A woman in a beautiful white robe was standing in front of the imperial watch tower. The soft breeze that blew, swayed her long black hair gracefully. Her maid who had been following her faithfully chided behind her back. It was so uncalled, for the royal concubine to roam around the palace with her hair loose. But her mistress was exceptionally stubborn today. She insisted that it was early in the morning hence there will scarce people to notice about her inappropriate appearance.

The royal concubine was talking a leisure walk that morning after having her breakfast. Unlike their previous routine, her mistress decided to strayed away from their usual path and now she had been standing in front of the watch tower for almost thirty minutes. For the exact duration of time, she had never taken her eyes off the watch tower.

Gushes of wind once again passed through their small entourage. This time, it felt a little colder than usual. The maid unconsciously rubbed her palm against her arms. She signed for the eunuch to wrap the thick fur robe (that he was holding) around their mistress. The young eunuch hurriedly put on the coat on the concubine.

“My Lady. It’s cold here. Let’s go back to the mansion” the maid suggested. She was worried sick about her mistress’ condition. A pregnant woman should not be exposed toward cold temperature like this! If something bad befallen on her mistress, she would be the one who was going to lose her head! The thought alone was enough to send chill down her spine.

The emperor was generally a calm and tranquil figure. He rarely made a scene out of irrelevant stuff such as not putting one’s hair. However, there was something about her mistress that always did not sit well with the emperor.

He had always loose his temper whenever he was in the company of the mistress . His calm and collected persona fade as soon as he saw the mistress. It was always as if they he had a deep hatred toward her. Despite that, the mistress seemed to be his favorite among all of his concubines in the palace. He always visited her mansion and spend the night with her. He cared enough about her to always inquire about the mistress’s frequent sickness. He also held her gently at night , whenever she was visited by her occasional nightmare. Yet…. Somehow, he was quite cold toward her. This young maid could never understand the exact nature of their relationship. Was it love? Or hatred?

What more puzzling was the fact that the mistress , too, was being indifferent toward the emperor. She shown almost no emotion nor reaction toward the treatment that she received from him. They were a pair of odd couple. Other Concubines would die just to get the attention that the emperor gave to her. But not her. On the other hand, this young maid was unsure whether the other concubine would be able to face the cold and moody emperor all the time.

Seeing that her mistress seemed to be deep in thought, the young maid once again tried to call her

“My lady?” This time, her mistress looked directly toward her. “Do you want to go back to your room? It’s getting cold here”

The Lady was starring at the maid’s face for quite a time. She then turned to look at the direction of watch tower. She gazed at the tower longingly.

“Xiao Er, would I be able to see the entire capital if I climbed to the top of the tower?” her soft voice broke the silence between them. Her questions seemed to make the entire group went flustered. The young maid bowed helplessly on the ground. The rest of the group began to imitate her behavior.

“My lady, this is not my place to hold you from doing whatever you want. But My lady must not climb the tower. Please consider your current condition” She appealed.

“But …..I wanted to see the scenery. You know that I am from the neighboring country, right? Since I came here three years ago, I have never gotten the chance to see the boisterous and exuberant place.” Said the royal concubine half crooning.

“This servant does not dare to give any permission my lady” said the young maid. All of the servants were still on the ground, silently pleading for their mistress’ cooperation.

This sight however, riled up the concubine even more. She had set her eyes on the watch tower. She will climb the stairs regardless of myriad consequences she would face in the future.

“I’m going” Said the concubine. She lifted the hem of her skirt before stepping on the first plank. The concubine gladly ignored the sounds of her servants clamoring and pleading for her not to do it. Today she wanted to feel free. No one had ever listened and understand her. Why should she do the same to other people?

“What is going on here?!”   A deep baritone voice greeted the group. Every servant that had been prostrating and pleading abruptly stopped at the track. Even the royal concubine paused her step in the middle of first and the second plank.

“Why was there commotion here ?” His question was directed at the young maid who was still on the ground. Yet, the royal concubine knew that it was indirect attack toward her unseemly action that she was about to take few moment ago.

“This servant….”

