13 The Crown Prince's mistress

Historians usually measure a significant turn in history not by numbers but by events. Wars were lost because of some foolish decision made by a commander. Fortunes lost because of wars, etc. etc.

The party thrown by the crown prince of L City to celebrate the 22nd birthday of his rumored paramour can be considered a tectonic event which forever changed the city's history, for it ruined many lives, lost countless fortunes, and firmly shifted the power of the monarchy to one woman, the crown prince's own wife.

The crown prince's name was Nan Mi. He was in his middle twenties, highly educated, and a sought after polo player. He was also very poor, his father the king having lost all the family money by gambling excessively. When creditors finally descended on their door to demand payment, they had become so destitute Nan Mi had to empty his stable and sell some family heirloom to make ends meet.

There was only one solution to fix such a catastrophe. Nan Mi had to marry money.

Nan Mi settled on a girl whose family made their fortune selling merchandise online. It was a global outfit, involving billions of buyers and orders being shipped from country to country. And it was family-owned and worth about $65 billion.

The heir to all these riches was a young girl who has a strange hobby for such a wealthy young woman. She was a gamer who competes professionally. Her name was Xiu Shan.

Shan Shan, as her dad affectionately calls her, was nineteen. She studied in an exclusive college for wealthy people located somewhere in the Alps, where she met Nan Mi and fell in love with him.

Their wedding was beamed live in all four corners of the globe. Some two billion viewers watched it in all media. The press dubbed it the wedding of the century. Shan Shan's wedding dress was scrutinized from top to bottom, her 25-feet long veil effusively described as a phenomenon. Shan Shan was a very pretty girl so she became an instant celebrity, eclipsing even Nan Mi's popularity. Everybody agreed that they were like a fairytale couple.

In private, however, it was a different story. Nan Mi was an asshole who treated Shan Shan like the dirt beneath his feet. He was very spoiled and considered it beneath him to marry a woman whose family was involved in commerce. Even if that enterprise was raking them billions in dollars and part of Shan Shan's fabulous dowry was now paying for his and his family's luxurious lifestyle.

Shan Shan was not a dumb girl. Only in love. But even her devotion suffered a setback when Nan Mi's infidelity a year after their marriage reached her ears.

The woman's name was Ya Ying, the daughter of an impoverished duke and Nan Mi's first love. She was married to a man who served in the army for several years before being dishonorably discharged for insubordination. He was actually caught fucking some captain's wife and was thrashed by her husband then threatened to leave or else.

Nan Mi and Ya Ying never really lost touch with each other. They would occasionally meet to engage in romps of a sexual nature in the house of Nan Mi's best friend, whose wife was also a friend of Ya Ying's. This woman had immediately offered her friendship to Shan Shan way back before the royal engagement was even announced. After all, her husband's software company needed a big buyer and who better than Shan Shan's father's e-commerce company to offer it to?

But of course, their loyalty remained with Nan Mi since deep down, they shared the prince's philosophy that commerce was dirty and only dirty people concern themselves with it. If you can avoid work altogether, that's well and good. Even better if you marry wealth because after all, it was the privelege of a non-elite to marry into royalty, wasn't it? And privilege has a price, hasn't it?

The affair soon became widely known. In a small and such privileged world as the highest elite, such a titillating relationship was normal. Everybody had affairs. Everybody had kids outside of their marriages. It was the way of their exclusive and privileged world.

Shan Shan, however, didn't take it lying down. She had tantrums. She confronted Nan Mi. She complained to her in-laws. One thing she never did was tell her father. He was a vicious man when angered and she knew his temper.

But something strange happened. The affair, which was supposed to be contained within their own little bubble, started leaking out into the media and all pointed the finger of blame on Shan Shan. She was too erratic. Too childish. She was not interesting enough to hold a real man's interest, which the prince certainly was because look at the way he rode his horses. He was urbane, sophisticated, and above all, he was the people's prince.

