The fated ones

Chapter 36

At the mention of dijun’s marriage contract, the whole court erupted in whispers. As far as everyone knew, dijun had given up on all worldly desires and practiced monkhood. So, the words that had just been spoken by none other than his majesty himself had left the court bewildered. Whispers of why, how and when, fled all over, such that even donghua and feng jiu could hear them. But the most astounded person was again, tianjun. Even after getting away from donghua’s clutches, not moments ago, he still had the ability to find himself affronted about the fact that he had not been made aware of this situation before. As in his little mind, he would have tried his best to get a woman under his command into taichen palace for this deed. But before he could put words to his thoughts, donghua took over.
“even though I do not require the acceptance of this court for getting married, I still felt it wise to inform you of this development by myself, so that in the future, this incident would not be misconstrued.”
The mutterings ran rampant across the court, though one small lord from the southern desert asked in a pitiful voice, “but, dijun, your monkhood?”
Since the question was honest enough, donghua let the lord go with just a cold stare before he answered, “that was by choice and not by oath. It was a choice I made because of the situation at that time but now the times have changed, and so will my choices on this matter.”
Not allowing anyone to object further, donghua stated, “this matter is not up for discussion, for the court. It was my duty to inform the realms about my pending wedding engagement and I fulfilled that. To state the matter fully, I only have this to say. twenty days from today, I will marry queen bai feng jiu of qingqiu in a wedding ceremony held on the sacred lands of qingqui. The ceremony would be private but every prominent and worthy individual from all the realms will receive the invitation for the wedding banquet afterwards. The location would be disclosed on the invitation.” he finished.
If everyone was shocked before, they were just plain dumbstruck now.  no one could have foreseen this sequence of events. But among all the silent viewers, one suddenly gained his power of speech. And without giving much thought to it, haode exclaimed, “you are marrying the qingqui queen?”
Donghua was annoyed at this continuous roundabout, “was that a question, hao de?”, he said with a raised eyebrow and a stony mocking voice.
Haode, then realised that he had again stepped into boiling hot waters. Frantically trying to save himself, in a weak voice, he attempted to smooth over the feathers he had ruffled. “no, your lordship. I just couldn’t contain my amazement and accidently spoke out loud. I, along with the whole court congratulates you and the fox queen on your upcoming nuptials.”
Donghua nodded even though he knew that what haode had spouted was anything but sincere. He just didn’t want to waste his energy on a man who had a brick for brains. Shaking his hand, he reached out and grabbed feng jiu’s hand before turning around and leaving the court.
The courtiers stood up as they saw the former ruler of heaven and earth leave along with his intended bride. They knew the court was over. From the events that had happened in this meeting, it was obvious for every person with two working brain cells that this had been a set up, all organised at the whims of the great master of the universe. Though, the fun fact about this was, that the puppets he had so easily manoeuvred weren’t even aware of their identity as puppets.
As donghua and feng jiu moved out of the court room and towards the front steps of the celestial palace, they suddenly stopped and stood at the top of the steps taking in the view in front of them. From what feng jiu could understand, it looked a like the whole of the sky kingdom had segregated at the end of the staircase that led up to the celestial palace. Immortals filled the whole front courtyard of the palace and continued out the main gate. She was still wondering at the reason that could have amassed such a huge gathering of people, when she heard someone chuckle behind her. She spun around to find, the chuckle had come from lian song.
“what amuses you, third prince?” she asked, curious.
“them, your majesty”, lian song said pointing with his chin towards the crowd of celestials at the front of the palace. “they couldn’t even wait till the end of the meeting; they came as soon as they got the news”
“oh, so you know what made them all gather here?”
“yes, your majesty, I know.” Lian song chuckled again.
“So do you want to stretch this out more or would you mind telling us the reason?”
“it is you, your majesty. They are here for you, to meet you.” This time he spoke in a very soft voice as if talking to a child.
But feng jiu was even more confused at this, she questioned again, “why would they gather here for me? They don’t even know me?”
“they do, your majesty. They know you quite well.”
Donghua could sense that feng jiu was getting anxious now at the way lian song kept poking her with these little remarks and , if he was being honest with himself, he also didn’t like the way lian song was teasing her. In his mind, only he had the right to tease his little fox. Ultimately, in a stern voice he commanded, “lian song.”
Lian song’s small chuckle turned into full blown laughter this time. The third prince had never gotten the opportunity to tease donghua before and now he had done so without even saying a word to him. he felt quite proud of himself at that accomplishment.
“ok, ok, I’ll explain.” Turning to feng jiu, he started, “the day of your battle with hei an, you saved countless lives, your majesty. But it didn’t end with that, you also gained yourself the hearts of everyone that was present there. All the celestial soldiers and the high immortals that were standing behind your safety shields saw first hand, every thing you did. If I were to say in their words, that was the best play they had ever seen and will ever see in their whole immortal lives. In their minds, what you did was nothing short of a well written and perfectly executed theatrical play which had everything from, humor, action, mystery, drama, and romance.” Lian song looked pointedly at donghua on the last one.
“they understand that it was a hard fought battle but they have also convinced themselves that you are a mastermind who had already planned the whole fight in your mind beforehand. Thay are in awe of you, your majesty. They love your spirit. They love the queen that they saw. But at the same time, they were also worried sick for you, after your trial. Though, some of them feel that the story was left at cliffhanger just so you could come back with an even bigger surprise up your sleeve and from what I see, they didn’t guess wrong. But I digress. All these people that you see in front of you are here for you, to make sure you are okay and just to see you again, your majesty.”
While dong hua felt proud of his little fox and puffed out his chest, fengjiu was stunned. She was so lost in trying to make sense of this situation that she didn’t even notice that the whole court had followed them out and ended up listening to lian song’s explanation of the amassed crowd. At that moment, to point out who was more shocked, was anyone’s bet. To the lords from the court, it seemed like the young fox queen was not young anymore but instead had become a ruler of great power and pull. From what thay had heard and witnessed in the past few hours, this queen hadn’t just managed to lay rest to an entire ancient demon army single-handedly but also manged to get herself the right to the heavenly throne, ensnared the great dijun into marriage and won the hearts of the entire populace of the sky kingdom. And all of that with just one battle. In their eyes, her future shone bright with greatness and prosperity.
As feng jiu was stuck in comprehension, donghua tugged on her hand that he held and saoftly said, “they are waiting for you, xaio bai.”
She nodded in understanding and started to pull him along with her downstairs but donghua stopped her. “they are here for you, xaio bai, not me. Go now, I'll wait for you.”
She was confused as to his refusal but decided not to question him right now since too many people were waiting for her. Moving gracefully down the stairs, as she reached the last few steps alone, the whole crowd kneeled, “greetings, your majesty.”
“rise”, she called out, “I heard that all of you are present here to meet me today. Even though I do not understand the reason for it, I am moved by your gesture and would like to show my gratitude to each one of you for you coming here.”
A lot of things were called out at once but the major sound heard was “you saved our lives.”
Nodding her head in their direction, she said, “what I did was my duty as a ruler and not done for any recognition. Do not misunderstand me, I appreciate the fact that you think so highly of me but I didn’t do anything to deserve such an honour.”
Before the celestials could reply to her statement, a deafening bang came from the sky.