“I was the one who caused this ruckus earlier in the morning” the royal concubine calmly explained the situation. She was still in her previous position on the staircase. “I wanted to see the scenery of the capital from the top of the tower. The servants had already tried to prevent me from going up there, but I was being difficult” she continued.

“Concubine Rong! How dare you standing on the staircase in front of His Majesty like that. You did not even pay obeisance toward His Majesty!” The old eunuch who had been the emperor closest aid chided the royal concubine. In the palace, only him had the power to reprimand a concubine about palace’s propriety without the fear of enduring the emperor’s wrath.

The mistress looked intently at the emperor for a few second as if challenging him to openly scolded her in front of the palace’s aide, before - finally - decided to step down from the plank. She then, performed a perfect curtsied in front of the emperor.

“Forgive this lowly concubine Your Majesty for conducting inappropriate act. This concubine was blinded by an impulse moment that she forgot to take her servant’s advise into consideration” She then proceed to bowed on the ground. The young maid hurriedly went to aid the visibly pregnant concubine to kneel on the pavement.

All of the servants twitched uncomfortably after listening to the concubine’s half baked ‘apology’. Trying to lower oneself on the ground while carrying the emperor’s child was another rule that she purposely broke to annoy the emperor. Just like how she was always acting up recently.  In this palace, no one had the audacity to provoke the visibly upset emperor except for concubine Rong.

Since her first arrival at the Tang empire’s palace three years ago, Concubine Rong was always been deemed as a peculiar figure who had no conscience of propriety. Rumors had it that she hailed from a quiet town at the border between Tang empire and Yan Kingdom. Peony town (the rumored town) was under Yan Kingdom’s authority hence making concubine Rong to be the subject of the king of Yan. Taking an unknown peasant girl into the palace was already ludicrous for a man of his status. What more from their neighbouring country that they had longstanding beef with! Therefore, the news about the Tang Emperor making a peasant girl from their enemy’s country into a royal concubine caused an uproar in the royal court.

Most of the officials demanded the emperor to retract his decision officiating her as royal concubine. The emperor vehemently refused to do so. Confused and bewildered, the officials tried to investigate Concubine Rong’s background but to no avail.

The most mind-boggling aspect for this event was the emperor who seemed to be very determine to keep her in the inner court somehow decided to let concubine Rong loose once she was officiated into the inner palace. She was not given proper training on how to properly conduct oneself according to the palace’s rule. This made Concubine Rong to be further alienated by the resident of inner palace for being uncultured and rude. It also did not help that Concubine Rong naturally had an arrogance air around her despite coming from humble beginning.

Nevertheless, she was also highly observant and a quick learner. In the span of only one year, she managed to grasp all the rules and regulation of the inner palace. Not only that, she also gone through the grueling task of learning how to read, write and dance at the same time. This prove to be a partial mistake as her ability to adapt made her to be envied even more. Now that Concubine Rong is currently carrying the emperor’s child, she was practically an outcast in the inner palace. Concubine Rong had enough of all this!

“Concubine Rong!! You…how dare you…” the elder eunuch sweat profusely. He was at loss of words. He never thought that he could live passed this day where a lowly concubine subtly testing the patient of the emperor. He secretly eyeing the emperor to see his reaction toward the ill manner concubine. To his surprise, he saw that the emperor was smirking at the concubine throughout the entire fiasco as if he was enjoying it.

“Err…Your Majesty” the Elderly Eunuch tried to get the emperor’s reaction.

“Yes?”

“How should we settle this Your majesty?” he inquired.

The emperor kept on staring at the concubine who was still kneeling on the ground with fascinating face expression. His face suddenly changed to more serious expression and ordered the young maid to help the concubine back at her feet. Once the concubine straightened her body posture, the emperor walked leisurely toward the concubine. He stopped at a moment, and then proceed to stare at her with the exact smirk on his face.

“I see that you are already showing your original self” he was practically hissing at this point making everyone – except for the concubine- to once again bowing on the ground.

“Servant. Take Concubine Rong back to her room. Ensure that she get the rest she needed. Do not let her out of the room” the emperor ordered nonchalantly. He then walked away from the garden as soon as he gave the order. The chaotic morning quieted down as soon as the elder eunuch ushered everyone to dismiss.