A catholic priest, who was distantly related to Ya Ying, also came out in support of the prince's tragic love affair with his first love. He told the media that the prince originally wanted to marry Ya Ying but because of his youth he hesitated and lost Ya Ying in the process.

The media, as expected, salivated over the royal scandal. Shan Shan hid herself from public view and never said a word even when people from the prince's side started insinuating that she was crazy and insane, which netizens were quick to pick up, and were presumed to be the reason why the prince fell out of love with her in the first place. People viewed Ya Ying as the tragic woman of the triangle. Poor her. To have lost her greatest love because of his indecision. Poor prince. To have lost his first love only to marry a woman who was rich, yes, but insane.

The dreaded D word started to be whispered in the royal circles. Nan Mi's father the king was enraged. He didn't want Nan Mi to separate from Shan Shan because then he'll lose his bargaining chip with his creditors. Nan Mi's mother was enraged because she liked her luxury after all. And her corgis and her jewelry. And of course, her famous yacht, the Elle.

But Nan Mi didn't seem to care anymore. He flaunted his affair, took Ya Ying to public functions and ordered his servants to call her Ma'am. All these while he was draining his wife's bank account and humiliating her privately and publicly.

The party that Fan Bao and the Feng family attended was made public the day before. It was a sort of coming out party for the illicit couple, attended by close friends, some family members, and powerful elites in the media. Ya Ying was the belle of the ball. A tall girl with a curvaceous figure, she was vivacious and full of life, laughing and kissing Nan Mi as if she had no cares in the world. And she didn't. Nan Mi loved her. He chose her over his rich yet dirty little wife and that's all she really cared about. That she was able to defeat a girl with money and make her the butt of certain jokes was making her feel extra sweet. Life was good, especially since her husband was keeping quiet after receiving a large sum of hush money from Nan Mi. Life was a banquet and she intended to have her fill of it.

The house that hosted the party was the private residence of the crown prince. It was also the same house that Shan Shan's money paid for when Nan Mi's mother started a dizzying reconstruction activity after the wedding. Shan Shan stayed in it for several months but found it dull and boring, far away from L City which she loved. When she left to take up formal residence in the palace, Ya Ying moved in and the servants, all loyal to the prince, started calling her Ma'am.

The house was hidden in the mountains, surrounded by a sprawling garden that some ancestor of Nan Mi designed years ago. There was a village some miles away and in that village lived Ya Ying's family. Her father kept horses, her mom was the head of some local charity that helped orphans make it through winter. Her siblings were goons, especially her elder brother who was a rapist but was never jailed because of his sister's connection with the prince.

Fan Bao and the Feng family arrived in the prince's residence sometime after seven. It was a short ride since they basically lived within the neighborhood. Li Jun, who was driving, helped Fan Bao alight from the car. He ran his gaze down her body which was hidden by a gorgeous mink coat the color of snow. Her hair was in a chignon style, which left her long neck exposed along with her ears which were adorned with diamond earrings. She was wearing black velvet gloves that ran up to her upper arms and the ubiquitous high heels that made her appear taller and statelier. He couldn't take his eyes off her, which Feng Gan saw and was deeply annoyed with.

A tall and imposing butler welcomed them at the door. He led them to an alcove where he took and hang their coats. Fan Bao casually took off her mink and handed it to the waiting butler who showed some emotion by surprisingly raising his brows. Fan Bao turned around and hid behind the wall intending to take a sneak peak at the brightly lighted ballroom. She suddenly heard a groan behind her and looked back.

"What's wrong?" she asked, looking inquiringly at Feng Gan. "Is something the matter?"

Feng Gan was silent. He wasn't the only one. Some guests who had come in and were waiting by the door also stopped when they saw Fan Bao. They all stared dumbstruck at this slip of a girl who carried off a simple long black dress like a true blue 1950s diva. The dress was a halter neck which bared her creamy back down to the base of her spine then fell in graceful folds at her ankles. Around her neck was a heavy gold chain that twisted into the body and head of a snake, with diamonds for eyes and precious stones around the head. The dramatic long black gloves complemented her overall look, which was chic, sultry and so unexpectedly old-world classy that looking at her merely stunned everybody.

