an ancient chinese story

22

The empire of yuan had declared war on the Qu empire.

as  the assassination attempt on the emperor had failed and the left minister had been house-arrested.

for all of this happen, they had been carefully making alliances within the Qu empire's court to weaken the empire. And it was all done through the left minister, who had been the primary help in this whole mission.

While on envoy from the Qu empire, the left minister had come to meet the emperor of Yuan. together, the left minister's meeting with wang shu had been incidental.

By then, Wang Shu had already forgotten about revenge. his new life in the yuan empire had overcome his desire for vengeance. Unintentionally he had come to care for the crown prince more than he himself understood. The wall he built around him, the anger from the betrayal he faced and the anguish he felt as a slave all vanished when he was around the crown prince.

Though the words never came to his mouth, he could feel in his heart how light he felt around the crown prince. How free he felt from himself. The crown prince had freed him from his anger, his desire for vengeance and his past.

When the crown prince had crossed his 20th summer, the emperor had denounced his position and made the crown prince the new emperor. and despite the court's constant pressure on taking on wives, the new emperor had never taken on any wives nor any concubines. He had declared his heart was for just one person. for his wang shu.

Rumours about wang shu and the emperor had begun to spread like wildfire. And so as push came to shove, the emperor had declared Wang Shu his empress to the whole empire. Some court officials had loyally declared their opposition but the emperor had ended up having his way. Even Wang Shu had feared this decision and went against it. It wasn't because he felt their love wasn't enough, but that he himself understood how essential securing an heir to the throne was. So, to solidify Wang Shu's place by his side, he had come to an agreement with the court and Wang Shu, that he would take on three concubines. With that, Wang Shu was relieved for his lover's legacy. He wasn't one to share his beloved prince with any other. But he was willing to sacrifice whatever it took to see his prince prosper in his rule and have all that he deserved, and an heir was one he couldn't give to the prince himself.

With an official wedding with the emperor, wang shu had become one with the prince and also came to fully embrace his new life.

it wasn't until the unintentional meeting with the Qu empire's left minister, the deemed fire for revenge within wang shu had roared again. after knowing of wang shu's survival ,the left minister had come to pleadge his allegiance to wang shu, because though not born from the empress, wang shu had been the first-born son of the emperor of Qu. The left minister had also revealed his side of the truth about how he also believed that Wang Shu's mother was innocent of the crime. and all was conspired to remove the second prince i.e. wang shu ,an threat to the throne by the empress's family , by taking advantage of the incident.

The power hungry family of the empress had orchestrated the whole thing to get rid of wang shu, a threat to the throne to the empress's son. Though the empress' death had saddened them, they all wanted nothing but to secure their family in the empire as the future emperor's maternal household. They craved power and wealth more than anything.

The empress's death had been food poisoning, a natural death. The empress's family knew but had altered the autopsy to frame the imperial concubine. They didn't want to miss this golden opportunity.

The left minister had come to know of this all from his spies. But it had all been for nothing as the imperial concubine had been executed and the second prince exiled by the time he knew about it.