Empress Who?

chapter 3

When we arrived to the hotel it was already half filled with family members. All of them were wearing elegant and beautiful traditional clothing.

After Chang introducing me to his cousins Aunt Meera took my hand and led to elderly family members.

"Come here honey... this is my late sister's mother in law. She is representing my brother in law since he had to go back to UK for an urgent business matter..."
Aunt Meera introduced me to an elegant older woman with a kind face.

"Oh you must be Hannah right? Meera has spoken a lot about you. You look beautiful darling..."
she said patting my face lovingly reminding my own grandmother. She is such a sweet person.

"Come here sit next to me. Young people don't talk to us anymore. I would really like to get to know you since Meera considers you as a daughter..."
She said gesturing the chair next to her. Being unable to decline her request I sat next to her while aunt Meera excused us to attend another family member.

"So Hannah tell me about you... Do you have a job or are you still in college..?"

"Oh actually I am studying to be a nurse..."
I answered her not knowing where this discussion was going.

"Nurse? That is great. You know dear, my grandson is a doctor. He also lives in America.... Wait, let me introduce you to him. He is very handsome young man. And you dear really matches with him..."
She said looking around searching for her grandson. I also looked around but I did that to find someone to get me out of this because this lady is clearly trying to be a match maker.
Luckily I was able to catch Chang's eyes and I pleaded his with my eyes to save me. He laughed silently and walk toward us.

"Hi grandma Huan! Can I steal Hannah from here? She hasn't eaten anything yet..."
He said greeting her with humor still in his eyes and I was already up from the seat and ready to flee.

"Oh Chang... But I was going to introduce her to Bojing..."
She said still looking around.

"Don't worry grandma I know where he is. I'll introduce them to each other ok..."
He reassured the old lady.

"Alright then... I'll see you around Hannah dear..."
She said giving me permission to leave and I didn't waste another minute after saying good bye and left there practically dragging Chang who was laughing openly now.

"I guess she tried to set you up with Bojing..."
He said when we were good distance away from the table.

"Don't laugh. It felt weird Chang. This is my first experience of that sort of situation."
I said pinching him.

"Don't worry Hannah. she tends to do that whenever she saw a beautiful girl. Since she is old she wants her grandson to get married soon but Bojing really don't care about getting married. I guess it is bothering her..."
He laughed and put his arm around my shoulder leading me to my favorite place. The food table. Even though I am also a good cook and a baker these Chinese food screamed celebration.

Rest of the night went on smoothly. After talking to lot of people I needed a small break so I sneaked out to get some fresh air. You can't blame me because that family was huge. At least there were two hundred plus family members there.

Outside of the hotel was beautiful. There was a pond in the garden which was illuminated by the rays of full moon. It was huge and water lilies and lotus made the pond look like a little paradise. I walked toward the pond and sat on a rock in the edge. Little breeze went making flowers in the water to sway. I could feel the golden tussle of my hairpin swaying along with them.
I carefully took it out of my hair and look at it. It shone in the moonlight and looked more beautiful than before. Suddenly I heard a cry and cold and strong wind went past me. I quickly stood up looking for the crying person clutching the hairpin tightly.

"Hello... who is there...?"
I called looking around but no response came.
Suddenly strong gust of wind made me lose my balance. I could feel my foot slipping and next thing I knew I fell in to the pond.

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Someone's cry woke me up from my sleep.

"Empress, please wakeup. You can't leave this servant like this..."
I could hear a young girl's voice right next to my head.

I opened my eyes and looked around the room. It looked like a room from ancient Chinese dramas. This must be a hotel room.
'Someone might have saved me from drowning and let me rest here.'
I thought looking around.
When I searched for the crying person I was surprised to see an unfamiliar Chinese girl in ancient clothing sitting on the floor crying her eyes out.

"Who are you..?"
I asked the girl. My voice didn't sound like me. May be it's a side effect of drowning..

Crying girl looked up hearing my voice and her eyes were wide and red from crying.

"Oh my empress, this servant thought you wouldn't wakeup..."
She said wiping her tears.

"Yeah well I'm fine..."
I said stretching my body and then it hit me. I quickly sat up.
"Wait... what did you say? What did you call me?" I asked the girl.

"My empress... This servant is really sorry your highness... this servant didn't think you would wake up after last night. You were pale and didn't look well.... But this servant so happy now..."
She said with a face splitting wide smile.

"Empress" I muttered to myself. "EMPRESS" then yelled. The girl looked at me confused and nodded.

"EMPRESS WHO???" I shouted.
And then it hit me for the second time. I wasn't speaking English. It was Chinese. I was speaking Chinese.
And then my friends I fainted, again.

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