Eastern Palace

I wanted to pick up the knife, he brushed away the knife causing the knife to be rolled away. I was so angry that I wanted to slap him, but he reached out and grabbed my wrist, the rims of my eyes were heating up and said: "If you don"t want to save her, then hurry up and go away, I don"t want to see you ever again!" Gu Jian looked at me and sighed, said: "Don"t worry, I will go and save her."I used an excuse to send people out of A"Du"s room, then I waved in the window to tell Gu Jian to come inside. Gu Jian jumped inside from the window without a sound, carefully examining A"Du"s condition. He said to me: "The person that caused the injury was very harsh, almost destroying her acupuncture points." My heart was trembling, he said:" But I have a way to save her." He looked at me once, "But if I save her, then how would you repay me?" I hurriedly said: "You are saying this at this very moment. If you save A"Du, then I will give you as much money as you want." He said: "I want money to do what? You are belittling me." I asked: "What do you want?" He laughed: "If.......If you kiss me." I was so angry that I wanted to faint, why do men like to nibble mouths?

        Li Cheng Yin was like that, even a high martial artist Gu Jian was like that too.

        I bit my teeth, stepped forward to block his shoulders, tiptoed and furiously nibbled his mouth.

        I didn"t expect that he would push me away, suddenly asking me: "Who taught you this?" I was confused: "What?" "Before you would only kiss my cheeks, who taught you?" His complexion changed, "Li Cheng Yin?" I was scared that he would not save A"Du, so I did not argue with him.

　    His complexion became even worse: "You let Li Cheng Yin kiss you?" Li Cheng Yin is my husband, I can"t let him kiss me? I was actually afraid of Gu Jian, scared that he would become angry and go kill Li Cheng Yin. His whole body was tense, so he could become crazy anytime, also his gaze was very hard to look at, furiously glaring at me.

　　I couldn"t hold it any longer, loudly said: "You said it yourself, that time I waited for you three days three nights, it was you who did not come. Don"t say that I didn"t remember anything, even if I did remember anything, we probably wouldn"t be together anyways, I already am married to another person. You can agree to save A"Du, but if you don"t agree, then I would not force you to save her. However, if you want me to betray my husband, then I will never be able to do that. We Western Liang women, although we are not like Central Plain women who would die for their husbands, but I am now married to Li Cheng Yin, he is my husband. No matter what happened to us before, we have no feelings for each other." Gu Jian hearing this phrase, moved one step backwards, I could feel that his eyes were fuming with fire, an indescribable......... sadness? However, I was already ready to be harsh to him. I was saying all this to let Gu Jian know that Li Cheng Yin treats me well, even if he doesn"t treat me well, for the sake of Western Liang I will marry him, he even pushed me away in a dangerous situation, I shouldn"t betray him.

　    I said: "You can go, I would not beg you to save A"Du again." He laughed: "Xiao Feng.......This is how you repay me." He reached out his hands to support A"Du, and placed his palms on her sleeveless garment, helping her heal her injury.

       Gu Jian was still healing A"Du even when the sky turned dark. I was sitting by the door, scared that someone will come in and interrupt them. However, I haven"t slept for days, I was leaning on the side, almost falling asleep. Gu Jian walked out,  I asked him: "How was it?" He faintly said: "She didn"t die." I went inside seeing A"Du there, her complexion was way better than before, I let out a sigh of relief.

        I thanked Gu Jian three times, he didn"t say anything, only taking out a package of herbal medicine and giving it to me: "You said Li Cheng Yin is suffering from a serious injury, this medicine can help treat his injury, take it and give it to him." I don"t understand why he was suddenly so kind, perhaps I had a suspicious look on my face, he suddenly laughed coldly: "What, are you scared that I would poison him?" I was busy putting away the medicine: "If he recovers, I will thank you again." Gu Jian coldly laughed once, said: "No need to thank me, I am not that kind. I will wait until he recovers, then I will use my sword to kill him, I have never killed someone that cannot resist my powers, once he recovers, then it would be the moment he gives up his life to me." I gave him this look: "I know you wouldn"t do that, once he recovers, I will invite you to drink some wine." Gu Jian did not argue with me anymore, turned around and left.

