Heaven's Daughter

Chapter 38 - A Royal Family's Dark Past

A few days passed by quietly which surprised Kairi. She had expected Wan Yi to come for her but he never did. Zhang Sheng never came to visit her either. There was however an insane amount of guards that lurked about outside her courtyard. She wondered if that was the reason why Wan Yi didn't appear or maybe he found out about the broken oath. She was once again a prisoner in her courtyard but she didn't care. It didn't matter to her. As long as she destroyed the connection between her and Zhang Sheng, things should work out fine. There was no point of keeping Xiao Huo a secret anymore so he freely moved about in the courtyard. Before he would sit on the table in front of Kairi and ate at the monster fruits that Zhang Sheng had bought but now he was too big to even fit on the table. He was sitting by the pond while one of the servants was fondly petting him.

"Aren't you having fun?" Kairi muttered sarcastically at her demon beast. Xiao Huo seemed to have matured more and more by the day. It was as if, he could think like an adult. Hearing her question, he wailed like a child and turned his head away from her. It was only a matter of time before he was able to shapeshift into a human at this rate. Seeing how much attitude he had, she was going to have her hands full with him once he was able to talk. That little exchange with Xiao Huo was enough to chase away the bit of heaviness in her heart as she played with her tea cup.

A Xiang finished doing the laundry and after being checked thoroughly by the guards, she was let into the courtyard.

"My lady, I've brought back your laundry," A Xiang called out.

"Mn," Kairi said as she sipped on her tea.

"What's wrong, my lady? Are you tired of staying in your courtyard? Should I send in a request to leave the courtyard?" she asked frantically. A Xiang was extremely loyal after Kairi saved her from a harsh beating by the other courtesans. Then she suddenly had a thought. She has seen too many dramas based in ancient times where secrets would get passed around servants. She wondered if it would work in real life too.

"A Xiang, among all the people in this kingdom, who do you think the third prince would seek out advice from?" Kairi asked.

"All the servants know that his highness, the third prince is extremely close to his uncle. In fact, the king and the two princes are extremely close to their uncle, the prime minister. He was the only parental figure they had after the late king mysteriously disappeared and the late queen died," A Xiang explained.

"The prime minister?" Kairi repeated. She recalled seeing an older gentleman at the flower festival who was constantly by the king's side. She wondered if that man was the prime minister.

"Sigh... it really was a tragedy in the royal family. That year... it was most strange. Everyone thought the royal family was cursed," A Xiang commented suddenly.

"Cursed? What do you mean?" Kairi asked.

"Ah!" A Xiang covered her mouth with her hand as if she had spoken something she shouldn't. She turned her head from side to side to make sure that no one had heard her. This intrigued Kairi even more.

"A Xiang, you know how bored I get when I'm stuck in my own courtyard, right? Tell me more. I promise I won't say anything to anyone," Kairi said with a mischievous grin. A Xiang eyed her surrounding and then with a playful grin, she took a seat next to Kairi, all too eager to spill some juicy story about the royal family.

"All the servants swore to keep quiet about this but the rumors still floats around," A Xiang started.

When the late king was in his twenties, he had fallen deeply in love with one woman. He ended up making an oath to love only her. He soon married her and turned her into his queen. All was well and they even had a child together but out of nowhere, he suddenly brought in his first and only concubine. She was nothing more than a poor woman who was begging for food on the streets. The king had never seen such a beautiful woman before and brought her into the palace as his concubine. The queen's jealousy grew with each passing day as the king spent more and more time with his concubine. Rumors has it that after the concubine sired a son with the king, in a fit of rage, the queen slept with the king's brother out of revenge. From this revenge came the third prince who was born from the queen and the king's brother. Since it was only speculations, the rumors died after the third prince was born. When the third prince turned five, the rumors started to surface as he looked more like his uncle than he did his father. The queen was accused of adultery and was executed. What was strange was after the queen's death, the concubine went mad. She would wake up in the middle of the night screaming about seeing the ghost of the queen. The concubine soon died a month later. The king was devastated at the death of his queen and concubine. After the death of the concubine, the king mysteriously disappeared leaving nothing behind but the king's seal. When the first prince became king, he married three times but every single one of his queen died a mysterious death. None of his queen could bear a child and he eventually became too sick. It was then that servants started to believe that the royal family was cursed. Which was the reason why the king had asked the Holy Abbot to come down from the holy mountain to seek guidance.