Princess In The Palace

14. Their Silent Tears

Chapter 14.

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recap: in the previous chapter, Emperor Míng destroyed Physician Lín Hé's tomb and Empress Dowager Xīn asked him why, only to receive unreasonable answer in return. Yì Rán accidentally hurt her forehead and on the way back to get some ointment for it, she encountered Second Prince with his sister, First Princess. First Princess grew fond of her for her resemblance to Empress Dowager Xīn, but she had to return to Consort Yú's as she was sickly.

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That night was a creepy night brimming with mysterious aura that seeped into the corners of the palace. That night was extremely dark as the thunder clouds shielded the pure and holy moon away from the sinful earth. Lightning stroke was heard several times as storm was nearing. It was in the middle of the night and wind was blowing so strongly that it sounded like the wailing of a female ghost.

Her eyes were suddenly shot open from her slumber in the middle of the night, her face remained emotionless as she slowly pushed herself up from her sleeping position. Her lady-in-waiting was dozing off halfway when she noticed the movement of her master and was alerted, immediately approaching her master.

"Your Highness, is it because the lightning is too noisy that it wakes you up?" She just ignored the question of her servant and looked down on her own hands, feeling glad that they were clear and clean.

"No. I just...had an unexpected dream."

"What dream is it?"

"It was...Wéi Qiàn...the Crown Princess that committed suicide." Jǐng Er smiled when she heard of the answer before she stretched out her hands to reposition the silk-covered pillow of her master.

"She was just an unimportant person."

"But it is weird how she said, why is it that you always take everything away from me?"

"It was just referring to Crown Prince and Wéi family. The dream must be just a reassurance that Your Highness is now without any insolent opposing officials."

"...yes, you are right." She lowered her body back onto her bed and closed her eyes, without thinking much of what her dream meant.

What she did not think through of though, was the reason why would the dead Crown Princess appear in her dream when they did not interact much when she was still alive? She did not know and would never know the truth behind the tears of a mother who wailed for her child before her death, during her death and even after her death.

Maybe her appearance in her dream was just a way of a mother protecting her child from the real enemy.

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Leaves had already browned as the palace was filled with reddening maple leaves that painted a scenic view when coupled with the man-made lotus pond. The kois inside swam leisurely under the calm waters of the pond, shielded away from the sun by patches of lotus leaves. The small pavilion built next to the pond was standing upright, held strongly by wooden pillars painted red.

Yì Rán was on the pavilion together with many other palace servants, cleaning the pavilion and setting up seats and decorations to prepare for Empress Dowager's pond-viewing activity in the late afternoon.

"Hey, do you people know about the story of this pond?" One of the servants stopped brushing the wooden flooring and turned to the other servants.

"What?"

"I heard that a palace servant once pushed Crown Prince's Mistress off this pond. The Mistress was pregnant and lost her child after that."

"Really? I know the Mistress was as horrible as Dá Jí, the consort of King Zhòu of Shàng. However, it was still pitiful of her to lose her child that way."