Eastern Palace

Chapter 39

I didn't eat, and I also didn't take medicine. Yong Niang had brought me a bowl of medicine, and I used all my strength to flip over the bowl of medicine that she was holding. I just want A'Du. In this Eastern Palace which I cannot bear to even stay for a day, I want A'Du, and I want to go back to Western Liang.

Feeling sleepy, I slept the whole day. I kept on having nightmares. I dreamed about my mother, I dreamed about myself crying lots of tears, I dreamed about my father, his rough and big hand touching my hair, and him saying to me: "Child, you have suffered."

I didn't suffer much, I just felt extremely tired, I couldn't struggle anymore. Like a fish, suffocating; like a flower, about to wither.

Li Cheng Yin and the Eastern Palace, the world's heaviest chains, I could no longer bear.

Afterwards Yong Niang gently shook me awake, she told me: "A'Du is back."

A'Du was really sent back, but still lying on the bed unconscious. I wonder what made Li Cheng Yin change his decision.

I touched A'Du's hand, her hand was much warmer than my hand and she kept on having a fever, but as long as she's here, I can stay with her, then that's good.

Yong Niang didn't say anything, she just said: "Since A'Du came back, Crown Princess please drink the medicine."

I drank the big bowl of bitter medicine in one breath, it was very bitter. I didn't even eat the preserved apricot with the medicine. I smiled at Yong Niang, but she suddenly started crying.

I find it strange, and asked: "Yong Niang, what's wrong?"

Yong Niang didn't say anything, just softly said: "Crown Princess your hair is messy, this servant will help you comb it."

The comb brushing my hair was very comfortable. Yong Niang's hands were light and warm, like the hands of my mother. She combed my hair while slowly saying: "I remembered the time when Crown Princess had just came to the Eastern Palace, you were very sick, having a severe fever. The imperial doctors didn't dare to prescribe you any medicine, afraid that something might happen. This servant was protecting you on the side, at that time, your Central Plains language wasn't very good, in your dreams you kept on crying wanting Shan Zi, later this servant realized that Shan Zi means mother in Western Liang language."

I had forgotten about that, I only remembered when I arrived at the Eastern Palace I was sick, it was Yong Niang and A'Du who had taken care of me until I recovered.

"That year you were only fifteen years old." Yong Niang gently lifted my hair, "Three years have passed by in a flash."

I turned around, she smiled at me: "Your Highness' birthday, the people in the palace has forgotten, his Highness has forgotten as well, but today your Highness is eighteen years old."

I really had forgotten about my birthday. A'Du was very sick as if hovering on a fine line between life and death, how could I remember my birthday when I'm sick with worry? People in the palace must have remembered. But since the palace was in a state of disorder because Noble Consort Gao got into trouble, the rest of the people must not have cared about such a trivial matter as a birthday.

Only Yong Niang remembered.

She carefully combed my sideburns: "From now on, Crown Princess will be an adult, so you should not misbehave and cause trouble again."

Misbehave, causing trouble?

I felt these words were very distant......The me that misbehave and cause trouble has already died a long time ago. Three years ago, she died in the river of forgetfulness, and I am just borrowing her body, passing these three years absentmindedly. I have forgotten everything. I've forgotten all the blood, forgotten this deep hatred, spending these three years with the enemy, falling in love with him once again.