        Even though I said that, I still gave the medicine to the imperial physicians to examine the medicine, they took out the medicine and smelled it, looked at it, but they don"t recognize this medicine, and they don"t dare to give it to Li Cheng Yin. I hesitated for half a day, allowing some people to apply the medicine on their arms. Asides from a cold feeling when applying the medicine, there were no side effects. The second day I tried the medicine on my skin, I couldn"t see any problems with it. I felt relieved a bit, this Gu Jian is someone with exceptional martial arts skills, so he must have some type of powerful medicine, this medicine might be some good stuff. The third day I quietly went in and applied the medicine to Li Cheng Yin"s wound.

        I don"t know if it was Gu Jian"s medicine or the imperial physicians" medicine that was effective, but on the fourth day at dusk, Li Cheng Yin"s fever was gone.

         His fever was gone, so everyone let out a sigh of relief. I was advised by others to return and sleep, I slept but not too long after I was awakened by Yong Niang, said: "Crown Prince"s condition had worsen." I hurried to Li Cheng Yin"s place, when I arrived there were a lot of people, the imperial physicians saw that I was coming, cleared the pathway. I went to the bedside, I could only see that his complexion was pale, breathing very rapidly, the wound was leaking out yellow water, he was still unconscious.

        The imperial physician said: "The Crown Prince"s lungs has been damaged, the wind going into the veins was extremely dangerous." I don"t know if it was the medicine that I applied to the wound that was the problem, but everyone was panic-stricken, the Emperor had sent some people here, but the imperial physicians were unable to do anything as they couldn"t think of any possible method. My heart had calmed down, sitting in front of the bed, holding onto Li Cheng Yin"s hand, his hand was very cold, I placed his hands in my hands and used my warmth to warm his hands.

        The imperial physicians were still discussing, I could care less about them. As the night pa.s.sed by, there were lesser people in the palace hall, Yong Niang gave me an outer clothing. I was by Li Cheng Yin"s bedside, without blinking my eyes watching him.

        He is very handsome, the first time I saw Li Cheng Yin, I thought he was very handsome. His eyebrows are dark and concentrated, straight nose, snowy white complexion like white jade. However, his fair complexion was not like a woman, his fair complexion was like a refined person, not like Western Liang men who are rough, he was like the Central Plain water, Central Plain mountain, Central Plain capital city, like warm and gentle air.

        I remembered something, facing towards Yong Niang said: "Tell someone to release Zhao Liang Di, and let her come and visit the Crown Prince." Although Zhao Liang Di was demoted to a status of a commoner, but I got used to calling her Zhao Liang Di. Yong Niang wrinkled her eyebrows, said: Right now there is a big situation happening in the palace, Zhao Shu Ren"s [1] situation involves the Empress......I think if we don"t have the Emperor"s decree, the Crown Princess should not....." I got angry, faced towards her: "Right now Li Cheng Yin is injured, he favors Zhao Liang Di the most, why can"t we let Zhao Liang Di visit him? Also, isn"t Zhao Liang Di innocent? Since Zhao Liang Di is innocent, why can"t we let her visit Li Cheng Yin?" I gave her a serious look, she immediately told someone to bring Zhao Liang Di.

        I haven"t seen her for a long period of time, Zhao Liang Di got skinner. She was originally a well-rounded beauty, but now that she got skinner, and also her status now is a commoner, she could only wear ordinary hairpins and clothes, she seemed very pitiful. She bowed to me, I faced towards her and said: "The Crown Prince"s wound is very serious, so I brought you here to visit him." Zhao Liang Di suddenly lifted up her head and looked at me, the inner corners of her eyes already had tears. Her crying like this made my throat ache, said: "You go in and look after him, but do not cry." Zhao Liang Di wiped her tears and lowered her voice: "Yes." She went inside and kneeled in front of Li Cheng Yin"s bed, even arriving there she was still crying, crying to the point my heart felt bothered. I went out the door, and sat outside by the doorsteps, lifted up my head and looked at the sky.

        The sky was dark like black silk, covered by stars.

        I felt I was a pitiful person, like an unnecessary person.

        At this moment, a person came over and bowed to me: "Crown Princess." His body armor was creating a sharp and clear sound, very pleasant to hear. At this moment, I actually didn"t wanted to see anyone, but Pei Zhao had saved me quite a few times, so I shouldn"t ignore him. I gave a faint smile: "Pei General." "The wind at night is very cold, Crown Princess sitting by the door."

        It was actually quite cold, I used my outer clothing to wrap myself, asked Pei Zhao: "Do you have a wife?"

        Pei Zhao was startled: "I am not married yet."