                                                                               ************

In her room, Concubine Rong was trying to force herself to sleep. After being cooped up in the room for quiet a while, she can no longer laying around on the bed the whole day. Her mind suddenly drifted back to her simpler life in Peony town. Living in a small hut with her older brother, Concubine Rong did not have any other family member. Her closest friend was the five-year-old Yue Liang, her neighbor’s granddaughter. It was funny because Concubine Rong was old enough to be Yue Liang’s mother. In fact, she was quite well known as the spinster from their village. At the age of 27, she was not married and still lived with her older brother.

She lived a rather sheltered life with her older brother. Every day, she would spend most of her time, doing chores around their small hut and keeping company with Yue Liang while her brother would venture into the forest to collect herbs to be sold at the apothecary and the town’s market. Except for one particular day, when he came back with serious foot injury. His mobility was hindered and Concubine Rong was pleading for them to switched places for a day.

‘Only if I did not insist to go to the forest the next day’. She realized that regretting on the decision that she made almost three years ago, would not do any good to her. She was the one who decided to brought the injured man that she found in forest back home and hide him in the shed at the back of their hut. She was also, too naïve to realized how stupid it was to put her trust on a stranger. What more harboring a huge crush on the same strange man. It was one of the stupidest decisions she had ever made and she had to spent her entire life thinking about the fateful day that changed her life forever. It was also the last day she had seen her brother. She helplessly lifted her head.

“It has been three years.”

                                                                                        **********

Peony Town 3 years ago

Mo Chou  walk carefully toward the shed which her brother used to store his tools. Other than his farming tools, there was something else that she secretly decided to hide from his brother in the shed.

As her brother’s movement is still limited due to his foot injury, he has no clue about the stranger that she brought back to their house. Mo Chou was still wondering why the stranger asked her to hide his presence from other people?  Was he chased by dangerous men? He was wearing intricate gear befitting a soldier. Mo Chou heard that there was a small battle occurred not far from their village between their soldiers and Tang Empire’s. Peony Town was located at the border between these two countries. Finding themselves caught in the middle of altercation between the two countries was, unfortunately, inevitable.

‘If he was a soldier, which country did he belonged to? They would get into trouble if the authority knew that they were hiding their enemy’s soldier! But, helping a helpless man was a good virtues right?’ Mo Chou tried to reason with herself.

Nevertheless, hiding a man in the shed was not particularly a difficult task. Mo Chou and her brother lived quite far from her their neighbors’ house. Their closest neighbour, Yue Liang and her younger siblings, was the only guest that they have ever received throughout their ten years living in the hut.

She stopped her track right in front of the shed’s door. She took her sweet time prepping her hair; pulling the untamed baby hair back to its proper place. She dusted away any dirt on her clothes and pulled them downward in effort to try to make them look presentable. Mo Chou realized that she had been acting like 17 years old young girls and it was quiet embarrassing. But the heart wants what it wants right?

After she was satisfied with her appearance, Mo Chou softly knocked on the door. The voice of the man that she had rescued a week ago, echoed from inside giving her permission to enter the shed. As soon as the door was open, Mo Chou saw the man in his proper cloth calmly sitting on the shift made bed at the right side of the shed.

This can only mean one thing.

“Are you leaving?” Mo Chou’s eyes were scanning the mysterious man and the bundle that he kept to his side.

“Yes.” The man replied shortly. He never really spoke more than what is necessary. His eyes were much more expressive than his mouth can be actually be.

“Ouhhh….” That was the only thing that came out from Mo Chou’s mouth. Disappointed? Of course! But deep down inside, she knows that this day would one day come and she has no right to impede him from leaving their place.

“Do you want me to show you the way out of this village?” Mo Chou offered. That way, she can spend a little bit time with before they separated for good.

The man suddenly raised from the bed. He reached for his bundle and wrap it around his left shoulder. He then slowly moved  closer to her before stopping right In front of Mo Chou’s face. He did all this without taking of his eyes off from her even for a second. Mo Chou’s heart was beating harder and louder. Their close proximity almost made her knees went in nimble. She had never been this close to a man except for her brother.

He lifted his free right hand and began to caress Mo Chou’s left cheek. The hand then snaked its way down to her neck and finally rested on her right ear.

