Chapter 21: Remembering Her Past : 2
"Gao Wang!" the sound of Princes Liu Shi shouted for her loyal bodyguard almost shook their courtyard.
" Your Highness" the calm bodyguard proceed to greet and pay obeisance to the princess despite her apparent livid appearances.
"What is this?" she threw a piece of letter that she hold in her palm straight to his face.
It was a shocking scenery for Meng who was standing by her side. The princess had never raised her voice toward him, what more throwing stuff at his face. This was the first time!
Gao Wang - however- calmly squatted and picked the letter from the ground. The letter that he painstakingly crafted to be sent to Finance minister's daughter.
"Did you know the repercussion of imitating my handwriting and send out a letter by using my seal without my permission?" she yelled.
"This is for our plan?" he said quietly.
"Which plan? Didn't we agree that we are going to abandon him for young master Yun?"
"No we can't. The perfect candidate for this plan is the Duke of Shen's son. The Yun family is too powerful for us to manipulate. Moreover, he likes you. It would work for our favour even more"
"I refused too!"
"Why?"
"Because I said so!"
"Your Highness, did you forget your promised to avenge the late mistress? We had been doing this for almost a decade. Are you going to abandon the plan just because you don't want to hurt the man that you secretly harboring feelings for?"
The accusation brought the princess to a state of astonishment.
"You….ahhh"
"Even a blind man could see that both of you had falling for one another" he said sarcastically.
Princess Liu Shi was so angry she was shaking in her place. Her face turned red and she tried to refute Gao Wang's accusation but …was he wrong?
"Your Highness. I tried to sent this letter for your own good. If you want to put a halt onto this plan, I won't send this letter. Now, tell me. Are we going to continue with the initial plan or not?"
"Do not …..guilt trap me…"
"I did not. Meng and I would always be loyal to Your Highness. We will accept whatever your decision is" he proceed to kneel on the ground.
"I…" her voice seemed to be stuck inside of her throat.
"Send the letter" she said quietly. They have came to this point. Only a coward would pulled out at the very last minute.
* *********
"Did he came?" she asked Meng who had just arrived from the royal court.
"Yes Your Highness! Seems like our plan going on the right direction!" her servant seemed to be excited.
"Ahhh…" was the only replied she could give to her.
"What's wrong Your Highness? Aren't you happy that the Young Master Shen came for you" the servant asked curiously.
"Happy? Of course I am. I am on my way to reach my goal��
"No, I mean aren't you happy that he was coming to get you. He even defending you in front of the emperor"
"Defending? What did the emperor said about me?"
"Hmmm…he did not say anything bad. It was just that he reprimanded Young Master Shen about the repercussion of marrying a royal"
Princess Liu Shi clutched her fist tightly. It seemed like her father is already casting suspicious toward her. She should lay low for the time being right now.
"Princess?"
"Princess?!"
"Err yes?"
"Aren't you happy Your Highness? He was standing right for you and he said he loves you"
Her last words made the princess face turned red.
"What are you blabbering about! There's nothing to be proud of here! Go back to your work" she instructed.
She subconsciously put her hand on her chest. Once again, the strange tingling warmth spread even wider inside of her chest.
******
The thunder was grand and loud. The atmosphere inside of the room was a gloomy as whether.
On the bed, the dying emperor was lying on his bed while surrounded by his family members. After each of them took their turned to visit him for the last time, there were only Princess Liu Shi and Xiao Song left by his side.
Suddenly, the emperor coughed violently. Princess Liu Shi instructed her husband to go called for the doctor. As he left both of them alone in the room, the princess lowered her body so that her mouth were leveled to his ear.
" I have been waiting for this moment for years already. I want you to feel the pain that my mother felt when she died alone in her room! I did everything. All of this calamities befallen on the royal families, I did them.
She glared at the emperor's face. This was the moment she has been waiting her entire life. To see the horror etched on every inch of the emperor's face when he realized that she was the one who had been planning the ordeal that he had gone through during the last years of his life.
To her surprised, the emperor's face had not changed a bit. His face looked rather amused by the revelation instead of surprise. He tried with all his might to stretch his lips to form a smile that resembled a smug more than anything.
"Why are you smiling?"
"Ughh..ugh…" only guttural sounds that was produced by the emperor.
"Why are you smiling? You shouldn't be smiling right now? I did everything! I killed everyone that you hold dear to yourselves! You shouldn't be smiling!" she almost yelling at him when Meng came and reminded her that there were servants stationed outside of the room.
"Your Highness, lower the volume of your voice"
Ignoring her servant, she did not take her eyes off from the emperor who was having a fit of violence cough.
"Why?! Why are you not mad at me?!!"
Fortunately the sound of the emperor's cough was louder than her shouts. no one realized that the princess who was kneeling beside the emperor's bed was taunting him during his last breath.