        "You Central Plain people pay particular attention to parent"s commands, believing in matchmaking. We Western Liang people, if we find someone we love, all we have to do is. .h.i.t a pair of wild goose, wrap it with cloth and bring it to the lady"s family, this would be considered proposing a marriage, as long as the lady agrees, the parents cannot stop the marriage. Pei General, if you marry someone in the future, you have to marry someone you like. If not, you will hurt your own heart, and hurt the other person"s heart." Pei Zhao did not say anything.

        I lifted up my head to look at the stars in the sky, cannot help but sighed: "I miss the Western Liang." Actually I know myself that I don"t actually miss Western Liang, it was just that I felt very terrible right now. If I felt sad, I would always think about Western Liang.

        Pei Zhao"s tone of voice was very gentle and warm: "Here is very windy, Crown Princess should go back inside." I felt dispirited: "I am not going inside, Zhao Liang Di is inside, if Li Cheng Yin regains consciousness, he would not want to see me interrupt them. Right now he is still unconscious, let Zhao Liang Di stay by his side and take care of him. If he knows, his wound would get better quickly." Pei Zhao did not say anything, he turned his body and moved two steps backwards, standing beside me. I don"t feel like talking to him, putting my hands underneath my chin, If Li Cheng Yin recovers, knowing that Zhao Liang Di is innocent, he would be very happy. At that moment, then Zhao Liang Di can restore her original status, and at that moment I will once again be the person that people dislike.

        At least the person that Li Cheng Yin dislikes.

        My heart was confused, drawing on the ground with my foot nonstop. I don"t know how much time had pa.s.sed, Yong Niang came out, quietly said to me: "Letting Zhao Shu Ren [1] stay there for too long is not good, I already sent people to bring her back." I let out a sigh.

        Yong Niang must have know what my heart was thinking, quietly whispered in my ear: "Crown Princess don"t worry, I was inside the whole time, Zhao Shu Ren did not say anything, only crying." I"m not even worried what she had said to Li Cheng Yin, because even if she didn"t say anything to Li Cheng Yin, Li Cheng Yin would still like her.

        Pei Zhao had bowed to me: "Now is a very crucial moment, Crown Princess please take care of yourself." I stood up and said: "I am going inside." Pei Zhao bowed to me, I turned around and walked through the palace hall door, the wind blowing through, I could feel the coldness, but before I couldn"t feel it. I suddenly remembered something, it was because Pei Zhao was standing beside me, blocking the wind for me.

        I couldn"t help but turned around to look, Pei Zhao was already at the bottom of the stairs. He probably didn"t think that I would look back, so when he was looking at me, I turned around and we were both staring at each other, his expression was like he was uncomfortable as if he thought he did something wrong, but he quickly moved away from my gaze.

        I could care less about Pei Zhao"s weirdness, I stepped in the palace hall, saw everyone"s worried faces, I also had a worried face.

        Li Cheng Yin was still unconscious, the imperial physicians"s tone of voice was very soft, but I could understand what they were saying. If he stays unconscious then the situation would not be good.

        I don"t know what to do. Li Cheng Yin"s hands were pale as if there was no signs of color. I touched his hands, they were still cold.

         I was too tired, I haven"t slept for the past few days, I was sitting there saying things endlessly to Li Cheng Yin, I have never spoken to Li Cheng Yin in this manner before, we would just argue with each other.  The first time I met him, what day was it? It was the night of our marriage ceremony, it took the whole night for my veil to be lifted, which made me so bored. The moment my veil was lifted by him, all four sides were very bright, the candle lights were very bright, reflecting on his face, his person. He was wearing a black gown with delicate flower patterns.  A few months before that, Yong Niang urged me to memorize this book with ceremony rituals and standards, nine pages describing the black gown with crimson colour. Five pages on clothes, dragon, mountain, insects, fire, wine vessel; four pages on garments, algae, rice powder, and embroidery. 

        Central Plain"s Crown Prince, wearing such elegant and well-known clothes. I remembered when I was reciting the book, it took me a while until I could memorize the whole book, because a lot of the words I could not recognize.

        At that moment I did like him, but he didn"t like me because once he lifted my veil, he turned around and left, we didn"t even drink the cup of wine together.

        Actually when he left, I let out a sigh of relief because I don"t know if I could even sleep with a stranger. 

        Yong Niang was with me the whole night that night, she was scared that I would get angry and miss my family. She kept on explaining to me that the Crown Prince had catched a cold and that he was scared that he might spread the cold to me.

