A Wuxia Tale: Blades and Flowers

Crumbling Down

(EMPRESS XIAOTONG)

I followed my daughter to her room in the princess' wing on the main palace. I sighed as I thought about how lonely Cai could have been in this wing of the palace. She is our only princess who stayed in these rooms and traveled these hallways alone while her brothers all stayed together in the prince's wing while growing up. At least Prince Jin, Guo and Han were not totally lonely in that wing.

But Cai...Cai is alone. We had to invite noble born girls to be her playmates but one of them turned out to be someone who inspires such jealousy in my daughter's heart.

Well, I know all about jealousy. I know that so well. And I know that it would lead to nowhere but the jealous person's own destruction.

But in this instance, I have some use for Cai's jealousy on Wang Hua.

"Cai," I entered my daughter's private chamber. I saw Cai sitting in front of the vanity mirror, staring at her reflection on the mirror. "Daughter..."

"Ah!" Cai shouted and she swept her arms on the vanity counter. Bottles of precious fragrance, face colors and boxes of jewelries fell to the floor. Cai stood up from the stool to face me. "How could you humiliate me in front of that Wang Hua?! That...that witch!" My daughter is fuming mad.

"Because you made several mistakes on this childish game of yours," I replied with a sigh before I sat on the foot of Cai's bed.

"Mistakes?" Cai moved to stand in front of me. "It was all perfect, I had them cornered until you came in and ruin everything!"

"Stop shouting at me!" I glared at my daughter. Some sense entered Cai's eyes and she swallowed hard. I sighed tiredly. "Do you want to hear the mistakes you made tonight?" I asked my daughter.

"Sure, please enlighten me, Mother." Cai crossed her arms tightly on her chest. "Pray tell, what were my mistakes tonight, aside from not expecting my own mother to foil all my plans?" She is so tightly wounded up I am sure she will break herself if she will not calm down.

"One, you let your maid be seen by my maids while stealing my bracelet. Two, you got too excited in executing you little game that you didn't check twice if everything is in their right places. Third, you decided to target Jiang ShuYin instead of focusing on Wang Hua." I explained calmly.

That last part was the one I couldn't forgive. "I have no problems if you will play your mouse and cat games with Wang Hua...but for you to pull Jiang ShuYin to your rivalry with the Wang girl is not something I can overlook."

"Why not?" Cai looked confuse. "The Jiang girl is also trash...just like Wang Hua..."

"Quiet!" I stood from sitting to glare at Cai. "Jiang ShuYin is your brother's intended. She will one day be Han's Empress. Are you really going to ruin Han's reign because of your petty jealousy on Wang Hua?!"

"But Mother!"

"Leave the Jiang girl alone," I grabbed Cai's arm to make her listen to me. "Do you hear me, Cai? Leave Jiang ShuYin alone. I don't want today's incident ever be happening again or I swear...I will be your personal enemy."

Cai pulled her arm from my hold. I sighed to her. "What I don't understand is why you are taking two enemies when you can't even defeat one?" I asked my daughter. "You are already having a hard time beating Wang Hua, why add Jiang ShuYin to your enemy list?"

"Wang Hua loves her cousins dearly. They are a way for me to hurt Wang Hua." Cai grumbled.

"Ah. Yes. That makes sense." I nodded my understanding on Cai's reasonings. "But still, the Jiang siblings are off limits. Think of Han. Your brother will need his bride's family's money and influence on his reign. Don't bother the Jiangs."