The Jiang Dynasty
Chapter 58: The Jiang Dynasty.
Laying Ling Yue gently on the pillow and covered her with the blanket. He took his time to look at her. Waking up beside her really made his entire day beautiful. He kissed her cheeks before getting off his bed and went to freshen up in washroom. Ling Yue was still sleeping when he stepped out of washroom. Not wanting to disturb her, Li Wei opened the door to job around the mansion but was instead greeted by a fuming DouDou waiting right in front of his room door.
Li Wei gulped looking at his deathly glare and slowly retreated back into his room. This dog was still doing one-man show in anti Li Wei fan group.
BOW BOW BOW ..
[DouDou: You rascal. How dare you kidnap my mommy in the middle of the night? I will puncture your body today.]
Ling Yue woke hearing DouDou shouting and saw him baring his canines at Li Wei. Huh? Why are these both fighting early in the morning?
"DouDou. Did you miss mommy? Come here. Good morning." Ling Yue's call somewhat soothed DouDou and he proudly walked to the bed and snuggled in her embrace.
Bow..
[DouDou: Mommy. You didn't sleep beside me. Wuhuu..]
"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with your big brother?" Ling Yue asked as she rolled off the bed and stood up.
Bow..
[DouDou: Don't even speak about him. He is selling you off to this pervert. Hmph..]
DouDou gracefully walked out of the room but didn't forget to bare his fangs at Li Wei while leaving. Ling Yue too left the room to freshen up for the day.
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"Big Sis. Gege. A photo there too." Li Mei said as she pointed out to a fountain in museum.
"We can take those after we are out of museum. Let us go inside now." Li Wei cut her off. She had been busy posing for photos since they arrived and they were still at the entrance. Ling Yue too supported Li Wei and Li Mei silently followed them inside.
Just like the amusement park, here too the five of them were eye-catching. Ling Yue wore a lavender coloured knee length frock with white sneakers and matching sling bag. Li Wei wore a simple lavender shirt, his sleeved rolled up displaying those strong arms and white jeans. Li Mei was dressed in a lavender top tucked into her cream colour jeans. The parents didn't follow the colour protocol since they didn't have any clothes of that colour and settled with the next nearest colour.
"Why would someone go to fifth floor first when there are things to see in the second floor?" Ling Yue questioned Father Li exasperatedly.
"And why would someone not go to fifth floor first when there is a couples store there?" Father Li quested back to which Ling Yue was speechless. They have to climb up to fifth floor because there is a store there? Ling Yue and father Li had the map of the museum and often got into arguments as to where to go next.
"Hahaha.. Big Sis. Dad. How about we decide it with a rock-paper-scissors?" Li Mei suggested and both the dissenters agreed with Ling Yue winning the game and father Li sulking behind his wife. Li Mei being the arbitrator, ordered everyone to follow Ling Yue. Soon they were looking at the remarkable and overly exaggerated cutlery and clothing of the dynasties which once ruled their country.
The guiding staff present in the hall explained about the history of the pieces displayed. Li Mei laughed out when the guide showed them few heavy robes and explained them to be summer wear.
"Isn't this glass too simple? Why is this sitting among the royal goods of the Jiang dynasty?" Li Mei questioned the guide looking at a glass made of clay which had no impressive work on it. The guide smiled hearing the question.
"Many ask this question whenever they see this collection. This mug belonged to the last queen of Huang dynasty, Min Hua." Li Mei raised her brows hearing the guide. This odd thing belonged to a queen? The other four members too joined to hear the explanation. The guide mischievously smiled looking at the confused faces. This was the story he had told almost dozen times everyday.
"That queen is also said to be the cause of Huang dynasties fall. Apparently she married the last king of Huang dynasty, Huang Meng for power and was orchestrating behind the scenes to capture the whole kingdom with her long time lover. People say that the queen was a drug addict and she always used only this clay mug to take drugs. There were many rumours about her debauchery, and about practising dark magic."
"Because of her, the Huang dynasty fell in no time but just like the Huang dynasty, even she passed away just after the war because of excessive drugs."
"Then later came the Jiang dynasty. Though it is still unclear whether the new king - Jiang Yuan is the lover or not, many historians say that king was an upright man and the kingdom prospered a lot under his rule. He was also the first emperor to stop polygamy and build schools for girl. He had a daughter and though everyone knew her mother was dead, no one knew who she was. People say that the king is a loyal husband and a great lover since he never took any other wife or concubine. The kingdom was later ruled by Jiang Yuan's daughter."
"Heh? Did no one take any action against the queen? What was the king doing? Doesn't he know his wife was doing drugs?" This father Li questioned the guide.
