CROWN PRINCE'S CONCUBINE

326 The Old Stories

“No!” screams, loud sounds of falling objects, some people running and screaming for their lives when their huts caught fire, some men in troop armour with the YueYang’s flag, pushed, kicked, and unhesitatingly drew their spears stabbed into the backs of the villagers who tried to fight, while the women were caught by the soldiers.

“Hurry up!”

Leaving little children crying helplessly sitting on the ground, even a little girl, still young, maybe around eight years old, crying while trying to pull the long spear that pierced the back of the man who fell on the ground, motionless, on the little girl’s back, with a shabby cloth carrying a small baby who kept crying non-stop.

“Father, huks, father please wake up, father”

The same voice was heard in almost all places in the village, small villages with houses that had been devoured by the red rooster and victims with lifeless bodies lying on the road even outside their house.

“Please, don’t hurt us!”

“They, came and attacked our village, captured the woman, and killed anyone who tried to resist, after that incident, we never saw where our Mother anymore, she may have died in the same way as our father, but, even so, they don’t let us cremate her body, huks.”

A young woman, thin and weak, sat on her bed in her old hut in the outskirts of SanPo, a small village near the city borders. The woman’s face was naturally quite beautiful, even very beautiful if it weren’t for the scar that ran from the top of her eye to her cheek, which blinded one eye, a scar deep enough to seem to pierced her cheekbone.

BeiYau who saw her looked pitiful at her, the girl claimed to be called XiLuo, not very old, she said she is twenty-eight years old, and, the assailant in the palace who spread MeiHua’s poison, was XiMei, her biological younger sister.

.....

The girl lowered her head crying, sometimes covering her mouth and coughing until a little blood came out of her cough.

“Huks Mei’er, now, how sister able to live on without you? Why are you doing this?”

BeiYau and XuYi arrived late at the palace last night when all the events in the palace were over, and the girl who had caused all the chaos was already lying lifeless after biting her own tongue to death. BeiYau was too late, he found out that the girl came in with the palace maid’s plaque obtained from the attack on the Logistic official Kui’s house, though, that wasn’t the real reason for the attack that led to the murder of the senior logistics official’s entire family.

JuYu and the girl are not close acquaintances, they only met a few years ago when XiMei was looking for a job in the city as a maid, somehow the full story the two were able to ally, and XiMei who had been taking care of her strangely ill sister since childhood had learned to make her own medicine, due to limited medical expenses, she finally got the poison prescription from the original owner of the MeiHua flower poison before the old woman died of old age.

Klekk.

The sound of the teacup being placed on the saucer on the small table next to the Crown Prince’s seat, he was sitting in the central room of the Golden Dragon hall with the Emperor with him, it seemed that they were discussing serious and quite important matters.

The emperor stroked his chin.

“Heh indirectly it’s all my fault too, can’t see what’s going on behind me, at that time, the Queen was still very young, she sometimes thought irrationally and was overly jealous, it wasn’t very strange if she did that, but, this, it’s really not I thought before,” said the Emperor.

“Didn’t Father ask what else the Queen Mother was doing behind your back? Which might in the future lead to chaos and other rebellions” asked LuoXiang.

“That’s Xiang’er, Father has asked, but the Queen is still in shock and can’t talk much, the Queen did not even visit the pavilion last night, so how can Father ask further questions?

“In the future, the same person will come, victims will fall again, before that happens, we must be able to try to suppress it, even prevent it, Xiang’er can understand why all these grudges arise, the sadness and the suffering, what that little girl felt because her only surviving Sister had been kicked nearly dead, cause her internal injured for her whole life, not to mention had her face disfigured since he was very young, and general JiFu, who was humiliated and yelled as being pervert, which turned out to be just fake news spread by the petty officials at the time, returned to his hometown and found his pregnant wife fell on the street after everyone insulted and throw her with stones because of her husband’s bad reputation, and died instantly, with the baby in her womb. It was only natural that they had a grudge against YueYang, Father, according to you, what could they do? If same thing happens to YingYing, I’m willing to do anything to punish the person who hurt him, I don’t know how many people I would kill to fulfil my grudge”

The emperor took a deep breath again

“Heh yeah, this matter is indeed very complicated, it’s not unusual for all victims to try to avenge their hurt” The man turned his head to look at the Crown Prince was serious after that.

