The Story Of Dusk

"What do you mean?" Gong Xu knitted his brows as the understanding hit him. "Sister, you are pregnant?" He asked with wide eyes and jaw dropped open.

"It has been five months now." Qianru smiled like a proud mother, she loved to talk about the child inside her stomach.

Gong Xu couldn"t help but lowered his gaze to see Qianru"s stomach that was covered with thick cloak. "You didn"t abort the child." He stated the fact.

"I am not." Qianru shook her head. "How can I abort my own flesh and blood?" She asked bitterly, though that thought had crossed her mind, but her heart said the otherwise, as she couldn"t bring herself to do it.

"Can I…" Gong Xu looked at Luna in her eyes, asking for permission.

Luna knew what he wanted to do and unb.u.t.toned her cloak to show him her b.u.mp, she was wearing a bright color dress under her cloak, so the b.u.mp was quite visible to see.

Meanwhile, Gong Xu gasped loudly as he stared in disbelief at Luna"s stomach, with trembling hand, slowly he put his warm palm atop of her stomach.

"Hai baby, this is your uncle…" Gong Xu called the unborn baby softly, introducing himself.

He had been very disappointed the moment Luna informed him that she had gotten rid the baby, because no matter what, that kind of decision was truly evil.

That was why, when Modama brought an abortion potion, he intentionally changed the liquid inside it, to let Luna made her own choice.

However now, when he knew his sister didn"t do it and kept the baby, he was very happy and proud of her.

Gong Xu was determined to help Luna to go through this state of her life, because it would be the worst part of hers, especially when Modama was strongly against it.

Their father could do something so extreme for the thing that he didn"t like.

"But, why did you come back to the capital city? This city supposed to be the last place that you could visit. How Prince Xiao Tianyao treats you?" Gong Xu has his own concern.

Luna chuckled lightly upon seeing her brother worry expression.

"He is amazing, more than amazing that if I could find another word to describe him." Luna blushed when she talked about Xiao Tianyao. "He takes care of me and the baby well. He would be a good father one day." She added.

"But sister." Gong Xu retracted his hand from Qianru"s stomach. "How, if he knows about the relationship between you and Modama? What will you do? And the child…"

"He already knew about it." Luna revealed her secret. "He also knew that the first time we met, I had hypnotized him to fall in love with me." She tried to tell Gong Xu everything, so he could understand the decision that she had made for herself. "However now, the relationship between us was real."

Gong Xu"s face turned stern as he tried to discern the information that he just heard.

"Sister, are you sure he is sincere with you?" Gong Xu asked Luna doubtfully. "How he could let you live without consequences after what you had done to him?" He shook his head in disbelief, in his eyes, that was something that almost impossible to happen.

"I know his feeling, literally." Luna reminded Gong Xu about her ability, she would have known if Xiao Tianyao had something under his sleeves and had different meaning of his concern toward her.

Gong Xu shook his head to clear his mind from prejudice.

"I don"t doubt your ability…" He corrected Luna"s misunderstanding. "I just want to say that you have had him lost his position in the military and having a discord with his own brother, not only that, you had manipulated him to get what you want… but he forgive you that easy?"

To think about those bad things that Luna had done toward Xiao Tianyao, it was indeed questionable that Xiao Tianyao could forgive her so easy and even fell in love for real, though Luna didn"t know if Xiao Tianyao"s feeling was a love.

However, he has been treating her well recently.

"You don"t need to think about that." Luna cut the topic off. "I am telling you all of that not for you to judge him…"

"No, I don"t mean to judge him." Gong Xu raised both of his hands with palms facing Luna. "If I could say my personal opinion, he is actually quite a scary person…" He said the last words in a whisper.

Luna swatted Gong Xu"s hand and feigned angry. "I want you to keep this matter secret."

"Of course I will." Their father would rush to Xiao Tianyao"s mansion and killed Luna right away once he knew Luna was betraying him.

"And I want you to concoct for me the antidote of the poison that you have made." Luna mentioned the poison once again. "But will you be safe from doing that? Knowing it is only you who knew how to make the antidote." Luna was a bit worry about her brother safety by asking him this help.

"I can do that, and you don"t need to worry." Gong Xu rubbed Qianru"s hands to warm her as he tightened the cloak around Luna"s body. "Father asked me to do some experiments, he will not hurt me because this is an important project for him."

Luna tilted her head and looked at her brother. "What kind of experiment?"

Gong Xu shrugged. "I am not really sure about this, but I can"t tell you now about it. I will let you know once I have a big picture about what father wanted to do."

Luna nodded in understanding. "Thank you for being on my side."

"I am always on your side sister, like you to me." Gong Xu smiled, he was only a teenage boy with many hardships to overcome, but he always has that gentle smile on his lips for Luna. "I can"t be away for so long, I will come back when I am done with the antidote." He stood up and bid her farewell.

But, before he turned around and left, he realized something.

"Since when Prince Xiao Tianyao knew your real ident.i.ty?" He asked curiously.