Feng Gan's initial reaction was to snatch the mink coat and bundled her back inside its fold but stopped when his father threw him a look. Mei Ming also took hold of his hand, restraining his impulse to ran away with Fan Bao.

Mei Ming, who had been a lot friendlier since Fan Bao's engagement to her brother was announced, was amused. She had been winning quite a lot of attention herself this evening, and not only because of the fabulous diamond choker she was wearing around her neck. The choker was a gift from Fan Bao who casually tossed it to her as they were dressing for the party. The deep blue of the stone complemented her sleeveless gown and its simple boat neckline, which revealed the youthful lines of her collarbones. The gown was unadorned except for the jewelry Mei Ming was wearing and the pair of long white gloves on her arms which was similar to Fan Bao's.

When their party was introduced, there was a little stir. Feng Gan's name alone can do that but coupled with Fan Bao's, the noise became electric.

Ya Ying welcomed them enthusiastically. She seemed gracious and nice and her teeth were very white, which was kind of dichotomous to Fan Bao. She seemed to know Feng Xiao Ping very well because she latched onto his arm and dragged him to where Nan Mi was standing. The prince welcomed them, saying nice stuff but all the while his eyes would linger on Fan Bao's face, his lips wet like a wolf's.

Feng Gan's arm tightened around Fan Bao's waist. He very much wanted to punch Nan Mi's face and wipe that wolfish grin off his face but his father's back looked rigid as if in warning. The smile on Ya Ying's lips froze. She threw Fan Bao a withering stare and took Nan Mi's arm and drew him away.

It turned out to be one of the boringest party Fan Bao ever attended, and she had been to many social gatherings in her previous life. Some she had even organized herself. Perhaps it was because of Nan Mi's habit of talking about himself or Ya Ying's nauseating lovesick avowals but the mood of the party went from rocky to rock bottom when Ya Ying's three goon-like brothers arrived.

Everyone's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets when they saw the woman who came with them. It was none other than Bai Chang An, the notorious ex-wife of the previous prime minister whose sex scandal with Templar's now presumed dead CEO Tu Yi was gloriously revealed via UHD technology.

Bai Chang An sauntered towards Ya Ying and the prince, sashaying like a pure and innocent woman who wouldn't recognize a dildo or vibrator if she ever saw one. Ya Ying's brothers followed in her wake, their broad and pig-like faces flushed an ugly, sweaty pink under the lights. Fan Bao looked at them disinterestedly but there was a cruel line to her mouth which nobody saw.

The most awaited event happened after dinner when the guests went back to the ballroom for another round of dancing. It was not the announcement from the prince that he was donating $1 million to charity in honor of "his most beloved wife" while looking adoringly at Ya Ying but the surprised announcement that came from the butler after the prince finished his.

"Her Royal Highness, the Crown Princess, Xiu Shan."

Before anybody could recover from the shock of hearing this forbidden name, dressed all in black and carrying a whip in her hand, Shan Shan walked into the room alone. Her eyes immediately found her husband and the woman beside him. Shan Shan laughed and before anyone else knew what was happening, she flew across the room and her right hook connected with Nan Mi's jaw with a jarring crack.

The prince staggered at the blow, his body hurling some distance away then crashing against an armored statue. Shan Shan didn't even look where he landed. Her next target was Ya Ying who screamed and tried to run away. Shan Shan, however, was faster. She grabbed hold of the pretty pink bow that was on Ya Ying's chest then used it as leverage to twirl her round and round the room until she grew dizzy. Shan Shan finally hurled her away to land on a small table near where the prince was still trying to get up.

It didn't even take five minutes. And the party was just getting started.