Love In The Palace

Questions

Chapter 37.

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Recap: in the previous chapter, Empress warns Jade about seducing Crown Prince, although she has never done so. The mother of the Empire orders her to stay away from Crown Prince so that her son will visit Crown Princess more. Thus, Jade asks Crown Prince to visit her less. Crown Prince misunderstands and their relationship turns for the worse.

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Where did things go wrong? How did things go wrong? Perhaps... Perhaps it is because they were too naive. He wanted to possess her, and so he does. Just like everyone else, we all keep our precious treasure at home locked, so he does. However, would he ever know if his treasure has been damaged by anyone? No. He thought that things would have settled when he manages to possess her. He thought that they will live happily ever after. Who would have guessed, that it is his choice to possess her that ruins her, because he only knows how to possess, not to protect?

She too, was too naive. She thought that because she is his, no one will ever harm her anymore. She is too weak, too powerless against those who wants to harm her. She is so powerless that she cannot even tell him how much she has suffered and keeps everything to herself while suffering in silence. Some people are meant to live in the palace, because they can fight for themselves. She, however, definitely is not one who is fit for the battle in the palace, yet is forced into one helplessly by him who loves her so much.

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Things have surely changed. Such as Jade and Crown Prince's relationship. Such as the season. The snow has melted. The sun is shining in its yellow glory mightily up on the sky, the trees are growing their leaves once again, awake from their slumber.

The whole winter, nothing has ever changed. Cold as ever is their relationship. She does not ask for more, only for such peaceful life in her quiet quarters. Crown Princess' quarters, however, seems to have caught the spring as soon as the season arrives. All Jade could do, is to stand by the doors, looking opposite, and sigh. So this is the life of an abandoned consorts in the palace. To envy other women's lives and to cry for their own. Some of them are so afraid of going through another night of such life, that they have to use other women's blood to warm up their own bodies. So cruel, and so unforgiving.

"Rowena. I want to go for a walk alone. Help me with my outfit."

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The dresses she wears have been toned down, simple and not lavish at all. Her inner layers of white dresses with green embroideries paired with outer or final layer of light sky blue dress that is so light that it flutters whenever the spring breeze blows. However, it seems that the coldness of the winter has not left, so the spring breeze has yet to come.

She walks alone, not minding the stares of other servants who gossip about her being a lowly abandoned Mistress. She walks alone, towards the direction where lesser and lesser people are seen. She walks to the place she used to frequent, until her pregnancy prevents her from doing so.

That place is so quiet and serene, so much that it seems that it is free of the struggles in the palace. It itself is a wonder that such a place exists in the palace, a place where blood baths occur every single day, behind the eyes of the public.

The pavilion she always sits at, she heads directly towards it, and sits down at her favourite position which overlooks the green pond. She remembers how she loses her child because of an accident by another pond. She remembers how that very moment she loses her friend as well. She also remembers very clearly how because of that accident she also has lost her husband, the only person she hopes to depend on in the palace. Now she is left all alone, to fend for herself.