Zhao Ming always thought that it was all Wen Xu and Xiao Li"s fault for making her life a living h.e.l.l.
But since she came into this world, she realized that it was her fault as well. She was the Empress but she still let Xiao Li and Wen Xu trample over her self respect.
She could have retaliated and if she had dealt with the situation differently, then maybe the result would have been different.
Sometimes, many things one can realize only with time. There is no way she can go back into her world because she has no idea what made her come into this world.
She only knows that she fell into the pond and couldn"t move her body because her body became paralyzed under the water and couldn"t move herself to save herself to drown.
She knew swimming but still, she died by drowning in the water. That"s why she doubted if she was poisoned which made her body become paralyzed and she couldn"t retaliate and struggle to come up.
For some reason, she can"t help but think about her past life and the mistakes she has done or things she could have done which makes her feel regretful.
Since she was married into the Ji family, she was very submissive and never shows her opinion or her position as the Empress.
She was very weak as the Empress. But behind her weakness, it was the social barrier that was stopping her to speak for herself making her feel inferior.
She was the daughter of the military doctor who was also a soldier. Her father got acquainted with the old Emperor and enthroned her with Ji Cheng.
She can"t refute the fact that she came from a low background which makes her afraid and submissive against the palace rules and etiquette.
However, she tried to bear all the difficult situations because she loved Ji Cheng and wanted to gain his attention and as his wife, she wanted to be his loving and caring wife.
Because that"s what women in her times were taught to be. The life of the woman goes only with one goal that is to keep your husband happy and satisfied. The woman has to fulfill all the roles of being filial wife, daughter in law, mother and sister but the thing that they forget is to keep their own ident.i.ty.
Under all the pressure and responsibilities while fulfilling these relationsh.i.p.s, they tend to forget their own ident.i.ty, their own life.
The thing that she loved about this world was that women in this world like to be independent and work for themselves. Being financially independent makes you realize your value.
There was a time when she loved Ji Cheng with all might and always wanted to be his loving and dutiful wife.
At that time, she went through all the humiliation just because she always thinks that she does not deserve to be by his side and does not belong to this palace. That"s why she bore all the humiliation without saying anything and went through all the hardsh.i.p.s alone.
However, the feelings she felt now was different from the feelings that she used to feel before. Now she feels regret and bad for her past life for sacrificing everything for those people who never considered her as human.
The love she used to feel towards Ji Cheng has subsided and she could feel her heart moving towards Liwei.
She was surprised by the change of her heart as well. She sometimes doubted her feelings for Ji Cheng, were they sincere or not?
Because she could not believe that people"s hearts could change so easily. But it did, at least in her case.
She was now falling for Liwei more and more. And how could she not? Liwei always gives her priority and the misunderstandings between them have resolved as well.
Now she can"t even think about going back to her world. She does not want to leave this world and wants to stay by Liwei"s side for her whole life.
She doesn"t know if it is being selfish or what but she wants to spend her remaining life by his side.
She flipped the pages of the magazine in a daze when these thoughts were going in her mind.
She doesn"t know why but she can"t help but compare her two lives. Maybe it"s because she was too idle to think about all these things but she was glad that she came into this world.
While she was in her world, a shadow came from back slowly and steadily. She was lost in her thoughts when a tall manly shadow covered her from above.
She was startled when she saw a man"s shadow from above. She turned to look up and almost yell in startle when Liwei scared her by yelling, " Boosh ."
She was scared to her wits as she put her hand on her chest and glared at him in disbelief.
" What.. What are you doing? You scared me," she shouted at him as she glared at him in fear.
He almost got her a heart attack. She was still recovering from her trauma from the previous incident and here he was playing pranks on her.
Moreover, she wasn"t even paying attention to him when he suddenly came up to her to scare her. That makes her more startled and scared.
Liwei burst out in laughter seeing her scared expression.
He was not planning to scare her at first. Today he had the lunch meeting and he came back home from the venue of the meeting.
He was missing her and was also worried that she might be bored at home alone and she could not go anywhere either.
These days he doesn"t do overtime like before and most of the time come home earlier than before.
When he entered the villa, he asked Yu mei who was asking the kitchen staff to prepare for dinner.
It was around 4 pm when he came back and spotted Yu Mei in the living room instructing one of the kitchen staff.
He asked her about Xie Ming and she told him that she is in her room and was drinking tea.
But when he knocked on the door, n.o.body responded. So he slightly opened the door and saw her from the back.
He could see that she was drinking tea and reading a magazine. But she seemed to be lost in her thoughts when he called her out in a low voice.
Then he decided to play a prank on her. He wanted to see her red face from the scare.
And that"s what happened. When he shouted at her, her face turned crimson red from scare.
Her mouth was open with her widened eyes. Her expressions were memorable and funny. He forgot to take her picture otherwise, he would have printed that picture and would have kept in his wallet.
This way he would always remember that there is a crazy girl who is waiting for him at home.
Xie Ming was startled the way he scared her. She took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself.
Liwei saw her reddened face and felt slightly guilty. He never thought that she will get this much scared that she will almost jump out of her seat.
He reached out his hands and pulled her into his embrace. He wrapped his hands around her waist in a protective manner and took her into his embrace.
" I am sorry. I won"t do this again. I promise." he coaxed her like a child while patting her back to calm her down.
She also felt like a spoiled child when he pulled her into his embrace and coaxed her to relax. Unconsciously her lips curled upwards as dimples appeared on her plump cheeks.
Her face was slightly red from embarra.s.sment because he laughed when she got scared. Now she was feeling embarra.s.sed when he hugged her like this.
She also hit her shoulder lightly with her fist as she snuggled her head deeper into his embrace and complained, " You scared me. I almost had a heart attack right now. Don"t even do this again."
Liwei saw his girl behaving like a small little girl who needs his protection and care. He could see that she has opened more than before.
Now she was showing her anger and feelings and also not denying his initiative to hug her.
Their relations.h.i.+p has developed and became more mature in this short period. The difficult time makes one more expressive and understandable.
This one week made Xie Ming realize her priorities and how much she loves him. She saw that he did not sleep many times because he kept checking her temperature as many times she got a fever due to her infection or medications.
Though the doctor has told him that it happens sometimes and the fever is not severe. It will come and go when the infection takes time to go. She was on medications and some medications cause fever as side effects.
But Liwei never slept peacefully at night and kept checking her temperature which touched her heart and makes her realize his sincerity.
Now she was truly ready to move on from her past life completely. Because she has acknowledged it as past as she cannot forget it.
Her past is in the past but now she needs to look forward to their future.