The Scars Between Us

Chapter 10

It was near evening at this time of day. The king's study was used as their place of meeting, which is actually connected to his bedroom chamber.

"Shall we discuss?" Wen Ling spoke, beginning the discussion between the four.

"Please do," the king agreed, with Yan Gui on standby and Fei Yang who nodded silently. 

The 3rd prince looked to the foreign prince to give his input.

Fei Yang cleared his throat, "From my findings, there are seven men in total who are the arms and legs of the person behind it all. They wear opera masks with red, being their leader. We can also assume that Huizhong was the former leader years ago before red. Most importantly, they seem to be gathering around Princess Wen Yue, claiming that she will be his bride, as told by His Highness." gesturing towards Wen Ling.

"Not only that, the sword of Wen Shoushan has been stolen by the same group, yellow mask. Although the search has been futile, there is still hope as his wound is almost healed but will leave a scar."

Wen Ling scrunched his brows for a moment before looking to his father.

It was silent but spoke louder than words.

Yan Gui along with Fei Yang, looked at the 3rd prince, awaiting for the words he may say. However, it was then the foreign prince's eyes widened, catching on.

"You don't mean...." Fei Yang trailed.

Wen Chen has just finished his lessons for the day given by Fan He, who was already on his way out of the Scholar Palace.

This left the young prince alone.

His smile lingered until he was sure his friend left, before fading away as though it were never there in the first place. Those eyes of his then lowered with clenching teeth and lips turning into a frown.

There were only 2 days left and that was since Wen Chen got the note. He didn't exactly know how to describe this feeling.

Was it fear?

That, he wasn't sure.

To others, the 9th prince seemed like the carefree and joking type. However, that wasn't always the case. That was just a facade of him to cope with the death of his mother and for his sister not worry about him.

Those were the main reasons.

Ever since her death, it was as though he couldn't leave behind his childishness. He grew up to where he will always wear that mask to hide his true emotions.

Leaving to the porch, he sat down consumed by his thoughts.

He knew why he being targeted. The mastermind knew how he was hiding behind the face of a childish young man when really deep down he could become the most heartless person in the room.

This heartlessness of his developed out of hatred, the moment his mother died. It occurred before his very eyes and grew more when his sister nearly went insane from that night years ago.

His dear mother was kidnapped along with him when he was just a young teen. The criminals took her in hopes that the king would abide to their desires.

However, the king never came, leaving them to fend for themselves. Wen Yue was frantic at this event as days turned into weeks, and not a word of rescue ever came.

Those criminals raped her to death and he was forced to watch in vain, as his mother cried for help and to let her son go.

She died with a smile on her face so he wouldn't be afraid. What she didn't know was that awakened something within him.