“I’m going. You don’t have to see me out” He walked out of the shed as soon as he uttered the sentence. Without even saying goodbye. Mo Chou was left still standing on the same position for five minutes. She wanted to scream and follow him wherever he wanted to go, but Mo Chou knew she could never leave her brother alone.

Her life since then seemed to move slower than usual. Her brother kept complaining that she was not being attentive and looked lost all the time. Probably she was. She had lost someone special for her.

After recuperating for almost two months, her brother finally had gotten back to his feet. That morning, he was energetically looking forward to resume his usual routine collecting herbs in the forest after being home bound for a long time.

 He went to the shed to retrieved his scythe. It was not long before he frantically ran back to their kitchen with a white jade dangling from his clutch. The man’s white jade! Why did she never found the jade in the shed before?! Now , her brother would know that she sheltered a man in their shed!

“What is this?! Why did I find this in our shed?! Did you hide anyone there without my knowledge?! Answer me!” Mo Chou was taken aback seeing her brother’s strong reaction upon seeing the white jade.

“Yes. And calm down. He was only a mere mercenary.” She explained. Her brother’s face went pale as if he was looking right at the devil himself. He closed his eyes and tried to compose himself. Failing to do so, he began to prowl toward the direction of their family’s cupboard.

“Pack your thing! We need to go!” he spread a large cloth on the table and frantically shoved anything that he could reach onto the cloth.

“Why?”

“Don’t ask! Just do it!” throughout her ten years living with her brother, she had never seen him yell at anyone, what more toward his only younger sister. Mo Chou was extremely frightened by her brother’s behavior.

Their little escape plan was however cut short by the sound of horses’ hoof beating the ground. Without them realizing it, they were already surrounded by Tang’s soldier. Her brother tried to fight them off but he had no chance when it was him against a group of elite enemy soldiers. He was easily subdued, dragged away from her and never been seen again. The scene was, however, vividly imprinted in her mind. The sight of her brother being beaten and her, pleading to the mysterious man - who was sitting on a black horse - to let both of them had been haunting her ever since.

                                                                                            **********

Concubine Rong jolted on her bed. She slowly opened her eyes as the sound of thunder had woken her up from her recurring nightmare. Her robe was wet with sweats coming out from every single pore. The dream again!

It had been three years. She had been dreaming of the fateful day ever since she was pregnant with her first child. Her brother would never know that he would become an uncle in matter of few months. The brother that had been taking care of her whole life. Tears started to roll down her cheek.

‘Brother Gao…where are you?’

Xiao Er came to wake her mistress early in the morning. Just like any other day, she was greeted with the sight of her mistress sitting on the bed with solemn face. Her mistress had not been able to sleep since she was carrying His Majesty’s child. Something was clearly bothering her.

Not only that the mistress’ sleeping pattern was disturbed by this nightmare. Her personality was also slowly changing that she seemingly turned into someone new.

Xiao Er had been serving the Lady since the first day she stepped into the inner palace. She felt so grateful and elated when she was informed that she, a few other new maids and eunuch were selected to serve the new concubine. Only after a while that Xiao Er realized that they were practically a group of black sheep for the inner palace’s residents. A new concubine with unclear background can only be served by a bunch of newbies who had no proper training!

They were left in a mess without proper guidance from anyone in the inner palace. Fortunately, the highly adaptable concubine Rong managed to rein the rope and lead all of them toward betterment by providing lesson on the palace’s rules and regulation all by herself. For that, Xiao Er was immensely grateful that she was given the chance to serve a brilliant mistress.

However, this pregnancy was like a solemn cloud hanging on their head. It brought so many unwanted attention and animosities from other concubines who had been trying to conceive for a while. Not to mention, her own mistress had been affected by peculiar mood swing that changed her warm and friendly manner into cold and distant that she sounded almost like the emperor!

‘is she trying to imitate His highness?’

Leaving the question behind, Xiao Er began to help her mistress to prepare for the day. Xiao Er realized that her mistress dislike to put up her hair like how she preferred before she was pregnant. Nowadays, she would only loosely tie the upper part of her at the back. The mistress also demanded to wear only white robe citing that colorful clothes makes her feel dizzy.

