The King's Mate - Part 3: Guishi

Chapter 5

Sorry about the delay on this chapter!

If you follow me on Twitter (@_nana8493_) you already know that I'm having a bit of a stressful time with switching to another job and stuff, and I had my very last day at my now previous company last week so I just really didn't have the right headspace for writing for a while. Things should go back to normal next week tho 😅

Anyway, enjoy! :D

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After their little meeting had ended, Hua Cheng and Xie Lian had shown Ming Yi, as well as YanLi and ZiXuan their new residences within the inner palace walls.

All three of them were visibly blown away by the splendour of their new homes, despite the state they were currently in. According to Hua Cheng, living spaces over in the demon realm were extremely cramped, especially when compared to the buildings within the palace. Once Xie Lian learned of this fact, he wasn't surprised by the reactions anymore, and just found them slightly amusing. More importantly though, he was glad, and even slightly relieved, that their new friends seemed to view the change favourably.

When it came to explaining to Ruoye and E'ming that both Hua Cheng and Xie Lian would be leaving for an undetermined amount of time, their kids didn't take it too well, as expected. It took both Xie Lian and Hua Cheng an enormous amount of consoling and making many outlandish promises before Ruoye began to accept their impending separation.

Last night, Xie Lian had brought up the issue of leaving their kids again so soon after only just reuniting with them, and that it was worth considering delaying their trip to Banyue to give them some time to adjust to all the changes they were experiencing.

However, Hua Cheng had reminded him that Ruoye and E'ming were not only their children, but also the crown princess and prince of WuYong. That they were royalty, and needed to learn that the country came first, and the fact that sacrifices needed to be made in order to rule it properly.

Since Xie Lian himself had been raised as a prince, he was more than familiar with this exact mindset, and he chided himself for not considering his kids royalty. In his mind, both of them were still his babies, too young to understand the concept of their status and the sacrifices that came with it. However, he had to admit that Hua Cheng was right; Ruoye was almost eight years old by now. She was able to read and write on an advanced level for her age, and she had, in fact, been reading books and scrolls that discussed the easier to stomach customs and rules of the palace and even some of the laws of WuYong.

But to Xie Lian, these things had only ever been the contents of her lessons; he'd pushed the reality of Ruoye being the heiress to Hua Cheng's throne so far out of his mind that it had never even occurred to him that those were not things normal eight year olds needed to study. Looking back at it, Xie Lian found that he truly had been too indulgent of Ruoye's mischievous character, and that he hadn't done enough to raise her into a proper heiress. She certainly lacked discipline, especially when it came to controlling her emotions.

Looking at it from this angle, E'ming was a complete disaster, Xie Lian had realised with a heavy sigh. No matter how much Xie Lian loved his son, the little guy was so entirely unprepared to step up if anything should ever happen to his sister, the consequences were truly unthinkable.

If Xie Lian compared his kids' abilities to those he himself had possessed at their age, their performance was, to no fault of their own, unacceptable. Xie Lian had only ever acted with his childrens' best interest in mind, but he hadn't acted like the parent of the king's heirs. It was a realisation that made him feel incredibly ashamed of himself.