Arriving at the Su mansion, i am given another lecture by my mother. Granny Li take care of Little peach when we step into the mansion.
"Can you please stop doing things that will shock me? My heart already in a bad shape. I might die because of one of your actions. Now your father have to come up with something to cover what you have done. Your father's spies might be wipe clean because of you. Prince Xian will find them all."
"You can't blame me. If i know father had plant spies around me, i won't be so rackless. "
"You dare to talk back? How much a trouble is boiling for this. How many of our men have die or injured for this? This might cause a fraction between Prince Xian and your father. Your father might not be in the military anymore but he have so many other generals who still keep in contact and still highly respected. What is going on in your brain?"
"Mother, have you forgotten, I am not that daughter that have grown up by your side. I am raised in the small province without any parents nor anyone who tells me who am i. Before this, i lived a life with freedom. I can't read nor write. I only know how to live my life with nature. I am dark skin with a temper. I don't think too much as life is simple. No one play with mind games every say what they wish to say. Nothing is hidden. Those people when they want to fight, they will fight. In this capital, no one says what they are thinking. Everyone hides their motives. Lies are built upon lies. Even that Tang Li who is in love with her husband, refuse to tell him. How on earth would that dingbat knows? "
"Dingbat? Who is this person?"
"Prince Xian, who else. He most shameless person in this capital."
"Oh my heavens! You can't call him that! He is of royal, blood and your husband! You need a good beating from your father! "
She keep quavering that i am a bad daughter and of course me talking back to her doesn't help. Granny Li comes over with little peach to smooth over the atmosphere. My mother seeing little peach, she becomes happier. Granny Li signal me to leave the room. I courtesy and left.
I spend a week in Su mansion. Not once did that dingbat appear in this mansion. My father told me he had spoken to him. Asking dingbat to let me go. Dingbat never reply but walk off. He continue to lock Tang Li in the room. Her clan who knows this, march to the mansion demand her release. Upon her release, she went to the camp and stay there. While the royal family sent a decree to Yu Bo Wu that he needs to marry Princess He Ching before he accompany dingbat on a military campaign before winter comes. Bo Wu marry the princess in a haste because of her character they just simply can't get along. Again, dingbat left for the campaign without a word. Little peach and i return to the Xian Mansion after a week he left. The servants are wondering what is going on but of course they won't say a word infront of me.
Another year pass. He never writes back home. Only military report are sent back to the emperor. The emperor who is in poor health had passed most of the duty to the crown prince. Everyone knows that the crown prince is preparing to ascend to the throne. The empress request to have little peach sent to the palace to be bought up as a proper princess. I strongly reject as she is the only child. and of course little peach is forcefully taken away. I am left all alone in this mansion.
Spending my days watching the day becomes night and night becomes day. Liu Xue An return to the capital he did not go to the desert as plan. He become my only friend in this capital. My ears and eyes to see beyond these walls. Soon news came that Bo Wu is badly injured and the royal physicians are sending him back home. Meanwhile concubine Liu is released from the royal temple because the emperor is on his death bed. She is told to be ready to go into the royal tomb with him upon the funeral is done. Her clan will be compensate with the highest honour and they will be given the title of Gong and all officials in the family to be move a rank up.
Another bad news came to me. Dingbat is missing on the battlefield. I don't know to laugh or cry with that news. The emperor died on that day when the news came from the battlefield. While Liu Xue An is preparing himself that his sister will be buried alive once the ritual is done. His clan started to get busy with her funeral even though she is still alive. We are two people who lost someone in the family. The crown prince is set to be coronate immediately because the royal astronomers and the prime minster are saying that the country cannot go on without an emperor. My father came to my mansion in a haste. He moved me back to the Su mansion. I dis not asked him why but just follow along. Like a bird in the cage, i moved from cage to cage never able to spread my wings.
The day the new emperor sits on the throne, a decree arrives at the Su mansion. As tradition decree, the property of the dead brother is to pass to the other living brother this includes the wives and children. Therefore i have to move to the palace as a concubine. When the eunuch read it, my mother brust of crying. It's like i'm marching to my death. My hope for freedom is completely destroy.