My face was wet when I opened my eyes. Day had broken.
For a short, euphoric moment, I didn't remember where I was.
Then it all came crashing down.
Sitting up, I did my best not to cry out as my limbs screamed in protest from sleeping on the floor the whole night.
Wiping my face with my hands, I shut my swollen eyes and rubbed them hard. I had to get myself together.
If I could survive so many awful things in the past, this imprisonment was nothing.
Standing up slowly, I felt the blood rushing down to my numb feet. Taking the cloak I had been sleeping on, I tied it around myself.
The men were still there when I slid the doors open. It looked like the Empress had not returned back to the Han Manor - though I expected that she wouldn't. If she succeeded, she would be living in the Palace once more.
If she failed... We wouldn't hear another word from her. But if Zheng and his mother were anything alike, she wouldn't do something she didn't have much confidence in.
