Princess In The Palace

8. A New Life

Chapter 8. (honestly I find this story super slow omg I'll try to speed it up)

and btw please do check out Love In The Palace at tapas.io thanks a loooooot ><

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Recap: Yì Rán was back to the palace again, this time being dressed in luxury silk dresses and dolled up like a woman of nobility. First Prince was enchanted by her beauty indeed, though he was already enjoying her short company the first day since they met. Then he gave her a jade bracelet in return for letting him paint her. Next, she was invited three weeks later to the palace. Three weeks later, she was fetched by his people to the palace, dressed up and brought before the grand pavilion where a banquet was held.

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"Go forward, follow behind the eunuch." The servants behind her whispered under their breath. Yì Rán saw the eunuch and swallowed her saliva, over and over again. Suddenly, the doors to the pavilion, that were painted in bright red, creaked open and revealed to her the crowd that were said to bathe and drown in luxury. She found herself trembling under the layers of silk that could not calm her anxiety. So many pairs of eyes were staring at her, infused with curiosity that did not die down.

Then the eunuch walked forward and it took the little girl a moment before she could process what was going on. Immediately she mustered all her courage and followed the eunuch, taking steps on the red carpet rolled out beneath her feet. She saw women donned in lavish and colourful silk with their hair pulled up high and fastened with gold ornaments. She saw men dressed in their formal ceremonial robes befitting their positions. She saw young children, the princes and princesses, sitting on their seats properly and silently. Then she saw the three sitting up the lifted platform, all of them carrying an aura of nobility no one else could compare with. They were the undisputed Emperor, Empress Dowager and Empress. She found a familiar pair of eyes standing in front, waiting for her arrival. The eunuch stopped before First Prince who was standing right before the steps.

"May I present to Imperial Grandmother, the gift." The eunuch rolled open the scroll and the older woman on the platform raised her eyebrow at the painting before her. It was a lovely painting with lines of poem written at the bottom of it.

"That sure looks like Empress Dowager when young. How are you able to do that, my son?" The other woman, the Empress, smiled at her own son, despite knowing very well herself of how her son was able to produce such an art.

"Here." And he gently pulled away the veil covering the face of the girl who raised curiosity.

Gasps and murmurs soon filled the atmosphere. Everyone was whispering about the similarity of the girl to the young Empress Dowager. She immediately became the girl people talked about. Then she remembered, that she had failed to keep the promise to her aunt, to stay low and never be noticed.

"Interesting. It is my first time seeing someone bearing such striking resemblance to another, and that person happens to resemble my younger self. What is your name, young girl?"

"Yo-your servant's name is Yì Rán."

"Which family do you belong to?" Empress Dowager inquired again.

"Your humble servant...belongs to no family but merely a tomb cleaner, Your Highness." The word tomb cleaner no doubt had the Emperor's attention. He found himself unable to take his eyes off her. Her name was similar to the girl he saw years ago. Putting two and two together, he could correctly guess her real identity already.

"Would it be too boastful of myself if I have to praise this young girl as being very beautiful?" Empress Dowager said as she laughed, followed by several other ministers who were used to laugh at any joke the Imperial Family members cracked, bootlicking or so, many called it. At the corner of her eyes, the mother of the Emperor saw the Empress clenching her fists while throwing deadly stares at the innocent girl, for she had caught the Emperor staring at the girl endlessly. Immediately the Empress Dowager knew of her wicked plans, for the Empress was afraid of a beautiful woman who might replace her and rule the inner palace.