"Tell me. Where are they going and I will spare your life"
"I had taken the truth pill. It was pill concocted by a legendary physician. Once I consumed them, I'm no able to tell you the secret that I took oath to protect. The pill would act up and kill me instantly if I were to do that. You'd better just kill me" The maid put up her brave face in front of them despite her body was visibly shaking.
"How dare you!! Just killed her already" the minister shouted loudly.
"Be quite!" Xiao Song yelled back at him.
The minister looked stunned. He could not believed that he was shouted at by the young man. Meanwhile, Xiao Zhan decided to pretend that he hadn't heard both of them.
" Your loyalty was commendable" Xiao Song withdrew his sword and put it back into the sheath. He turned around and began to descend the stair.
"You are not going to kill me?" she was shocked. In fact, everyone was surprised to see Xiao Song withdrawing his sword just now.
"No. I'm not going to. Someone" he yelled at the soldier that was stationed outside of the royal court. Two of them came running into the royal court.
"Take this woman and put her in the cell. She is valuable prisoner. Do not harm her" he instructed.
"Wait!!" the ministers shouted.
"Are we going to let her go just like that?! You are going to be a joke if you are let the empress' right hand woman escape unscathed!" he tried to reason with Xiao Song. How are they gonna exerted their power if they are not being brutal enough toward the people from previous power!
"I'm going to put her in the prison. That should be enough!" Xiao Song frowned.
"No, that's not good enough! She should be dragged to the capital and beheaded in front of the public to show that you are effectively in power!"
"Ridiculous! I told you that this is a covert uprising! No one should know that we attained our new power through violence! Including the high ranking officer!" Xiao Song shouted back at the minister.
"But...but then…you must at least do something to put fear within them…." the minister stuttered while voicing out his thought. He would never thought the docile Xiao Song who was looking upset and bewildered in his living room this evening would be playing a different tune just few hours after that.
Xiao Song stopped and mulling over for a while. After a while, he turned back and prowled at Meng's direction.
"So! You have decided to kill me huh?!!" Meng shouted from her position on the throne. As much as she was trying to appear brave, she could not help to stop her body from shaking. Tears began to roll down her face as she was awaiting death to come and reclaimed her.
Xiao Song who was standing in front of the throne raised his sword high. Meng closed her eyes. The moment she offered to impersonate with the empress, she knew she wouldn't survived the night.
She could felt the cold tip of his sword touching her forehead. A searing pain and gushes of blood flooded her face. She raised up her hands and covered her face!
The pain was almost unbearable but she was still alive! He did not kill her!
"You're not gonna to finish her?!"
Xiao Song casually putting his sword back into the sheath.
"No. I will let her live with the scar on her face. It was the sin she had to burdened herself with her entire life"
"that would mean nothing to the other high ranking officer!"
"I don't care about the high ranking officer! Now shut up and follow my instruction!"
That one sentence was enough to make the old man kept his opinion to himself the entire night
On the fateful night, the Tang Empire gained a new ruler. Everything happened in a split second, no one in the palace even saw that this was coming.
The people of Tang Empire was shocked to know that the newly reigning empress suddenly passed away in the middle of the night. As she had no children nor siblings, it was decided by the high ranking officials that her husband, the prince consort, was named as the next emperor.
No one really says anything, as mere people really have no say in political matters. But they really hope that this time, they got and efficient ruler.
The palace was then went through a huge revamp the weeks following the 'death' of the empress. A lot old servants was replaced by new recruits. There were only a handful of them who retained their position in the palace.
The high ranking officials who had disagreed with the emperor was secretly purged by the emperor and their family was sent to labour camp.
Few months afterward, the finance minister who was the emperor main supporter resigned from his position . It was a shocking decision coming from the most powerful minister in the royal court. But everyone knew that it was the emperor way of showing that no one clipped his wing anyway including the exact that had actively lobbied for. Him in the past. It made the other ministers to thread carefully around him.
Albeit a newcomer in Tang political scene, he had firmly warned that he would not let his power to be influenced by any other high ranking official. Persuading the finance minister to resign was one of the example.
The new emperor proved himself to be a hardworking and efficient ruler. He established good diplomatic relationship with nearby countries including the volatile Yan Kingdom. He hardly playing around with women and booze like the previous emperor nor he a psychotic blood crazed like the previous empress.
*******
The sounds of footsteps stopping in front of cell woke Meng up from her sleep. Being locked in the prison cell made her sleepy all the time. She didn't even know how many years she was locked in the prison, what more counting days or nights.
The cell's door squeaked as it was forced open and a pair of feet appeared in front of her face. The boot was so clean Meng doubt it belonged to a royal guard.
