Weiying was born a man but due to some circumstances he had to pretend to be a girl until he was eighteen years of age where he planned on debuting the kingdom as the male heir of the Imperial Minister's son.
However, his world turned upside down wh...
The famed high priestess of the Shu kingdom was a respected figure whose name resounded in the five kingdoms. She was the descendant of the oracle family that set up the Shu kingdom many many years ago.
The Shus was a neutral territory and many young men and women from throughout the five kingdoms would be sent by their elders to study under her. It was no surprise that her students became successful generals and ministers that land high position in their respective kingdoms.
The high priestess did not just take in random students. They had to undergo special rigorous testings and out of thousands of applicants, only a handful was accepted.
An outstanding young man who had ambiguous background was accepted and quickly became the favorite of the Oracle. His name was Wenxu. Wenxu was a top-notch student who excelled at the six arts and most importantly; he had a sweet tongue and knew how to make his teacher happy.
As a result, he gained trust and access to the secret room in the grand library. It was also an accident that Wenxu discovered the set of letters that Liyu had sent to the high priestess' ancestor. It was then that he realized the ancient legend might be real afterall.
After gaining enough knowledge, the ambitious WenXu bid his teacher farewell. He went to the north mountain and used the secret of the oracle's teaching to establish his own kingdom. It was a bold move that shocked his teacher who had renounced worldly desires to solely devout her life to the spiritual teachings of the oracle.
The northern territory was a cold barren wasteland and surrounded by mountains. Being the top student, Wenxu had studied the map of the four kingdoms and knew of this ambiguous land. There was not a clear line drawn whether the territory belonged to The Xu or Qi kingdom. He used his knowledge of damming river water and creating reservoirs to his advantage and made the barren mountainous wasteland habitable and also producing crops that earned the respect of the local mountain tribesman.
Wenxu married the beautiful daughter of the chief tribe and became their leader. The north mountain climatic condition was perfect place for growing herbs so many secret magic herbs were cultivated there. This was a secret that Wenxu later discovered and none of the other kingdoms were aware of it.
None of the kingdoms really bothered about this territory for they deemed it too faraway and inhabitable to fight for so it was not seen as a threat.
However, the news of the renowned northern territory that produced some of the earth's best healing herbs soon reached the ears of the other kingdoms who would come and seek the herbs in exchange for a bag of gold. The Wens were stealthily gaining power and wealth.
Beside the potent herbs, the Wens also concocted strange poisons that were no secret in the ancient world. Their knowledge of medicine gained their king the title Medicine king.
Zhao Si ling was the younger sister of Zhao Zhe who was king of Zhao kingdom. She passed the series difficult tests and was accepted into the Shu kingdom as a student of the High priestess. Like Wenxu, she quickly earned the love of her teacher but she had none of Wenxu's ambitions and favored the simple life like her teacher.
Wei Ming was a scholar whose literary talents were well known throughout the Qi kingdom. So when a representative was invited to study at Shu kingdom, he was the first on the list. His talents were guaranteed to not embarrass the Qi kingdom. Weiming and a few other selected young lords were also sent there.
During the study, Weiming met Zhaosiling and they both fell in love. They were engaged shortly after the studies were completed with the blessing of both Qi and Zhao king, as well as their teacher the oracle.
Soon after their engagement, the Qi empress fell ill and needed a rare herb that grew on the Wulong mountain which was part of the northern mountain territory under the Wen kingdom.
WeiMing was assigned the task of negotiating with the Wens to retrieve the herb. The imperial herbalist accompanied him along with a small band of elite soldiers to escort him.
He skillfully demonstrated the melody of the guqin and the king's daughter, Wenling was enchanted with Weiming and so she begged her father to marry her to him.
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"I will give you the herb if you take Wenling with you to be your wife." The medicine king told him.
Wenming was flabbergasted.
"My sincerest apologies beforehand but I am unworthy of the princess and since I am also already engaged to another, I believe it would be too disrespectful to the princess if she were to marry a man whose heart held another person's"
"How dare you refuse me!! You are but a lowly messenger! Bestowing the princess to marry you will raise your status considerably and you dared to disrespect us like this??" The enraged king threw his cup beside WeiMing's feet shattering it to pieces spilling the liquid on his knee.
The king left leaving Weiming stunned and at loss of what to do. He was in a difficult position torn between loyalty to the task assigned by his king and moral integrity as a gentleman. He loved Zhaosiling and would never love another or marry someone else for any reasons.
Weiming ended up being detained for many days for refusing the hand of marriage. He was anxious since the clock was ticking and the empress needed the medicine soon. He needed to bargain his way out fast.
Meanwhile the WenXu's advisor Luoshi told him that Weiming was engaged to the princess of Zhao who was the daughter of Zhaozhe, the current Zhao king. He advised that it would be best to let Weiming go so as not to offend the Qi king, the Zhao king and also the Shu leader who was his previous teacher.
"We cannot force him or kill him. Our clan will be annihilated. Our armies are not as powerful as theirs. They will surely take offense if we kill him directly. It is also better to keep him alive owing us a favour. One day it will come of use." Were his words.
Wenling, who was secretly eavesdropping, was enraged. She would not let a man insult her like that. Even if her father refused to defend her honor, She vowed revenge and secretly spiked his wine with poison to put a curse on to him.
That night, the small porcelain vial containing the 'poison' was mixed into Weiming's food.
It was no ordinary poison. Not the deadly type for Wenming must be kept alive to ensure peace in the newly formed Wen kingdom. Wenming will have no male heir to his lineage. If his wife gave birth to a son, he will die within a month of birth if he did not, she will make sure to send someone to kill him.
"Your highness, if you would be so kind to bestow the medicine to me, I would not forget your kindness for the rest of my life and if in the future you needed anything that I can of be service to, as long as it is not against my own country and my principles I would even exchange my life for your sake."
"Very well take the medicine and get out of my sight."
1253 words
Terminologies:
Naima is another word to address 'nanny'. In china, servants follow their master since they were little. In this case, the 'nanny' was the one who took care of Weiying as a baby and stayed in the household to serve the family for generations. Thus it was common practice for grownups to still have a 'nanny'.
Gongzimeans young master. Instead of saying Lanwangji gongzi, you say Langongzi. Whenusing gongzi, only the
