1.8 Star Dancer

Her anger couldn't be contained, looking at the two masked men on the ground, she smiled happily, and her eyes began to light up in interest, like she found a nice toy to play with. However, after the two masked men saw her expression, they couldn't help but feel a chill go down their spines.

"It's such a pity that 2nd Imperial Prince isn't here right now, so you two will have to do," she said softly to them. After hearing her words, they could only frantically shake their heads from side to side, as if hoping she would listen to their pleads.

After an episode of pummeling and screams of mercy, and only when soft whimpers could be heard from the 'heavily injured' masked men, was Tian He satisfied with her venting and stopped her torture of them. It was also due to the fact that so much pummeling was starting to make her tired and she loss interest in them.

It's better to use that 2nd Imperial Prince as her outlet to vent, only then could she feel that all of her anger and annoyance would be relieved.

She looked at the masked men on the ground, they were semi-conscious and if one looked closely, their hands and feet were twitching minutely, as if their muscles just faced the most terrifying of punches and beat up.

"Hmmm, it won't do to just leave them there," she says thoughtfully. Since she didn't have any plans of having the teachers interrogating her about these two masked men or misunderstand her relationship with the 2nd Imperial Prince for that matter, she needs to wake them up so they could leave. She looks around the garden and her eyes light up when she spots the lake, "He..He…" She giggles to herself amusingly.

She gathers a pail of water from that lake and walks up to the masked men, "Don't blame me for being harsh, if you have anyone to blame, then blame it on that dear 'Master' of yours." She declares resolutely.

"Splash!" The drenched masked men woke up from the cold water, scrambling up to their feet in a hurry, they looked around their surroundings, as if seeking for their enemy, "Hey." Tian He smiles to them, they paused in their movements and looked up at her, and she looks calmly back at them, "Scram." After hearing her commands, they instantly obeyed her, as if receiving an amnesty, they ran as fast as they could, cursing silently that they couldn't go any faster.

After a moment of standing there while waiting for them to disappear into the distance, she couldn't suppress her laughter any longer. "Ha…ha…" Just imagining their scared appearances, she couldn't help but think that if they had ears and a tail, it would be shaking so hard, adding on to their already silly drenched appearances, it was gold.

After she finished laughing, she realized that she hasn't laughed so freely for a long time now. Thinking about her old world and this world, she felt like this world was better. It was much freer and more relaxed, she wasn't bound by regulations and rules, she could do whatever she wished, of course within the boundaries, but nevertheless, she liked it here.

"La la la~." She humed a little tune while she placed the water bucket back near the lake, but as she walked, small particles of blue light started to gather and formed into water-like blue roses, sparkling in the setting sun's rays.

Looking back at the beautiful scene, suddenly a thought struck her, should they sing during the upcoming performance, too?

Suddenly, she heard footsteps coming, it was probably Yu Yan and Liu Wei who had returned from their errand.

"Tian He, we're back," seeing her happy expression, Yu Yan couldn't help but ask, "Did something interesting happen while we were away?"

Liu Wei turns his head towards Tian He's direction, waiting for her response, Tian He shook her head slightly while replying, "No, nothing really. I was just excited about the upcoming competition. I think I thought of way to make it more interesting, listen to this, how about we dance and sing at the same time?" Tian He asks excitedly.

Yu Yan and Liu Wei were taken back, while Yu Yan answers her, "What? How can we? I barely managed to finish the moves for my dance, and now we have to learn a song, it's different if it doesn't evoke sacred powers, when that happens the whole dance would fall out of synchrony and pull down the rest of the sacred powers."

"Are you certain, Tian He?" Yu Yan askes after taking a breath to relax herself.

It wasn't because she didn't believe in Tian He, it was just that the idea was too bizarre. No student has ever attempted it and succeeded, one time in the history of the academy, since this is a school for the most talented artist in the country, there would be a few dare devils, but they all failed miserably and ended up embarrassing themselves during the competition. Eventually becoming a laughingstock of the whole imperial capital. Till this day, no one has ever tried it ever again.

Tian He looks at her friends that she has known for these past 2 months, "Yes, I'm absolutely certain. We can do it, watch me." Before her friends could say anything, she started singing.

"La la la~ Come hither thy flowers, hear my welcoming voice…" Tian He steps to the right and spins, then she leaps, and spreads her hands in front of her slowly, forming a butterfly with her hands, "The weather seeks for anew, the time here you will spend, come little flowers, sprout for me~."