"Since we were still in the resort when you gave me the abortion potion." Luna caressed her stomach lovingly. 

"It was so long ago…" Gong Xu widened his eyes in disbelief. "And you are pregnant." He traced his eyes down to Luna"s b.u.mp. "And I don"t even know that…"

Luna chuckled seeing his reaction. "I am waiting for news from you about the antidote."

"If Prince Xiao Tianyao knew about you, he should have known about me either, so I don"t have to take a bothersome route by jumping from the wall and avoiding his fierce guards, I can walk straight from the door…" Gong Xu contemplated.

"Well, you can walk straight from the door… but, I don"t think he would be so generous by letting you in." Luna stated the fact. Not every person could enter the mansion easily.

"I have fought him once and I don"t think I want to fight him again." Gong Xu said helplessly. He didn"t want to experience the same battle again. "I will leave now, take care of yourself and the baby. I can"t imagine that I will be an uncle…"

"You will be a great uncle." Luna said proudly.

"Of course I am." Gong Xu chuckled, but then he remembered something. "I don"t know who you will help, but don"t give her or him anything that was made from rice, it will make the smell worse."

"Got it."

Luna waved him goodbye before he disappeared into the darkness.

Now, it was only her, standing alone in the middle of the night while holding a bottle of medicine in her hand.

"Are you done now?" Xiao Tianyao"s voice suddenly heard from behind Luna"s back and this startled her.

In her current state, it was easy to sneak behind her back without her knowing it as she couldn"t detect the other person presence without concentrating.

"Yes, I am done." Luna nodded and smiled sheepishly. "Since when you were here?"

However, Xiao Tianyao didn"t answer her question and took her hand instead. "Let"s go back, the wind is getting colder."

In the exact two days, when Luna woke up in the morning and Xiao Tianyao had gone from the room, he found a white bottle guard with a note.

It was from Gong Xu, because she recognized his handwriting. It mentioned about how to use the medicine and what the patient should do and don"t.

Actually it was quite easy instruction as Gong Xu had mentioned before to not feed the patient with anything that made from rice.

These past two days, just like what Luna had said, Bai Yuyan would suffer from being so cold to become so hot every night and when the sun rose, she would be back to her unconscious state with high temperature and bed smell sweat.

After reading the instruction and asked the old mama to help her to get dress, she brought the antidote and Gong Xu"s letter to Xiao Tianyao"s study room where he was busying himself with some matter.

"He came into our room?" Instead of commented on the antidote, apparently that was the only important thing in his eyes right now.

His eyes darkened when he held the antidote and the paper.

"He didn"t do anything…" Luna tried to appease him.

However, that wasn"t the point for Xiao Tianyao. The fact Gong Xu managed to enter his bedroom without no one knew about it was really disturbing for him.

"Yang Yu!" He called out his subordinate name agitatedly. "Train those lazy guards more!"

Yang Yu who didn"t know what was happening only could nod his head and received the order in confusion.

After Xiao Tianyao had received the antidote and the instruction from Luna, he immediately sent it to Xiao Jun"s mansion.

It didn"t take the antidote so long to give a reaction, because when Bai Yuyan was given the antidote, her body slightly better and her high temperature was lower.

In another two days she could throw another tantrum again and annoyed everyone. She made a fuss about why she was in maid"s courtyard and not in Xiao Jun"s chamber.

Qianru who came to visit her, not because she wanted to, but she made to make sure this woman was alive to avoid any trouble in the future, explained the situation slowly.

"You are smelly, that was why I agree to put you here." Luna explained nonchalantly.

"You can"t treat me like this! This is a humiliation for me! You will suffer once I tell the Emperor about what you had done!" Bai Yuyan warned Qianru agitatedly.

"Telling the Emperor?" Qianru raised her brows mockingly. "I wonder if you truly didn"t know who the person that had been poisoned you…"

"Are you trying to say that it was the Emperor?" Bai Yuyan crossed her arms arrogantly. "Do you accuse the Emperor?"

Qianru chuckled. "Oh, don"t start to make a wild a.s.sumption… I just want to say that you should know who has poisoned you."

"It was you who had poisoned me and pretend that you don"t know anything!" Bai Yuyan yelled very loud to cover her nervousness. "Do you think I am crazy!?"

She indeed knew what she had done, that person had tricked her and she was almost dead because of it! The only thing that Bai Yuyan still confused was, why she did that?

"I never thought that you are normal." Qianru shrugged her shoulder. "I am glad to see you are getting better. Now I will go back to my courtyard and don"t try to eat any poison again or else I will let you die next time."

Xiao Tianyao came yesterday to see how the progress of the antidote and told her about the original poison. It came from Modama.

Knowing Bai Yuyan"s character, she wouldn"t be so stupid to risk her life by eating the poison and put herself in disadvantage situation without any strong reason.

Xiao Tianyao"s guess, Bai Yuyan was being manipulated by Modama, that sounded reliable though.

