Chapter 12 Fireworks and a Stillbirth
At the New Year, officials from every region came to the capital with congratulatory tribute.
The emperor hosted a banquet. The hall was full of cheer.
I was the mother of the future Crown Prince. Of course I had to attend.
When I rose, a faint pain started in my abdomen again. Suyue had already dragged me to this day. It was the limit.
I needed this child to vanish before every eye, and then I would push Xu Liuyi onto the stage.
I dressed in full splendor. I put on the brightest robes and every jewel I had.
But as we set out, Suyue was suddenly detained. It was Li Yuancheng's order. The reason was that she had hidden her identity as a criminal physician's daughter to enter the palace, and was unfit to serve at my side.
Now I was certain. Li Yuancheng had fully remembered the last life.
He had been dreaming without stop. Sometimes in those dreams I heard him speak of things from the last life. That was memory, waking piece by piece.
I told Suyue not to be afraid. I would save her.
She shook her head, firm. "Lady of Excellence, you must save yourself first."
At the great hall, I sat and endured the discomfort.
Li Yuankuo sat across from me. From time to time he glanced at me, as if he had something to say.
Xu Liuyi leaned in and said softly, "His Highness Prince Huan still seems unable to forget you, Younger Sister."
I answered, "Elder Sister is joking."
"I am not joking. We all know His Majesty once meant to marry you to Prince Huan. Then, for reasons no one knew, he changed his mind and bestowed you on His Highness the Crown Prince."
"Is that so? I never heard of it."
She saw I did not wish to engage, and smiled. "It is just as well you did not marry Prince Huan. That man will not live long."
I clenched my hands. "Can Elder Sister read fortunes?"
She said, "A little."
"Then has Elder Sister ever read her own future?"
She lifted the corner of her mouth. "Me? I will be favored all my life. No one will match me."
In the last life she had still waited until I finished giving birth before she held her head high.
In this life, she looked as if she did not want to wait a single moment.
I gave a soft oh. "Has Elder Sister heard a saying?"
"What saying?"
"A wish spoken aloud will not come true."
She gave a scornful hum and sat back in her own seat.
The palace banquet began soon. Strings and flutes, song and dance. It was lively enough.
When the fireworks were lit, the emperor took us before the hall to watch.
In the brilliant fire, Li Yuancheng suddenly took my hand.
In the last life, he had never done this.
Xu Liuyi stood at his side as well. She looked up and spoke to him, a happy smile on her face.
I saw her hand was in his sleeve too.
I pulled my hand back hard. He looked at me, puzzled.
The next instant, several assassins rushed at the emperor.
The crowd broke into chaos. Li Yuancheng pulled me back toward the great hall, and blood surged from my body.
It had come at last. I fell toward the floor, strength gone.
Li Yuancheng called my name in a panic. An assassin seized the chance to strike at him, but Li Yuankuo's sword blocked it.
Li Yuankuo shouted, "Take her away!"
Li Yuancheng carried me back to the inner hall. Before long, Xu Liuyi was escorted in by the Black-Armored Guards as well.
The women physicians treated me. Soon I lost the child.
It was a formed male infant, but he already had no breath.
Li Yuancheng stared at the fetus as if he could not believe it. The child he had raised with his own hands in the last life had, in this moment, stopped forever before his eyes.
Tears kept falling from his eyes. It was the first time I had seen him cry.
So he could cry after all.
The satisfaction dulled the pain in my body.
I looked weakly toward Xu Liuyi. Her face was pale as she stepped back, but the Empress stopped her.
The Empress said Li Yuancheng had already lost one child, and another child could not be left in danger.
She told Xu Liuyi to live in her palace from then on, under her own care.
She asked the emperor, "Your Majesty, what do you think?"
Xu Liuyi dropped to her knees at once. "Your Majesty, this subject cannot..."
The emperor swept her with a faint glance. "Cannot what? Are you unwilling to bear descendants for the imperial house?"
Xu Liuyi began to tremble. She could not speak another word.
I could see it on her face. The emperor was the man who had slaughtered three cities of Chen. To her he must have been hell, a demon of slaughter. She did not look as if she dared to resist.
She looked toward Li Yuancheng as if begging for help.
But Li Yuancheng still stared at the lifeless child in his hands. He did not answer her.
Xu Liuyi was taken away and confined in the Empress's palace.
Now she would have to bear that child, whether she wished to or not.
I could not hold on any longer. I fainted.