Xiao Song was kneeling on the cold tile in the royal court. His heart thumping loudly and he could felt his sweat rolling down his forehead. His palm was wet to the point that he was itchy to wipe it on his clothes.
Yet, he managed to refrain himself from doing so as he did not want to made any mistake in front of the emperor. While he did seek audience with His Majesty for countless time when he was in the capital a few months ago, but this time, it was different!
He did not visited this royal court for another tea drinking session. At this moment, he was a man with a mission! An important one!
Three days ago, Xiao Song made an impulse decision to ride on the horseback to the capital. Listening to his sister-in-law 's point of view regarding on a woman's fate after marriage had him revisiting his harsh decision to cut tie with the princess.
After contemplating for a moment, he determined to seek for Princess Liu Shi 's hand in marriage instead. He would not let the princess to go through another painful cycle of being treated unjustly by the Young Master Yun!
Xiao Song went straight to the palace as soon as he arrived at the capital. He was immediately granted permission to meet the emperor due to him being the regular face for the people in the palace thanks to the tea drinking sessions.
However, this time, there was no long and enjoyable discussions like they had always held before due to the complicated request from Xiao Song. There was a brief silence ensued in the room a soon as he expressed his intention to marry Princess Liu Shi.
"So….." the emperor began to speak. " tell me, Xiao Song, why do you want to marry this daughter of mine?" the simple questions instantly made him went flustered. His face reddened and he was at lost of words.
Xiao Song was too shy to admit that he liked the princess. Furthermore, it was not a good decision either to openly express his longing toward Princess Liu Shi in front of her father.
"This lowly subject…..is….." He tried his best to construct the best sentence about their circumstances.
"This daughter of mine…." the emperor interjected. "I had never heard of her existence until a few years ago." he admitted. "I had so many daughters I couldn't keep up with the huge numbers of them"
The emperor staring off into the space for a while. He appeared as if he was trying to find any memorable recollection regarding this elusive daughter of him.
"Nevertheless, this was the second time someone express their interest toward Princess Liu Shi. You are one of them. Do you know who is the other person?"
Xiao Song swallowed an imaginative lump that had stuck in his throat since he first stepped into the royal court. This is it!
"Yes I know. He is the eldest son of minister Yun"
"Then you should know that to whom shall I grant the marriage based on each of both of your merit"
Xiao Song clenched his teeth. " You majesty! Forgive this lowly subject for being brazen. But this lowly subject had fallen in love with the princess. While my merit was not huge and wide, but I promised to take care and love only princess Liu Shi for the rest of my life!"
He then prostrate three times on the ground to show his sincerity. Eerie silence filled the atmosphere. No one in the royal court (there were several servants) dared to chaste Xiao Song for being as bold as brass toward the emperor. Not even the Elder Eunuch who was too shock to reprimand the young man who was bowing on the ground.
The sound of laughter coming from the emperor, broke the wall of silence that had engulfed the lots of them in the royal court. His laughter that started off light and laced with a hum of amusement grew louder. He reached out his right hand to the front and start to wave his palm left to right signaling that he was not trying to make fun of Xiao Song's sincerity. As soon as his laughter subsided, the emperor began to carefully scrutinized Xiao Song.
"Xiao Song, I know that you are a good guy. In fact, you are too good for this place." For the first time in his life, Xiao Song saw a glint of paternal affection beaming from the emperor's face.
"As a father, I am honored to have an honorable young man like you pledging loyalty to my daughter. But! As an emperor, I would advise you to forget about her." despite of his harsh words, Xiao Song could not find anything malicious from his tone of voice nor from his face. In fact, he looked rather genuinely concern about the issue.
"This place….." the emperor began to turn his head, gazing around the royal court "…emitted the rotten energy that I have no intention to taint the innocent souls like yours with."
" Furthermore, I would like to have Liu Shi and her future husband to stay in the palace even after they get mother. You would not want to left Shen province and your father behind right? Forget about her" He tried to guilt trap Xiao Song.
"I'm willing to"
"Hmmm???What was it?"
"I'm willing to left the Shen province and moved into the palace!" Xiao Song's voice was filled with determination.
"Are you sure about this ? I have to warned you that this may not the right decision. You would regret it in the future." The emperor tried to warn him.
However, seeing the determination emitted from the young man's eyes made him finally relented.