Another days pa.s.sed and Bai Yuyan"s complain and screaming had become something common inside Xiao Jun"s courtyard while Qianru turned deaf ears when she was complaining about how unreliable maidservants in this mansion.

"I will teach them a lesson once I become the mistress of this household!" Bai Yuyan kept repeating those words in front of Qianru.

As a replied, Qianru gave her a lopsided smile that turned her off and became more angry.

Actually, Qianru was looking forward to see how Xiao Jun"s reaction would be when he knew he had a very talkative concubine waiting for his return.

It was exactly like Xiao Tianyao had said and Qianru"s prediction, Bai Yuyan wasn"t a favor niece from the Empress"s side and her true purposed was merely to sow discord between Qianru and Xiao Jun with additional headache of her behavior, as no one ever came from the palace to check on her.

Another uneventful day pa.s.sed and the war between three countries was closer.

Qianru couldn"t lie to herself that she was nervous about the outcome, she had to admit that she started to get worry about Xiao Jun"s safety.

But, she would never let him knew about it, nor she wrote a single letter to ask about him. She was still reluctant to answer his occasional letter.

Qianru didn"t even open the letters, they were sitting on her table, untouched.

After uneventful days, suddenly shocking news came to Xiao Jun"s mansion that Xiao Tianyao"s mansion was being attacked by a.s.sa.s.sins, and now Xiao Tianyao was badly injured.

This news shook Qianru to the core as she didn"t believe with what she heard.

"Tianyao badly injured!?" Qianru repeated the information that Liu Wei had brought for her.

"Yes, Prince Xiao Tianyao apparently protecting young miss Luna and got stabbed by the a.s.sa.s.sins. The guards inside prince Xiao Tianyao"s mansion wasn"t sufficient to hold back the sudden attack as many of them was away for mission." Liu Wei got the signal from Xiao Tianyao"s mansion, asking for back up, too late, because the moment he arrived there many people had died.

"I will go to see him now." Qianru was very worry about Xiao Tianyao"s condition because it was so rare to hear him badly injured, no, Qianru had never heard he was injured before.

However Liu Wei held her back. "Princess Xiao, it would be best if you didn"t come to Prince Xiao Tianyao"s mansion for the time being." He said carefully.

"What do you mean with that?" Qianru snapped and glared at Liu Wei. "Why I can"t come to see him!? Are you trying to stop me!?"

Liu Wei abruptly fell on his knees, seeing Qianru was angry. "This subordinate didn"t mean to stop Princess Xiao to visit Prince Xiao Tianyao"s mansion, but the attack had just happened last night, this subordinate only worry that would be another attack and risk Princess Xiao"s life."

Qianru still didn"t convince with Liu Wei"s reason, she wanted to see how bad Xiao Tianyao"s injuries and how Luna"s condition now, she was pregnant. She afraid something bad happened to her and the baby…

"You are talking nonsense! Get ready the carriage, I want to go to Tianyao"s mansion!" Qianru ignored Liu Wei"s pleading word to stay inside the mansion.

"Prince Xiao Tianyao"s mansion is messed up, there are too many blood there, Princess Xiao will get uncomfortable with it." Liu Wei kept trying to persuade his mistress.

Qianru was indeed afraid of blood.

"Why do you make things hard for him, Prince Xiao Tianyao is alive though we don"t know for how long."

A reckless voice sounded from afar that belong to Bai Yuyan, even without turning her body, Qianru knew it was her. She had been sick only to hear her voice.

Bai Yuyan was wearing a white dress that made her look more younger and innocent while eating an apple on her right hand, she sauntered arrogantly, closed the distance between Qianru and her.

"You better stop now or else you will regret it." Qianru warned Bai Yuyan from getting any closer toward her as she clenched her jaw tightly.

"Why?" Bai Yuyan raised her eyebrows provocatively and bit her apple. "Why are you so worried about Prince Xiao Tianyao? Don"t you think your reaction is exaggerated?"

Qianru was squinted her eyes, she knew there was something that Bai Yuyan wanted to imply by saying that.

"What do you want to say?" Qianru said through her gritted teeth. Having conversation with Bai Yuyan was the last thing she wanted to do now.

"What I want to say?" Bai Yuyan asked her back. "Don"t you think that your worry toward Prince Xiao Tianyao is not normal, both of you just in law, but you worried about him as if he is your husband."

Qianru closed her eyes to remind herself for stay calm.

"The last time we were in Prince Xiao Tianyao"s mansion, he let you in easily without any inspection, he really treated you differently." Bai Yuyan"s words instigated to the worse scenario that no one would never have thought before.

However, people around Qianru knew it better. Bai Yuyan"s words were merely garbage.

"I wonder if Prince Xiao Jun knew about this…"

Before a Bai Yuyan could finish her words, Qianru had slapped her hard with her shoe, as she didn"t want to get her hand dirty. Who knew when she took it off.

The slap with a shoe was dozen times worse than the one Bai Yuyan had received from Luna.

However, before there was anyone could react at this shocking event, a guard ran from the gates to inform them another news.

"Prince Xiao Jun has returned." He said.