Ten days later
Xuan Cheng sat on the floor, supporting her body loosely against her grandmother's bed, her puffy eyes and swollen cheeks were the signs that she had accumulated a bag full of tears and cried last night again.
Her pale and dull complexion darkened the wrinkly area of her eyes, and her unenergetic body made the servants and maids cry for her too, they sympathized with her, while they themselves felt hollow and empty after the old princess's death.
She wanted to visit her grandmother's burial ceremony secretly, but she could not cross the threshold of her mansion, as if her body reacted against her will as if it obeyed the instruction left by her grandmother, which was to move to the Imperial City after the 10th day of her burial.
Xuan Cheng clenched the white jade pendant with a purple tint that belonged to her grandmother, it was the only thing she treasured beside her, a whole ten days had passed, and yet she could not let go of the anguish that kept refilling tears in her eyes.
"Grandmother, why did you not tell me someone poison you?
Who was this person that you covered for him even though he harmed you?
Is it your son? or someone else?
I knew you will have to leave me eventually, I prepared myself for the same...
But I failed because I can't control myself...I miss you....
I wish you could beat me more, and scold me more..." Xuan Cheng's eyes rained tears that fell on the jade pendant, she muttered to herself as she hugged it.
All alone in the room that once belonged to her grandmother, her bedsheet, her incense burner, her jade pendant, her absence made her feel more and more empty.
Ever since she came to her grandmother, she was too young to realize the reality of the world, that her father had thrown her away and she was fated to be loved by her grandparents.
She was naive and innocent, crying for her parents, who heartlessly abandoned her, and never contacted her. For twenty years, she had been as good as dead for them. When she met her father again when her grandfather died, he ignored her.
For him, her value was nothing more than a broken piece of earth pot. It was that time when she developed a hatred for him, and for everyone she heard was family. Her mother, her brothers, her uncles, her aunts, her cousins, and the entire clan except for her grandparents.
She took the risk of losing her neck and charged forward boldly to earn money with her skills, and expanded the business in the darkness of night, slowly involving her trusted aides, and recruiting more and more people, building her prestige.
The prestige she remembered her grandfather maintained even when his wife was house arrested, he chose to live with her and be punished with her. It was her grandfather who bought over fifty slaves to serve his wife.
However, when he died, the secret that he kept slaves without the emperor's punishment spread and the slaves were all taken away, and that time the private wealth of the Grand Imperial Princess and Prince was confiscated.
Even though she was too young, Xuan Cheng remembered everything vividly, the time when her grandmother had to get up and cook for herself as she went through a tough time after losing her husband.
She had to wash the dishes and do the laundry, the mansion was huge, and there was no way she could keep it all clean at the old age she was in. Tall grasses had covered the garden, and climbers had invaded the courtyard which was never visited by the old princess.
There were times when the two of them had to sleep on empty stomachs and they were times when her grandmother nearly died starving, and mere fever almost invited the Angel of Death.
The servants who were delegated with the task to bring them food, and medicine always slacked and neglected their duty, all these things injected in Xuan Cheng's heart a desire to survive for the sake of revenge, for the sake of lost prestige.
Knowing that it was forbidden for her to buy slaves and keep eunuchs retired from the palaces of other royal families, she had to make a situation in which the emperor become helpless and ignored them.
To achieve this, she spread rumours of her grandmother being maltreated by the imperial clan despite having so many contributions. She played with commoners' opinions and heated the gossip to resentment.
This angered the elders of the Imperial Clan who condemned the emperor, he had no choice but to ask Xuan Wei, his prime minister to send allowance to the old Princess, and from then onwards the entire Imperial Family turned a blind eye to any complaint against the old princess.
It is difficult for a young child to do everything alone, but the situation made her more mature than anyone could imagine, still, she wasn't lonely, her grandmother promoted her, she took the words of the young girl seriously and executed many plans on her behalf.
However, even she was fooled by Xuan Cheng's decisive nature who hid her talents from her only guardian. The fact that she broke through the Tian Limit of Cultivation was only known to her close attendants, Eunuch Jiu and Maid Huan.