It was then decided and sealed. Xiao Song was named as Princess Liu Shi's betrothed. They wedding would be held in another month.
While he was preparing for the wedding , the Guo family offered Xiao Song to stay in their residence citing that they were no strangers and tied by marriage between Xiao Zhan and Zheng Er.
The finance minister was getting peculiarly happy about the news and excitedly looking forward to the wedding between Xiao Song and Princess Liu Shi more that Xiao Song himself.
As he had no other place to go to, he accepted the offer from the old man. It was no surprise that the people in Guo's residence has been hospitable and welcoming. Xiao Song was - anyway- the emperor's future so-in-law.
He knew that all they were accommodating him for their own benefit. Xiao Song had no problem with the gesture There's nothing to be afraid of since the emperor's son-in-law were usually held no political power anyway. The sons-in-law were usually tied by rules prohibiting them to get involve in politic. So he thought.
It was all fine until, one day he stumbled upon a blind old woman with a walking stick staring at him while he was resting in his room at the Guo's residence
Xiao Song immediately rose from his bed as he was startled to see the unexpected guess bursting into his room in the middle of the night.
"Who are you?"
"I am a shaman" was her short replied. Xiao Song snorted as the woman did not answer his question properly. Nevertheless, he did not want to appear rude in front of a feeble old woman like her.
"May I know what do you want from me?"
"You are Young master Xiao Song? The one who was going to marry Princess Liu Shi?" ignoring Xiao Song's question, the old woman unabashedly attacking him with her own question.
"Err… yes." he admitted.
" Called off the wedding! A huge ordeal is waiting if you insist to go through with the wedding!" she pounded her walking stick to the ground. The sound of the floor being hit by the end of the walking stick was surprisingly loud. Xiao Song's hands instinctively flew by to close both of his ear.
"Ahhh….old grandmother, what are you talking about?"
"I'm not your grandmother! I'm a shaman and listen to me! This union between you and the princess would only beget pain and disaster. Not only to both of you, but the entire empire" At this point, the old woman was practically shouting at him. Even the gentle Xiao Song began to loose his composure.
Fortunately, before he even get to lashed out to the poor woman, the sounds of servants' footsteps closing in distracting his attention. Much to his relief, two young maids appeared on his door as they were frantically searching for the old grandmother.
"There you are! What are you doing here shaman!" one of the maid scolded the old woman. She roughly pulled the old woman away from Xiao Song's room. Seeing the feeble old woman being drag made him felt terrible. He called for both of them to treat the old woman gentler.
The older looking maid disgruntled. " It's ok young master, we know how to handle this old shaman" she replied sharply before continued to drag the old woman away. The younger maid, however, stayed behind to apologize for her colleague impolite reply.
"Ah…it's alright , I don't mind. But, I heard you called her shaman. Is the old woman really a shaman?" he asked out of curiosity.
"Ah..yes! The old shaman was a popular clairvoyant in the capital a few years back. He had helped a lot of people with he ability. Our master, especially, benefited a lot from her service when he was younger" she whispered carefully.
"Why was she in this residence?"
"She had gotten older and been reduced to a forgetful old woman. Her latest prediction was gotten inaccurate and highly ridiculous it was very offensive. She used to predict that our oldest Miss was going to be the crown princess. But looked who she ended up with" realizing that she was talking with the brother-in-law of her oldest miss, the maid let out a loud gasp.
"It's alright . I don't mind" Xiao Song display his comforting smile. Seeing that she had the green light, the chatty maid gleefully continued her story.
"Err…. during the last years of her career, she spouted about a shocking prediction regarding the future heir of the throne and many more treacherous predictions. Because of that, no one wanted to use her service anymore and her memory slowly getting weaker. She also had no one to look after her, hence, our master decided to secretly attend to her need by taking her into this household. He wanted to repay her for bringing his fortune to him some twenty years ago"
"Ahhh... that is very kind of him." he remarked.
"Yes. The master have peculiar sense of propriety ahahaha… Er…" realizing that was making disrespectful remark toward the master of house, the maid hastily excused herself and clumsily ran away from Xiao Song.
Xiao Song did not make a big deal out of this occasion as he did not want to invite trouble for both maid who were responsible to look after the senile shaman. However, little did he knew that the prophecy began to unfold itself once he and the princess were united on their wedding day.