Langhua: The Codependence of a Prince and His General

Encounter

They first met when they were ten.

Xuanyuan Lang was the Seventh Imperial Prince, born to Concubine Liang. As her title suggested, his mother was a kind, simple woman, the secondary daughter of an honest merchant from the eastern states. Emperor Zhong, the seventh ruler of the Kingdom of Cai, had happened to catch a glimpse of her on one of his undercover tours of his lands and had fallen for her at first sight.

It was the stuff of romantic legends, woven into eloquent, emotional tales by the storytellers at tea houses all over the kingdom. It had happened ten years ago, and just as the stories fell out of favor, so did his mother.

It did not matter. Her family was of no consequence, and in the imperial harem, that meant neither did she. Sure, she bore a son, but the oldest princes were at least a decade older than him. The succession wars would not reach Concubine Liang and the Seventh Prince.

...Or so they thought.

"What did Concubine Liang say?"

"She said... that she wasn't picking sides."

"Tsk." The extravagantly-dressed handmaiden clicked her tongue. Xuanyuan Lang watched her from his hiding spot behind an ornate pillar, wondering how a maid could afford clothes even fancier than his mother's daily clothing. "The country fool. She doesn't know that she has no choice in the matter. At this point in time, if she doesn't swear allegiance to Her Majesty the Empress, we'll have to assume that she's on the Noble Consort's side."

The lesser handmaiden looked troubled. "But she genuinely seemed to yearn only peace..."

"Peace? She should have known she lost all hope of that the moment she stepped past these palace walls."

Xuanyuan Lang did not understand everything they said, but he nevertheless had the feeling that things were looking bad. He had not been able to shake that feeling since his mother had gently coaxed him to go out and play when the Empress' maids appeared at their palace doors.

The boy did not like the Empress much. He had seen her a few times before, but she never smiled at him or stooped down to talk to him like the other consorts did. His most vivid impression of her was looking up at her magnificent golden crown, decorated with an abundance of jewels, each of them bigger and brighter than the largest in Mother's collection.

But she was still better than the Noble Consort. That woman was a snake wearing a skin of fine silk and a pure-white smile.

Xuanyuan Lang turned halfway to return to the side palace he had always called home, but then he stopped. If he went back now, so soon after the maids left, Mother would know that he had not gone far. She would probably even suspect him of eavesdropping, and well, she wouldn't be wrong, would she? In that case...

He decided to take a walk around the Eastern Garden, after all, just like Mother had told him to. He could just go around it once, maybe take note of some prettier blooms. That way, he would have plenty of things to say to Mother once he got back, and she wouldn't suspect a thing.

Besides, he figured that Mother might want some time for herself right now, too. She was never good at dealing with these inner palace politics.

Most, if not all, of the other princes would have a eunuch or at least a handmaiden to accompany them, but not the Seventh Prince. He was the youngest son of an emperor with plenty of capable ones, and his mother was no more than a country bumpkin who never stood a chance. Of course, another reason was his mother's insistence.

In this magnificent gold-gilded palace, in her own modest way, she tried to give him as normal a childhood as she could manage.

That was how the Seventh Prince could wander into the gardens relatively unsupervised, allowing him to meet the border general's son.