        His cold was three years.

        At the Eastern Palace, I felt so lonely.

        I came here alone from a far away place, although I have A"Du with me but she could not speak. If Li Cheng Yin didn"t argue with me, I would"ve felt even more lonely.

        Right now he was about to die, I was thinking about everything good about him. I was digging through thoughts, I was saying things about the past to him, I am afraid if I don"t say it to him now, if he dies I will not be able to say it to him again. The good things I thought I would"ve forgotten, but I did not. I even told him about the times we argued with each other, telling him every single word for him to listen. Telling him that at that time I was very angry, angry to death. I was pretending that I didn"t care because in order to win an argument, you just have to pretend that you didn"t care, then I would be able to choke Li Cheng Yin to the point he has nothing to say.

        Also the mandarin duck incident, a lot of people were laughing about me, the Empress was teaching me a lesson.

        I kept on saying things to him, but I don"t know why, maybe I was afraid, maybe I was afraid that Li Cheng Yin might really die. The night was very quiet, the candle lights were reflecting on the curtain, the inner palace hall was deep and wide, it was dark, quiet, only me muttering to myself.

         Actually I was very scared that I would become a widow. At Western Liang, if the husband was dead, then the woman would have to marry the husband"s little brother, like Princess Peng Yu from the Central Plains, originally she was supposed to be married to my Father"s brother, but she ended up being married to my Father. Although Central Plains do not have these types of rules, but thinking that Li Cheng Yin might die soon, I couldn"t help but tremble. If he dies, I would feel even worse than now. I was forcing myself not to think about it anymore, only forcing myself to say nonsense.

        Actually I didn"t hate Li Cheng Yin as much as I thought, although he makes me angry sometimes, but for the past three years our interactions with each other was little to the point it could be counted with my fingers. Asides from the times when he would come and find me to cause trouble because of Zhao Liang Di, we actually don"t argue that much. At times when we don"t argue, I am not used to it.........Also copying books, although I hate copying books the most, however because I have been punished to copy books way too much, right now my writing skills has improved a lot. I have copied a book so much that I could even recite the whole book. Also there was something that I didn"t tell anyone, there were a lot of words that I don"t recognize in the book, sometimes I don"t know how to read a certain word, but I would copy the word exactly the same, no one would even know that I didn"t recognize that word.

        Also, Li Cheng Yin"s Yin (鄞), the word was really strange, the first time when I saw this word, I thought it was this word (勤).......... I didn"t know what this word meant. I heard that people from the Central Plains pay particular attention when creating names, why would they give this name to him?

        Yin Zhou (鄞州) [2]......

        I have been talking to myself for half of the night, when someone tried to talk to me, I was unable to stop, randomly asking them: "Huh? What is Yin Zhou?"

        "The late Emperor was from Yin Zhou.....Zhong Zhou (中州) from the east.......Liang Zhou (梁州) from the south......Long Zhou (龙兴) from the ground........so.......I am called Cheng Yin (承鄞)......" I opened my mouth very wide, staring at the man lying on the bed that was on the verge of dying, his voice was very soft, but you could still hear it clearly, he seemed to have regained consciousness. Although his eyes was only half opened, but he was staring at me.

        I was staring there blankly, but at last I jumped and yelled: "Ah!" My voice must be very scary because everyone rushed in, the imperial physicians thought Li Cheng Yin"s condition had worsen, so they rushed in: "What happened to the Crown Prince? What happened to the Crown Prince?" I used my finger and pointed at Li Cheng Yin, even I couldn"t say things clearly, stuttered: "He.......He......." Li Cheng Yin was lying there, staring at me with an expressionless face, the imperial physicians were crying tears of joy: "The Crown Prince is awake! The Crown Prince is awake! Hurry and send someone to report this to the Emperor! The Crown Prince has regained consciousness....." The Eastern palace was jumping up and down, everyone was in a happy state. The imperial physicians have stated that if Li Cheng Yin regained consciousness, his wound would be able to recover. The imperial physicians were all celebrating, everyone was smiling, the people in the palace were celebrating as if it was New Years, spreading the news everywhere. The imperial physicians were examining his acupuncture points and writing prescriptions, running here and running there, like a bee buzzing around. It was the middle of the night and the noisiness made me want to sleep.

Notes:
[1] 庶人 Shu ren- commoner
[2] 鄞州 Yin Zhou- The district of Ningbo in Zhejiang province of China

                                                                                                           Chapter 14>