Love In The Palace

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This is chapter 30.

Hi again guys! I know it's been more than 10 days since I last updated, I tried my best to write as fast as possible! (Forgive me....?)

Anyway, since this is chapter 30, I decided to narrate some feelings at the beginning of this chapter to give you guys an even better view of the palace's life. So I won't take your time anymore, read on!

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Perhaps, just hopefully and perhaps, one day there will be an end to the suffering of the people living inside the palace. The only way to be free of their sufferings is to let go of their ugly past. But obviously when their pasts have been stained with blood and death, it will not be easy for them to let go. Normal people walk while looking in front to be cautious of any obstacles on the path they take. But for those in the palace, they are different. They walk forward with their heads turned back. That is how they stumble and fall, often and always. And that is also how their bodies gradually grow immune to those pain, so they just get up and keep walking, without ever knowing if they have reached the correct destination, without ever knowing if they have strayed halfway, because they can no longer tell the right from wrong.

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"Rowena, wait here. I will just go in myself." Jade raises her hand and gently squeezes Rowena's while giving her a smile of reassurance. Then she lifts her dresses slightly and walks down the wooden stairs into the palace's another garden, a garden which is rarely frequented by people and thus its serenity. There are several lanterns decorating the pathway, but unlit since it is day. She walks down the path again, passing two pavilions, till finally she reaches the third one. She heaves a sigh of relieve as he is there. Thus she takes her steps again slowly but surely, towards the pavilion, where she finds him sitting on the fence of the pavilion, leaning against the pillar while holding onto a jar of wine.

She enters the pavilion and he notices her presence. She never falters and proceeds to the seat while his eyes never leave her. She herself, her eyes are never lifted to meet his. She just sits down in silence till he begins.

"Why are you here?" He asks. Silence just fills the air, for several moments till she decides to reply.

"No reason." He chuckles and comes down from the fence, struggling to reach the seat in his half-sober state. When he has finally sat down, he slams the jar of wine on the table and its content splashes out, wetting the wooden table but no one can care much about it.

"Liar. You are here to congratulate me." His voice is hoarse. From that, she can imply enough that he has been repeatedly thanking people who congratulate him. Those people do not know, how he hates to hear congratulations for the matter.

"No. I will not."

"Why? This is a happy occasion, it is worth the congratulation."

"Then why are you drinking now?" Jade stares right into him, waiting for his reply that seems to never come.

"..." His eyes meet hers but he hastily blinks and looks away, out into the big green pond. The pond which his beloved sister used to hang around. The pond that she seems to always be attracted to, for no particular reason. Perhaps its the serenity here that attracts her.

"I chose her." He says, still without looking at Jade. He has lost his courage, or perhaps his courage has left with Seventh Princess to the North.

"This woman, her name is Chisa Yang. I was the one who chose her to be my Prince Consort."

"Why?" There is a tone of disbelief in Jade's question. Why would Third Prince marry another woman when he loves Seventh Princess so much?