Love In The Palace

Plan

This is chapter 22!

--- 

Author's POV:

The room looks dead, the atmosphere resembles those at graves. The doors to his palace is closed, tightly, with only two guards and servants guarding outside. He is all alone, lying on the floor, his head leaning against the low table in the middle of the room, while his hand is holding onto a bottle of wine.

Drunk. He is not. But his eyes look fazed, unfocused as he stares into the bottle of wine his hand is loosely holding onto. Should I continue drinking? His mind asks.

The sudden entrance of bright sunlight hits his eyes and immediately he squints, exerting every last energy he has to turn his head around, finding a figure of a woman dressed in lavish outfit advancing towards him, hurriedly. It takes him all he has to outline her face.

"Why are you already drunk so early of the day?!" Just by hearing that voice, he tells himself to close his eyes for he knows the owner of that voice well.

"Mother Consort..." He pushes himself up, which takes much willpower to achieve. He already feels dead, for someone he loves dearly for almost his entire life have finally left.

"Be careful." Guilt pours over him, as he finds his Mother Consort still being worried over him, despite him drowning in such a shameful state. She was clearly shouting at him, yet, now she is already on her knees, helping him to get up, brushing off the loose strands of hair from his face. He could see very well how much his Mother Consort loves him, she has never failed to grant all his wishes. But there is only one wish he has never told her, one wish he knows she would never be able to grant.

"I do not know why you are behaving this way, but perhaps it is better if I remain oblivious about it." She simply says, almost whispering, without looking at him in the eyes. For a second, his heart seems to have jumped out for he is scared that his Mother Consort has noticed the incest feelings he has been harbouring towards his Seventh Sister. But when she is seen still calm and not agitated, that fear is replaced by a sigh of relief.

"This morning, when you did not attend the Court, His Majesty announced the taking of Commander Wales' granddaughter, Shana, as Crown Princess." Her words act as a surprise to him. Not because Crown Prince is finally going to take a Crown Princess from a powerful family to secure his position, but because those words would mean that it is his turn next. He knows very well how his Mother Consort thinks. She has always wanted him to marry upon his reaching of adulthood, but since tradition has always said that younger sons could not marry unless the older ones have, her will to propose his marriage to the Emperor has always been suppressed. Now, the chance has come. There is no Second Prince for that poor baby of a lowly concubine did not survive infancy. Therefore, Consort Shine need not be patient any longer. After Crown Prince, it will be her Third Prince's turn.

"I already have chosen several daughters and granddaughters of the many ministers, chancellors and generals. Their portraits will be sent to you this afternoon. Choose one and your Mother Consort will prepare everything for you."

---

Author's POV:

Congratulations, Crown Prince! Congratulations! Those words have been repeating like echoes in his mind, words that bring him disgust, unhappiness and dissatisfaction. He has yet to agree to it, but why? Why did Father Emperor could never understand me? He asks himself repeatedly. Is their relationship just bound by that bloodline? That they are merely Imperial Father and Son?

He no longer tenses his body, for he has given in to his life and fate in the palace. Soon, his palace will welcome a new face, Crown Princess Shana Wales. How is he going to be happy with that? Now, he finally understands his Seventh Sister, who by now would have reached the North and has become Crown Princess. He is sure that she must be suffering there, in silence, in a foreign land. However, there is hope for him. There is. A woman is not allowed many husbands. But he is the Crown Prince, and he is allowed many concubines. Surely he understands how Jade could never be the Crown Princess for her lowly position, but she could at least be his concubine. At least...in his dreams...