Tian He raises her hands above her head, then slowly lowers it across her face, "Come little flowers, sing with me~." Just when Yu Yan and Liu Wei was going to stop her, they paused because besides the golden lotus blossoms that were dancing with her movements, were blue particles of light that started gathering around her and forming into water-like blue roses.

They were astounded. The golden lotus blossoms and blue roses didn't counteract each other, as if happily accepting each other existences.

As Tian He completes a spin, she beckons with her hands for her friends to join her, they took a moment to snap out of their reverie and happily started to follow her instructions. Liu Wei takes out his flute and starts playing according to their rehearsed song, while Yu Yan naturally joins with Tian He in dancing together.

Since Tian He was a talented singer in her old world, she could easily make up lyrics for them to sing along to. However, she realized this was the first time she's been so happy to complete a set of lyrics for a song, so this is what it feels like to be acknowledged. It wasn't the same as when her Imperial mother and father would celebrate because of her completing a song, they already knew that she was talented, but they weren't the best source to seek opinions from, because their love for her was unconditional.

In this world, she had to work hard and put in efforts to accomplish her tasks, this was true acknowledgement, the approval of her peers.

"Ha…Ha…" Tian He giggles happily for her blessings, as she danced and sung with Yu Yan, leading and guiding her the way until she remembered the whole song. Apparently, the people here who could evoke sacred powers had better memory than the average person and could easily remember anything they put their minds to.

They worked together to synchronize their movements and voices, all in preparation for the upcoming new student's competition. Beautiful water-like peonies and blue roses rotated together, almost like they were dancing together, enjoying each other's presence. Green glowing flutes floated beside them, following their ever spin, almost like wherever the roses and peonies would go, it would also go. Golden lotus blossoms with its lofty appearance seemed to stay at the center, allowing the rest of the sacred powers to circle around it.

In the meantime, the setting sun cascaded its red-orange rays on them, making the garden fill with vibrant colors of blues, golds, and greens, almost like a picture from the 'Heavens' themselves.

…..

Consort Dai was pacing around the large main hall of her residence, frantically thinking to herself.

How?! How could that wretched spawn be so lucky? How could he come back alive? Were the heavens helping him now? Consort Dai was in furious disbelief.

"Leave my site!" Consort Dai shouted as she threw a whole teapot and all the food on the tray directly towards the new small ranked maid's face who somehow was annoying her just by standing there, "Ah!" The small ranked maid used her hands to block the impact but accidentally ended up pushing some of it forward, spilling some of it onto Consort Dai's skirt.

If Chen Su Su's head maid saw this small ranked maid, she would know it was the same messenger maid that delivered the escorts and palanquin to Chen Su Su's courtyard, per the Emperor's orders.

Once the small ranked maid saw what she did, she immediately kneeled down shaking, "Sma..small maid, didn't mean too, please Your Highness, spa…spare small maid, I…I promise that I'll work hard and not do it again, please…" The small ranked maid was shaking so hard that her voice was failing her.

After seeing what the small maid did, Consort Dai couldn't contain her anger and pointed to the guards, her recent failure to kill that wretched spawn has driven her almost to the brink of insanity, "Drag her out, I want her sent to the servant's brothel, don't let her out until she gets her whole value used up, when that happens, you know what to do."

The small ranked maid snapped out of her fear and started begging for her life, "No, please Your Highness, please spare small maid." She reached out to grab onto Consort Dai's skirt, almost pulling it off with her desperate strength, "Your highness…" Before she could pull any longer, the guards standing by the side of the room began grabbing her arms and dragging her away.

Before the small ranked maid left the door, she knew that her life was already ruined, suddenly her entire demeanor changed, "You witch! You'll definitely have justice done to you, you won't survive long, I guarantee it, even if I'm dead, I'll curse you to never receive what you want, you'll die a horrible unwilling death! Ha-ha-ha!" The small ranked maid laughed insanely.

Suddenly, she shook off the guards holding her with all her strength and plunged straight towards the nearest pillar, killing herself when her forehead broke, but just as her body was falling towards the ground after losing the strength to stand, she managed to flash an unrelenting smile at Consort Dai, as if telling her that she will soon follow her. Her eyes were also crazy bloodshot, glaring at her as if she was trying to remember the horrible person in front of her, so that she could haunt her as a ghost and watch her miserable end as her curse comes true.

The whole room turned silent, Consort Dai gripped her handkerchief, almost tearing it with her strength, she stared at the guards who was standing there in shock, "What are you all waiting for, drag her out!" The guards quickly snapped out of their blank mindedness and dragged the body out, almost like they were running away from the scene. The rest of the servants in the room were too scared to say anything, their bodies shaking in fear, they knew that if they said anything now, they would only become the source for Consort Dai to vent her anger.

