The Oracle

"Liu Shi! Liu Shi! Wake up! Wake up!" the strong smell of incense pulled Concubine Rong away from her dreams. The pain that she felt a while ago came back with vengeance! It was three times more painful now.

"Your Majesty, you should not be here!" the midwife chastised the emperor. How can a man be in the labour room. It was uncalled for especially for an emperor!

Ignoring the midwife and her never ending complaint, the emperor directed his full attention toward Concubine Rong who had just regained her consciousness.

"That's right! Wake up Liu Shi. Do not doze off. Our baby need you to stay awake"

Hearing the word 'baby' and 'Live', Concubine Rong gather all her energy to stay awake. She used the remaining energy she left with to try to push the baby out of her body.

After trying for a few times, the baby finally came out with a loud cry.

Concubine Rong let out a few heavy gasps before fainted once again.

******

The Emperor looked so smug while showing off his new daughter to Dr.Zhan and the crown prince.

"Seems like Zheng Er's prediction was right. It is a baby girl" the crown prince commented.

"What kind of game were both of you playing about my child?" the emperor was curious.

"Nothing" the crown prince shrugged nonchalantly. " I was expecting a son while Zheng Er said that it would definitely be a girl"

"How can she be so sure of that?"

"I don't know. She said that a popular shaman told her she was going to be an empress one day , hence you are not going to have kids as I was the one who was seen to be inheriting the throne. I'd say to her don't be ridiculous, this was a temporary position that we hold. Be it a girl or a boy, my brother's child would be the one inheriting the throne."

If it was someone else, they would be loosing their head already. The words that he uttered would be interpreted as he was coveting for the throne. It was untoward and a taboo topic to be brought in front of the ruling emperor. But Xiao Song knew that Xiao Zhan meant nothing malicious out of this statement even though he was not sure about his ambitious sister-in-law.

However, one particular word from Xiao Zhan attracted his attention.

"Shaman?"

"Yes. Shaman. She was quite popular in the capital a few years years back before we first came here"

This statement triggered his memory of encountering a self-proclaimed shaman in the finance ministers' house many years ago.

This union between you and the princess would only beget pain and disaster. Not only to both of you, but the entire empire!

He then remembered a very weird things that Lu Zheng used to say to him when he first discovered that he had found Liu Shi.

"Because it is difficult to see two mere mortal trying to fight against the heaven's fate!"

The emperor began to eyeing the doctor with suspicion.

'what does he meant by that?'

'Fate? Heaven? Shaman?'

"Xiao Zhan!" he called For his brother. "Go and bring your wife to meet me at the study room now"

At the study room. The emperor began to interrogate her sister-in-law. Much to his dismay, Zheng Er denied for having hosted the shaman in her house many years ago.

"We never had her in our house. Even when she was popular in the capital, we never invited the shaman into our house!" she said adamantly.

"What? Two maids attending the shaman? If we never had the shaman in our house, how was I supposed to find these two maids who were attending this shaman? Your Majesty, are you sure you really encountered the shaman 15 years ago?"

"Yes! I can clearly remember them" he then began to describe the appearances of the shaman and her two maids.

"Hmmm…they way you describe the shaman is exactly how she looked like when I met her as a child. But, she left the capital a long time ago. We - the Guo family- had never took her into our house"

"What about the maids?"

" Hmmm….we have lot of maids in the mansion, not all of us could remember all of them based on their personality" she shrugged.

That night, the emperor was left wondering about the mysterious encounter that he experienced before he married Liu Shi in his study room.

He was reviewing his paper work when a maid entered the study room and placed a cup of tea on to the table. He did not see her face as he had his nose buried between piles of paper works.

"Young Master, please enjoy this tea"

The emperor immediately lifted his head. Why was the maid was referring him as Young Master and who allowed her to enter this room? Where was the Elder eunuch who was always assigned to get his drinks?

He was keen to know the face of this intrepid maid!

When his eyes met her face, he was astonished to find the face of a young woman that had been haunting his mind since this evening appeared in front of him.

It was the mysterious cheerful maid that he encountered at the Guo family's house 15 years ago!

"You!!" he shouted.

"Shhh…" the young maid put her index finger in front of her protruding lips. "You are going to wake the sleeping eunuch" she said with a grin on her face.

The maid still appeared as young as she was years ago. It was as if she had never age for the past 15 years. There were also something that made her to be different but the emperor could not pinpoint what it was.

"Who are you?" he asked her

"Me? I am the shaman's maid." she said cheerfully. "Ahhh…actually she was not a shaman, people often called her the Oracle from the north"

"Oracle from the North?" The emperor eyebrow knitted together when he tried to recall the name that was vaguely familiar to him .

Ahh!!! Now he remember! When he was a kid, the emperor used to listen to a lot of folktales and legends told by story tellers who travels from a province to one another.