“Then, how is Ying’er’s condition? Is he all right?” asked the Emperor.

The Crown Prince thought for a while, he remembered last night, when he approached BaiYing’s limp body as soon as the protective sphere disappeared, it was because BaiYing had already fallen unconscious, the young man’s face was pale with forehead furrowed in pain, he hugged the young man’s thin body tightly.

“Heh YingYing” while the girl, had already fallen with her eyes still wide open with blood still gushing out of her lips, she committed suicide.

.....

The sound of the water flowing, at the small creek which divides the garden, the little birds up and flew back from the tree branches, to the ground lifted a small branch with its little beak and flew back up cheerfully.

Towering bamboo stalks jostled by the wind, as well as the sound of the door swaying. BaiYing just sat on lean on his bed, in the large and luxurious room of the West Dragon pavilion, blankly looking up at the blue sky, with a few clouds clumping together as if his mind and body were drifting along with the thin clouds that calmed his mind. After, what happened, it was hard to just forget it from his head.

“Your Highness” The girl held his hand tightly, stopping BaiYing from using his healing energy, BaiYing was already weak, but he couldn’t let her die in front of his eyes without him being able to do anything to prevent it.

“Miss...”

The girl smiled. She lowered her head deeply, slowly with the remaining strength she dropped his body, kneeling deeply at BaiYing’s feet.

“Please, forgive servant, Your Majesty, please don’t abandon us, we, are your citizens, don’t let all our suffering, just a part of the record in the book, don’t let all our efforts end in vain, Your Majesty, huks, please don’t throw us away”

Unknowingly, tears flowed down from BaiYing’s pair of clear eyes, couldn’t help but cry as he remembered what had happened that made his chest hurt, like thousands of knives stabbed in it, this, was more or less the same feeling when he lost his whole family, and the girl, sacrificed her life, even though the victims was fallen because of her, still this was not the punishment he expected.

“Ekh” He was a little startled when someone suddenly touched his hand.

When he turned his head, he found the face of the Crown Prince who was already sitting on the edge of his bed, grabbing his hand, clasping a pair of cold hands.

“YingYing, are you feeling better?” he asked in a soft voice.

“Your Majesty” BaiYing immediately wiped away his tears.

For a while, BaiYing looked at the shining face of the Crown Prince who looked at him with a big smile on his face, until he dropped his head on the young man’s shoulder, still looking far away from the window.

“The sky outside is very beautiful, blue, very few clouds to be seen today”

LuoXiang squeezed BaiYing’s fingers, moved his head to kiss the young man’s forehead gently, resting his chin.

“Of course, it’s very beautiful, then, YingYing wants to go for a walk today? We haven’t been to the valley for a long time, I heard that XiaoGe and XiaoMei are getting fatter, they must be really cute.”

BaiYing didn’t answer right away, until the Crown Prince’s wide palm held his cheek, turning the boy’s gaze towards him.

“YingYing, what are you thinking? Are you still not feeling well? Look at your eyes are red like this, are you crying again?”

BaiYing looked at the Crown Prince with his big pair of eyes, slowly shaking his head.

“I’m fine Your Majesty, but, today, Ying’er doesn’t want to do anything, let us stay like this for a while, Ying, just want to just sit quietly stare at the sky for now.”

Crown Prince shifted BaiYing’s shoulders closer to him, leaning against the bed wall.

“Then let’s see the sky together okay, big brother will accompany you”

BaiYing nodded.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea, Your Majesty”

BaiYing moved the Crown Prince’s hand that was tightly clasping his hand over his chest, intertwined their fingers together, just holding the palm that was much larger than his and be silent, looking away as his mind drifted away, just like the clouds.

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