"Your highness!" Xiao Lan cries as she comes running.
"What's wrong? Why are you crying like this? Did someone bully you? Tell me who!" I stopped the swing and sit still.
"No, that's not it. Your highness, her ladyship, she has left this world!" Her tears stream down her face.
"WHAT!" I spring up. "Say that again! Are you lying to me!" She can't be. She is a very nice person.
"I wouldn't dare. I'm telling the truth. There was an assassin and her ladyship blocked the sword for the Emperor." Xiao Lan explains. I run in the direction of where the emperor is.
"Your highness, you mustn't go in." The eunuchs block my way.
"I want to see my mother!" I cry loudly.
"Your highness, please calm down." The eunuch advises.
"Imperial father!"
"Let her in." His steady voice commands. I run in only to see her with a dagger lodged in her chest.
"Mother!" She is such a nice person. Even though she isn't my mother, she is still my 'mother'. I hug her cold body, warmth fleeting away. My tears dampen her outer robe.
"Mother, open your eyes. I'm begging you, wake up."
"Cui'er, that's enough." I look up at the man who's the father of this body.
"Imperial father."
"We (royal pronoun "we") know that you are in pain of your mother's loss. We will send her off well. It is because of her sacrifice that we are unhurt."
"Your daughter thanks imperial father's grace." I sob out. This palace was slightly tolerable with mother here, but now the warmth of the palace is gone. Only the cold emptiness remains. I can't stand this place. The back palace of the imperial household is no place for me anymore.
"Cui'er, how are you doing?" YiLan's eyebrows furrow in concern.
"Mother is gone, what will happen to me now?" I blankly stare to the side.
"Nothing will! His majesty said that you will not be mistreated."
"Really?" Nothing is certain in the imperial harem. Mother isn't here anymore, she was the little protection I had. Who knows? Maybe I'll be sold off in a marriage alliance, but according to history 'I' will never leave the capital.
"I want to leave this place." It's suffocating me. It's only been 6 months since I came yet it feels 6 years has passed.
"It will be fine." YiLan hugs me. It's comforting, like my cousins. I really miss them.
"YiLan GeGe."
YiLan shortly afterwards also left my side. He joined the army and was stationed to the border. It is the beginning of his military career that will later be written down in history.
For two years, I was forgotten in the mural of the back palace. The only renown that my mother will ever get is that she sacrificed her life to save the emperor. I live my life and eventually, the grief is pushed to the back of my mind. This is the imperial harem, death is nothing new.
"Your highness, Tao GongGong (eunuch) has come." Xiao Lan announces.
"En, I know."
"For your filial piety towards the late Concubine Wang, Li Cui'er is conferred the title AnPing GongZhu."
"Thank your majesty for your grace." I accept the imperial decree. What's going on? Mother has been dead for two years already. Father didn't care about me after mother died, why the sudden decree?
"Congratulations your highness." Xiao Lan smiles. I could only wince out a smile for her. Not long after, another decree came.
"AnJing Princess shall marry a prince of the khitans in Heqin ("marriage alliance") in 3 months time. Please accept." What? This isn't right. AnJing Princess was already strange, now Heqin? This was not written in the history records.
"Thank your Majesty for your grace." I accept the decree, but I'm still confused. Wait...did I do this? I changed history?!
I stare out the window. At least I get to leave this place.
"What's wrong?" Someone asks.
"Nothing." I reply without thinking. Looking up, it's YuZhong! "How come you're here?"
"I said that I would free you from that place, now you have to keep your part of the bargain." His mischievous smile holds no ill intent towards me.
"You cheated. You never told me that you were a prince. Now I have to marry you even if you lost." Although my words may seem upset but the tone is playful in meaning.
"Don't worry Princess, I'll protect you from now on." The wind blows the shattering petals of peach blossoms from the nearby orchard towards the two of us.
YOU ARE READING
Forgotten Moonlight
Romance"I'm tired. I'm tired of this, of everything, and what I am most tired of is being forgotten by you. If there is a next time, I will be the one who forgets." As her eyes closed, the memories vanish along with her and the passing time. "I was wrong...
