~ 𝑪𝑶𝑴𝑰𝑵𝑮 𝑺𝑶𝑶𝑵 - In the heart of an ancient Chinese dynasty, a young emperor reigns with wisdom beyond his years but carries a heart heavy with unresolved grief. Years ago, he lost his beloved under mysterious circumstances, a loss that has...
The whispering sounds in the distance tugged at my consciousness, drawing me into a place that felt both distant and unbearably familiar. My footsteps echoed in the narrow corridor as I approached the room where the voices seemed to be coming from. The air was thick with tension, and with each step, my heart picked up its pace. It was happening again—the flashbacks. The memories that weren't mine, but hers. The visions that had haunted me ever since I had come to remember the life of the Emperor's deceased lover.
As I approached the doorway, I saw her standing in the shadows—her figure, unmistakable and tragically familiar. She was watching something unfold before her, and although my logical mind knew this couldn't be real, it felt too vivid, too real to dismiss. Panic flared in my chest, rising like a tide threatening to pull me under.
Am I losing control again? Is this another flashback, or is it something more?
I hesitated, but my feet carried me forward, almost against my will. The scene inside the room unfurled with painful clarity. I heard her voice—a whisper that sent chills down my spine—pleading, her eyes filled with tears as she looked at the man in front of her. My heart ached as if it were being torn in two. It was the Emperor's lover—her pain, her anguish was my own.
But when I shifted my gaze, the sight that greeted me froze the blood in my veins. The Empress—his mother—stood wrapped in the arms of Mei's father, their bodies close, their whispers intimate. My mind raced, struggling to comprehend the depth of the betrayal I was witnessing. The Empress, the one person who should have protected her son, stood here with another, weaving a web of deceit that reached into the very heart of the kingdom.
Just then, Mei's father pulled away from her, guilt and fear etched on his face. "This is over. I can't do this. What will your son and your husband say?" His voice trembled with the weight of the affair.
But the Empress—she rolled her eyes, unbothered, as if the destruction of her family's honor was of little consequence. "No one has to know—you'll be king one day... only if you..." she whispered into his ear, her voice a snake's hiss. I couldn't hear the rest of her words, but I felt the menace in them, the temptation that twisted in the air like poison.
