The breeze of autumn unfolded the bloody fragrance it carried from the battlefields all the way to the unnerved Royal Palace of a Kingdom which borders had recently heard the approaching echoing roars of war drums.

Inside the panic-stricken Royal Court, the rueful and distressed cries of the Ministers rose louder and louder, making the rapid steps of an urged and young Royal Eunuch inaudible as he sprinted towards the golden dragon throne from behind, whispering to his King when he reached his side, “His Majesty, the Princess… Princess Wei Yue is… is dead.”

Because of the commotion, his whisper sounded lower, almost getting swallowed by the unsettling clamour; however, the King still had a clear hearing of the words ‘Princess’ and ‘dead’ so after a second, he came to realize what his Royal Eunuch had said, “What? How?” he promptly asked with the discretion of the ruler he was.

The Royal Eunuch half-bended in reverence, replying lowly and shaky, "This loyal servant asks for His Majesty's pardon… the Princess… Her Highness took her life after finding of the marriage with the Emperor of Qing."

Hearing no reply, the Royal Eunuch bowed his head more and added with fear, “This loyal servant never thought tha…”

“Enough, We understand,” the King said as a light of contemplation passed through his aged dark eyes.

Silence seemed to encompass the King that even the Royal Eunuch didn’t hear the increasing noise in the hall as he waited for his King next words.

Moments later, the King said at the yet to straighten up Royal Eunuch, “Prepare Yu Lian as it was Lin Lian also… deal discretely with Lin Lian’s matter.”

Yu Lian? But that is… the Royal Eunuch thought with a shiver, blurting involuntary, “H-his Majesty, but the Fifth Princess is the Crown Prince’s fav…”

“Do We have to repeat Ourselves?”

The Royal Eunuch came back to his senses with cold sweat all over his body, he had forgotten his place, “The Fifth Princess will be ready as well as all the preparations with the utmost discretion,” he said the best he could before giving his respects and dashing back to carry out his King’s commands.

The King didn’t pay heed to the Royal Eunuch changing the subject, what he hated the most was useless apologies when he was already running out of patience; that Royal Eunuch was young and had just recently joined to the King’s personal Royal Eunuchs but he still clearly knew it, hence he was able to evade the worst possible scenario.

Down in the main hall, a man in his late twenties clad in dark pink official robes, who was one of the little people who remained quiet at this situation as he knew about the plans of the King, overheard the conversation that took place at the throne as he was proficient in martial arts, and was now in deep contemplation. At long last, after having just shook his head full of dark brown hair, he pressed his thin lips and made a slight gesture with his hand before going back to stare at the noisy bickering.

A shadow in the darkness saw its master’s gesture and understanding the command, nimbly vanished, going out to execute the task.

*****

Even though the atmosphere in the Royal Palace was wreck-nerving that reached even the most recondite of its places, there was a courtyard in the inner Royal Palace whose people were completely uncared about the bloody tragedies of war-related matters. 

The courtyard’s layout was simple and wasn’t very big as it only had five chambers; from above they looked like a four petals’ flower. There was quietness in the air and no servants could be spotted in the yards. The four outer chambers were silent as well and only the main chamber in the middle had whispers of life.

 “…139 taels of silver.”

“That much?! The amount of gold and silver had double despite the war?

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"Are you sure you haven't read wrong, big sister Su'er?" A pretty thirteen-year-old maid wearing pink and white robes asked with sheer incredulity as she leaned towards a beautiful maid in her twenties clad in the same set of robes to peek on the paper she was holding.

“Hua Si,” a charming but cold female voice called before the maid named Su could reply.

Hua Si shifted her pair of dark eyes from the list to the languid young girl who was leaning her back against the bedhead while eating juicy grapes on the soft bed steps before them. She blinked, waiting for the young girl to finish the grape she had just bitten with her pearly teeth.

At length, after licking the juice on the fingers of her right hand, the young girl turned around. She had a unique beauty that couldn't be matched; her crimson lips were charming but her black bottomless eyes were cold like ice, and her silky knee-length black hair highlighted perfectly both qualities, giving off a surreal feeling.

Though both maids had been serving her for years, they couldn’t help but be dazed till they heard her said:

“It seems you haven’t been studying the other lessons,” a reproaching tone was added to her charming and cold notes.

Hua Si blushed instantly after hearing the sentence. It was the truth that she spent more time studying martial arts than the other fields; in fact, lately, she hadn't been studying the other topics she was supposed to.

“Haa~ Si’er, your skill in martial arts had truly earned you a place beside me but the other fields are equally important; you mustn’t forget.”

“Yes,” Hua Si answered with her head down; she didn’t dare to look up at her master, she had let her down.

Before silence descended into the chamber, the young girl of unique beauty said as she arranged some messy tufts of dark hair of her forelock with her left hand, “Su’er, is there anything you want to discuss?”

“…” Hua Su looked into her master’s eyes; she was found out, “Is it really all right to not have more people here to oversee the Royal Palace’s movements?”

“Pfft.

“Su’er, despite looking so cold and collected, you are the one who worries the most.” Her laughter reached her cold eyes, making another dazzling sight.

“You don’t worry, if something big happens, we will eventually know.” She picked a grape from the bowl with grapes to her right, thinking, If something interesting really happens, it will be good…

I’m dying from boredom.

"…" Hua Su didn't say anything else and just bowed before dragging a still-depressed Hua Si to a nearby wooden table to explain her some basic things about business.

However, her little lesson didn't take long to end as it was stopped when both maids heard hurried footsteps approaching the courtyard.

The young girl also heard them but she didn't stop her right-hand fingers from feeding her mouth with juicy grapes.

When the steps entered her courtyard, the young girl suddenly said, “Su’er, you must be blessed.

“Your words can move the heavens,” her words were full of charm—she was pleased.

Hua Su wasn’t pleased and a light frown could be found on her cold face, why had she run her mouth out?

Though Hua Si usually made light of things, this time she had an uncomfortable feeling when she heard the approaching steps, making her look back at her master; the urgency she heard from the steps didn’t seem normal that she even could swear that there was fear within them.

“Si’er, don’t stay still.

“Hide anything that wasn’t given by the Crown Prince to our master.”

“…” Hua Si heart shook when she heard Hua Su words. She drifted her sight to her and she saw her arranging the chamber, I do really need more training, and she hurried to do the same.

The young girl had yet to stop eating grapes. She just lay completely on the soft bed to look lazier. She wasn't worried about anyone seeing her like that; she was supposed to be a useless Princess that just happened to be well liked by the Crown Prince, after all.

When the owners of the hurried footsteps entered the main chamber, they immediately spotted the person they were looking for as there wasn’t a division screen and the veil of the bed was drawn.

The young Royal Eunuch, who was leading a group of fourteen palace maids, couldn't help but drop his eyes after catching a glimpse of the Fifth Princess, Yang Yu Lian, he was ordered to prepare. The rumours were true, she was a good-for-nothing Princess; moreover, she was clad in a dark robe made of thin fabric, and lay on the bed without a sense of decency despite knowing that people were seeing her—he couldn’t believe it—how could the Crown Prince favour such a Princess? He grieved in his heart.

After a long length of hearing no opening from the Fifth Princess, the young Royal Eunuch finally said with his head bowed, “Her Highness, this loyal servant has come to carry out the will of His Majesty, the King.

“Her Highness must be prepared immediately to set out at night to marry the Emperor of Qing.”

Eh? The Fifth Princess' hand that was in her way to place the last grape of the bowl on her crimson lips to bite it stopped a little before resuming its way.