"1st Imperial prince seeks an audience with Consort Dai." From outside of the room, a eunuch could be heard announcing the speech.

As if everyone found their saving straws, unnoticeably they let out a small breath in relief. Apparently, they knew that as long as 1st Imperial Prince was here, Consort Dai would keep her composure and never expose anything that would badly affect her image as 1st Imperial Prince's imperial mother.

Consort Dai quickly regains her composure, and nodded towards the eunuch, after receiving her permission, the eunuch politely invites the 1st Imperial Prince inside.

"Your child greets you, Imperial Mother." 1st Imperial prince notices the abnormality of the atmosphere of the room but doesn't say anything. He only glances at them for a second before focusing his attention to his imperial mother.

"Guo'er, you're here. Come, sit beside Imperial Mother, someone send for tea." One of the small ranked maids situated at the back of the room quietly backs out after receiving her commands.

Consort Dai focuses her attention to her son, looking at him up and down, making sure that he was alright. After seeing that everything was to her satisfaction, she nodded her head and looked into her son's eyes.

"Guo'er, although Imperial Mother is happy at your unexpected visit, you should really send for someone to tell me beforehand, just now something unpleasant happened, it would do you no good if you happened to see it." Consort Dai nonchalantly talks about the recent dead small maid like it had nothing to do with her.

"Imperial mother, your child apologizes for the abrupt visit, but I must speak with you regarding something important." 1st Imperial Prince glances at the servants in the room, after seeing that, Consort Dai signals for her head maid to have them all retreat from the room.

"What is that you want to discuss with me?" Consort Dai takes the tea that has been served and waves for the maid who brought it in to retire. After seeing the maid disappear behind the doors, Jian Guo braces himself and takes a deep breath.

"Imperial Mother, I know that you have ordered assassinations against younger imperial brother, this time's attempt and the one from ten years ago were both orchestrated by you and Grandfather Dai." Before his imperial mother could interrupt him, he reluctantly continued, "Also, you made a deal with a foreign country to smuggle weapons out of the country, you deliberately leaked the news to younger imperial brother's people, and by chance he was actually tricked into coming, but luckily he came back alive." Jian Guo exhaled a breath.

After using most of his mind's strength to say everything that's been bottled up, he looked up at his Imperial mother's face, waiting for her answer. He was searching for her guilt, but all he saw was calmness that even he was shock of, it was almost like murder and the betrayal of the country meant nothing to her. Suddenly, he grew a bit skeptical, where was his loving imperial mother, when had it changed? Although he had only received news of the culprit behind his younger imperial brother's poison event just recently, he still didn't confront his imperial mother about it because it had already been ten years since the incident. However, now that he knew that his imperial mother and his maternal family had sent out assassins against his younger imperial brother and smuggled their country's weapons to others, he knew he needed to intervene. He felt like such an idiot for only discovering now that something was bothering his imperial mother.

"Imperial mother, are you alright?" Jian Guo reached out his hands to shake her shoulders, but he didn't get to touch it when his imperial mother abruptly stood up from her seat.

Before he could say anything, Consort Dai turned around and looked at her beloved son. She smiles slightly while talking softly to him, "Guo'er, what are you saying, how could Imperial Mother do such a thing? Are you sure that the news you received aren't lies? Don't you know your own Imperial Mother?" Consort Dai never knew that one day her son would actually come to question her actions. Didn't he know that everything she did was for his own good?

Because her son wasn't as good as that wretched spawn, she could only resort to these extreme measures to keep their own power in the court from falling apart.

"Imperial mother." Seeing the tearful and wronged expression on his Imperial Mother's face, he felt sorrowful and guilty for her. Why is Imperial mother trying so hard to hide it? He felt like he was useless as her son, but this was different, he needed to correct his imperial mother before they were both beyond redemption. Ever since his younger imperial brother came to find him, he knew that imperial father would have already received the news of the smuggling weapons incident, once his imperial father decides to take action against him and his imperial mother's family, it would already be too late.

"Imperial Mother, please let's turn ourselves in to imperial father, once he sees our changed attitudes, he'll certainly forgive us, and we won't face the crime of—"

Suddenly, Consort Dai's expressions warps, and her eyes turns bloodshot from the extreme anger and resentment she felt.

"No! Are you insane, Guo'er? Once we do that, do you know what will happen to us? To the Dai family? You will lose the right to inherit the throne! No one in the court will approve of your position as sovereign once they find out that I'm guilty of treason." Shaking her head wildly, she grabbed her son's clothes tightly while staring into his eyes.

