Story of Yanxi Palace - An English Narrative

Episode 2.2

Late that night, Yingluo lay in her bed, thinking of the events that led her here. Finally she'd made it- she'd finally entered the palace. She was one step closer to revenge. Breathing out, she closed her eyes.

From behind her lids, memories flashed in her eyes.

Her sister. Yingning. The person who was kind to her, raised her.

She remembered the day her sister was first brought home, trapped inside a plain wooden coffin all palace maids were given. For days she did not shed a single tear, but her thoughts were running wild and they couldn't stop.

One night, she bore an axe she'd stolen from the farmers hut that morning and entered the main hall of her family home. The door was picked easily and she pushed open the creaking frames to reveal her sister's coffin. 

Summoning all the strength in her arms, she slashed at the cheap wooden thing until the lid tumbled broken onto the floor with a bang- but she didn't care about the lid. Her sister lay at the bottom of the box, eyes closed. In the darkness she looked as though she could almost be asleep. Except that.... 

Her suspicions were finally confirmed; Yingning didn't die of illness.

"Yingluo! Yingluo!" 

The bang had woken everyone in their home and they rushed in the direction of the main hall.

"Yingluo! Are you crazy!"

As he tried to tear her away from the coffin, she threw his arms away, her eye were lost in her sister's deathly pale face.

"Yingluo! Think clearly for a second!" Her father shouted, as her relatives gathered around the scene, murmuring, "Your older sister is already dead!"

Her father was outraged. But as Yingluo scanned his face with dead eyes, she easily saw that his wizened face was twisted not in anger, but in fear. Trembling, she turned her eyes to her relatives, who were watching the scene in horror- how dare she disturb the dead?

"Every one of you," She began, trying with all her might to control her shaking, "Told me my sister died of illness. But now, I can prove she didn't at all die of an illness." 

She pointed to dark bruises that ringed around her dead sister's neck, her face and tone scarily calm, "She was strangled."

"Shut up!" Her father shouted-

"Look!" Yingluo shrieked, grasping her father's arms, "Look!"

"Yingluo!"

"She was murdered! She was murdered!" She screamed, tears finally breaking out, "She was murdered!"

"Wei Qingtai!" cried a family elder, "How dare you let your daughter open the coffin! She will be struck by lightning for disturbing the dead! Your eldest daughter has already brought shame to the family after being expelled from the Forbidden City, now Wei Yingluo is spouting nonsense! She should be punished!"

"No! Yingluo is young and naive, may all my relatives forgive her! I will educate her better!" He turned to his daughter, "Yingluo, kneel down and apologise!"

Yingluo's face turned cold even through her tears, she pointed to the elders, "Ever since I lost my mother at a young age, it was my sister who raised me. We've never eaten a mouthful of their food, a mouthful of their water. Now that she is dead, they won't share a handful of their earth- because they think she will sully our family cemetery! Father wants me to apologise to them, but on what grounds?!"

Her father was beyond himself, "Why are you so stubborn?"

Ignoring him, she turned to her sister, "Now that she is dead by unknown hands, I want to enter the Forbidden City and figure out the truth for her."