“My Lady, do you still feel exhausted? I had asked the cook to broil your medicine and she send it together with your favorite soups for breakfast.” Xiao Er began to put the soup into a bowl for her mistress. Sister Meng who had been assigned as their cook was the only senior aide that was sent to serve Concubine Rong. Other than being an amazing cook, she was also proficient in making medicine. She was the one who had help Concubine Rong to properly trained all the servant in their mansion. Her mistress had been saying repeatedly how she was grateful that their mansion had Sister Meng to guide them toward betterment.

Xiao Er had always admired Sister Meng. She always knew what was the best for their mistress. She knew her mistress’ favorite foods and her likes and dislikes on the very first day she met the mistress. She almost sounds like a clairvoyant when it comes about serving the mistress. If Xiao Er was being honest, sister Meng made better head maid to be compared to her. Xiao Er had always wondering why sister Meng decided to work as a cook , which was a rather lower position with even lower salary than hers. Probably she likes the privacy that comes with the job’s scope. Not to mentioned, Sister Meng has a large slash scar on her face. Maybe that was the reason why she rarely shows her face to anyone else outside of their mansion ,hence she preferred to work in the kitchen instead.

“The Emperor has arrived”

The unexpected announcement had  Both Concubine Rong and Xiao Er starring at one another.

“What is he doing here at this hour?” she whispered at Xiao Er.

“This servant has no idea My Lady. Here, let me help you to get up” Xiao Er reached for Concubine Rong’s arm. Pregnancy made her formerly active and independent mistress to grew more dependent on Xiao Er in order to move around. While Concubine Rong was halfway through of getting up from her chair, the sounds of the door creaking signaling that the emperor had already entered the room.

“You don’t need to get up.” Said the emperor while nonchalantly strutted toward the dining table. “You don’t need to pay obeisance neither” He continued.

“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Ignoring the emperor’s order, Concubine Rong made a perfect curtsied while thanking the emperor for his kindness. Xiao Er is at loss of words. Why the concubine is so stubborn nowadays? Xiao Er almost got heart attack on daily basis whenever her mistress acting up in front of His Majesty. It was very fortunate of them that the emperor was unfazed by her mistress’ improper behaviour. In fact, the emperor looked very much amuse with her mistress’ reaction and seemed kind of enjoying it. He was sitting on a chair comfortably and eyeing the selection of food on the table with a great interest. He had a big smile plastered on his handsome face. The emperor seemed to be in a very good mood.

“ Xiao Er, go to the kitchen and asked more food and another set of utensil from sister Meng” Concubine Rong instructed her maid after seeing the emperor comfortably picking her food by using the chopstick that she had been using just now.

Xiao Er curtsied before retreating back to the kitchen. In the kitchen, Xiao Er found Sister Meng was crouching in front of the stove while diligently preparing something that emitted delicious smell. Without hesitating, Xiao Er excitedly ran toward sister Meng wanting to see what was waiting for her on the stove.

“Woahh…sister Meng, you are cooking the emperor’s favorite porridge. How did you know that the emperor is coming?” asked Xiao Er excitedly. She grabbed last night’s left over cake on the right table before stuffing them into her mouth. Looking up from her stove, sister Meng aggressively snatched the cake from Xioa Er’s hand.

“Sister Meng!! Why did you take the cake from me. I’m hungry”

Sister Meng straightened her body and resting both of her palm on her waist. “Stop stealing cakes from our kitchen. The emperor has keen sense of smell and he would immediately know that you are eating our mistress’ leftover food. While our mistress doesn’t mind, you think the emperor would let you go just like that? Go and wash your mouth!”

This sent Xiao Er straight to the water barrel to wash her mouth. The emperor can be very ruthless when it comes about punishing the servants if he felt the need to do so. Sister Meng broke into chuckles seeing the young maid scrambling in front of the water barrel to wash off the smell from her mouth.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier” Xiao Er barked while wiping the excess water on her mouth with a handkerchief.

“You are too greedy. The mistress overindulged you too much. You would be dead if you are serving other concubine in the inner palace” she reprimanded Xiao Er. Sister Meng then called out for other maids to bring out the newly cooked breakfast. Seeing now that they are now alone, Sister Meng turned to Xiao Er.

