Lovely Blossoms

Inside the main house six women sat together in a dimly lit room. Elder Ruolan, Hualing, and Lady Meirong sat in the prominent seats. The two secondary wives Second Lady Biyu and Third Lady Chen one the opposite side. Concubine Chou was seated farther away from the wives, but still allowed in to discuss the what the fifteenth bell meant. There was a truce at this moment. A house united during a time of great duress.

"We can't sit here all night discussing this," Lady Meirong said flatly. She was tired of this conversation. The solution was simple and she couldn't understand why these other women wouldn't go along with what she said.

"It's too harsh! And if someone were to find out....." Lady Chen choked out. Of all the women here she was the most frightened. She was prone to anxiety and could already feel the muscles in her stomach tightening.

"Who would find out? How?" Hauling said roughly. Even if there was a truce at the moment she didn't want any of them to think they were on equal footing, not even for a moment. Her sharp eyes glanced about the room, forgetting that they were at a critical moment in this household.

"I can't agree to it," Elder Ruolan finally spoke. "There has to be another way." She said this, but deep inside she felt that there was no way this would end well. Maybe she was just as selfish as her son.

"Why can't we hope that she would defend us? Possibly even help our family rise?" Lady Biyu said in her normal sweet tone.

"How foolish can you be? Did you eat horse dung this morning? Why would She say anything that would help this family? Not only that , the very fact that she has been hidden in that room. Not even a ceremony for her birth. .....f they were to come here and find her....." Lady Meirong let the words hang in the air. Everyone knew what would happen if they found her. If they knew that she had been kept away. She thought back to a few years ago when she had saw her peeking through her window as she headed out. The sadness and loneliness in her eyes had almost melted even her heart. If she had only tried then... but there was no way. The anger and disgust with her mother was too much, it was like waves that crashed over the child.

The fifteenth gong strikes could only mean one thing. Prince Jianyu had been named the new Emperor. Prince Jianyu had taken the throne. Even though what happened within the palace walls was not something everyone knew about, the matter between Prince Jianyu and the Emperor was known by everyone, even those from other countries.

Every since the Emperor had Fen Hua's father killed because of the alleged attempt to overthrow the throne, Prince Jianyu had become an animal. The only thing that kept him alive all this time was the force of his gift. He alone among the royal family could be called Prodigiously Gifted. From a young age he had been able to call fire from his hands. Later the fire could come and go at will with little to no thought. A true son of the royal line. His gift even outweighed his brother Zhu, who had been the one to frame Prince Xiaowen twenty years before.

Of course Baek Zhiqiang had not known Prince Xiaowen was being framed at the time. In fact he thought he was doing his duty as a soldier, as a citizen of the Great Tanyeong Nation. It was only a few years after that some of that plot had come to light. At that time Prince Jianyu had arranged for Baek Zhiqiang to come forward and testify about what had happened that night. With him were close to fifty other men that had been under Prince Zhu at that time. Each one was asked what had happened. Each one told him, "Baek Zhiqiang under the orders of Emperor Jianguo captured Prince Xiaowen and led the soldiers as they slaughtered all the men of his clan."

Even Baek Zhiqiang had repeated this statement. He had the stupid idea that he was going to be rewarded. However after his admission Prince Jianyu's eye had seethed with hate. No one in that room was able to escape the heat that emanated off of him. Though no one was hurt, the power of the heat was overwhelming. Had he actually chosen to retaliate at that moment.....

"Did my brother ever mention my name?" He demanded. "Did he ever speak the truth? Did he ever tell you it was my army? My money? My plot?"

Most likely the only thing that had spared the men in that room at that time was the grief that followed that statement.

Prince Xiaowen had taken the blame, even allowing his own family to fall for him. There was something so debilitatingly horrendous at the thought of all those lives lost because of him. He thought of his sweet niece, Chunhua, the way that she used to run after him anytime he would visit, asking to see the 'spark' as she called it.

"Get them out!" He had yelled. Before the last of them had left he broke out in sobs. The sound somehow more haunting then even the lives that were lost to cause it.

From that moment on the Baek family could only be loyal to once prince. Prince Zhu. If Prince Jianyu took any power within the government that superseded that of Prince Zhu, they all knew that they would suffer. There was only one thing that could have saved them, and she was dead.

The love that Baek Zhiqiang had for Chunhua was well known within the kingdom. The fact that he lost most of his fortune and his status because of her somehow made him out to be a romantic, who had come to the rescue of a princess in distress. His love for her was deemed as pure as it could get, she had no status or money when he bought her after all. Only because of this idealistic relationship that had been borne in the minds of others, and soon solidified into fact, was their family even still alive at this moment.

They had already gotten reports that seven of the other ranking officers who had been part of Prince Xiaowen's capture, and eventual demise, were dead. Their bodies were on display in front of the palace for anyone to see. Their families were killed and their wealth stolen. There was nothing left of those men except the memories that haunted the kingdom now.