In the morning, an amber scroll was sent to him along with a visit from the imperial doctor who pronounced him fit to travel. The doctor looked at the prince with a strange expression as he said this. The doctor immediately started to put his pins away and pack them into the case with his medical supplies. He shook his head with a strange look at his patient.
"You'd think after all this time you would at least take the liberty to disguise where you gotten the poison. It's such a shame that young men must play games of power when they should be playing with their own age. It would be simple for you to step down to where health could be your priority over this useless power struggle . . . and for what purpose?"
Ning Ren rolled up his sleeve. "It's not something that outsiders are bound to understand. These games mean little to those who are not involved in it. Even if I left and ran as far as I could . . . an ar
=//=Yan Sha sat on the bed with Langhua who was brushing her hair while Zaiyuan watched from the sill of the open window. It was a colder night where the cool breeze on the face was pleasant rather than a chill to bundle up in. Zaiyuan held a cup of tea in his hand that he poured langourously as he gazed at the moon. He seemed to savor the moment as if he was trying to hide his emotions from his very observant wife.Yan Sha knew his eyes would never give anything away. His body was rigid. But the reflection in the cup of tea was distorted as the man tried to pay his respects to the large luminescent moon. Zaiyuan was human too, but for his family his face was designed so that he could be a rock for his wife to lie on. His face was a rock, but his hands were the tides lapping against it, not truly deprived of his true thoughts.Langhua had calmed down some and regained some of her normal regnal demeanor. She was de
Yan Sha flipped open the cloth curtain on the carriage window as the horses slowed to a trot. The journey had been ruthless. Yan Sha had not been allowed outside the carriage other than to take care of her bodily functions quickly before being shoved back inside. It was three grueling days of an uneven ride through extremely boring mountainous areas. Food was mostly packets of extremely dry pork buns which had obviously been packed in advance such that no one would even notice her hands as she reached outside the carriage to touch the objects being handed to her.Bandits were a real fear to her here as it was an unfamiliar terrain traveling all the way from Jungpi to Wei. It was strange to her that they had no trouble at all. All she could hear was the steady trotting only of the horses that were attached to their carriage and not the accompanying hum of soldiers who were protecting them from vagabands who were roving about as from th
As they went inside the manor, Yan Sha could see it was much bigger on the inside than it seemed from the outside, a trick of the proportion and a steller architect who had spent time studying older designs. Such a trick was not something that was known to the architects of Wei, but in Caiwong and Jungpi, such a thing was commonplace. In her old life, when she had still been Bingquing, her father house was known to have many hidden places where she had liked to check out. In this manor too there were in fact wings and many rooms. This was a strange thing as it contradicted what the Master had said before. Did the fortunes of the Guo family really go through such an upturn if such a large space could be well swept and well lit?Yan Sha wonder what other tricks were hidden in the strange curves of the winding stone walls. Her thick outer cape felt too heavy now the heat from the indoors was starting to reach her. She loosened the
The door fell open and moonlight poored into the limited opening from a open window. The scenery outside of it was beautiful, but it was drafty so she closed the shutters. The door shut behind her and locked itself again. It was like being inside of a tomb as there was stone on every side of her. She could hear the echo of her own heart as it beat heavily inside of her.Yan Sha felt around again and found a soft bed that had been made up for her to sleep so she collapsed and fell into a deep dreamless sleep.As she closed her eyes she heard a faint clink, like something had opened. She knew she needed to be alert, but she was just too tired. The exhaustion more than she'd considered.=//="Your highness what is the meaning of this? I have spent over fifteen years doing every command at your whim. My whole life is devoted to you. Please you cannot do this to the empress. The harem will not stand i
Yan Sha realized as Yang Shu began to speak on the politics of the four kingdoms it served to shut her up so she couldn't ask questions that she would like addressed and provided a situation where she had to listen to him no matter what without interruption. Another girl joined them and began to do her hair in a severe complicated braid style so all of her hair was concentrated on the crown of her head. It hurt, but it did feel good to have her hair out of her awareness once it was done.The food was a spicy concoction that burned her mouth. "I would like food that is more bland next time. I'm not very used so all of these Wei spices. It's making my eyes burn. Pain is not particularly how I like to start my mornings."The serving girl started to smirk and Yan Sha quickly dismissed her as one of her servants.The maid burst into tears and started to beg on her knees. Her words were imporing that it was just an innocent prank to welco
A chill ran through her as she was frozen in place in fear by what was going on around her. All around the atrium there were black clothed assassins with their swords sliding against the rock as they tried to muffle their steps. This was something she had learned to discern from her nightmares as they replayed in her head. Zaiyuan had taught her to discern the sound as a way for her to have less frightening dreams. In truth, it was more for his wife to stop being so irate with him then it was for her benefit, but the sound had remained in her head as she was blindfolded, she could recognize it even now as something which was significantly dangerous.It was impossible that something like this could be happening to her again when she had sacrificed so much to change her circumstances in a way she had hoped would favor her enough that she would be held hostage instead of cruelly murdered as if her life had no meaning--was being the second princess of Jung
Ning Zhuo was exhausted from a whole day of of rough hiking through dense woods. He had not arrived first as this was an endurance over an agility test to see who could handle the long marches associated with being a foot soldier being trafficked to whatever stop they were needed to be fodder for lords who refused to build a half decent wall. The ride to his reporting post would probably be his last taste of a horse in a while as those were luxuries afforded only to a prince. In this test, everyone had to carry their belongings over a twenty mile stretch as they walked from the city towards the remote barracks which were located to an enormous border wall which had b
In two lines opposing stood soldiers with spears, Ning Zhuo grasped his and quickly disarmed his opponent with ease. Sitting on a dais above them was an empty chair and a subordinate who stood next to the chair with a bemused expression as he directed the traffic of losers and winners. The bouts were decided by the subordinate on a chalkboard behind him as the main chair sat vacant.After his quicker bouts, Ning Zhuo would sit at the foot of the dais and watch the other soldiers who took much longer than he did to battle it out. Mostly the deciding factor was who was used to using sword staffs. In most cases, it was the more wealthy or larger opponents. Ning Zhuo was lucky in the couple tries that he had so far that he had idiots.As he rose again as someone called him for a new bout, the subordinate took the weapon out of his hand. "No.""For what reason?" Ning Zhuo asked with irritation. "I won the la