Facing Xiao Er up close, sister Meng carefully took out a packet out of her chest pocket.

“This is the medicine that My Lady asked me to made. Be careful, do not show it to other people” The packet was instantly transferred and Xiao Er hurriedly hide it in her clothes.

“I’m going out Sister Meng” Xiao Er bid her goodbye. Once Xiao Er is out of her sight, sister Meng unconsciously touched the scar on her face. It was a long straight knife wound covering from her right eye to her left check. Lately, the scar twitched so much it was bothering her.

                                                                                    *********

As soon as Xiao Er entered the room, she saw the emperor and her mistress were enjoying their meals in tranquil state. Her mistress would occasionally pick out some meat to be put on the emperor’s bowl in which he would response with a big grin on his face. Both of them made a perfect picture of  how a beautiful family should look like, except for, there is nothing beautiful about their relationship.

Xiao Er did not know much about her mistress’s past with the emperor. Just like any other people in the palace, Xiao Er knew that they meet at the mistress’ hometown where she save the injured emperor and hide him in her shed. They fell in love and the emperor decided to make her as one of his concubines and they supposed to live happily ever after. However, unbeknownst to other people, there is another key figure in their story that had been left out of the story that is the brother. Up to this day, the mistress still doesn’t know where her brother’s where about.

As soon as both of them finished their breakfast, Xiao Er expected the emperor to leave immediately to attend to his work matters. Hence, she was surprised to see the emperor was still relaxing on the chair acting as if he had no paper work piling on his table.

“Ah…Concubine Rong, do you still remember yesterday’s shenanigan about you insisting to climb the watchtower and almost create trouble for your servants?” the emperor asked nonchalantly. Xiao Er can’t help but realizing that the Emperor had no filter whenever he speaks to the mistress. This is one of his unique traits that he only shared with the mistress as he rarely speaks that much with other people.

“Yes, Your Highness. This lowly subject apologized for making such a ruckus yesterday.” Concubine Rong replied with a calm face. Just like the emperor, Xiao Er’s mistress might have probably been the only palace lady who did not fazed after being jabbed by the emperor. They even appear to be relishing in joy of this little passive aggressive banter with each other. The big smile on His Majesty’s face was the obvious prove this hypothesis.

Xiao Er felt a little relieved seeing this little exchange. There were only two interaction exist between both of them. It was either this harmless type of banter or the highly hostile fight that had always left the servant feeling terrified.

“Well, now that you cannot climb the watchtower nor can you go outside to enjoy the bustling scenery of our kingdom’s capital, I have decided to bring the capital into this place. Servant bring ‘them’ inside” He instructed.

“Bring the capital to me?”

“Well, now that you cannot climb the watchtower nor can you go outside to enjoy the bustling scenery of our kingdom’s capital, I have decided to bring the capital into this place. Servant bring ‘them’ inside” He instructed.

“Bring the capital to me?”

A throng of servants suddenly rushed into the already crammed room bringing huge paintings. Behind them, there are several other servants holding trays covered with plain white cloths.

“This is the set of paintings depicting how the capital always looks like” the emperor began to explain to Concubine Rong. The servant who was holding the first painting move one step further to the front. He was holding a beautiful painting depicting an animated tea house. The painting clearly captured the lively atmosphere of a huge performance stage located in the middle of three leveled tea house. The customers looked delighted while sipping their tea. The musicians were illustrated playing the instrument with smiles on their faces. The dancers who were dancing on the stage, appeared almost as if they were real instead of being a subject in a painting. It was beautiful and lifelike!

In spite of that, the thing that captured Xiao Er’s attention the most, was the depiction of a particular young man who was one of the customers of the tea house. He was painted differently than the other customers. His face had an exquisite quality that other people in the painting did not possess. He was also drawn with sharp precision. His position in the painting making him stood out as he was situated quite far from other customers . His attention was -strangely- not on the dancers, but to another woman who was standing on the second level’s balcony. Xiao Er had a hard time trying to figure out both of these attractive subjects that seemed to be familiar to her.

