A/n : have fun reading!! :)

When both finally had calmed down, they went to look for some food in the kitchen. There turned out to be nothing... except for raw ingredients.

'Oh, whatever, I'll eat later,' Yin says with a pout on her face and turns around with slumped shoulders.

'Yin, I know you'll forget to do so, I mean, look at you!' Xia exclaims.

Yin looks at herself, finally realising that she really was in a terrible state... and she shrugs.

'Fine, I'll go cook something. Xia, bring me some rice-wine!'

Xia is dumbfounded, did she already forget about the talk they just had? And since when does she cook?

'Since when do you cook? I've never seen you do it before!' Xia exclaims in surprise.

Yin gives her a look, 'I could already cook a bit, but out there, you learn all sorts of thing, even cooking... sometimes it helped me get my mind of things while still helping the troops. Didn't you know that?'

Xia shakes her head, the silence prolonged as Yin continued cooking them a meal.

'Sorry,' Xia whispered, 'did I cross the line,' she asks when the silence becomes too much for her to bear.

'No, it's fine, it's just...' Yin sighs, 'I don't... these events are the main reason for me to be like... this,' she says and she points to her own body. 'They are the reason I don't sleep at night, they are the reason I lock myself up in my room...' Yin swallows the lump in her throat and hesitates.

'You know you don't have to talk about it,' Xia assures Yin, seeing the pain displayed all over her face.

Yin sighs again and nods. 'Thank you Xia.'

After a short period of time, Yin puts a meal on the table. 'Let's eat!' she says surprisingly excited. Yin and Xia dig in, but Yin was careful not to eat too much, she knew she would become sick afterwards.

When Xia was done and Yin only half way through, a servant came in, 'Mistress is looking for you, Miss Yin.'

With astonishment and with her mouth agape, Yin looks at the servant, did she really just hear that correctly, she wondered. The happy emotion on her face make room to a disgusted one as she puts her chopsticks down.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

'All right, take me to the old hag,' she orders as she gets up from her seat.

'But, Miss Yin, what about your food, you really need to eat,' Xia opposes.

Yin turns to look at Xia and with a blank face, she says: 'I believe I quite lost my appetite,' and she walks away.

---

'Mother, to what do I owe the pleasure,' Yin clearly and calmly speaks, she sobered up immediately when she heard her mother had asked for her.

'Daughter...' her mother's scrutinizing gaze observes every bit of her daughter's thin body with disgust. 'Please sit,' she finally says sourly.

'I think I prefer standing, mother.'

'So you can easily turn on me and run away from your duties again?' her mother questions with a sneer clear in her voice.

'Did you call for me just to humiliate me, or is there another reason for mother to call me? Otherwise I would like to go back to what I was doing...'

'Oh, please,' her mother stretches the last word, 'it's not like you have anything better to do than drinking all of our wine!'

Yin balls her fists in anger, if only the old hag knew... If only I could show her all I have done for her!

'Now, now, no need for such a vulgar stance,' her mother points out.

'Get to the point, hag,' Yin says, the last part she repeated only in her mind.

'An imperial edict has come... you know what that means, don't you?'

Yins eyes widen and she pales to a ghostly white, she's almost blends in with the white mourn clothes she was wearing. Her brain is working at full speed, she swallows the lump in her throat.

'You know it is not a possibility for me to go... I still am in mourning...' she croaks, her mouth had gone dry.

'For those mystery friends of yours? No, you will go and you will serve this family to your utmost extent! Am I clear?!'

'WHY do you ALWAYS do this?! WHAT have I done WRONG?!' tears burn in Yins eyes.

'Do NOT raise your voice to me, young lady! And you know the reason! You brought shame upon this family! A woman is supposed to be at home, having a family of her own, serving her husband! YOU on the other hand went off to play with the SOLDIERS!'

A hateful growl erupts from deep within Yin. 'You have NO IDEA AT ALL what I have been through, what I HAVE DONE for YOU, for BROTHER, for this ENTIRE EMPIRE!'

When she finishes her sentence, her mother slaps her across the face, hard, her head whips to the side. Yin is about to strike back when her mother says: 'Do not DARE to involve your BROTHER is this! It's your fault he died! You-'

'WHAT?! I SAVED him! Why can't you see that?! Why do I ALWAYS get the blame?!'

'You might have saved him, I will never know, but to what extent? YOU let him fall in the hands of the enemy! YOU KILLED HIM!'

All of a sudden, Yin is quiet, that last sentence had struck a chord inside of her. The once angry aura around her turns into one of deadly calm and her mother notices. It strikes fear into her heart, the sudden change around her daughter, her quietness and she herself stills as well.

With a sigh, Yin mutters: 'Fine, if this is what I have to do to get your approval, mother, I will do it, I will go... But don't ever think I'll come to your help when you need it.'

Yin turns on her heel and leaves her scared mother alone in the room, who collapses on the ground with tears burning in her eyes. She was losing yet another one of her children, for what? She only wanted what was best for them...