Political marriages are as normal as drinking water. One noble family with a grand title but no power would find another family with power and unite through marriage so as to co-share the power. Just like how my aunty married the crown prince because my maternal grandfather was the prime minister and the crown prince needed to solidify his position in court. And how my mother had to marry into a marquis household to gain military power to support her sister and the crown prince.
Everything went well until the crown prince succeeded the throne, made my aunty queen and even crowned his and her first son crown prince.
However mother couldn't take it anymore after eight years of marriage. Its easier to endure a loveless marriage but it's not when your husband and his mistress don't know how to restrain themselves. So one day when mother reached her limit, she waited for the perfect moment when her father-in-law was away… she took out the military discipline whip that is always kept in our family shrine and beat up every soul that supported the two and when she was satisfied she left.
Aunty took me in and raised me in the palace using the excuse of accompanying the princess since there are no idlers in the palace and my twin older sister was taken by a monk to a temple far away on the mountain for treatment. I would go home once in a while but most of the time I was accompanying the princess in classes and to play. For that on my coming of age ceremony I was granted the title "Wuxian yanu" typically "lady of infinite grace"
Then the same year the princess was married off to the new king of the neighboring kingdom for peace negotiations so my aunty vowed that I will be the only one who marries the one I love instead of for political gain and I did …
Oh Bai Rong xin my dear husband, I remember the first day we met was seven years ago. The princess was married and I was lonely, without my bestie around how could things be fine …. I just really missed her ; I missed playing mahjong with her , cross-dressing as young masters so that we could sneak into the imperial guards training grounds to get a good look at those well built bare chests then get punished by matron Pei for it. Like that time when I was twelve and princess thirteen the king wanted to appoint this really annoying girl from the duke household to be the princess partner so we waited that day when everyone was in the banquet ordered a eunuch to tie her in a sack then the two of us showered her with kicks while threatening her to decline the offer but then we we're caught with Matron Pei… again! This time she reported us to the queen and somehow the king found out so he said he would give us a befitting punishment. A week went by and we thought he forgot – well he didn't, he was just thinking about the best punishment and he finally had it . He found us a martial arts teacher…
"Since the princess and Miss Wu like to stretch their legs then let them learn how to do it properly." The grand eunuch said that that was what the king said .
At first we thought it was cool to learn martial arts but the more we kept going the more hard it because and master was so strict that we would go to cry to aunty begging her to speak on our behalf to the king and tell him we learned our lessons but she wouldn't agree and that is how I learned martial arts. With the princess present the palace was never boring but after she left nothing was worth a smile and the queen noticed how lonely I was so she would summon me to her palace over and over and make me run absurd errands like the day she told me to go pick her flowers from the imperial garden.
While I was picking the flowers I happen to catch a person gazing at me. He was beautiful and young. His skin was pale like he scarcely sees the sunshine except for his cheeks which were light pinkish like he had padded blush on them… he was blushing and It was cute.
Palace regulars wouldn't have such a honest look on their face and by the new red official court robes that he hadn't adjusted into I could immediately tell he was a newbie who recently inherited his father's position. That expression he had on his face like when a child sees a sugar figurine was so silly that I couldn't help but laugh at him.
Later the crown prince introduced him to aunty as his closest aide and friend and that is when I knew his name and we got to meet many times when the crown prince came to visit aunty.
Each time I looked forward to seeing him. I just found it hilarious how easily teased he was. I didn't have to put much effort to seducing him before his face would go red from blushing
"At this rate , Mister Bai will get a blood clotting on his cheeks" teased Susu my maid servant.
At first it begun out of fun … I enjoyed how shy he got when I barely did anything. Then I grew curious and more interested when I discovered his other charms. He was admirable when he defended his wrongly accused friend who was to be executed. Anyone could tell it was a hopeless strive but he didn't give up. I admired how he fought for his friend in every means and so I secretly lent him my power and saved his friend from execution to exile. This drew the king's attention that he asked me why I helped him and because I couldn't brush it off with a cliché reason like "I am helping the crown prince to secure loyal subjects" he wouldn't believe me because he knows me too much – he is typically my foster father . So I said something closer to the truth
"Maybe I was reminded of how the princess and I have each other's backs and I was moved."
When he held the sword, his skills were good given that he was a noble young master but if compared to my little brother who is a lieutenant then you could say his skills were mediocre. However his proud face made the whole air about him funny. I wrote many letters about him to my mother and she one day replied
"I feel like you like this young master because he is easy to bully."
Why would she say that, what exactly gave her the idea that I have the heart to bully such a sweetheart…