candle tears
A bright red veil obscured her face, a square scarf dividing her face into four corners. Bright candlelight filtered through the veil, illuminating the dark peony embroidered on her sleeves. The scent of the red candle was particularly noticeable in the cool night.
She had been sitting in the room waiting for a long time since a sedan chair was carried out from the Queen's Palace. Fearing that she would violate etiquette, she dared not move. She just stared at the handkerchief in front of her. In this dark red, some familiar fragments gradually began to emerge in her mind.
The sound of a beaded curtain fluttering came, and she heard the palace servants taking off the man's outer robe and washing his hands. A set of footsteps faded away, and at the same time, another set of footsteps approached.
She took a deep breath and became a little nervous.
Suddenly, the side of her bed collapsed and her heart skipped a beat. But there was no movement afterwards. The man seemed to be lying on the bed, ignoring her.
She was a little confused, "Your Highness?"
The man didn't respond, so she sat there for a while. When her legs grew numb, she wondered if he was drunk. She couldn't help but lift a corner of her veil and turned around, only to see him staring at her with a strange look in his eyes.
She avoided his gaze, stood up, took a wet towel and wanted to wipe his face, but before she could touch it, he grabbed her wrist.
"Your Highness, wipe your face and go back to sleep."
She tried to soothe him softly, but his strength suddenly increased, causing her to flinch and scream.
Qingping had applied rich rouge today, her eyebrows were black, and her lips were painted red. When she lowered her head, her eyes looked so soft and moving. He wanted to grab her neck and break her thin hands...
He looked at her with hatred, his eyes cold and icy, making Qingping shiver unconsciously. "Your Highness, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell after being drunk? I'll ask someone to bring some hangover soup."
She stood up and wanted to call the palace maid in, but as soon as she opened her mouth, she felt a pain between her lips. Liu Ju bit her lips fiercely, grabbed her hand and threw her onto the couch.
Her head was buzzing from being thrown around, and her shoulder blades hit the wooden board with a thud, causing her to cry in pain.
Liu Ju seemed to have gone mad. He was a completely different person now, like a wild animal stalking its prey, determined to bite off her lips, chew them up, and swallow them whole. The salty taste of blood spread across his tongue. She was grasped by his hand, her chest heaving violently as she pushed him away. "Your Highness..."
"Where are you going? Who are you going to tell? You're even going to tell the Queen about what happened in my bed, right?"
His cold voice, coupled with his brutal movements, left her with little time to think. Snitch? What secrets was she snitching on? What secrets was the Crown Prince hiding from the Queen? Just this morning, he had been smiling as he squatted with her, feeding rabbits, yet tonight he treated her with unprecedented cruelty.
"Your Highness, I didn't. I won't tell anyone. You were drunk, and I just wanted someone to make you some hangover soup."
Liu Ju looked at her with a sneer, his big hands clasping her cheeks. She looked at him with tearful eyes, her thin face like brittle white porcelain, as if it would break with a slight pinch.
The alcohol made his eyes bloodshot, and he suddenly increased the strength of his hands. She felt that the bones in her cheeks were about to be broken. She no longer cared about the etiquette and reached out to grab Liu Ju's neck hard. Several blood marks immediately swelled up.
She finally escaped from Liu Ju and ran away. She wondered how such a great opportunity could have happened to her. It turned out that the crown prince was a tyrant. On the surface, he was a gentleman and gentle as jade, but in fact he was a violent and violent man with an unstable temperament and a fantasy.
She was snitching on someone. She'd only been married a few days. What kind of secrets could a lousy errand girl like her snitch on? These royal relatives and nobles, none of them are normal!
"Stop right there!"
The fool had just stopped when she ran out of the inner room and opened the door. She saw the palace maid, who was about to bring water in, fall to the ground with a clang. The palace maid's eyes widened in panic as Liu Ju emerged with disheveled hair. He said coldly, "Liang Di is drunk and crazy tonight. Hold her down and lock her in the room."
"I'm not drunk, it's His Highness who is drunk! Liang Yuan, His Highness is drunk, please bring me a bowl of sobering soup."
She grabbed the sleeve of Liang Yuan who was guarding the door, but Liang Yuan seemed to have become a different person. He and another person pushed her in with a cold expression.
The door closed again, and she caught a glimpse of the huge black shadow standing motionless outside a piece of land. She clenched her fists.
"Why are you running?"
Liu Ju walked towards him step by step with a steady gait. Every rise and fall of his sleeves and hem seemed to strictly follow the rules of etiquette at the ceremony. However, his heavy footsteps and the floating frenzy in his black eyes revealed the turbulent waves beneath his calmness.
She seemed to see the flames of karma burning, penetrating his thin and broad flesh and bones and rushing towards her.
"Are you afraid I'll hit you?"
