A Qing princess in the Republican era
From the turn of the new century, the Qing empire has been heralded with ominous impediments one after the other. Their miserable defeat at the boxer rebellion only marked the beginning. Inside the walls of the forbidden city, the power struggle between the emperor and the empress dowager was growing ever intense. Outside the walls, nationalists and revolutionaries were clamoring to overthrow the dynasty. The times have gone tumultuous wherein causes of celebration were fleeting. In 1905, a most welcome news from the inner court came. It has been more than a decade since the emperor married and accepted concubines, but he still did not have a son to inherit the throne. With much anticipation, the emperor looked forward to the birth of a prince. However, much to his disappointment, the child was another daughter. In 1912, despite the edict of abdication being issued, the future of Aisin Gioro Wan Li, once known as Gulun Gongzhu Wan Li or Princess Wan Li of the first rank, was still looking bright. Bound by an internal verbal agreement between her mother and the new president of the republic of China, she was promised to marry the 3rd son of the president, Yuan Kezhen, upon reaching adulthood. However, not everything goes as planned. With the assassination of the president and the short-lived restoration of the Qing dynasty, Wan Li had to escape the forbidden city. Wan Li was a princess, but she was still a maiden born in imperial China. Growing up, she was mostly educated only with the moral principles and social code of behaviour called the three obediences and four virtues. Her personality was gentle, kind, shy, and meek. Instilled to her were traits and beliefs of an ideal wife leaning on dependency to a powerful and influential husband. How was she to survive without the privilege of her birthright during the extraordinary times of the republican era? -- This novel will have at least 3 major arcs. (Yes, I have written that far… at least inside my head. Haha!) 1. Wan Li's childhood in the palace/ forbidden city (qing dynasty until early republican era) Age: 0-12 2. After Wan Li escapes the Forbidden city (early republican era/ Warlord era) Age: 12-16 3. Wan Li in Shanghai. (Republican/ Warlord era) Age 16 onwards — What to expect? This novel will have romance, a lot of it later on but it doesn’t revolve entirely on that. There will be politics. Very necessary as it’s what propels the story forward. Character growth, definitely. For the better or the worse, all there but remember each character would be as human as can be. Drama, face slapping, some darkness, adventure, betrayal, all of it will be in this novel. R-18? There will be but definitely not in the early chapters. Oh and this will have a happy ending, though the roads reaching that would be bumpy. — Cover art: the pictures were grabbed from pinterest then edited by me. Important note to readers: Many events in the novel were based from historical facts. Again, many but not all. Some characters were inspired from historical figures. Take note: INSPIRED. Thus, they definitely have different attributes whether looks or personalities. In this regard, please do not assume that they’re one and the same. The characters here were created by me, so if they’re kinda evil or too kind, don’t think that the real historical figure was. Again, though this is historical, it’s still a work of fiction. So a lot of things and reasons leading to certain factual events may have been romanticized by the author (me).
Chapter 21: Regency II
Wan Li who has long finished paying her respects to her deceased father remained kneeling while holding her burning joss sticks. Her knees were starting to get numb, and she wondered if it was time to stand up. Curious, she peeked with her one eye shut.
She first searched her e'niang's figure and unsurprisingly saw that she was still kneeling. It was their third time visiting and although she was only 4 when they first did, she can still vividly recall that her mother usually takes a longer time to finish. She pondered if the reason was because her e'niang had so much more to talk about with her ahma than her. That's only to be expected though, unlike her e'niang, she never spent much time with her ahma, in fact, she could not recollect any memory of them interacting.
Sometimes, she asks her mother questions about him. Like, why she can't remember him visiting them, how was he like, or if he loved them. Then, her e'niang would tell her that he did love them a lot and the reason why she can't remember his visits was because he did it when she was still very young. In fact, at that time, he visited them often and would talk to her every time. However, he became very busy later because he was the emperor. He had responsibilities and obligations he needed to shoulder. Also, she should not forget that it was her father who granted her the name, Wan Li, which just shows how much he adored her.
Of course, she never doubted her e'niang's words. It's just that she doesn't have much to tell her ahma except for thanking him for her name and that she would strive and continue to be a good girl befitting her name. Should she try harder in communicating with him? Was she the only one like this? She pondered.
With this question, she remembered that Li Shan who was with them today was also paying his respects. Talking about Li Shan, she has somehow got accustomed to his presence given that her e'niang made her attend the morning greeting every other day. That was not to say that she was comfortable around him. She knew that he was being friendly with her, and she doesn't have to be afraid of him. However, she couldn't control her own irrational fear. Maybe it was because she knew that he was their sovereign?
Anyhow, she still wanted to satiate her curiosity, thus she peeked with her one eye again. To her surprise, he was staring at her. Not knowing what to do, she quickly shut her eyes again, waved her joss sticks up and down, pretending that she was still praying.
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Li Shan hated it whenever he had to go to this hall and pray. He never liked the smell of incense and the place felt stifling and, well, it was creepy. The only redeeming factor it had was that he will have no class for the rest of the day.
Anyhow, although that was the case, today he did not feel that way. Yesterday during his morning greeting, e'niang said that for today, she and Wan Li will join him to pay respects to emperor Gongxu, one of his 2 fathers. Although he knew who his biological father was, he had another 2 which was not surprising given that he had 6 other e'niangs aside from the one who birthed him.
Every year, he had to visit the tablets of his 2 deceased ahma twice, once for their birthday, the other for their death anniversary. Counting, this was his 6th visit to the hall but the only time he was accompanied by empress dowager Ruyi.
He did not care much for his e'niang and was more excited about the prospect that this was the first time that Wan Li mei mei stepped foot outside e'niang's palace with his knowledge. Does that mean that she was already well and that they can start playing together from this day forth?
He looked at Wan Li and grinned when he saw her peeking at him. The last 5 months where he had been waiting for her to get well were excuriatingly slow. The feeling was comparable to when he was told that Liang Shan would be joining him in his classes only to find out that he had to wait for a month before that happens. The only difference was that this time, the wait was longer and for a period, indefinite.
In any case, he thought that since this day has arrived, what comes after should be fantastic. He was getting bored with all his toys and playing with the eunuchs who only knew how to kiss the ground he walked on. Maybe Wan Li meimei and him can play catch with the leather ball with bells? He wanted to play with Liang Shan, but he usually had to leave right after their class ends.
He turned his gaze towards his e'niang's behind. How long will she keep praying? He was already itching to ask for her permission so that he can take Wan Li meimei away for the rest of the day.
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Empress dowager Ruyi just stood up after she finished paying respects to her deceased husband when a eunuch went kowtowing to her, kneeled, and presented a document.
"Niang niang, please pardon nucai, but the imperial cabinet has sent a memorial needing niang niang's response with utmost urgency."
Ruyi furrowed her brows before receiving the folding memorial. Usually, she would just junk whatever memorial she received from the grand council since she knew that they were simply penned by her father. However, the term imperial cabinet was new to her, and it has almost been a year since she last received one.
Since the eunuch was still kneeling while waiting and it would not be a good example for her daughter to witness her mother being obstinate, she opened the document to read what was inside.
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TBC