The Tale Of Mei Xiang

第十三章 (Chapter 13)

第十三章

Many days had passed since I had spent the night roaming the streets with the 4th Prince.

He had not lied to me about being busy with state affairs. On my occasional trips out of the manor, I heard everyone talking about him. How he had handled any affairs no matter big or small equally and show no bias.

While he was busy with state affairs, I was busy with etiquette classes. My mom had somehow told my aunty, Shu Fei, about how I was getting close to the 4th Prince and my aunty instantly sent a momo from a Palace to teach me Palace etiquette.

Everyday I had to get up early in the morning to get myself ready. The whole morning was spent on my posture, the rules of the palace and fixing bad habits. The whole afternoon was spent walking gracefully and the mono who taught me wanted me to walk without any sound. Only then would I not need to practice walking.

My whole life suddenly got a whole lot stricter and by the end of the day I was exhausted. For the entire day, I was required to pay attention to every single small detail. Not a moment was allowed for me to relax. Even my favourite activity of the day became one I feared.

Whenever I ate nowadays, I had to pay attention to how much strength to grip the chopsticks. Not only that I had to choose the right timing when to put food on my plate and choose the right timing to place food on others place. What type of food is suited for what type of women, what some women can't eat and what food is forbidden to serve to higher ranked concubines. It was too much for me to handle.

I couldn't even not go to classes as my mother would get up earlier than me and stay for all my classes. Sometimes I feel she is more enthusiastic to learn about this. I guess I can't blame her as not anybody has to privilege to learn palace etiquette from a momo from the palace.

At least it kept my busy enough that my thoughts won't stray towards the 4th Prince. At night, I'm able to fall straight asleep without any distractions. But sometimes I can still feel my heart longing for him every time I wake up and see the hibiscus set of jewellery laid in front of my table.

His love for hibiscus had transferred to me. Everyday I would pick fresh hibiscus from the garden to put in my hair and accompany it with the different types of accessories I had won that night.

I felt relieved as I saw the sun set which signified the end of my classes. Bowing and thanking the momo, I hurriedly rushed back to my room. Halfway during the day, a maid had informed me that two letters delivered to the manor was for me.

Very rarely were there any letters for me. Actually never were there any letters meant for me. With the few days being filled with boredom, the presence of these letters brought back a small sense of excitement into my life.

As expected, two letters sat on my desk. One could see that both letters were written using high quality paper. One was lined with gold thread at the edges and gave off a mild lavender scent.

The other while not as decorative, by the thickness of the paper one could tell it wasn't something a commoner could buy. Unlike the other, this letter smelled more of trees and I couldn't tell what it smelled like.

I slowly peeled open the first letter, gently so I wouldn't damage it. Inside sat an invitation card with a moon emblem in the middle. I opened it carefully and saw my name written neatly.

It was an invitation to admire plum blossoms at the Uya mansion. Apparently the host was Uya clan's Da Xiaojie. The Uya clan was the current Empress clan hence why a small gathering had such a luxurious invitation card.