Embrace Of The Wind And The Flame

Chapter 11

Xu Wei slowly opened her eyes and it took her a lot of strength to do so. Her eyelids felt heavy, like someone dropped a weigh on them.
A cold towel was on her forehead and looking around, she did not recognize the room.

"Where is this?" She croaked. Her throat was dry and her tongue felt parched.

"Your highness" someone shouted and she recognised Yu Kai's voice. The incident that happened in the course of their journey came back flooding into her head and she weakly tried to sit up.

"Yu Kai, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Yu Kai had been with her since she was a child and had become more like a friend or even a sister than the servant she was.

Yu Kai wiped tears of happiness and nodded her head like an agama. "Servant is fine your highness. Please lie back down and let servant call the physician."

She ran outside and Xu Wei looked around the room again. It looked almost identical to the one she stayed in back in Fu Lang. Thinking about home, she suddenly found herself missing it. Sure enough, she thought she was prepared when she offered herself up for a diplomatic martiage to save the nation.

Now she realised how unprepared she was. For the first time in her life, she would be away from her brother. She won't be able to have breakfast with him again, there was no big brother to read out novels for her while she ate sweets. There was no big brother to play chess with her or accompany her on a walk.

Xu Wei felt lonelier than she had ever felt before. She didn't even feel this way when her consort mother died. 

The door was pushed open and Yu Kai led in an old physician and two nurses who bowed. "Greetings to your highness Fourteenth princess. This servant will now check on ypur pulse"

Xu Wei extended her left hand and let the nurse tie a special thread around her wrist. The physivian sat donw and took the end of the thread between his forefinger and thumb. His eyes close in concentration, he measured her pulse and heartbeat through the thread.

"Fourteenth Princess is recovering well." He announced and bowed again, allowing Yu Kai to lead him outside where he prescribed a few drugs and their dosage to her, then he left.

"Your highness" Yu Kai returned and sat on the floor. "Are you feeling better your highness?  Should I get the servants to bring you some soup?"

Xu Wei shook her head. "Yu Kai, he addressed me as the fourteenth Princess. Perharps they have gotten it wrong but I am the ninth princess bavk in Fu Lang. Why did you allow them make a mistake with my identity?"

"It is not a mistake your highness" Yu Kai smiled and explained further. "Her majesty, the empress regent had arranged for you to be married to the Fourteenth Prince. This is the Fourteenth prinve residence"

Xu Wei frowned. "Fourteenth Prince. Isn't he the Prince of shadows? "

Yu Kai's smile faltered for a minute. "How did you know that? " she quickly returned to her cheerful self. "Never mind that. I will go the kitchen and bring bavk some of your favorite dishes. I will also send some girls inside to help you wash your face."

Yu Kai bowed and walked outside.  Immediately she was far from the residence,  she looked around cautiously and took a turn inyona corner walking as fast as she could while looking back to ensure she wasn't being followed.

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Bang!!! More things were being destroyed.  The servants jumped up and down trying to avoid getting hit but at the same time, they were pleading with their mistress.

"Your highnes, please be calm"

"Don't you dare tell me to be calm" Princess Rong Wei threw another piece and it shattered. "How can aunt treat me like this because of that foreign wench! "

With each word, a piece was shattered.  "She gave her everything I wanted in one time. She is now the fourteenth princess. I have wasted my life waiting on him, refused many others and empress aunt knows that as well. How can she go ahead and give her what I wanted?"

"Calm down your highness. Even though she was given the title, it is just a title after all. You are the closest lady to the prince of shadows ans you have seen him but she has not"

Rong Wei glared at the court lady. "I have only seen him with his mask on, even I have never seen his face"

"But she has not even seen him with mask on. You know how the fourteenth prince is, he always prefers staying in shadows,  in the battle field." The court lady pressed on."Soon enough she will realise how naive she was when she sees that he is paying no attention to her. She will be a laughing stock to the servants nd everyone in the inner court. You can use that asan opportunity to push her unti she finally gives you."

Princess Rong Wei felt a bit calmer listening to the court lady but she suddenly remembered something and frowned again. "If what you say is true, thag why would he have sent that Yu servant girl to save her? That Yu servant girl is his trusted servant. She has always been with him and I am afraid she knows even better than I do. Why would he have assigned her to the foreign Wench?"

"Your highness" the court lady coaxed.  "Remember we are at war with Fu Lang and even though we may seem to have the upper hand, this servant has heard that if Fu Lang were to truly retaliate,  we might be at lost ends. It is winter now and our food supply is low. That is why Her majesty accepted the diplomatic wedding.

I am sure that is why the  fourteenth prince saved her life. If anything had happened to her, we would have been forced to war. It is said the Fu Lang ruler dotes on her very much. Everything is going according to plan. I also heard that soon,  the fourteenth prince will finish things over there at Fu Lang and will return to Hua. He will stop leading the douboe identity"

Princess Rong Wei was satisfied and nodded. "Good. Now clear this mess immediately" she snapped at the servants. "What are you still waiting for? Someone bring me hot water to soak my legs in. I think my knees have gone numb from kneeling"

She smiled satisfactorily. She would wait for the Fourteenth prince to return but before then, she would first push the foreign wench out of the way.

A/N: hello everyone.  I hope my Christian readers had a wonderful and nice Christmas. I for one enjoyed the holidays and I am looking forward  to the new year. It is amazing how time flies isn't it?  Just like that, this year has gone by.  Were you able to fulfill all the resolutions you made for this year? Sadly I wasn't able to  do so but I am sure I will my resolutions for next year.
Take care of yourselves everyone, a new update will be up soon as we have started going into the yummy, juicy parts of the book and get ready for surprises coz there will be lots of them. While waiting for an update, please check out my other books. Thank you!

Stay Tuned
#Afnan