Princess In The Palace

3. Her New Name

Chapter 3.

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Recap: Yì Róng, together with her aunt and sister, left her village to the Capital City. She was amazed by the grandeur of the city and most importantly, the palace. Ān Yù tried to enter the palace but they were denied as they were merely commoners. So they spent several days waiting outside the gates. On the fifth day, the gate was opened for a group of Imperial Family members to pass. Yì Róng saw a boy on the horse and another one in the carriage. It was the three's first encounter, on a sunny day on the tenth year of Emperor Ming's reign.

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It was the sixth day. They were still waiting outside. Little Yì Róng could not forget the scene she saw yesterday, of a group of Imperial Family members. It was her first time seeing the people who resided in the palace as owners. There were mixed feelings, but most importantly, she felt that they were too distant from her.

She was still tired after days and days of persevering under the heat of the sun at noon, directly on the top her head despite it was still the transition into spring. The chilliness of the morning and the sudden strike of heat in the afternoon, paired with the coldness of the evening that she was unprepared for, her body was tampered with the weather and she was merely a little girl. It was then that she saw the gate was opened once again, not that a group of Imperial Family members were passing through once again, but this time round a man on a black horse came out of the gate, followed by two other men behind him. He was dressed a slightly elaborate robes but he only had a simple bun on top of his head, fastened with a bronze headpiece. The sight of commoners standing near the gate caught his attention.

So he turned to look at them, and his heart skipped a beat. It was her. She came. She finally came. He could not believe his eyes. He hoped that she was another person, but the looks of hope in her eyes, the looks of familiarity in her eyes all spoke that she was the same person. So he dismounted the horse and took slow steps towards them.

"...how may I address you?" was his first words to her.

"La-lady...Yè."

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Yì Róng and Pī Yáng was separated from Ān Yù as soon as they entered the palace under the permission of the man earlier. The two were brought around by the two men into the headquarters of eunuchs, into a study room where they were then seated on cushions made of pearly-white silk. Throughout the whole time, Yì Róng was clenching her fists under her sleeves as she looked around the room. The wood was dark, they looked expensive and the rolls of books were placed neatly on a red-painted tray next to the ink brush. The incense burner was placed in the corner of the room, the fragrance travelled into every single nooks of the room, filling it with a pleasant smell again she had never smelled before. There were potteries placed on the tables around the room, with not a single speck of dust on those expensive works.

She was still admiring the room when suddenly the creaking sound of doors opening startled her and she was awakened from her awe. The man from earlier had returned after sending her aunt to somewhere else.

"Eunuch Wǎn(Wan)..." Pī Yáng rose from her seat, followed by Yì Róng and they both bowed down to the man who then sat across them.

"So...how were you guys, all these years?"

"We were living fine." It was a lie she had told, again and again, to everyone, especially to herself. They were not fine. They were anything but fine. They were burying secrets deep within their hearts that living itself was such a torture.

However, the little Yì Róng knew nothing. She did not deserve to know the sins which people from generations before her committed. She did not need to live while carrying those burdens. Unfortunately, that was not something for humans to decide. It was something which only the heavens had the rights to decide on.