"Ahh…." Meng began to open her mouth.
"Somebody came to visit me" her words coming out slurry. The person squatted down thus making it easier for Meng to caught the glimpse of his face. She was right. She got him right!
"What is Your Majesty doing here? This is not a place for a royalty"
"It has been three years?"
"Pardon me?"
"It has been three years"
"Ouhh…" she was wearing her nonchalant facial expression yet her tone says otherwise. Three years in the prison!
"Yes. That was how long you have been in this cell" Xiao Song explained.
"I see.." Meng nodded her head. Not that she did not care about the three years she had wasted, but what can she do about it.
"I have a proposition to you." he offered.
"What? Are you gonna make me say where my mistress is? I cannot …."
"Swear your loyalty to me" he interjected.
"...huh? What ?"
"Say your loyalty to me. Work for me. I wont force you to tell me where is my wife. But I want you to be there when the times come"
"what time?"
"when I brought her back to the palace"
"You are lying right? There's no way…"
"I am serious"
"do you know where she is right now?"
Xiao Song swallowed hard. "No, I don't"
His replied put a smirk on Meng's face. "You are daydreaming. There's no way she is coming back to this place"
"I will. I will make her return to this place"
"But, why?"
"Because she is my wife"
Meng was left stunned.
*******
7 years later
Xiao Song leaned his head against the giant rock. His army and the Yan Kingdom's soldier had a small altercation not far from the forest just now.
They were ambushed in what seemed to be a random attack from their enemy's soldier. Xiao Song was knocked down from his horse by an arrow. Seeing that they may be defeated by a small group of soldiers who didn't know they were about to defeat the emperor of Tang, Xiao Song ordered his soldiers to retreat and ran into the thick forest. They got separated and he wandered as far as to the creek.
The sounds of twigs being stepped on alerted the wounded emperor. He tried to straightened his injured body but unable to do so. Leaning on the big rock behind him, he only hope that whoever that was coming to his direction is one of his own soldiers.
It was as if his prayers was heard, the face that appeared among the bushes was not of the enemy soldiers nor a violent wild animal.
However, He was struck with astonishment after he'd seen the face that he was longing for, suddenly resurfaced in the middle of the forest.
"Who are you?" asked the woman who was still hiding behind the bushes
"Huh?" Xiao Song frowned. Something is amiss here!
"You're bleeding!!" she exclaimed. Seeing that he was in precarious state, the woman abandoned her initial suspicious and ran toward him.
Xiao Song's legs giving in and he began to sliding down to the ground. He could barely felt the woman shaking his body as he slowly losing his consciousness.
***********
A few months after the Concubine Rong arrived at the palace
"Your Majesty, the new concubine refused to eat. She insisted to seek audience with Your Majesty" the Elder Eunuch delivered the message to him.
"Wanting to see me? Is she's going to implore for me to release her 'brother'" he asked the servant. Elder Eunuch was one of the few servants whom he decided worth to keep when he decide to revamp the entire palace;s servant.
The first reason was because he served the previous emperor and empress. Xiao Song believed that it was enough to indicate that the Elder Eunuch was a professional who knows well about his scope of job.
The second reason was due to his affiliation with their uprising incident. He was the one who sent the letters from to his father after the previous emperor's death.
Hence, this man knew too much and a danger to his reign if he were to be let loose in the public. Therefore, Xiao Song decided to keep him around. He proved to be a good eunuch as he made things easier for him.
"This…. ahh….this servant believe that it was indeed the concubine's intention"
"Hmmm….." when he first forced her to get back to the palace, he naively believe that she would get back her lost memory. Seems like he was wrong.
"Tell the concubine that I will only meet her if she decided to fill her stomach first"
The servants pay obeisance before removing himself from his study room. Now, there were only the two of them in the room.
Xiao Song turned his attention toward Lu Zheng who was siting silently on his seat.
"Do you know is there any way for me to restore her memory?"
"Huh…" the doctor let out a heavy sigh.
"Your Majesty…"
"Call me Xiao Song. There's no one here" He interject. It was weird to see his best friend being all proper while he was known to be as a person who gave no heed toward propriety in the first place.
"Your…MAJESTY. This lowly subject believe that there is no cure for this problem" Xiao Song flinched as soon as he heard Lu Zheng insist on calling him Your Majesty. Lu Zheng had left the capital the morning after the uprising incident. When he came back, their relationship turned cold as the genius doctor seemed trying to distant himself from him.
Deep down inside, Xiao Song knew that Lu Zheng disagree with this turned of event. He used to blatantly said to him that Xiao Song was not cut out to be the emperor. The sentence may caused other people to lost their head, but Xiao Song knew that his blunt friend was only telling the truth.
