Princess In The Palace

5. A Silk Painting

Chapter 5.

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Recap: In the previous chapter, Yì Rán encountered a rude boy of the same age at the Capital City. He almost wanted to arrest thinking that she was suspiciously heading to the palace. Yì Rán was finally able to free herself from him when she took the path to the graveyard instead of the palace and pretended to be a ghost. On the day of the visiting, she met him again at the graveyard when she was finding her cat. She found out that he was a prince when Pī Yáng came to fetch her back to their hut. When they was about to leave, another prince appeared.

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"Who are you?" First Prince asked again, still squinting his eyes at the girl who dared not meet his eyes. She seemed so familiar, as if he had seen her before, and it was so familiar that he thought he had seen her for a thousand times.

The leaves rustled gently for that short moment and flower petals that gently snuggled up to their trees dropped themselves like rain. It seemed like it was raining, raining flower petals. It was beautiful, definitely more beautiful than their story that was about to be unraveled, each and one of them.

"Your Servant...is the tomb cleaner here..." He stopped for a moment, his mind was taken back while he tried his best to figure out where he had seen her previously. Taking a good look at her again, he stepped up towards her and stared at her deeply.

"Look up." He commanded and so she heeded. She lifted her head slightly, her hands were trembling out of fear for her life. Her life was just so short, she was still so young, she was not ready to lose her life like this.

"What is your name?"

"Your servant's name is...Yì Rán." At that very moment, the clouds were seen floating away, shading the earth from the sunrays. The sunlight was gone and the earth was slightly darker. The cold breeze brushed past their necks as they stared into each other's eyes.

Suddenly, a drop of water hit the earth, followed by the second one, third one and the rest could no longer be counted. The rain was so heavy that everyone ran around for shelter. Both the princes turned on their heels and dashed back towards the grand temple. First Prince made his time to look back at the girl called Yì Rán and he saw her, lifting her pet and rushing away to the outskirts of the graveyard.

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Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into a month. It was finally a one full month since the three fatefully met at the Imperial Graveyard. His study chamber was extremely quiet, it was upon his request that all his servants were to leave and create no sound so that he could study and read in peace. Only his loyal eunuch, Eunuch Cài, was allowed to stay behind accompanying him and helping him to prepare the materials he needed for studying.

"Ink." That was all he needed to say before his eunuch instantly readied himself next to the table, carefully and quietly lifting the ink stick and circled it on the ink stone. It was a pleasant sound that the First Prince enjoyed, the sound of preparing ink. He stopped for a moment to enjoy the sound, at the same time admiring all the Four Treasures of the Study he had spread on the table.

"Your Highness, Her Highness Empress is asking if Your Highness already have any idea for Empress Dowager's birthday gift." Those words had him stopped and he put down the brush for a moment.

"Empress Dowager most definitely does not lack material possessions. So any gift for her must be invaluable, or it could be a combination of both." Then he stopped for a moment, rewinding his memories and reliving the times he had spent with his Imperial Grandmother. He was really loved, for he was her first grandchild, a grandson.