Liu Ju chuckled twice, as if it was just a casual joke. "I never take action, let alone kill you. Don't worry, come here."
"Your Highness is the crown prince of the country. You are governed by propriety and music, and crowned with benevolence and kindness. Your virtue is known to the world. I have done nothing wrong, and I have not harmed Your Highness. Naturally, Your Highness will not harm me."
"The crown prince of the country?" He laughed, walked closer to Qingping, looked her up and down with a scrutinizing gaze, and then began to untie the belt around her waist.
"State affairs, family affairs, everything is beyond our control. Who is the master of the world? But if I say I'm wrong, do you really think you're innocent?"
He looked indifferent as he threw the belt to the ground and casually began to strip off her outer clothes. One by one, they fell to the ground with a rustling sound.
She couldn't help but want to take a few steps forward, away from the bright candlelight and the white window panes. "Your Highness, if you have something to say, just speak directly. Why are you being so evasive and vague?"
"You're being secretive?" Liu Ju sneered. "Who do you think you are? Do you think you can flaunt your power in front of me just by climbing the Queen's high branch?"
Her clear and stubborn eyes made him very restless. What right did she have? Why did she, a lowly person, have the right to be so proud in front of him?
He was truly foolish. It turned out she had been deliberately trying to get close to him from the very beginning. She was a rabbit banished by the Empress. Who could approach her so freely? And who had cared for and fed her daily before she entered the palace? Perhaps if it wasn't her, it would have been someone else. His mother had long since orchestrated this chess game. One was ambitious, vying to manipulate the game, the other, vain and willing to be a pawn. They hit it off, treating him like a trapped turtle, a prize in their clutches. He was like a puppet in a play, constantly being watched and manipulated by the audience!
He pulled her up and tore off her last piece of clothing, but instead of showing the expected panic, she remained as cold as ever. The candlelight reflected in her black eyes was like a deep pool, and he fell into it unconsciously at first sight, as if he had traveled through time and space and returned to the summer when he was fifteen years old.
The fragrance of peonies filled the room, emanating from her sleeves and lingering around him. The woman's chilly hand held his, her long black hair cascading down his neck, like a dragonfly resting on his heart. She picked up her pen and wrote, her heart filled with the fragrance. Her gentle voice fell into his ears as she taught him to imitate the emperor's handwriting, chuckling softly when he made mistakes.
If he hadn't seen it, he would have thought that the person teaching him how to write was a gentle parent. The wisp of black hair made his heart itch, and he suddenly turned his head and was about to speak when he saw those eyes.
There was a calm coldness in his gentle eyes, and there was still a smile on the corners of his lips, but his eyes seemed to be looking through him at another person, with deep hatred, as if staring at a cold corpse.
After making eye contact with him, the look in her eyes quickly disappeared and turned into a pool of clear river water, light and cheerful, enveloping the young boy in this infinite tenderness.
Today, those eyes seemed to appear again, but when he looked closely, they were clearly completely different.
She was wearing a shimmering white middle garment, and the bright lights shone on her like a bright and cold moon, its chilling light striking him, as if countless icy arrows were shooting towards him, and the fear of impending death made him run cold all over.
He suddenly grabbed his belt and covered her eyes with it, as if this could keep out the cold.
The candlelight went out, and he sank into the deep pool, whole and sound, filled with frivolity and anger.
The stinging pain of nails scratching his back and the warmth sliding down when their faces touched each other made him retreat suddenly.
He turned over and used his sleeve to cover the sobs coming from his side, feeling extremely irritated.
The subtle sound was amplified infinitely beside his ears. He said coldly, "From now on, you will be alone. If you have two hearts and do not forget your old master, no one will stand up for you even if you die here. Do you understand?"
Qingping looked sideways at the moonlight pouring in through the window. The red peony flowers that had been in the vase for a day had begun to wither, and the burnt yellow lace drooped to one side, looking about to fall apart.
She no longer wanted to argue with him. By now, she understood everything. The Crown Prince and the Queen were playing a game of chess, and she had become their pawn. From the very beginning, the Queen had intended for her to be with him. She had shown her deep affection and favor, granting her extraordinary favor and allowing her to marry the Crown Prince. Her obligation to monitor the Crown Prince for the Queen was undeniable.
She naturally harbored a desire to curry favor with him, but she thought he was different from the powerful when he talked to her about the importance of the people over the emperor, about the equality of nobles and humbles. But in fact, whether it was the queen or the prince, they were all the same. The distinction between high and low, noble and humble, was ingrained in their blood, written in the vast scriptures and inscribed in the annals of history, and for thousands of years, it was all beautiful nonsense.
Because she was lowly, everything she did was wrong. Her voice was silent and her actions were insignificant. Only when she was used by these noble people could she make a sound.
Thousands of words melted into her heart. She just replied lightly, "I understand."
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