The black colored smoke wafted through the air, they were a few servants who stood and watched as the pyre burnt.
They intensely watched as the body in the pyre burned to ashes. Among the servants was a lady in black hanfu, she was sobbing to herself as no one even tried to console her.
The young lady had been crying ever since the cremation of her nanny began. While the few maid servants who had witnessed the cremation service were uninterested in speaking to her. Besides, what good thing did she ever do to them? They’ve came all the way from their quarters not to sympathize with the cursed princess but to pay their last rites to the kindhearted deceased.
Cai Ruolan couldn’t figure out the reason why everyone were looking at her through out the cremation service, was it because of the way she was crying?
Wang Eumeh wasn’t even ill, she just went to bed the previous night and never woke up.
Cai Ruolan watched as the smoke still went up the air, engulfing the atmosphere. She reflected back on the time when she was young, the time when the deceased would buy her sweets and beautiful clothes. She had never thought that she and her nanny would be separated by death.
“Let’s go continue our duties everyone, we’ve paid our last respect to midwife Eumeh” a tall girl servant said as she pulled the hand of the other girls.
Everyone left one by one, till Cai Ruolan was left alone at the cremation site.
She took off the black veil from her face since everyone already left and knelt in front of the pyre weeping uncontrollably.
“Wang mama, you left me alone here. You never told me all the secrets you wanted to tell me. Why must you leave me so soon Wang mama, please come back soonest. I can’t live without you”
Since Wang mama was a person who hated to see her cry, Cai Ruolan thought that perhaps her nanny would be awake. Wang Eumeh would do anything she wanted for her, but seems she wouldn’t be able to rise from death for Cai Ruolan.
She watched as the ashes flew to the sky, since no one was present, Cai Ruolan fetched a handful of ashes inside a little pot, that was the only remain of Wang Eumeh that’s with her, and she vowed to herself to take it with her to wherever she went.
She returned to her normal kneeling position, ‘I won’t leave you alone here, it’s isolated here’ she thought.
Cai Ruolan didn’t mind spending the cold night outside with the ashes even if it was dark, she was sure that nothing would scare her.
The cold breeze blew lifting some weightless ash from the ground, the atmosphere was too cold to the extent that her teeth began chattering, but she remained true to her words. She would spend the night there.
“Your majesty” a cold voice made her raised her head.
She turned back and saw the deceased younger brother.
Cai Ruolan stood up from the ground and walked towards master Wang Muchen.
“I’m sorry for this big loss” he tightly hugged her, as drops of tears were also falling from his eyes.
He was the first person that had consoled her, others who came just watched as though as they were above death.
“You need to remain strong, you know all what I had thought you, you still remember all what I’ve shown you since all these years” it sounded more like a question, but it wasn’t.
Cai Ruolan looked at his face and nodded.
“Good, then you must be like that. You were born to become a warrior, and a real warrior… “ he waited for her to complete the quote.
Cai Ruolan sniffed and added. “Never cries”
“Now you must return to the palace and watch out for a new star in the sky.”
Cai Ruolan wasn’t sure if she could sleep in the palace all alone. She wanted Wang Muchen’s wife to be by her side tonight, but she had three little children to take care of so she returned home as soon as the cremation began.
She also knew quite well that Wang Muchen would be leaving the palace for good, since his only sister was dead, then what’s the use of working there. Besides, he wouldn’t want to hear the other servants gossips about how Cai Ruolan killed his sister.
Cai Ruolan took one last look at the ashes on the ground then bowed to her teacher before leaving for her lotus palace.
She was already seventeen years old, and she had grown up to be a very beautiful and well mannered young girl.
Cai Ruolan wore back her veil, there’s a possibility that she might see the emperor at the courtyard, who would punish her by seeing her bare face.
She wouldn’t like to fall in the emperor’s barbarous trap in such a sorrowful day.
Indeed she was right, she saw her father, step mother, and step siblings all seating down on a mat at the courtyard eating what seems to look like a steamed buns and enjoying the garden view in the moonlight.
Cai Ruolan was tired of wondering why her father never looked regretful whenever he saw her. In fact, in his eyes, she looked more like a criminal that was about to be killed.
However, as she walked pass the courtyard, she wasn’t sure if she would want to greet the emperor and his household. She is the bereaved one so they should be greeting her, she never cared if they would even say a ‘sorry’ as she walked without even looking back at them.
“Cai Ruolan can’t you see us here?” the irritating voice of her step mother made her frown.
It’s been weeks since she saw her, and she was quite surprised by the way she was looking fresh and more younger every day.
Empress Hu Meilien stood up from the mat as she wore her shoes in a hurry. On her face was a look of anger and she was determined to teach Cai Ruolan a lesson.
Of course she was immensely beautiful, her daughters were her replica. She got a long black hair and thin red lips. With her appearance and looks, one would think that the empress was a kindhearted woman just like late empress Yang Jiaying, but she was a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Her daughters quickly stood up, wore their shoes and ran after her.
“Mother wait for me”
Hu Meilien opened all her eyes in rage. “Your dead nanny never raised you up well. She spoilt you and you grew up so mannerless” she spat.
“precisely” the second and third ranked princess Cai Qiaohui and Cai Suyin said in support as they stomped their right feet on the ground and blocked half of their faces with their fans.
Cai Ruolan slightly bowed. “Forgive me empress but I must leave” she turned back to leave when a pair of hands pulled her back.
“How dare you talk to my mother that way you dirt!” third prince Cai Yichen asked her.
Cai Ruolan pulled her hand from his grip, of course she was much older than him. And while she is seventeen years old now, Cai Yichen was only thirteen years old. She always wondered what he would have turned himself into if he was the emperor’s first male son and the crown prince.
Cai Ruolan was still bereaved, she never felt like quarreling with her step siblings, so she just turned back to leave.
“Father can you see that?” Cai Yichen turned to the emperor unbelievably. “She’s growing a huge pair of wings isn’t she father?”
Emperor Cai Huateng chewed his buns, and after swallowing, it he replied. “She had that huge pair of wings ever since she was born”
“Then we must do something about her” Cai Suyin folded her arms.
“Of course, I’m planning to get rid of her” the emperor took a sip of water from his cup.
“Very well then” the rage on empress Hu Meilien’s face vanished as soon as she heard the emperor’s last sentences.
Does emperor Cai Huateng still remembered the cursed he laid on her?
However, Cai Ruolan herself never knew much about her birth since her nanny never told her a word about it. She usually does ask her. ‘Wang mama, what does the hua on my shoulder means?’
‘Don’t you like flowers a lot?’ Wang mama would ask her back.
‘Yes I do’
‘Then that’s why you got the hua on your shoulder’
As soon as she stepped her feet inside her palace, Cai Ruolan suddenly became enveloped in fear.
She could barely walk as the only thing she saw were a pair of red eyes which shone brightly in the room. Cai Ruolan let out a long shriek as she felt that the creature with red eyes was swallowing her.