One Sided Love

PRINCESS YANG LIU currently known as PRINCE KUAN HUI

IMPERIAL PRINCE'S CHAMBERS

General Feng fed her a ripe red grape which crushed in her mouth, the juice exploding and caressing her senses with bliss. She blushed under the attention of his eyes. They were telling her that she was the only brilliance that ever existed.

Yang Liu shied away by holding her mouth and looking away. It was impossible to keep looking at the dark almond brown eyes that were starring the core of her soul.

Being the romantic he was, he lifted her chin so that she could make eye-contact with his gorgeous eyes.

General Feng was entranced by her. He wanted her, and was in persuit of her heart. Obviously, she desired him too.

He suddenly frowned, his eyebrows cringing and orbes rolling to the back. Only the white part of his eyes goggled her while his pupils rolled over. His skin was a pale pallet as if he was about to collapse. General Feng desperately held his chest and gagged, indicating that something was stuck in his throat.

"General Feng..." she hysterically reached for his shoulders to stop him from falling. He retched and coughed.

"General!" She shook him sober and abruptly a load of vomit wailed into the air, splashing on her lovely face.

It was pure horror. She couldn't stand body liquids. They were revolting to her. The sticky liquid clung to her face. And it was disgusting. Mushy, smelly and sticky.

"General Feng!" she screamed awake. Yang Liu was heaving, unable to catch her breath. Thank the heavens that was just a dream.

She checked herself and her surroundings. Yang Liu was in her sleeping chambers, in her bed. Vomit was not on her but she was still wet. Her face narrowed down to observe her chest. Where did the water come from?

"A prince must not sleep until this late," Dowager Empress Wang stood over her, holding an empty dish.

'So this witch is the cause of my discomfort. Someone stop me because I'm going to strangle her dead.'

Dowager Empress Wang had no permission to be in her quarters and throwing a dish of water on her was despicable.

"Out!" Yang Liu screamed while slamming her bed.

Her so called mother snickered and dropped the silver dish which tumbled on the floor making a clanging noise.

"And neither should a prince dream about other men," she patted Yang Liu's bed and sat on the edge of it. The opposite of what she was being asked to do.

Yang Liu flushed that she had heard her say General Feng's name as she slept, though it had been in innocent context. She was well aware that the Dowager Empress was tempting her to bite on the bait of emotional outbursts by her words. She was probably displeased with her about something. Too bad, because she wasn't foolish to bite.

"How is His Highness copying with his headache?" Her eyes cast worry but there was no care in them. One minute she was mocking, then the next she cared. So much for being a mother of the nation.

Yang Liu held her head and felt nothing. Her head was good, she had no headache.

'What is this witch spitting now?'

"Hăo. His Highness does not have a headache because mohou(mother) took care of his needs for him." She pointed at the herbs on a small table by her bed that were burning and scenting the room.

"I am not a man Dowager Empress Wang, and please leave my quarters. You are unbearable," she snapped.

Dowager Empress Wang guffawed almost to herself. "Neither could the palace bear you too last night."

Yang Liu glared at the woman, not understanding. In front of everyone, Dowager Empress Wang was admirable and well respected, a woman of royalty. However, between the two of them she was just plain immature. If only she could expose her for the world to see.

"His Highness doesn't remember the bells?"

What bells? Yang Liu sighed and got out of bed. She would call her maids to help her dress. If the witch would not leave her to be, she could just as well ignore her and carry on with her duties. She was not going to tolerate her nonsense any moment longer.

Yang Liu. wondered where General Feng was. She wanted to ask him about last night. The last thing she recalled was drinking with him at the Lovers restaurant.

"Yang Liu." Dowager Empress Wang admonished the rude behaviour of leaving before she was done with her.

She did not respond as she began to unwrap her sleeping garments.

"Yang Liu!"

Suddenly, she was dragged by the arm and thrown on the bed. Her head hit the bed first, which hurt.

"You witc―"

"Will you shut up and listen to me for once?" The Dowager Empress clutched her hands painfully, her eyes wide in a threatening manner. Yang Liu saw a wide vain leaping on her forehead. Dowager Empress Wang was not the person to act measily like her. This had to be important, therefore she kept quiet.

"I will help you." Dowager Empress Wang let her go and set on the bed again, looking away from her.

"With what?"

"I will help you reveal your true identity, so that you can be with the love of your life."

Yang Liu gazed at her mother in disbelief. The witch always shunned her request to tell the truth concernig her gender. But on this day she was offering her an opportunity.

"Wwh... WHy now?" she stuttered.

"Because it is now that I realise that you mean so much to me. I too cannot live like this anymore." Dowager Empress Wang turned and reached out to touch her. Yang Liu moved away. "I am desperate to have a relationship with you, Yang Liu. As my daughter."

Dowager Empress Wang did not care for her all these years, and now she was declaring motherly love to her. Yang Liu was not so keen to jump on the wagon. She took a while to speak. "I will think about it."

"What is there to think about? Here I am, making a sacrifice for you. Do you know that this confession will have me in Shen Hong's hands for punishment?" Dowager Empress Wang ill tempered. "I may die because of this."

Yang Liu folded her hands. "I will get back to you after consulting Grand Consort Shu."

"Yang Liu, I am you mother!"

"Just because you are willing to die for me does not make you my mother. This is you rectifying your mistakes like you should have done a long time ago."

Dowager Empress Wang gave a ghastly laugh. "You think that woman cares for you?" she scorned. "All she has in her heart is the emperor."

"Right?" Yang Liu stood up. "Then leave me be that I go make my morning greetings to the mother who I have unrequited love towards." Tears were collecting in her eyes that she wished the stranger to her heart not to see. She wildly grabbed the clothes that her palace maids had placed on a wooden chair, eager to leave the room. "Because that is all I know isn't it? One sided love."

GRAMMAR

Why does the emperor call his mother 'muqin' while the Dowager Empress is 'mohou' to her daughter Yang Liu?

Because in the Chinese language there is many ways to say mother depending on the relationship.

Mohou is used as to say 'empress mother' while 'muqin' is more of a term used by the emperor because they are so close to one another that they are not as formal. Also take into account that before the emperor was taken away from his mother he was raised by her not as a future emperor but as just any normal child.

S.V