Wuxia Tale: Hua in Bloom

Plans

(WANG HUA)

I stared satisfactorily at the paintings of flowers in my room. Since the first time that Prince Jin gave me his own painting of a full bloomed flower, he gave me two more paintings of flowers.

I asked Father to help me to put the paintings in trapestries so I can display them in my room.

"I can give you flowers, but they fade. Unless I can give you a whole garden full of living flowers, then those can last. But I cannot do that. That will be expensive and I have to break your Father's rule so I am doing the next best thing. I will paint more flowers until I gave you enough to make it a garden."

He is sweet. My Prince. I find myself feeling happy everytime I am thinking about Prince Jin. Smiling and sometimes even laughing. Once, I did that and Dao gave me a scared look.

"Don't do that..." he said.

"Do what?" I asked.

"Sit there and then suddenly giggle or laugh. You are scaring me!" He said then shivered like he is cold.

He is mean. My twin.

But then I only have to think of Prince Jin and I will feel happy again.

Almost three months of courtship and I can feel that we are starting to trust each other. I started opening up to him, about my sickness when I was young and about my life with my twin brother and parents.

"I have a Baba and a Father. I know it's strange but since I never knew my mother, since she dies giving birth to us, Father is the one who raised us. Dao and I love him. We will not exchange him for a woman. He has been nothing but loving and patient to me and to my twin. If you think it's unnatural or strange..." I look at Prince Jin as I confessed that thought to him.

He smiled at me. "I will find it strange if you will not love the man who is raising you and your brother. From your stories, it seems lile Master Dayu loves you and your twin..."

"He does! He does love us..." I assured the Prince. "And he loves Baba. He loves our estate. He is a fair man. And we love him..."

"Then I hope Master Dayu will like me one day..." The Prince gave me a hopeful smile. I smiled back at him.

In his part, the Prince started opening his heart to me too.

"My mother was banished from the Palace. From the capital. She resides in another country now. In Indes. She is not allowed to show herself to me or to any member of the Royal Family. I grew up in the care of the nannies and the Empress..."

I want to ask him if the Empress really cared for him. But Prince Jin started talking about his siblings.

"Guo is a charmer. A bit lazy but he is dependable. His easy charm hid a sharp mind. But I have this expression that Guo likes easy things. No hard task. Han, our youngest brother is a different matter. He is active, playful but sensitive to people around him. We used to tease him that he is a crybaby but since he is ten now, we want to preserve his pride. And then there's my sister...but you know her already..."

We both winced. Yes, I am aware of Princess Cai and her characteristics. She can be mean and rude but I think it's more because she was treated like a precious breakable stone in the Palace. Every servants follows her order. Princess Cai can be a bit of a tyrant.