Chapter 31: The Assassination (1):

Li Tian You's perspectives:

So after 4 days of travelling on a horse, I arrived at the palace with a day spare. I immediately made my way to Qing Chi palace where my father took the energy to reprimand me, though I knew this was the calm before the storm. Tomorrow would be the storm and I was expected to stay there for at least 1 hour. Uhhh when you are born in the royal family marriage was never a choice. I think my strategy tomorrow would be to tell her how I first met Xin'er and convince her to stop what she's thinking about. Let's hope it would work.

The next day:

At noon I arrived at the imperial garden wearing a white outer layer hanfu and grey inner layer hanfu. On the inner layer, there was a single crane embroidered over it, with a grey belt typing it together. As for my hair, two of my front pieces were cut up to my chin and my hair was tied up into a ponytail with a hairpin stuck onto it. I was holding a fan that had cranes drawn on it.

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As for the princess she was already seated in the pavilion located in the middle of the garden for his majesty and father they were sitting on the pavilion opposite us. Far enough that they could see us but not hear us. She had dolled up compared to me just finding a hanfu out of my closet. She was wearing all pink Hanfu with her outer layer as a lighter shade of pink than the inner layer, the outer layer was silkier. her hair was done up into two little plated U sign braids with the rest just flowing freely, these were tied up with pink ribbons. Her head was painted with the lotus flower sign and too much makeup on her face making it seem too puffy and pink.

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" Li Tian You greets the third princess," I bowed holding the fan within me. " You gege please call me Chiu Yeung," she whispered coquetry. " Third princess we aren't that close please call me Tang Ge," I answered whilst taking a seat and pouring myself some Jasmine tea. "Third Princess I won't start with the small talk I get right into the topic shall I?" I asked as she nodded " I think both of us know we aren't committed towards this meeting. Your whole purpose is just to get rid of Prince Sithuka's approaches as for me, my whole life has been arranged for me but at least I want to decide on my marriage. I don't like you and I know you don't like me, even if we get married we wouldn't be a happy couple. I've someone I like even if we are married, I would make sure she becomes my concubine. When you're born in the royal family nothing everything is arranged for you. What sort of life is this when you can't decide for your future?" I explained ' I know I sound like a bastard of a man but for both of us it might be better to make sure she knows that even if we get married my heart would not be with her. " Childe why can't you try to accept my love? I love you the sun and moon could be my witness. What did that women do to make you in love with her so much? The most she is probably born noble but she can never be above me in society wise, I think I'm more a better match," She babbled. ' How dare she, who does she think she is? My love for Xin'er isn't something that happened overnight, how could she ever compare?'

" Xin'er isn't born from noble birth," I commented. " Then she just a peasant how could she compare to being a princess?" She gushed. I slam the table hard with my hand causing a small vibration to happen as I asked, "So what?" smartly she had brain cells enough not to reply, I got up from the chair and began my speech. "Although Xin'er is a commoner she has the heart of gold better than any princess or noble ladies who only want the princess consort place or they just want to get closer to the emperor none of them is true to their words. For starters, Xin'er never even knew I was a prince yet she still treated me the same for this point you were already beneath her. Although I'm not always in the capital I did some digging you use to have a friend, what's her name? ah yes, Rong Xin daughter of Duke Lin*(1). But when Duke Lin was accused of treason and was on preparation to be executed I believe Rong Xin asked you once to let her see her father before his death but what did you say? ' I don't know who you're get off me you daughter of a criminal'. She treated you so well how could you be so cruel to her? Anyways since young Xin'er loved animals and had a kind and considerate nature but what about you? Another rumour was that a few months ago you killed another batch of guards just because they failed to stop a cat from entering your palace. You even killed the cat, what did they ever do to you? Even if you don't like animals you can just remove them why kill the guards on duty?" I explained.

"You think you are any better? Although I wasn't able to find anything about you but, since you said you love this Xin'er so much. Why haven't you married her?" shouted Princess Chiu Yeung. "I would have if I could but know she's already a married woman..." I answered quietly " But since that's the case you should move on with it and accept a new life," she whispered. "Life doesn't work that way..." I replied. I would have continued but we were interrupted by Eunuch Wang shouting " Help! Help! Guards! Guards protect the emperor there are assassins!".

Glossary:

1. He has a son and a daughter but they disappeared when Duke Lin died. He was gifted the title Duke Lin after his sister became the late empress.