Xia Niangniang - Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The Emperor came by himself to the serving quarter, lifted the curtain and entered the room.

The Blind Concubine was reclining by the edge of the bed. His arm was hanging low as if broken. His face bared a dejected expression.

The Emperor secured him in his bosom. With his arms he held him tightly. Said in a mutter: “Mu Yan, I have wronged you.”

It was seven years too late, this flat apology.

The Blind Concubine remained in his stillness. His lips quivered for a while, “This was the matter of past events, Your Majesty needn’t be concerned.”

The Emperor hurriedly lifted his head, “You have been loathing me, for many years, holding in your hatred, isn’t that right?”

The Blind Concubine coldly pushed the Emperor to pry open his embrace, “In any case, I wouldn’t be able to go back to my original state. What’s the point of talking about it?”

The Emperor couldn’t say a word. His hands remained in the tight embrace, unwilling to let go.

“The jade hairpin that I gave you, why don’t you put it in?”

The Blind Concubine lightly answered him: “Not used to wearing it, I casted it aside.”

The Emperor lowered his head, after a while, he raised his head again, “Whatever you are used to handling, I will order people to make it and bring it here.”

The Blind Concubine shook his head, “Whatever is in the Palace, I can’t get used to. I don’t want to stay here.”

The Emperor’s expression slightly changed: “You may not go out of the Palace, I will never let you go.”

The Blind Concubine closed his eyes, there was a trace of despair on his face.

The Emperor couldn’t bear to see him like that, “I am sincere towards you. From now on, I will always protect you. Shield you. I will not let anyone to hurt you anymore.”

The Blind Concubine sat silently, his weak and delicate body shivered with cold.

The Emperor’s lips gently touched his icy cold cheek. Slowly he said: “You… will you forgive me?”

The Blind Concubine, upon hearing what the Emperor had said, laughed in grief, “Will not! Even if I have to die, I will not forgive you!”

His voice was squeezed out from the space between his teeth. Mustering all his strength.

The Emperor didn’t say anything, just kept on embracing him, unwilling to let him go.

Before leaving, with a more serious manner of speaking: “I will never let you go. For all eternity.”

The Blind Concubine was paralyzed on the bedside. His face was without any reaction. Only his nails were sunken deeply into his flesh, the center of his palm now bled.

After the Emperor left, Xiao Bao hurriedly entered, saying: “Master don’t be angry at the Emperor again. You are suffering for nothing.”

The Blind Concubine slowly slipped onto the bed, gradually he let out laughter, “I don’t feel anything like suffering or not. That time I had suffered the utmost pain. Now, I can’t feel such a feeling anymore.”

The next day, The Emperor came to the serving quarter again. The Blind Concubine climbed down the bed. He groped wildly beside the table to try to find the teapot.

The Emperor stepped forward and helped him get the tea, he passed it over to in front of him, “Careful, it is very hot.”

The Blind Concubine upon hearing the Emperor’s voice, his whole body turned rigid. His arms slowly hanged down.

The Emperor said: “If you want to hate me, then just hate me. Don’t hurt yourself.”

The Blind Concubine raised his hand to take the small teacup. Without warning, he threw the teacup with the tea inside on the floor.  The teacup had fallen from a high place, broke into pieces.

The Emperor not at all minded his attitude. Stretched out his hand to gently caress the Blind Concubine’s cheek, “I still remember several months ago, the expression you had when you knew that you could finally go out of the Palace. Also your lively and cheerful face at that market. If I close my eyes, I could recall all of those memories vividly.”

The Blind Concubine was expressionless. Motionless. Also speechless.

The Emperor said again: “You told me, you hope that I could often come to see you. Accompany you and talk with you. I am now here with you, for all my life I will never leave. Please smile a little.”

The Blind Concubine retreated a step backward. Mockingly he said: “That was all merely a joke. Your Majesty took it seriously?”

The Emperor’s fingers were smoothing out the sleeve of The Blind Concubine. Looking down he said, “All that you have said, I took it all seriously.”

The Blind Concubine hurriedly pushed away his hand, “You only lie to me!!”

The Emperor stepped forward to hug him, “I am truly earnest towards you. Why are you unwilling to believe me, Mu Yan?”

The Blind Concubine desperately struggled from his hug. His hands were slapping the Emperor’s shoulder and upper arms unstopping. “Don’t use that name to call me!” Each and every word, he shouted out his with his saddened and hoarsened voice. He pushed and struggled to get free, resulting in him falling to the floor. His hand accidentally pressed on the smashed porcelain.

The Emperor’s face became pale, with a strict voice he warned him: “Why are you being so careless?! To flare up and do as you please just to act recklessly!”

He took Wen Mu Yan’s pair of hands. Spread them to examine. In the center of that palm was filled with the pieces of broken porcelain. The blood was pouring.

Even though the Imperial Physician had been summoned, yet he still anxiously ordered the Palace’s servant to go to the General’s residence to call Jue Yu to enter the Palace.

When Jue Yu hurriedly came to the serving quarter, the Blind Concubine had already fallen asleep. His sleep was not comfortable. He was sleeping lightly.

“Mu Yan’s body is already so broken. At this rate, I was afraid that he wouldn’t hold up until he’s thirty-five. If he doesn’t take good care of himself like this, even if the greatest doctor, Hua Tuo, was still alive, he would also feel quite helpless for this situation.”