"The queen was the youngest princess of Min Dynasty which fell just a year before the Huang Dynasty. Emperor Huang Meng loved Min Hua a lot and hence promised to make her the queen while asking for her hand in marriage. But he had to go to war just two months after their marriage because Jiang Yuan had already waged a war against Min Dynasty. The war went for almost one and half year and the Huang'd too lost the war. It is still a million dollar question as to why Jiang Yuan refused to spare the kings and killed them in the battle field even though they offered their entire wealth to him."
"Seems like the queen was the actual villain. Poor king Huang Meng." Li Mei commented to which the guide dolefully nodded.
"The queen never had good relationships with anyone in the palace. She always refused to let anyone from her husbands family into her quarters. Since the King was not around, no one had the power to object her."
"According to what you said, Min Hua seems to be power hungry and a rebel. Then why did she have this kind of mug with her. Should she be using things made of gold?" Mother Li asked. This story was interested. She would dig up more and might be they would have new script for another movie.
"No one knows much about it. It is said that she brought it from her maiden home. After she died, her loyal aide - Lu Tang was the one who requested Jiang Yuan to preserve it. It was said that the queen was quite close to him and she spent most of the time with him in her quarters alone." The guide said suggestively and Li Mei did a 'OOoo' for it.
"Yueyue. What are you looking at?" Li Wei asked as he found her watching the clag mug for quite some time now. Ling Yue blinked her eyes as if came out from trance and looked at Li Wei.
"Wei.. This mug looks beautiful." Ling Yue exclaimed and the Li family together with the guide stared at her. The guide was left wondering if his story was heard or not. Father Li and Mother Li looked at the mug and found nothing special in it. Same with Li Mei and Li Wei.
"Yue'er. What is beautiful in that mug? It is not even properly made." Mother Li asked softly and everyone nodded. Ling Yue smiled as she bent down in front of the glass and pointed at the mug.
"Look at the mug carefully. Though it is not visible properly, there are two hand prints on both sides of the mug. One is big and one is small. Since Min Hua is so attached to it, the smaller hand print must be Min Hua's. I don't know about the larger one." Ling Yue construed and everyone went forward to look at the mug properly.
Now that Ling Yue explained, they all can see two light hand prints. They all turned to the guide to explain about it and the guide stood awkwardly looking at the glass. How come he never observed this. What was he supposed to say? Sigh. Never mind. He will weave a new story of the queen and her lover with this mug for the next batch.
"Seems like the queen was not very happy in her marriage" Mother Li commented and Li Mei spoke up in the defence of the king.
"Heh? The loved her so much that he made her the queen instead of just a consort. What else did she want?" Li Mei argued and Ling Yue was the one speak this time.
"Then why did the king take in four new concubines after his marriage with her? If he loved the queen, shouldn't he be speaking to her and try to resolve their problems?" saying this Ling Yue showed an verified history articles where Huang Meng's wives and concubines were listed.
Li Mei read the article and questioned the poor guide again. The guide really didn't know how to entertain this hyper active bunch of people.
"I think we should now go to another block. There are still so many things to look at." Li Wei reminded everyone looking at how they were all glued to that mug. Thank fully everyone nodded and the guided breathed a sigh of relief looking at the group leaving.
The five of them then left to look at the ancient inscriptions and sculptures of gods, rulers. After sometime they all went to cafe to eat something and Li Mei again got busy with her photoshoot. Li Wei now had more than 200 photos taken in the museum. Of course many of them were of Ling Yue's alone.
When they finally made it to fifth floor, Father Li dragged mother Li to the couples store and the other three went to the resting lounge. The museum was so big and they had been standing and walking for hours.
"Waahhhh.. My legs are aching.. Wuhuu..." Li Mei wailed as she pressed her legs. Ling Yue didn't feel much tired since she was already used to these kind of things in Ji Jing.
"Big Sis. What did you like the most?" Li Mei asked as she lazily leaned against the backrest of the sofa.
"Hmm? I liked many things here. That master clock. That blue carpet. That horn made of elephant teeth. That old makeup box. And also the clay mug." Ling Yue answered and counted on her fingers as she listed down everything.
"You really like that mug a lot huh?" Li Wei asked as she handed her a water bottle. Ling Yue simply nodded and drank water.
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"Phewww... I didn't think visiting a museum would take up all the day" Mother Li said when everyone crashed on the sofa after reaching home. They also went for shopping in the mall beside the museum and came home at 7:30 in the evening.
They all wanted to rest early and hence asked the maids to prepare something light before going to bed.
Unlike yesterday, Ling Yue didn't sneak in and knocked on Li Wei's door with her pillow in one hand. She slightly blushed when he opened the door.
"C-Can I sleep here?" Li Wei grinned hearing the question and opened the door wider for her to enter. They both spoke for some time before Ling Yue crawled into his arms and went into her sleep land.
But the night would be not so peaceful for Li Wei. The nightmare which he thought were now done came back to haunt him again.