Princess In The Palace

19. The Fated Reunion

Chapter 19.

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recap: in the previous chapter, Second Prince met Yì Rán at the restaurant and talked with her for a while. She knew from him that Concubine Huā was pregnant and as she was no longer a palace servant, she could now be his mistress. First Prince visited her after more than half a year of her leaving the palace and he met her at the outskirts of the graveyard. The name of her cat, Yì Róng, sounded familiar to him but he did not think too much of it. The day of their passing came and Ān Yù had Pī Yáng take Yì Rán to clean their graves. She took out a bamboo flute and her tears fell on the golden plate tied to it.

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Little Yì Rán put out her hands, retrieving the damp piece of white cloth that had become cold after from Madam. Madam gently used the tip of her fingers to pat the warm skin of her face.

"Madam's hair is so smooth and silky," Yì Rán commented as her fingers grazed past some of her hair decorations and pulled one of it out, placing them on a cloth over a tray on the dressing table. Madam said nothing and just stared into the mirror, still not used to receiving compliments and sitting down before a dressing table.

"Tomorrow is your day off, right?" Madam just asked randomly, her fingers were playing with the hairpins that had been removed and placed on the tray.

"Yes, Madam." When there was a moment of silence that ensued, Yì Rán continued, asking, "Why?"

"Nothing. Just asking."

"..."

"Say, you are turning sixteen soon, right?"

"Yes, Madam." The girl hovered her fingers around the white-coloured peony centred on Madam's hairdo and pulled it out, placing it back onto the tray.

"If I was married at the right age and gave birth, I would have a child who would be near your age." However, I have never even thought that I would be married, let alone to be married to a minister.

Two more servants behind them put their hands into the warm water in the bath, testing the heat of the water before they lifted their arms.

"Madam, the bath is ready," one of them reported.

"Eh, but Madam's hair is still-"

"It is fine, just undo my hair while I soak in the bath." Madam stood up from her dressing table and slowly lifted both her arms, while Yì Rán helped her to undress all her robes down to the last piece. She turned around, finding a wooden bath that had been filled with steaming warm water and floating petals of flowers. She then lifted her leg, slowly descending into the bath.

She rested her head against the edge of the mouth of the bath while her servants helped to scrub her arms clean. Life had been too tiring for her, she needed a moment to close her eyes and just enjoy herself, instead of putting up her pretentious manner that was definitely not who she was.

How unbelievable, she never imagined that she would be leading such a comfortable and luxurious life before, years ago. She never thought that she would lead a life a hundred times much better than her previous master's. She missed her master actually, she was one of the rare and precious servants whose loyalty did not just die the moment her master died.

There was a last piece of silver hair decoration that was stuck so tightly that Yì Rán wondered if Biān Lì had glued it to Madam's hair. It was the biggest piece of hair accessory on her hairdo that day and the little girl was too afraid that she would ruin the expensive piece of accessory. She bent her body slightly, lowered her face further and squinted her eyes while her fingers fumbled around with the silver piece, untangling the hair that it held. When she tried to pull it out, she was still unsuccessful and by this time she was afraid that Madam would be upset by how she could not even take out a piece of hair decoration. She sucked in as much air as possible and straightened her back.