“Did you hear that miss Ruolan is getting married soon?” a lady in a lime green colored hanfu asked her fellow maids as she continued washing the dishes.
The other servant girls turned to look at the lady sharply. “Are you sure?” one of them asked raising a brow.
The lady shrugged as she turned a bucket of water into the bowl. “Do you think I’m lying to you girls? I overheard his majesty saying so”
The other girls listened with interest, this news just came as a surprise to them. But there was also one question in their minds that they contemplated whether to continue asking the scullery maid.
Who is marrying her!
The scullery maid laughed as she saw the confused expression on their faces, one could tell from their looks that they wanted more news. She chuckled to herself.
“But why are you girls suddenly interested? You all don’t like listening to me, you see my words as nothing but trash” she asked looking up at the other maid servant who had suddenly appeared in front of her.
“We don’t hate you Mo Che”
“Anyways, according to his majesty and what I also overheard from the princesses, miss Ruolan will be getting married to the crown prince of Huexiang” the girl said her last words more in a whisper, as she looked around to see if any other persons were coming.
“Haa!” the other girls gasped. They were very astounded to hear the news.
“Why?” one of them blurted out, even if she wanted to marry a man of nobility, she would rather prefer to marry a peasant than to marry the crown prince of Huexiang, as if the other girls weren’t aware, she added. “He kills girls. Everyone knows that”
Everyone nodded in support, they already left what they were doing and were all surrounding the scullery maid.
The scullery maid felt very glad, a lot of people surrounding her to hear more news and gossips it is really a dream come true, she decided to keep them more in suspense.
“His majesty knows that the crown prince does kill” she replied nonchalantly.
The girls looked more perplexed, “But do you think it’s fair to be losing miss Ruolan after he loses her mother during her birth?” one asked.
“Your can go ask him you know, then you’ll tell me whatever he said” Mo Che grinned.
“But I do pity her a lot, do you all know that she killed someone?” another probed, she also looked around before dropping the bombshell.
Even Mo Che was surprised but did not show it. Instead, she asked. “You are quite funny. Don’t you know that she hardly goes out?”
The girl who had brought the conversation laughed. “Well I wouldn’t have known though, it was when princess Tianai ordered me to prepare water for her bathe, princess Qiaohui came in and blurted it out without knowing that I was there. But they warned me not to say it out to anyone”
Others laughed, while others thanked her for confiding in them. “We also won’t tell anyone”
The girl was glad, she thanked them excitedly.
But it was a lie!
The maids all left for their other chores while they continued talking about the matter, some younger girls had even wrote the gossip down, and had promised to show it to their families whenever they got a day off.
Meanwhile, at the lotus palace. Cai Ruolan had turned the entire room upside down, what is it that she was looking for?
She was particularly searching Wang Eumeh’s bags and trunks.
She was sure that the deceased do keep a diary like other maid servants, so she could probably find her answers there.
But she had searched Wang Eumeh’s large brown bag, and even the blue unlocked trunk but she only found a few books and papers that she had read when she was little.
Some were poetry texts, calligraphies and others. There was nothing superior in them.
Cai Ruolan growled in frustration then sat down on the floor, ‘Wang mama where did you kept your diary, I’ll take it with me anywhere I go’ she looked up, she didn’t know when tears fell freely from her eyes.
But she had promised not to cry again, because even if she cries from now till the next two years, or even if her tears could fill a well, it wouldn’t bring her nanny back neither would it make the emperor change his mind.
She stood up from the floor and decided to continue her search.
Wang Eumeh’s room wasn’t that spacious, there were also no cupboard or shelves that she hidded.
‘Then it must be some where’
She went out of the room to the attic, she remembered that Wang Eumeh had stored most of her things there.
Cai Ruolan was surprised to see her childhood clothes and hair accessories inside an opened black box, different colors of shoes and even arrows were inside it.
Cai Ruolan took a maroon colored clothe from the trunk, she recalled lot’s of things just by seeing the clothe.
It was the clothe she usually wears when sparring with Wang Muchen, then she was around ten years old, and she recalled a particular day when she called Wang Eumeh her mother.
It had snowed heavily back then, so she told Wang Muchen that she would want to spar with him.
As usual, Wang Eumeh came up with two excuses. “Don’t go today dear, you’ll get cold. The maroon colored hanfu wouldn’t stop you from catching a cold”
“No mother I will, a warrior doesn’t and will never care about those” she had retorted while tying up her hair.
She gasped. “Did I just call you mother?”
They both laughed.
Seeing the dress and recalling the event made Cai Ruolan laugh and cry at the same time. “You… were like a mother” she muttered.
She folded the dress neatly and kept it back inside the box while she continued looking for the diary.
She saw a strand of hair kept inside a transparent white box, Cai Ruolan reached out for it.
She couldn’t remember whose hair it was, hers or Wang Eumeh’s since they were the only female in the house.
But once when she was little, Wang Eumeh had told her that she was going to the market.
Cai Ruolan had thought that Wang Eumeh would stay long at the market, so she opted for one strand of her nanny’s hair as a keepsake.
Wang Eumeh had laughed. “Of course you’ll have one strand of my hair, it’s possible I might die on the way”
Cai Ruolan was glad that she got another memory of her late nanny, even if all Wang Eumeh’s hair were burned with her body on her cremation day, she still got a lock of her hair.
Cai Ruolan searched the attic, but she never found any old book with her nanny’s handwriting, she only found more and more memories that made her feel nostalgic and even made her weep and laugh at the same time.