Chapter 1 "A light exists in Spring Not present on the year At any other period- When March is scarcely here"

Ru Shi's POV

The melancholic voice of birds and the beaming sunrise woke me up for the special day. I always start my day with a smile on my face because that's what my father taught me. He says that a smile can brighten up one's day no matter what. I did my normal morning routine and went to the kitchen. Our home, it's not that big. We are one of those typical middle families here in the Chinese empire.

Today it's going to be a tiring day. The ingredients are already set. They are fresh from our own farm. I started preparing the special dinner. Breakfast is already done by my father. He is  best martial arts teacher in the whole empire. But he never taught me. Why? I don't know. He starts teaching his students really early. My mom, she died when I was born. I really miss her. I haven't even seen her. No drawings or paintings. I wonder why. My father always kept quiet when I ask about my mom.

Life is going really well. Everything is just perfect. The best part is, I love my profession. I am a doctor. I won't find any better profession than this. It always makes me happy. Well that's my life.

Now I am finishing the last bits of cooking the special dinner. Tommorow we are celebrating the lunar New year. The villagers are celebrating it together. Me and Chunhua are the program coordinators. Our friends will help us. They are our neighbors. Bojing and Bohai are our friends. They work as soldiers for the imperial court.

Chunhua is like my family. We grew up together. Wherever we go, we are always together. I am in charge of music, Chunhua is in charge of dance, Chen is in charge of cooking while Biyu is in charge of decorations. We all are neighbors.

Since tommorow is going to be a busy day, I want to spend this night with my father. Celebrate lunar New year together today. So it's a special day.

As I finished cooking, I started decorating our house. Today father will be late since he is going to help the shop keepers to decorate the village.

Time passes really fast. When I was done decorating, a smile immediately formed when I evaluated my work. It's beautiful.

After that I took a rest. Sleeping does make a difference. It helps to calm our minds and rest our body. I wake up after an hour of sleeping. I took a bath and got ready for the special dinner. By the way, I already had my breakfast and lunch in between my work.

As I was waiting for my dad, I practiced Erhu again. I want it to be perfect. I stopped playing, when I saw my father very tired and sweaty. He is in his 60s now. He gave me a smile and went to take a bath. He came after 30 min ready for the dinner. We started enjoying our dinner by a glass of wine. We was laughing, talking, singing, eating during the dinner. We enjoyed the night very well. After, we cleaned the plates and the table. Then I wish good night to my father. He wished me and kissed my forehead. I then went to my room and changed to comfortable clothes and laid down on my bed. Then I reminisced about the happy moments that I had today and drifted to sleep.

Qing Shan's POV

I woke up when I heard annoying voice of birds chirping around. I groaned and stood up from the bed. I did my morning routine and went to my father.

My father is the king of the Chinese empire. I am his youngest son. He has 2 wives including my mom. My mom is the empress. His other wife have a son. Even though I didn't like the fact that my dad have 2 wives, I love my gēge and his mom. His name is Li Shan.

The only person that I hate is my dad. He don't care about anyone. He just want to enjoy his life as a king. Which made the entire empire in a pathetic situation. I wanted the best for our people. But I am just the prince with no power.

Everyone say that I am a cold person. And I accept it. I am like this from the beginning. Everyday I see how my mom fights to live. She is in a terrible situation from the day she got married.

My grandma always told her story to me and asked me to protect her. But what can I do? Nothing. I'm just a stupid son. But even though she is having a bad life, she always look after me and love me to the fullest. I just wanted to protect her. But at the same time, I'm not allowed.

As I met my so called dad, I saw my brother standing next to him. I wonder why he called the both of us. As soon as he saw me, he signalled me to sit. I sat in front of him. Then he started to speak.

King: I called all of you here to announce something. As you all know, I am a strong king. I ruled this kingdom for the past 24 years. You all are now adults and in your middle and late 20s. Now it's time for you two to get married.

As soon as I heard about marriage, I stood up.

JK: you are planning us to get married? I know it's not because you care. Then for what? We are going to marry some princesses of some other empire so that you can merge those with us. I don't agree this.

King: Qing Shan, I don't ask for your permission. I decide and you all will listen. And I am not going to make you marry princesses. You can marry anyone you want. I don't care about that. But it will happen since I want the neighboring Kings to go here. So that I can show my earnings to them. And they will know how rich and powerful I am. So your marriage will be my reason for inviting them.

Tommorow the villagers are celebrating the Lunar New year. Go and find a matchmaker or something if you want. Or find someone by yourself. Now both of you, leave.

I gritted my teeth. He doesn't deserve to be a dad. He is just using us for showing off in front of others. After the meeting, we went out and sat at together.

Li: I can't believe this. Marriage is not something that should be done because of business. It is a very important part of one's life. It should be based on love.

Qing: The villagers are lucky. At least they can have someone that they love as their partner. Look at us. We are the sons of the king. Our situation is much worse.

Li: let's just hope that something good will happen.

Qing: good? How is that even possible after all of this?

Everything is a mess right now. Tommorow, there will be so many people during the celebration. He told us to find a matchmaker. I don't want that since it doesn't matter at all. But I do feel bad for the ones who are going to marry us.

Qing: Let us find someone tomorrow. Even though we don't love them, we need to marry them.

let's go now. We didn't even ate our breakfast. Now it's lunch time. Let's meet our moms and eat something.

We reached the kitchen and met our moms. They served us food and started to speak.

Qing's mom: I know you both are upset. But I have a feeling that even though it started with a bad feel, it will end happily.

Li's mom: let us hope this will make a good change in our lives.

Qing: the only thing that we can do is just hope. Nothing is going to change until something happens to your husband.

Qing's mom: Qing, don't say that. He is your dad. Don't forget that.

Qing: yeah, he is my dad who doesn't care about anything but his position. I hate him and I will hate him forever.

I then walked out and closed my room's door with a loud bang. I sat on the bed thinking about something. I could feel anger, sadness and full of pain. I felt tired and so I slept.

I woke up when I heard a knock on the door. I then realized I slept for a long time since it is night. My mom called me. I opened the door.

Qing's mom: *sits on his bed* I know how you feel. I am sorry dear. I can't do anything about it. I am sorry for being an awful mother for you. *Sobs*

JK: No mom. You are the best that I have ever had. And I am thankful to you. Please don't cry. I will stay strong for you. please don't blame yourself. *hugs his mom and sobs, she calmed her son*

After sometime...

Qing's mom: Qing let's go and have dinner. Before that go and take a bath.

JK: I will be there after taking a bath.

Then she kissed my forehead and walked out.

I took a deep breath calming myself and went to take a bath. After that I went to eat dinner. My dad never eats with us. Then we wished good night and went to sleep.