The oracle from north was the legendary priestess who was said to achieved immortality thousands of years ago. She would usually appeared every five hundreds years apart. Whenever she appeared, she would usually warned the people about the upcoming calamities that would befall on particular people or kingdom.

"Yes I am the Oracle from North" a voice coming from his side shocked the emperor. He turned his head and saw the shaman was sitting on a chair that was usually occupied by Dr.Zhan whenever he visited.

She was sipping tea from the cup that was served by the cheerful maid. Behind the shaman, the no-nonsense maid stood silently while glaring at him.

"You…How did you" he turned his attention toward the main door when he felt the cold breeze slapping his face.

The door was wide open as if they had just entered the room through the main entrance even though he did not realized it. The door was then shut by an unknown force.

The emperor turned his head back at the three women in front of me

"What do you want from me?"

"An advice Your Majesty, I had spent my time trying to warn you about your disaster marriage 15 years ago. But you ignored them and here we are today" she said cynically.

"Then. What are you doing here? Are you having fun trying to mock me?

"Nope. Absolutely not. Here is another advice, listen to me carefully. Both of you can never escape from this horrible fate in this lifetime"

"What a useful advice" he said in sarcastic tone.

The smile on the oracle's face disappeared.

"Remember what I said, and don't forget to use your brain" in a split of time, all three of them disappeared into thin air leaving the emperor still trying to calm his shaken nerve.

'In this lifetime?'

*******

This was the first time the emperor met Concubine Rong after the dramatic labour event a few weeks ago. Knowing that she would be safe in the hands of the midwife and other doctors after the birth, his ego prevented him from visiting her.

But today, he had made his first obligatory visit to show the emperor's appreciation toward the concubine who had bore his first child.

"How are you today"

"I'm fine Your Majesty"

"Good" he was at lost of words. They continued to basked in awkward silent for while before Concubine Rong requested to the servants to left her room.

"Your Majesty, I…..I have remembered my past memories" she admitted quietly.

There was a brief silence ensued between them after the confession.

"How?"

"I don't know. I remembered pieces of them while I was fainted when I was giving birth to her" she turned her attention toward the direction of their sleeping daughter."

"Lu Zh….no. Dr Zhan told me it was incurable. It seems like even the most skilled doctor was wrong about it" The Emperor looked calmer than Concubine Rong had expected.

"Your Majesty. Throughout the memories that I had regained, I remembered now how horrible my previous self was. I had manipulated your genuine affection for my benefit. Not only that, I was also a horrible empress who had shed more blood of my own people than any other ruling emperor before me"

The concubine then struggled to climb down from her bed to prostrated in front of the emperor.

"Your Majesty please gave me a death sentence. Not even a death sentence are enough of a punishment for my sins!"

"If you wanted death, what about our child"

"This lowly concubine believed that they are more competent people in the inner palace who could be a better parent for her. Please punished me our Majesty" she persuaded.

The emperor let out a huge sigh. Even though she had regained some of her memories, but she was still the Mo Chou that he discovered at Peony town three years ago. Liu Shi was just too egoistic to admit any of her wrongdoings. He didn't even know who was the woman who was prostrating in front of him right now. Was it Liu Shi? Or the innocent and kind -hearted Mo Chou? Nor did he knew what he wanted from her too.

He did a lot of thinking after the bizarre meeting with the oracle from the north. He was too overwhelmed by the knowledge of them not being able to be together in this lifetime to demand any apology from Princess Liu Shi or the concubine.

The emperor also regretted his past action toward the concubine. He should knew that despite being the same person Mo Cho and Princess Liu Shi was essentially two different people.

Even though he could see a glimpse of Princess Liu Shi cold exterior within Mo Chou during her pregnancy, she was still different than her former self.

All this while, he had punished the wrong the person! All because he was too stubborn to admit that Mo Chou should not be burden with sins committed by Princess Liu Shi.

'I am nothing but another Liu Shi when it comes about Mo Chou'

"You can get up now. No need to punish yourself anymore. It was not your fault. It was the former empress."

"But, I am…."

"No. The former empress passed away thirteen years ago. No one should be burdened with the sins of other people" he began to help her up.

After tucking the concubine onto her bed he walked to the front door. Before exiting the room, he turned back to the concubine and said

" How are you going to handle your brother's ashes?"

Brother! He referred to Gao Wang as her brother!

"I intended to spread his ashes at his favourite place"

"Which is at?"

"Peony town"

"Alright. Soon after your body has completely recovered, I will allow you to make the journey" he said quietly before exited the room.

The astonished Concubine Rong seated unmoved on the bed. First he called Gao Wang as her brother and now he is letting her to embark on journey to Peony town!!

What happen to the emperor?!