It was dawn, maybe around 4am but everything was pitch black... How come? There must be a light out!
She moved her hand to check her bedside for her alarm clock and hit something hard, she hit it with her wrist and it really hurt! This time she moved her left hand to search for her hand phone under her pillow but felt nothing in form of her phone. She felt around once more and didn't feel like it was her soft bed. She touched it and discovered she could as well grasp it, she did and it dawned on her that it was duvet. She sat up abruptly, she moved her two hands forward and felt something like stone, sculpted stone. No! It was too smooth to be stone... It's marble... Or maybe not! She couldn't say exactly because of the darkness surrounding her.
She hitched herself up and stepped on something that made her go down with her buttocks. She stood up once again and the same thing pulled her down again but this time she isn't dropping with her buttocks but with her beautiful face. "NOT MY FACE!!!" She screamed. "Shit!" She fell flat with her forehead reaching the wooden floor first. "AHHHHHH!!!" Her scream resonated in the whole room scaring the people nearby and afar!
"Your Highness!"
"Your Royal Highness!!"
"Royal Empress Xiuying!!!"
She listened intently as her eyes widened bit by bit. She raised her self in a sitting position while clutching onto her forehead.
'Highness?'
'Royal?'
'Empress?'
'Xiu... Xiuying?'
No! This is crazy, a dream that is too real to be true! She perched her ear up to listen attentively, to hear someone's voice but none of the voice belonged to that person. Why can't she hear her mother's voice? "Mom?"
"Your Highness!!!" The voices turned to wails. The hurried footsteps towards her was scaring the life out of her—She put her right hand forward and the left one behind it in a defensive manner, ready to attack anything or anyone coming for her.
"Why is the power off?" Her mother had just paid the electricity bill a day or two ago.
The footsteps were coming closer and she saw light, little by little the footsteps and the Amber coloured light came closer.
She blinked as the room lit up due to the light coming from outside, she scanned the room at that instant and discovered she wasn't in her room but an ancient room. The designs and the wall... Wooden wall... Everything in the room was in ancient form. She heard the sound of something opening, and then another opened slowly, she assumed it was a door and truly it was the door to the place she was currently standing. After the door opened a woman dressed in an Ancient Chinese clothing came in, another followed behind with lantern, and another and another... They were five of them, all dressed in ancient clothing.
"Your Highness..." The first woman between the age of fifty-sixty called out, the smile on her face spreading into a beautiful beam.
"Her Royal Highness..." The others wailed and immediately went down on their knees, bowing at the same time. Some of the women sobbing and some glorifying the almighty.
Xiaofan who stood their dumbstruck watched everything with her eyes almost falling out of their socket. "Crazy..." She muttered to herself. "Crazy dream! What kind of dream is this? I don't want to dream anymore!! I will never dream again!!!"
"This is crazy!"
"No! No!! Noooooooooooooo!!!"
Thud! She fell back and lost consciousness. The women who have been watching her was shocked, they looked in-between themselves and wondered if the Empress was still sane. It took them by surprise as the Empress suddenly fainted.
The oldest lady rushed forward as panic was written all over her face.
"Your High... Your Highness..." The older lady couldn't hold back her sobs. She sniffed as her tears dropped nonstop. "Call the Royal physician... Quick... Go call the Royal physician!" Two younger girls immediately ran out to go call the Royal physician. It didn't take long before the Empress Physician arrived with his medical team. He felt her pulse and the smile on his face couldn't be hidden.
The Empress's head maid looked at him and felt herself relax. "How is it possible?" A young man from the medical team asked.
"Xiong Changming be quiet," The head doctor said. "This is a great..."
"Miracle!" A woman answered. She was Lai Lijuan, the Emperor's personal nurse assigned to the Empress since the day she fainted.
What happened three days ago remains a mystery to everyone. The Empress had suddenly lost consciousness, she wasn't breathing but wasn't allowed to be buried. The Empress father Qing Bohai the East and Right Prime Minister refused the burial of his daughter. Everyone thought he was crazy, they all expected the Emperor to disagree but to their surprise he agreed.
She was specially taken care of by her head maid and her Royal physician. She had been receiving treatment upon treatment. Nobody was allowed to visit or see her expect her maids and medical team.
The abandoned Empress was thought to be dead by many but the Royal physician made a public announcement to the people announcing that the Empress was still healthy but would be indoors for twenty-one days to recover properly.
The nurse Lai Lijuan, had been serving the Emperor before she was assigned to the Empress. "If we're allowed to use such word then I must say that the Almighty really loves Empress Xiuying... She's very lucky!"
The Empress's head physician Gong Shunfu felt happy because at this moment his rank would rise to a greater length.
Everyone sat quietly in the Empress's chamber and waited for her to open her eyes but it was taking like forever. It was like she never woke up. At that moment a young maid who had her head down looked up at the Empress sleeping face and saw her eyes flutter. Her own eyes widened and her heart beat increased. The beating of her chest could be seen through her cloth.