A simple tale

15. Who Missed Me?

Concubine Chen POV
I was sitting in solitude at the edge of the koi pond the my dear son had loved so much when I heard the uniformed clunk of military men marching.
"Mistress Chen! Mistress Chen!" Cried one of my maid servants tripping over her feet to get to me as soon as she could.
"What is it?" I asked, tired.
"The right premier are in the walled courtyard and demand that you come to see them." She panted. Slowly I got up and walked over to my walled courtyard. It wasn't particularly beautiful but the high walls were next to impossible to scale, it was an ideal fortress within a palace. It seemed strange at the time that the most favoured concubine of the emperor would choose such an unattractive courtyard to reside in, but this place had become my home. Drawing myself up to my full height I stood at the entrance to the courtyard.
"Why has the second strongest part of the army come to visit me?" I enquired watching the furious looks on their faces as they acknowledged their position. If I was going to die now I might as well have some fun at their expense first.
"We have come to execute the left premier and you....your highness." Said a stumbling, fat minister spitting out the last two words. I smiled graciously.
"But as you said I have a higher position than you how may you kill me?" I inquired already knowing the answer.
As if he had been waiting for this moment since we started talking (he probably had) from behind his back he produced a scroll of yellow parchment bearing the imperial seal.
"Left premier come forth!" I ordered. The shock was apparent on the faces of the right premier as my son's army came forth from the shadows where they had been hiding, watching our conversation.
"Ma'am." Said the two bodyguards of my first daughter-in-law. I do believe their names were Huang and Fei Xuan. The right premier took a step back in the presence of the legendary general. Trust my son to get a feared general as his wife's bodyguard.
"Right premier get ready to fight!" Ordered the stumpy minister. The right premier drew their weapons and advanced a step. When they gathered no reaction from the left premier they looked at each other worried. Something was happening. Something that I wasn't aware of. Something the left premier knew. A flutter of robes from the top of the wall caught my attention. Oh my god. Tears threatened to spill down my unhealthy, pale cheeks.
"Hello mother." Called my son, standing with his fiancée at the top of the wall looking down on everyone.
"Who missed me?" He chuckled.