Only ten years had passed but Xiao Song had already turned into a haggard man that was the shell of his past self. He felt exhausted with the burden and responsibilities that come with this position.
Not that he didn't know what he was getting into. It was just it was very exhaustive he didn't feel like living.
"There must be some way right? A cure….or something that could help her get her memories back"
"Xiao Song, listen to me. As the maid had told us before, the drug that she drank 10 years ago was the White Bell Poison. It was used to erase someone's entire memories. This poison originated from a mysterious healer from the north. I've been there and it was quite popular and can easily be found in the apothecaries. But…" he stopped for a while.
"But…. despite the poison being easily attainable, no one dared to consume it as there's no cure available for this specific poison. Those who had chosen to go through this route knew very well that there is no way turning back" He explained.
" There's no way….." Xiao Song still refused to believed it. He knew that one day, his wife would get back her memories.
" Based on what the maid had said, she opted for real fatal poison with the intention to end her own life but was switched into White Bell Poison by the guard. I guess, this is the best for both of you. Why don't you give up on restoring her memories and began with a new chapter?" Lu Zheng suggested.
"No. How can one start a new beginning when there are so many unsettle issues between both of us"
" Do you think she wanted to have her old memories back?"
"She have too -"
"Don't be selfish!" Lu Zheng's sudden shout was unprecedented. Xiao Song was taken by surprise as he had never seen Lu Zheng being so emotional as this.
"Lu Zheng…."
"I'm sorry but hear me out. This wife of yours opted to end her life as things had became unbearable for her. She was bestowed with new life when her servant decided that he was not going to let her die. Either way, I believe that she had chosen this path. Isn't time to honored her decision?"
While Xiao Song perfectly understood the logic behind Lu Zheng's reasoning, but he still need the long overdue discussion that he wanted to ahve with Liu Shi.
"But. What about me?"
"About you? Is this the right time to think about your need? Instead of what's best for her?"
"I was also a victim?"
"Both of you are victim! You were the victim of her manipulative self and she was the victim of the royal dysfunctional family" Lu Zheng aggressively gotten up from his chair. He reached for his medical sack before proceed to leave the room. He stopped just beside Xiao Song and gave his last advice.
"Both of you are the victim of cruel fate and circumstances. Stop held each other accountable for this turn of event. Better if you do the honour of turning a new leaf. Forget everything! Start anew!" Lu Zheng was practically seething in front of Xiao Song's face.
"Why you are so upset about our business?" Xiao Song asked suspiciously.
Lu Zheng reached for his medical sack before turning away from him.
"Because it is difficult to see two mere mortal trying to fight against the heaven's fate" he walked out of the room still filled with anger.
He then left the emperor who was standing in his study room.
'I shouldn't get involve with them in the first place'
********
*Present *
"No! You are lying !!" Concubine Rong shouted loudly at the emperor. She began to shrugged violently to escaped from his tight grip.
"I'm not ! This is the truth! It was your past! My past!" he shouted back at her while his hand was gripping her arms tighter than he did just now. He need to let out the heavy burden that he had bottle up for thirteen years out of his system.
"No! I am Mo Chou! I am the people of Yan Kingdom! I lived in Peony town with my brother! I had been there for 10 years! I knew everyone in the town! You cannot deceived me with this man made tale!"
"Then tell me - my dear! Do you remember anything beyond the ten years you have been living in Peony Town? About your parents? Grandparents? Or anything? " the emperor challenged her.
Concubine Rong turned her head to her side trying to recall any memories past the last ten years she had been living in Peony Town. Nothing! She couldn't find anything!
"I…."
"No you cant remember anything right? That's because you are Liu Shi!" At this point Xiao Song was also equally hysterical as Concubine Rong.
Sister Meng bursted through the door. She was alerted by the flustering servants about the sound of people shouting from the concubine's room.
She tried to disengaged both of them from each other, but the emperor wont budge. He looked as if he was possessed by a demon at the moment.
Meanwhile, all these shocking revelation made Concubine Rong's head throbbed with acute pain. It was becoming much more prominent as she was arguing with the emperor.
"Your Majesty, please release the concubine! She is heavily pregnant Your Majesty!" Sister Meng almost yelled at the emperor's ear.
The words however managed to pulled him away from his blinding wrath. The emperor let loose his tight grip on the concubine's arms. His face began to show the signs of remorse and regret. He reached out to the concubine's face tried to check on her condition.
Unfortunately, the whole chaos had exhausted the concubine until she had no energy left to help her stay awake.
Her body slumped into the emperor's embrace. The last thing she could heard was the emperor's panic shout for the servants to call the physician.