Xuan Cheng grew up mastering several arts, like painting and embroidery and sold them secretly in the night markets held once a week, she would disguise herself as an old woman and make the deals.
It didn't take her long to make a fortune, she earned a name, and her artworks became popular under the name of 'Xing Xi' which meant galaxy. She hired people to renovate and bribed the local officials to not report any changes taking place in her mansion.
She then contacted a slave trader, who only had a small business that she ran after her husband's death, with the help of Xuan Cheng, the slave trader became filthy rich.
As Xuan Cheng funded her bought over a hundred female slaves, and only chose one among them after a long process of selection, the rest were left for the slave trader's Will.
Just like that, she chose over forty-five female slaves and five eunuchs, including Eunuch Jiu.
The slaves who turned twenty-five were given the choice to leave. She graded them from wood to bronze to silver, and taught them well, according to what the Imperial Palace followed, it was all thanks to her grandmother, who guided her with it.
She was only responsible for earning, at the age of fourteen she had earned enough to do all these things under the wings of her grandmother, and then at the age of fifteen, she had to take over the management of the mansion since her grandmother was too old and sickly.
However, Xuan Cheng was more than her grandmother thought her to be, she didn't only sell her artworks and become the breadwinner, she cultivated herself and learned the art of medicine and poison, and traded in medicine too after becoming the steward of the house.
Lying on the floor, Xuan Cheng sobbed for hours, she could not get used to the emptiness and void, and her heart ached badly, twisting and turning vessels of her blood and Qi made her vulnerable.
"Your Highness, there is a secret letter from Mama Li," Eunuch Jiu reported hesitating.
"Hmph..." Xuan Cheng raised her eyes to look at him, her face glued to the furnished floor of the room, her untied hair covering her back like a blanket.
"A letter from Mama Li..." he repeated himself, feeling extremely bad for his master Xuan Cheng, she had faced many great losses in business but she never shed a tear, even when her grandfather collapsed frequently before her death, she hardly showed signs of panic and fear.
Seeing her breaking apart like that, made him feel sympathetic for her. He wanted her to get up and pull herself together, because not only him, all other slaves depended on her.
"Read it for me," she mumbled in a low, wheezy tone.
"Dear Princess, Her Majesty is now resting in peace, and ten days have passed since her burial, as instructed by her, I request you to move to the Capital City.
I have lived in the Palace of First Pillar, your father's mansion all this while, and there is something I must inform you.
Your mother, Madam Xuan is not doing well, and I assume you can save her, I humbly request you to make haste," Eunuch Jiu read the letter in a serious fashion.
"Why must I?
She abandoned me..." Xuan Cheng refused.
"She is the one who gave birth to you, after everything, she is your mother," he reminded her, Xuan Cheng rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue, annoyed.
"I have no energy to move, send Lady Physician Mo to her then," she commanded.
"I have prepared the Forest Elixir for you," he pulled inside a small round box from his wide sleeves and presented it to her.
"I will eat it later..." she tried to avoid him.
Just as she did, Maid Huan appeared out of nowhere and held pinned her hands above her head with her right hand and with her left hand, she cupped her mouth to open it.
Eunuch Jiu hurried and placed the pill inside her mouth, and they both let her go, as the pill went down her throat, Xuan Cheng was left bewildered at the audacity of her servants.
"How dare you!" she stood up and yelled at the two who looked like they had not moved an inch from their courteous. Looking all innocent and guilty-free.
She gave them a death stare, glaring at them as if she would tear their flesh apart like a wolf and feed them to scavengers.
"I assume you have already prepared for the trip," she blabbered, raising her hand in the air, Huan moved forward and helped her up.
"Your Highness, it's a tough situation, we must help you," Eunuch Jiu glued his gaze on the floor and responded.
"I still want to remain here, I can't leave my home just like that," she looked around and spoke.
"Moving to the capital will only give you benefits; you can look for the culprit who poisoned Her Majesty," Huan advised.
"Okay, I will listen to you two in this matter, I must fulfil my grandmother's wish," she inhaled heavily and finally agreed.