"Your Highness, the doctor has arrived" Meng hurriedly pulled the princess away from the bed. She lowered her head the entire time the doctor was checking the emperor. Everyone though she was trying to cover her sadness. In reality, she was seething in anger as the reaction that the emperor shown was not up to her expectation.
The next day, the emperor passed away after reigning the empire for thirty five years.
* *******
"Ahhh….. Your highness, this lowly servant apologized for not being able to allow you to into the room. Her Majesty was resting and refused to see anyone"
"But I am her husband. I am not 'anyone' " Xiao Song half pleading. His wife had been working too hard that he worried it would take its tool on her body.
Meng's face turned helpless. She did not want to go against the empress' decree but she also pity the prince consort.
Seeing that he was putting the maid at tight spot, Xiao Song decided to relented and subsequently left the place.
Meng was relief that she did not have to face the situation any longer. The maid then entered the Empress' room and saw empty liquor jars scattered on the floor.
She let out a heavy sigh and began to picked up each of them. The room reeked of alcohol and she couldn't stand it. Meng decided to lit the incense in order to drive away any unwanted smell that had been lingering in the room.
"Your Majesty….." she greeted the Empress who was sprawling on her bed while hugging an empty jar liquor.
"Hmmm….."
"Your Majesty, you can't be doing this anymore. This is not good for your health."
Ever since the emperor passed away two years ago, the empress had always in mood swings. She depended on booze all the time to drown her dissatisfaction and the closure that did not get.
"Tell me Meng. I had spent my entire life avenging my late mother. I gambled my life in order to perfect this revenge. But why? Why I didn't fell good even when the justice was delivered when he was on his death bed? Why!?" the Empress screamed and began to throw the liquor jar onto the wall.
Meng did not even flinched when the jar hit the wall and shattered to pieces as she had already anticipated this scene.
The Empress had been acting the same and asking the exact questions whenever she was drunk. The truth it, she was not content with the way the late emperor reacted when she revealed the truth while he was on his death bed.
She expected to see horror and the pain of being betrayed on his eyes. However, she was left with dissatisfaction as the late emperor shown no signs of shock as she revealed her secret.
This has lead her to went ballistic and punishing the remaining affluent families that were related to any of the royal family members who had directly contribute to the pain that she suffered when a was just a child.
"Why this thirst could not be quench..." her speech became slurry. "I'm tired of this….."
She lifted her head and starred at the helpless maid. She reached out her right hand toward her and said "Take….. this pain away from me…"
Meng could not help but to shed her tears as she had never seen her mistress looking so vulnerable like a small child.
"Your Majesty, don't be like this" she pleaded. The room went quite afterward as the empress was too drunk to stay awake.
Meng decide to share the story with Gao Wang. To her annoyance, the stoic guard remained silent the entire time and only asked her to not tell anyone about this matter. The next day, the bodyguard went for a short trip to the north. No one knew what driven him to the region including the empress and Meng.
* *******
"Your Majesty! We could not detect the Prince Consort's movement. I'm afraid he had already arrived at the Finance minister's house" Gao Wang hastily delivered the message to the empress.
"What should we do Your Majesty?" Meng asked worriedly. Their informant delivered the news about the finance minister gathering a huge support group for an unprecedented uprising.
"Your Majesty, gave me the order. I will carry my duty till I drew my last breath" said the loyal bodyguard.
Meng's gasp after hearing his words says it all. Gao Wang was basically telling her to approve him to lead a group of soldiers to massacre the entire people in Finance minister's mansion.
The empress stayed quite for a long time.
"No need for that. Stationed the soldiers at every corner of the capital. Meng, bring the drugs to me tonight."
Meng's limbs went limp and she fell on the ground when she heard the instruction.
"Your Majesty, please reconsider this!" Gao Wang pleaded.
"No. This is my decision. I'm going to end everything by tonight" she said adamantly. "I don't care if both of you wanted to bail out from this plan, but I will carry it out this night. You are free to go"
"No!" Gao Wang shouted at the empress. "I will follow Your Majesty even to the hell" he bowed to the ground three times. Meng who was sitting on the floor immediately follow through.
"Alright then. I am so lucky to have loyal servants . For that I am grateful with this life that had been bestowed to me. Meng, go and fetch the drugs" she instructed.
"Let me do it" Gao Wang intervene.
Two pair of eyes were looking at him with suspicion. He immediately making up excuse of wanting to do the last bid himself for the empress. Gao Wang returned with three small cups that contained the fatal drugs that they had been keeping, all this while.
As soon as she swallowed the drugs, the empress immediately dropped to the floor leaving both of her servant still wide awake.
"What is this? Why nothing happen to us?" Meng turned her head toward Gao Wang.
"Listen here Meng, can you please cooperate with me?"
"Cooperate?"
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