that, the Empress Mother left to attend the royal funeral.
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