The Emperor retorted: “I also don’t want him to be like this, however with his current temper, sometimes, he truly asks me to lose my temper to the point that I would kill him if I could.”

Jue Yu said again: “Wen Mu Yan, his first time meeting Your Majesty in that Cold Palace, had no idea that Your Majesty was the one who caused his blindness. That was because Your Majesty’s voice at that time was still of a youth. Not same at all with the current voice. Afterwards, it was known, yet, there wasn’t the slightest bit of intention for revenge. He only thought about leaving this place and going faraway. He is a good child. From his early ages he already suffered that kind of misery. This sickness of the heart needs the heart to be cured. For now, you must just yield to him and listen to his will.”

The Emperor hesitated for a moment, then said: “I can agree to whatever he wants, all except the matter of leaving the Palace. For all my life, I will never let him go.”

Jue Yu fell silent all of a sudden.

At that time, the first time when Qi Sheng went down the mountain to enter the court, if he was the same as the Emperor today, definitely without compromising, who knows what kind of relationship the both of them might have had now.

Even if Qi Sheng might have hated him, however, he wouldn’t have had to suffer the pain in his heart for bitterly waiting for him.

The Emperor asked him: “Mu Yan’s eyes, are they curable?”

Jue Yu cast a quick glance to the inner room, said in a soft voice: “There is no way to cure his eyes. It can’t be cured anymore.”

The Emperor stroke his folding fan, his fingers because of the pressure had become white. After a long while later, he said: “Can’t be cured anymore, it is also good.”

Jue Yu stood on the outside for quite some time. Looking at the Palace’s servant cooking the medicine on the slow fire. Entered in and out from the serving quarter, but he didn’t see Xiao Bao’s figure. He asked lightly: “Where is Xiao Bao?”

The Emperor answered him: “He is someone assigned by the Empress Dowager after all. I can’t be relaxed. I placed him somewhere else.

Jue Yu said again: “Xiao Bao has served Mu Yan with all his heart. Besides, when he was assigned to serve at the Cold Palace, he was still a little child. He didn’t have any calculated plans. He only accepted the order from the Empress Dowager. He had followed Mu Yan by his side for so many years. Making an all out effort. Dependably taking care of him. Mu Yan actually couldn’t be parted with him.”

After he paused for a while, he continued: “Mu Yan towards Yu Li, Xiao Bao, and Rui Ze’s heart, is actually the same.”

The Emperor’s face color darkened, “Towards whoever, he will be friendly. Only towards me he would be rigid and less spoken. Rui Ze came to visit, he talked and laughed with him. Once he heard my voice, he became silent at once.”

Jue Yu heaved a sigh, “You have to give him some more time. Be patient. To cultivate the heart is the same as to cultivate the body. You have to do it slowly.”

After two days, The Blind Concubine gradually felt something was wrong.

“Where is Xiao Bao?”

The Palace’s servant with the utmost respect answered him: “Answer, Master. Xiao Bao was temporarily assigned to serve at another palace.”

The Blind Concubine knitted his brows, “Why?”

“This….” The Palace’s servant hesitated for a while, “The Emperor had ordered, Xiao Bao to be moved to serve at another palace. When will he come back, your humble subject doesn’t know.”

The Blind Concubine staggeringly stood up, then anxiously said: “Xiao Bao has been with me from the very start.”

The Palace’s servant said: “But this is His Majesty’s order…..”

“I want Xiao Bao to come back. He has been with me. If he had to follow other people, it would put him in a great inconvenience. I… I want him back…..”

The announcing loud voice from outside notified: “The Emperor has arrived---”

The Blind Concubine once hearing that, hurriedly went towards the door. Stretched his hands to grope wildly, he touched the front robe of the Emperor. Immediately he seized it in his palm and pulled it, “Where is Xiao Bao? Where did you send Xiao Bao to?”

The Emperor helped to support him, told him: “Xiao Bao is serving in another palace.”

“I don’t believe it!” The Blind Concubine’s pair of eyes tightly closed, shook his head with all his might, “Why did you send him away? It because you have ruthlessly punished him, isn’t it? Tell me!!”

The Emperor frowned, “Why did you say it like that?”

“I just want Xiao Bao back!!” The Blind Concubine loosened his grip on the Emperor’s front robe then suddenly fell, knelt down, bumped on the brick: “I beg you… let him come back. Don’t kill him...” His voice hoarsened very much.

The Emperor angrily said: “You get up first! The floor is cold. Your body has recuperated for several days.”

The Blind Concubine shook his head, his eyes had become very red, “Please let Xiao Bao come back. He has always been with me. Please don’t harm him, let him come back. I beg you……”

He said that with sobs, his face color was red. He had started to cough violently.

The Emperor couldn’t stand it and yielded: “You stand up first, I will let Xiao Bao come back, alright?!” Both of his hands carried The Blind Concubine in a bridal embrace, bringing him back to the bed. That body was very cold. His palm was covered with nothing but sweat.

The Blind Concubine’s soft and weak body was slanted. The roundish droplets of tears were flowing from the corner of his eyes. Flashing through his cheek, dripped and dropped on the cotton-padded mattress. “In any way I am unable to see, you could just lie to me……”

His heart was really hurt.

As if as precious and valuable as a frail thing, once it was smashed and broken, it couldn’t be repaired nor mended anymore.

End of The Blind Concubine chapter 26.