Xiao Er, began to scrutiny the man and the woman’s faces. Something about their faces screamed familiar to her. She blinked several time trying to go through her memory box in effort of identifying these two figures.

 ‘Is that the emperor?!’  her eyes widened as realization came upon her. The man looked almost identical to the emperor, except that he looked rather young than the emperor’s actual age.

‘Is this the how His Majesty looked like when he was younger?’ Xiao Er then shifted her attention to the girl on the balcony. To her surprise, Xiao Er realized that the girl resembled her mistress the most except that – just like the emperor- she looked way younger than her mistress’ current appearance.

‘Did His Majesty order the painter to put both of them in this painting? But wait. When did this painting was done? It cannot be yesterday! This painting is of high quality! There is no way it was painted in such short amount of time!’.  There were so many questions lingered on Xiao Er’s mind she almost forgot that she was attending to the two most important people in this mansion. Fortunately, the emperor’s deep baritone voice pulling her away from her preoccupation toward the painting.

“This is the most popular tea house in the capital, Gold Flower Tea House.” The emperor was looking at the mistress affectionately.

“The most popular?”

“Yes. They were very popular back then and still popular till this day. Their specialty is their unique way of boiling tea.” The emperor then, cued one of the servants who was holding a tea pot to move closer to the table.

“Like the name of the tea house – the gold flower- their most popular tea flavor is the chrysanthemum tea.” He retrieved the tea pot from the servant before signaling him to move back to his original position. The emperor then gently poured the tea for the mistress. This little showcase of affectionate successfully made the mistress blushing. Pheww…even Xiao Er and the other servants were hot in the face. His Majesty had never been this bold with the mistress.

“Chrysanthemum tea? From the flower?”

“Yes. From the flower, specifically the petals. It was good for health and often used as food supplement or tonic. Haven’t you heard about this?” one of the emperor’s eyebrow lifted while he was sipping the chrysanthemum tea.

Concubine Rong sighed. “This lowly concubine was only a poor villager back then. I don’t have the luxury to taste exquisite drink like this” she displayed a weak smile while looking at her tea cup. This statement however, seemed to partially affect the emperor’s mood. His big smile faded right after listening to her words.

“This tea is my favorite.” He said while putting down his tea cup on the table. “Someone I met a long time ago taught me how to drink this tea” His eyes boring into her. Xiao Er can feel her mistress’ nervousness as she averted her eyes from him and kept looking at her own tea cup.

‘Oh lord…are they going to fight again?’

Both of them remained in this awkward position a few moments before the emperor instructed the second painting to be brought in front of them. The second painting depicted the capital’s night scene. It was the time were firework is on display with a crowd watching them from the street. Again, Xiao Er managed to identify the younger emperor in the second painting. He was standing right beside the younger mistress. Xiao Er was bewildered by these paintings. Was this the emperor’s imagination? They only met each other three years ago.

“This is the night of Lunar celebration in the capital. There would be a lot of snack shops open along the street. The most sought-after snack would be the Tanghulu sold by Wu family.” A servant then appeared in front of the table with two Tanghulu in his hand.

“Come. Let’s try this.” The emperor took both Tanghulu from the servant and passed one of them to the mistress.

“Is it good?” he asked her full with anticipation. The mistress seemed to be enjoying the Tanghulu so much she only nodded while trying to get her second bite. Her action amused the emperor. He chuckled and reached for her face.

“there is coated sugar on your face Mo Chou” he wiped the sugar off her face. Xiao Er wanted to vomit seeing their public display of affection.

‘Who are these people? What have they done to the emperor and the mistress?’

“Have you ever tasted Tanghulu before?”

“Only once. There was time where brother Gao had successfully sold all the herbs at the town, he bought me a Tanghulu albeit it was not as good as this one.” The mere mentioned of the mistress’ brother’s name darkened the emperor’s complexion. He stopped chewing the candy and aggressively put the Tanghulu down on the table.

“I don’t like it when you keep on mentioning his name!” His sudden wrath came unexpectedly without warning. All the servant quickly prostrated on the ground. The emperor looked visibly angry right now! However this did not phased Concubine Rong at all. She continued to consume another bite of the Tanghulu before putting down the skewer on the table.  She even waited to swallow the last bite before proceed to kneel on the ground. Xiao Er scrambled to her feet in order to help her mistress to get into the position.

