My Sin

Scenery And Motherhood

After the Empress's meltdown, the week was pretty much peaceful. The empress continued to paint his chambers, he added many new colorful sceneries, but the most beautiful one was in the hall. In the greeting hall wall was painted a beautiful scenery, there was a beautiful cherry blossom tree with the night sky, the moon, and stars as its background, the cherry blossoms came as a serenade to the softer side of mother nature, reminding them of the beauty that is there for eyes that seek it, it was as if the landscape sings him lullabies in sweet nostalgic hues.

This was the imperial harem where the walls had ears so this matter didn't stay a secret for too long and the people of this kingdom were not dumb. The empress gave birth to all of his children when the cherry blossoms blossomed, so it made sense for him to be particularly attached to it. The people in his father's fief were very happy that their young master was now clear-headed, but most people of the kingdom didn't really care.

The empress had two weeks to prepare for the banquet, and he spent one week completing the scenery in his greeting hall, and after he's finished his paintings he embroidered with his daughter and helped (did almost all the work) his daughter with the designing of the dresses, but no matter all of that the empress always did morning greetings, and by doing so he has slowly started to establish his authority.

The empress was no longer foolishly in love and no longer acted based on his feelings, it's like he became a new person. He made sure everyone knew their places, especially the emperor's favorite, and when the emperor came to reprimand him he would shut him up with a threat or a few words that were irrefutable.

The harem truly started seeing the empress for the empress and not just a ger who was blindly in love with the emperor after the empress dowager who just made up with the empress held a tea party and invited concubines of decent ranks. The emperor decided to come to play with the second prince whom imperial concubine Shu brought along. The concubines knew what she was doing, she was flaunting the love his majesty had for her child in the face of the empress and his children, but to her surprise, the empress looked unbothered.

Soon the concubines were getting bored, so the empress dowager proposed a little embroidering competition, with the emperor being here they all agreed. They all thought the empress would back off knowing that Imperial concubine Shu would win but he did the exact opposite and started embroidering.

After two hours, the concubine started showing their results. Some embroidered beautiful flowers and said the meaning behind them, and some embroidered animals while telling their representation, it was Imperial Concubine Shu's turn and she showed her embroidery leaving others in awe.

"This is my embroidery, your majesty. I embroidered this because the two most important meetings in my life happened in late winter when the camellias bloomed. I gave birth to my son in late winter while the camellias were blooming and I also met his majesty during a harsh winter while the camellias were blooming." Said Imperial concubine Shu with a loving tone as she bowed and presented her piece.

The emperor was looking at his beloved concubine with such loving eyes as if nobody could disturb their love. This made everybody turn their eyes to the empress only to see the empress's non-caring face.  

                                                                                                       Quiaqio's pov

It would be a lie to say I'm not hurt and that my heart is broken because it is. The pain in my heart currently is very turbulent, but one thing I've learned from my past life is that pain is part of the process of healing. You cannot pick yourself up and heal yourself if you don't go through pain. Even if he wanted to cry right now his pride was holding him back and seeing his children looking at him worriedly made him reluctant even more so. After the lovey-dovey crap, it was his turn.