"Bring the capital to me?"
A throng of servants suddenly rushed into the already crammed room bringing huge paintings. Behind them, there are several other servants holding trays covered with plain white cloth.
"This is the set of paintings depicting how the capital always looks like" the emperor began to explain to Concubine Rong. The servant who was holding the first painting moved one step further to the front. He was holding a beautiful painting depicting an animated tea house. The painting clearly captured the lively atmosphere of a huge performance stage located in the middle of three leveled tea houses. The customers looked delighted while sipping their tea. The musicians were illustrated playing the instrument with smiles on their faces. The dancers who were dancing on the stage, appeared almost as if they were real instead of being a subject in a painting. It was beautiful and lifelike!
In spite of that, the thing that captured Xiao Er's attention the most, was the depiction of a particular young man who was one of the customers of the tea house. He was painted differently than the other customers. His face had an exquisite quality that other people in the painting did not possess. He was also drawn with sharp precision. His position in the painting made him stand out as he was situated quite far from other customers . His attention was -strangely- not on the dancers, but on another woman who was standing on the second level's balcony. Xiao Er had a hard time trying to figure out both of these attractive subjects that seemed to be familiar to her.
Xiao Er, began to scrutinize the man and the woman's faces. Something about their faces screamed familiar to her. She blinked several times trying to go through her memory box in effort of identifying these two figures.
'Is that the emperor?!' her eyes widened as realization came upon her. The man looked almost identical to the emperor, except that he looked rather young than the emperor's actual age.
'Is this what His Majesty looked like when he was younger?' Xiao Er then shifted her attention to the girl on the balcony. To her surprise, Xiao Er realized that the girl resembled her mistress the most except that – just like the emperor- she looked way younger than her mistress' current appearance.
'Did His Majesty order the painter to put both of them in this painting? But wait. When was this painting done? It cannot be yesterday! This painting is of high quality! There is no way it was painted in such a short amount of time!'. There were so many questions lingered on Xiao Er's mind she almost forgot that she was attending to the two most important people in this mansion. Fortunately, the emperor's deep baritone voice pulled her away from her preoccupation toward the painting.
"This is the most popular tea house in the capital, Gold Flower Tea House." The emperor was looking at the mistress affectionately.
"The most popular?"
"Yes. They were very popular back then and still popular till this day. Their specialty is their unique way of boiling tea." The emperor then, cued one of the servants who was holding a teapot to move closer to the table.
"Like the name of the tea house – the gold flower- their most popular tea flavor is the chrysanthemum tea." He retrieved the teapot from the servant before signaling him to move back to his original position. The emperor then gently poured the tea for the mistress. This little showcase of affection successfully made the mistress blushing. Pheww…even Xiao Er and the other servants were hot in the face. His Majesty had never been this bold with the mistress.
"Chrysanthemum tea? From the flower?"
"Yes. From the flower, specifically the petals. It was good for health and often used as a food supplement or tonic. Haven't you heard about this?" one of the emperor's eyebrows lifted while he was sipping the chrysanthemum tea.
Concubine Rong sighed. "This lowly concubine was only a poor villager back then. I don't have the luxury to taste exquisite drinks like this" she displayed a weak smile while looking at her tea cup. This statement however, seemed to partially affect the emperor's mood. His big smile faded right after listening to her words.
"This tea is my favorite." He said while putting down his tea cup on the table. "Someone I met a long time ago taught me how to drink this tea" His eyes bored into her. Xiao Er can feel her mistress' nervousness as she averted her eyes from him and kept looking at her own tea cup.
'Oh lord…are they going to fight again?'
Both of them remained in this awkward position a few moments before the emperor instructed the second painting to be brought in front of them. The second painting depicted the capital's night scene. It was the time where fireworks were on display with a crowd watching them from the street. Again, Xiao Er managed to identify the younger emperor in the second painting. He was standing right beside the younger mistress. Xiao Er was bewildered by these paintings. Was this the emperor's imagination? They only met each other three years ago.
"This is the night of Lunar celebration in the capital. There would be a lot of snack shops open along the street. The most sought-after snack would be the Tanghulu sold by the Wu family." A servant then appeared in front of the table with two Tanghulu in his hand.
"Come. Let's try this." The emperor took both Tanghulu from the servant and passed one of them to the mistress.
"Is it good?" he asked her full with anticipation. The mistress seemed to be enjoying the Tanghulu so much she only nodded while trying to get her second bite. Her action amused the emperor. He chuckled and reached for her face.
"there is coated sugar on your face Mo Chou" he wiped the sugar off her face. Xiao Er wanted to vomit seeing their public display of affection.
'Who are these people? What have they done to the emperor and the mistress?'
"Have you ever tasted Tanghulu before?"
