Huojin sent for the best people in their army to search for his brother but to no avail. In fact Huojin wanted to search for his brother himself but the Emperor forbade him from leaving the capital city and he was displeased with the Emperor for that. And another devastating news came to them that MingXue miscarried and has less chance of getting pregnant again.Huojin who had a lot to worry about, showed his worry by shouting at Xing which she didn"t mind.
"You sent my brother to his death!", he blamed her, "Now Shengli has gotten my brother because he wants to get you since you left him for his brother"
The Emperor sent him away and asked him to be with his family for few days to console them but it was plainly a house arrest and Huojin understood it as such too. He agreed to it as he felt the need to calm down and come up with a viable plan.
Xing clenched her hands as she blamed herself too. Not for that reason Huojin mentioned but because she stupidly lost her chance to have ended it all because she was selfish. She was worried about herself and forgot about everyone else important to her that day. She returned to her courtyard and stayed there for some days.
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Xing sprawled on the big comfortable bed that was carved explicitly with the best of the redwood the five kingdoms has to offer. The curtains on the bed were of the finest of the finest silk and the phoenix on the top of the bed showed the status she held in the kingdom. A soothing fragrance of blossoms filled the room from the incense holders and she had at least ten maids at her beck and call at any time.
But none of that could make Xing feel better about herself as she started to blame herself.
If only I had that little bit of consciousness that I was willing to leave Chenglie and stay as the Empress because I wanted to protect my family and friends too, I"d have killed old Rong that day. If only I thought through what effects letting s.h.i.+hong go that day, might do to those around me! Not everyone around me could choke anyone trying to hurt them without even touching them. I was given all that power and I still chose to be a coward in the face of actually fulfilling my destiny.
How pathetic!
Xing looked to her side to see the swing Chenglie brought for her hanging there and she felt more bad about herself.
I knew what a lowly life Chenglie had to lead along with s.h.i.+hong and yet I didn"t end it that day and sent Chenglie out there with him, again.
Even though I knew how terrible he will feel knowing the one who is in love with him and the one who poisoned his lover is his sister, his father"s daughter, I still sent him back to s.h.i.+hong because I could not conquer my selfish fears.
Even now I am putting my entire family in danger by letting Kei Takano inside my family because I want to feel good letting my brother have his wish granted.
And Seiren, that guy who told me he thinks of me as a sister.... And I let him go on this dangerous journey because it serves my purpose!
And while everyone is out there suffering on my behalf, I"m here, lying on my silk sheets, just worrying!
How terribly selfish and painfully cruel am I?
Xing got up and paced in her room and wondered for what reason Chenglie might be holding Seiren.
But she could not think further as she remembered about the miscarriage of Mingxue. Even though she didn"t like that cousin of hers a lot, she was devastated by what happened to her and it made her think weird thoughts.
The Huang family is not supposed to exist after her birth and Mingxue is not supposed to be born and the Zhong family should not exist this year. But somehow everything is changed and could it be that the flow of fate corrects itself not letting them have heirs? Mingxue the only child of uncle Feiye cannot carry a child and me too. Is that another reason I cannot have children too?
But her train of thoughts changed thinking about her first uncle"s family. He is having sons and grandchildren who are healthy which she felt happy for and it gave her hope for the future too...
Maybe once the fate is changed, a different fate will be written in that place, she thought. Maybe that"s why they openly showed her the scroll of fate previously.
Yes, Xing! Be positive! There is a whole new fate for everyone where everyone could be happy!
Xing calmed her heart. Believing that is the only way she could move further. She decided not to be selfish anymore and decided to do her best.
If another chance arises, I will definitely kill s.h.i.+hong and Old Rong!
With her mind getting a clarity, her thoughts went back to why Chenglie might have gotten Seiren. She didn"t believe for a second that Chenglie might have killed Seiren as she thought more about it. He knows I love the Zhong family, especially Lady Zhong and Seiren.
He won"t hurt them! She trusted Chenglie.
But if he laid in wait for Seiren, could it be that he was the one who set him up? That map could be fake?
So why did he bring Seiren there and holding him without asking any kind of ransom? Wait.... Could it be that the war Sky Kingdom is planning is the handiwork of s.h.i.+hong too?
Uh! That should be the case! Takanas.h.i.+ knows it too and that"s why he is too arrogant! So if the route is fake and if the Jin family"s Navy denied help, what could they do?
But why did Chenglie abduct Seiren? Xing felt like there was more to it.
That"s when the letter she"d been waiting for from her first uncle was received.
In the past month, the pharmacies owned by the Huang family had some mishaps. A particular drug that was sold there was tampered with, resulting in the deaths of two people in two different places. Those pharmacy chain was the ones which were owned by the Ran family previously and now run by her second cousin.
The Huang family pulled out that drug from the shelves and compensated the affected families properly which averted the crisis to the family.
Xing felt like it might be something to do with s.h.i.+hong and asked her uncle to investigate properly and check all the other drugs too for being sure.
Lives of humans cannot be played with!
And... Lo and behold! Her uncle has written that it was a particular herb they imported from the Earth Kingdom that was exchanged with a similar looking poisonous one, turning the medicine to Poison.
But who could have done that? Was it deliberate or an accident?
Xing decided to take this to the perverted Emperor of the Earth Kingdom to investigate. That one sent her a letter containing her thoughts about Yi Kwan... It clearly showed how perverted and uninformed she is regarding the matters of the adults and Xing wondered why she is still friends with her. But then Xing felt bad for her and wrote a letter correcting all the things she has been thinking wrong about the matters between men and women.
No friend of hers should be uninformed in that area!
Well even though Xing is unexperienced she wrote like she knew it all...! At least she had theoretical knowledge from reading books!
Ayane sends letters often to Xing and she had written how much she liked the Qulin statues and so she is keeping them on both sides of her dragon throne. So in their kingdom owning a statue carved by the Huang family has become a status symbol since the Emperor did it and the Huang business received many orders from the n.o.bles of the Earth Kingdom. Ayane also sent many designs of jewellery to be made out of jade.
Xing wrote a letter to her, how the Huang family is being framed by someone in her kingdom by switching herbs and asked her to investigate. If she still wanted the Huang Jade, the Huang family should be around, right?
Xing went for a stroll when the shadow guards of the Heavenly Flowers Palace returned. Xing had asked their services to find Seiren. But she felt disheartened by their inability to find him too. They should be using the same spell they used when Chenglie went missing. If everything is like this, then how could Seiren be rescued?
Xing walked towards the Imperial Study after nearly ten days of searching for Seiren and saw the Emperor was briefed by the Imperial Commander that the Sky Kingdom has already made their move. Guess the letters they had sent to their Emperor for talks wasn"t respected. The Emperor had already sent message to the Water Emperor to move the navy that was already promised.
The Zhong army was already in the southern borders and taking turns to look around for their Lord and orders were sent to move half of them to the western cities to defend them.
None of the cities in their kingdom were close to the sea and most of the coastal areas are little villages who work in the saltbeds.
Just when the economy was improving, this sudden bells of war brought fear in the hearts of the people.
The little navy they had was mobilised and they were asked to stand guard in the South Western borders in the sea.
The entire military was downhearted by his sudden call for war. News has spread that the Lord of the Zhong family is missing and the naval force of the enemy is really strong and chances of the navy winning is zero. They had really less s.h.i.+ps.
If that is the case, a bunch of villages in the western coast will have to be sacrificed before the army takes the control back. This is going to be a close call of a war with a lot of casualties in their side.
The generals pleaded the Emperor to bring the Empress with them and only that will improve the spirits of the soldiers and only after the Emperor gave his approval did the generals left happily.