The Men at Her Feet

Chapter 11: He Cleaned The City From The Shadows.

Princess QingLuan’s tension loosen up as Fu SiNian left. Not even changing into new clothings, she laid down on her bed. The ups and downs from the previous night took a heavy toll on her body and she fell asleep immediately.

It was already sunset when she woke up. Her scarlet gown was shredded to pieces by Fu SiNian the yesterday night, she had no choice but to drag her sore and painful body to her closet.

Before she could call for her hand-maidens to prepare a hot water tub, a quick knock sounded through her door.

“Come in,” She answered gently. A hand-maiden she had never seen before entered her room.

“This servant is called JinShu. This servant was sent by Minister Fu to serve princess,” JinShu said as she kneel before Princess QingLuan.

JinShu? Is he sending me a love letter?* She thought sweetly, but her face quickly darkened as she remembered what an ass he was.

(*TNote: This is a poem in chinese “云中谁寄锦书来”, translates into “Who would miss me? Who would send me a love letter?

In this scenario, Fu SiNian sent her a hand-maiden with the name of “love letter”, as his action of missing her.)

“This is Minister Fu’s letter for you,” JinShu, who was still kneeling, said while offering QingLuan a letter.

Fu SINian’s flamboyant handwriting flashed in front of her as she read the contents:

Dear Princess, I have taken the initiative to replace every single servant in your princess’s palace quarters*. I have also assigned a few intelligent hand-maidens to you, in case the naive princess gets thrown into another conspiracy again.

She stared speechlessly at the letter. Just how huge was his authority over the palace, to be able to do something like replacing every servants in my palace quarters in less than a day… I’m not surprised that the Queen Mother wants him gone.

And she, a lowly princess with no authority, had to depend on her rapist, just to survive in this horrible place.

She sighed and passed the letter back to JinShu, before commanding her to prepare a hot water bath.

Princess QingLuan felt the stress in her body left her as she lowered herself into the hot tub, she laid her head on the tub and went deep in thought.

Her grandfather had a lot of women during his time as king, but the only woman who bared his child was Li Fei. But Li Fei, who had always been weak, passed away from maternal death. The little prince, Xie Yun, was raised by her grandfather’s Queen, now the Queen Mother.

When Xie Yun was thirteen, her grandfather managed to impregnate a palace servant, who gave birth to Xie Lang (An Wang). Xie Yun and Xie Lang differed in age and background, hence when the king passed away, the throne was passed to Xie Yun.

Xie Yun, being an adventurous teen, sneaked out on an adventure and met a commoner woman, it was love at first sight. And against the Queen Mother’s wishes, married the commoner woman. It was a happy life for the both of them, they had two children namely Xie QingLuan and Xie Zhao (current king).

The Queen Mother who had always been more concerned with power, couldn’t care less about this due to the fact that Xie Yun was a passive king. But though he was a passive king, he had passed an accord, allowing commoners into court as long as they have the ability to do so. They kept a low profile, on the orders by Xie Yun, so that they could be hidden right under the Queen Mother’s nose.

It was until King Xie Yun and his wife passed away from critical illness that the Queen Mother realized that the kingdom was no longer fully under her control. Many of her men, who had positions in court, had been replaced with new blood. She raged but there was nothing she could do.

Xie Zhao inherited the throne at thirteen, being too young to deal with politics, ministers were set in place to assist the young king. They were the three pillars of Xie Zhao’s court, namely the Queen Mother’s party filled up by the veterans from Xie Yun’s reign, the commoner-borned party lead by the prime minister Gu QingChen, and the military who was lead by Fu SiNian, the minister of military affairs.