"Only once. There was a time when my brother Gao had successfully sold all the herbs at the town, he bought me a Tanghulu albeit it was not as good as this one." The mere mention of the mistress' brother's name darkened the emperor's complexion. He stopped chewing the candy and aggressively put the Tanghulu down on the table.
"I don't like it when you keep on mentioning his name!" His sudden wrath came unexpectedly without warning. All the servants quickly prostrated on the ground. The emperor looked visibly angry right now! However this did not faze Concubine Rong at all. She continued to consume another bite of the Tanghulu before putting down the skewer on the table. She even waited to swallow the last bite before proceeding to kneel on the ground. Xiao Er scrambled to her feet in order to help her mistress to get into the position.
'Why is the mistress so stubborn?'
"Your Highness, he is my brother. I am missing him a lot these days. Is it too much to ask for a quick meeting with him?" She pleaded.
"Ahh…now you even have the audacity to demand such as ridiculous request from me"
"This is not ridiculous, Your Majesty. It is only my filial duty as a sister to seek comfort for my brother"
"Are you trying to abuse your position to get him out of prison now?"
"These lowly concubine do not dare Your Majesty"
"Good then. Because I am trying to be rational today, I will forgive you for spouting such nonsense.But I forbid you from mentioning his name. Ever again!"
"Thank you for your kindness, your majesty" Concubine Rong then proceeded to bow on the ground three times.
Everyone seemed to be at ease for a while. It seemed that both of them had patched things up. Maybe it was time to proceed with the third painting?
"Your Majesty, are we going to show Concubine Rong the third painting?" The elder eunuch came to the rescue. He had been standing on the side line for quite a while. It was time for him to step up and try to ease the tension a little bit. So does he thought.
"However..." Everyone's head turned to Concubine Rong who was still kneeling on the ground
" Your Majesty, putting an innocent man in prison without a valid reason is not the behaviour for a rational person either " Xiao Er's jaw almost dropped to the floor. She quickly prayed for the ground to suddenly open up and swallow her.
'Mistress….we are all going to die if you keep on being stubborn'
"How dare you Concubine Rong" the Elder eunuch yelled from the side. This is too much. Concubine Rong had really crossed the boundary. The elder eunuch stole a glance at the emperor. He would not even dare to openly stare at him as he would worry about how the emperor was going to respond to this treacherous accusation.
To his surprise, the emperor's face appeared to be expressionless. His face then broke into a sad smile that made him look almost serene. If anything, the emperor looked hurt more than angry. The Elder Eunuch was befuddled.
"Is that what you think of me Mo Chou?" He asked softly. This unexpected reaction gained a lot of stares from everyone in the room. But, of course nobody dared to question why the emperor reacted this way toward the senseless accusation. Who would have dared questioning the emperor's decision. What Concubine Rong had uttered could be classified as against heaven's mandate! How could someone get away with this? And more importantly, does the emperor loved Concubine Rong this much to even ignore such a disrespectful remark?
Knowing that Concubine Rong would never answer his question, the emperor slowly rose from the chair. He then ordered the servants to keep mum about things that occurred in this room and make his way to the door. He instructed his servants to not follow him as he had other matters to attend to in which he did not wish to bring all of them with him.
Except for the Elder Eunuch (who insist that he needs to follow him) all of the emperor's servants who came to the mansion disperse to different directions leaving only Concubine Rong and Xiao Er who were still kneeling on the ground in the room.
"Mistress, let me help you to get up" she grabbed her mistress' arm.
"No. This is the most important time Xiao Er" Concubine Rong lifted her head . Her face looked almost undisturbed as if she had never disrespected the emperor a moment ago.
"Go. Find him now!" She rushed her maid to the front door.
Xiao Er began to prowl to the front gate of the mansion. She tried her best to appear as if she was just taking a stroll while in reality she was actually anxiously looking for someone.
Suddenly a man clad in eunuch's robe turned up at the corner of the gate. Xiao Er gracefully curtsied a little as a sign to acknowledge the presence of the eunuch. In response, the eunuch bowed his head a little bit toward her.
She then moved closer toward the eunuch before sneaking in the packets that she had gotten from sister Meng into his palm. She then retreated her steps back to her initial position.
"Eunuch Wang, Concubine Rong wished for your mother's speedy recovery. She hope that this medicine would help her to regain her health like always"
"This lowly servant thanked the Concubine," he replied. Xiao Er realized that the young eunuch was clutching the packet tightly in his palm.
"This is the third and the last batch of medicine that your mother needs to consume. After this she would be bounced back to her usual self just like the olden days. Now, please excuse me. I need to get back to the mistress." She proceeds to walk back into the mansion leaving the young eunuch still standing at the front gate.