‘Why the mistress is so stubborn?’

“Your Highness, he is my brother. I am missing him a lot these days. Is it too much to ask for a quick meeting with him?” She pleaded.

“Ahh…now you even have the audacity to demand such as ridiculous request from me”

“This is not ridiculous Your Majesty. It is only my filial duty as a sister to seek comfort for my brother”

“Are you trying to abuse your position to get him out of prison now?”

“These lowly concubine do not  dare Your Majesty”

“Good then. Because I am trying to be rational today, I will forgive you for spouting such nonsense.But  I forbid you from mentioning his name. Ever again!”

“Thank you for your kindness your majesty” Concubine Rong then proceed to bow on the ground three times.

Everyone seemed to be at ease for a while. It seemed that both of them had patched things up. Maybe it was the time to proceed with the third painting?

“Er..ahaha…Your Majesty, are we going to show Concubine Rong the third painting?” The elder eunuch came to the rescue. He had been standing on the side line for quite a while.  It was time for him to step up and try to ease the tension a little bit. So does he thought.

“However……” Everyone’s head turned to Concubine Rong who was still kneeling on the ground

“ Your Majesty, putting an innocent man in the prison without a valid reason is not the behaviour for a rational person neither ” Xiao Er’s jaw almost dropped to the floor. She quickly pray for the ground to suddenly open up and swallowed her.

‘Mistress….we are all going to die if you keep on being stubborn’

“How dare you Concubine Rong” the Elder eunuch yelled from the side. This is too much. Concubine Rong had really crossed the boundary. The elder eunuch stole a glance at the emperor. He would not even dare to openly stare at him as he would worry about how the emperor going to response to this treacherous accusation.

To his surprise, the emperor’s face appeared to be expressionless. His face then broke into a sad smile that made him look almost serene.  If anything, the emperor looked hurt more than angry. The Elder Eunuch was befuddled.

“It’s that how you think of me Mo Chou?” He asked softly. This unexpected reaction gained a lot of stares from everyone in the room. But, of course nobody dared to questions why the emperor reacted this way toward the senseless accusation. Who would have dared questioning the emperor’s decision. What Concubine Rong had uttered could be classified as against the heaven’s mandate! How could someone get away with this? And more importantly, does the emperor loved Concubine Rong this much to even  ignore such as disrespectful remark?

Knowing that Concubine Rong would never answer his question, the emperor slowly rose from the chair. He then ordered the servants to keep mum about things that occurred in this room and make his way to the door. He instructed his servants to not follow him as he has other matter to attend in which he did not wish to bring all of them with him.

Except for the Elder Eunuch (who insist that he needs to follow him) all of the emperor’s servants who came to the mansion disperse to different direction leaving only Concubine Rong and Xiao Er who were still kneeling on the ground in the room.

“Mistress, let me help you to get up”  she grabbed her mistress’ arm.

“No. This is the most important time Xiao Er” Concubine Rong lifted her head . Her face looked almost undisturbed as if she had never disrespect the emperor a moment ago.

“Go. Find him now!” She rushed her maid to the front door.

Xiao Er began to prowled to the front gate of the mansion. She tried her best to appear as if she was just taking a stroll while in reality she was actually anxiously looking for someone.

Suddenly a man clad in eunuch’s robe turned up at the corner of the gate. Xiao Er gracefully curtsied a little as a sign to acknowledging the presence of the eunuch. In response, the eunuch bow his head a little bit toward her.

She then move closer toward the eunuch before sneaking in the packets that she had gotten from sister Meng into his palm. She then retreated her steps back to her initial position.

“Eunuch Wang, Concubine Rong wished for your mother’s speed recovery. She hope that this medicine would help her to regain her health like always”

“This lowly servant thanked the Concubine.” he replied. Xiao Er realized that the young eunuch was clutching the packet tightly in his palm.

“This is the third and the last batch of medicine that your mother need to consume. After this she would be bounced back to her usual self just like the olden days. Now, please excused me. I need to get back to the mistress.” she proceed to walk back into the mansion leaving the young eunuch still standing at the front gate.