Seeing his imperial mother's distraught appearance, he couldn't bare to look but he knew he needed to be firm in his attitude. "Imperial mother, we need to stop this, as 1st imperial prince you know that I have the responsibility to protect the nation's people, smuggling weapons into foreign countries will only strengthen theirs, while weakening ours. The common people will not be able to survive the wars." Jian Guo pleaded with his Imperial mother.

Listening to each word that his own son was saying, her eyes were darting around his face, as if confirming that the person in front of her is indeed her flesh and blood son.

"Guo'er, what are you saying? Why are you doing this to your own Imperial mother? Do you know how much effort and pain your imperial mother had to go through just to get to this step?" She felt angry and helpless, her own son was trying to destroy her plans, how did it come to this? Suddenly, she thought of someone.

Huang Li Qiong!

It must be him. He must have said something that caused her son to grow confused and confront his own Imperial mother. No, she couldn't let him be deceived.

"Guo'er, tell Imperial Mother, did your younger imperial brother put you up to this? Why does he want to get in between our mother and son relationship? Don't worry, Imperial mother won't blame you for what you've said just now, you must have been deceived by him, right?" Her hands were shaking while holding onto her son, almost like holding on to her last straw of sanity.

Looking at his Imperial mother's bloodshot eyes and shaking hands, he wanted to comfort her and assure her that he'll listen to her, but this time, it was different, he couldn't let their mother and son pair become guilty of betraying their country.

"Imperial mother, younger imperial brother had nothing to do with this, I have long known that you and grandfather Dai have been amassing huge funds to help me win over the court officials, but the smuggling weapons incident is different this time. I feel that since younger imperial brother took the risk to tell me, it's already too late, imperial father should know, so let's just go apologize to him and—"

"No!" Consort Dai screams wildly.

She rapidly directs her eyes away from her son and backs away slowly from him, her legs shaking with every step. After a moment, she lifted her head up again, she was no longer carrying a desperate and painful expression, instead only cold and a sense of firm viciousness can be seen.

"Imperial mother—" 1st Imperial Prince saw his imperial mother's expression and paused in his steps that wanted to support her from possibly falling.

"Guo'er, since you are confused right now, Imperial mother will help clear your thoughts another day." She turns her head towards the direction of the curtains behind her throne, "Lead guard Ji." The lead assassin that pursued the 2nd Imperial Prince came out from behind the curtains and kneels down beside her.

"Your Highness." He said without lifting his eyes from the ground.

"Quickly inform father that His Majesty is most likely going to send his forces to take care of us, and also— ", she paused in her speech while looking at her son in front her, she started to recall the past, the small him that use to follow her around while calling her name, has already grown so big. At that time, she already knew that she could only place her happiness and future on him because the Emperor did not love her, he only treated her out of respect and courtesy for her family's powers.

However, she was contented with just that, but now, she knew she was wrong, the only person she could count on, is herself. "Escort 1st Imperial Prince into my inner courtyard and make sure he stays there." Consort Dai coldly orders.

When 1st Imperial Prince heard his imperial mother order a house arrest against him, he was appalled. His imperial mother had always treated him well and listened to him, why does she not understand he was only trying to help her? Since his Imperial father is probably already taking measures against the Dai family, if they don't admit their wrongs to him now, his imperial father might not spare them.

Before he could stop his Imperial mother from committing a huge mistake, he heard the sounds of troops and horses coming from outside the courtyard.

Suddenly, a loud voice is heard, "Imperial Consort Dai is to be placed under house arrest as ordered by His Majesty!" The leading guard captain of this time's platoon guards waves his hands towards his troops, "Divide your ranks and surround the whole residence, make sure no one comes in or goes out." After the division of troops heard his commands, they spread themselves out and around the outer perimeters of the residence, then the lead guard captain turned towards the main hall of the residence to face the fuming Consort Dai.

"Consort Dai, for the time being, please cooperate with us and refrain from stepping out of your residence." Not waiting for her reply, he set out to stand outside her residence's front door, only saluting to her half-heartedly before he left.

Consort Dai was shocked, although she knew that the Emperor would take measures against the Dai family, she didn't know that he would be cruel enough to put her under house arrest, even after all that she had done for him! Her nails dug into her hands, it seemed like the pain from her hands could help distract herself from the pain in her heart.

Fine! Since he was cold-hearted, don't blame her for being merciless! Consort Dai ruthlessly declares to herself.