Love In The Palace

Jade

Chapter 49.

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Recap: In the previous chapter, Emperor Ming met Yiron, Crown Prince's princess and let her live as a commoner following Jade's desires. Emperor Ming also agreed to never meet Jade anymore. Jade also found out that Consort Lana and Rowena had passed away, and thought that the dramatic years were nothing but fleeting dreams. Five years later, Empress Dowager Shine was on her death bed as she thought if she should tell Emperor Ming his real birth secrets. In the end, she decided not to and passed on without telling him.

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What is the point of life? Living is such a tiring feat to accomplish, because every single second, we remember people who have come and go.

The seconds turn into hours, days, weeks, months, and then years. The tormenting life has been continuing for another two years, till her body finally collapses onto the bed, till she can get up on her own.

No one knows at all, that her illness is caused by the poison she took in the past. She keeps it secret, she lets no one know.

Not even when Bisen pleaded Eunuch Wan, who knew what he had to do for Third Prince, to send an Imperial Physician to Jade. Jade saw the old man and simply asked the rest to leave the hut.

"I know what is wrong with my own body. It is not any disease, it is what I ate that caused my body to be like this. There is nothing that can cure this. Physician Wu should be able to already guess what happened. Please just let this be a secret between us."

So she continued with her life, everyday, with her illness and her weakness, counting the days that have passed. Who would have ever known, that she would be already counting down her days left?

That morning is just like any other morning, the sun shining brightly on the sky, the weather is chilly and not too hot, a perfect and beautiful weather for a day to start. She finds it difficult to lift her eyelids but she still does anyway, and the bright rays of sunlight invade the darkness in her eyes, giving her the full view of the world.

Her hut, her world has been so limited and so cut small due to her illness, for she can no longer leave the bed. She has lost so much weight that Bisen and Yiron cannot stop worrying. What can they do? The Imperial Physician said that it was beyond his abilities.

"Aunt has woken up? Sister! Sister Bisen! Aunt has woken up!" Immediately Yiron damps a piece cloth in water and places it near the fire for a moment before she heads to Jade's side.

She helps the woman she calls her aunt with cleaning her face with the warm piece of damp cloth. She smiles, and Yiron returns the smile with a bigger one.

Then she feels it, the feeling of herself losing her breath, feeling of her lungs being filled and she coughs up metallic taste of liquid into the cloth.

It is a red patch of wetness she has been coughing up once every few days. In a panic, Yiron puts Jade back down on the bed and rushes out of the hut to fetch Bisen.

When Bisen is back, Jade asks Yiron to leave them alone first.

"Are we Aunt and Bisen or Mistress and palace servant now?" Bisen jokes while still fumbling around with the utensils and a hot pot of dark brown liquid and she hastily returns with a bowl of medicinal soup. Jade chuckles almost whisperingly under her breath, her eyes looking into nothing as she feels unusually uncomfortable today.

"It does not matter."

"Here." After a few difficult moments, Jade finally manages to swallow the bitter liquid that still leaves a lingering unpleasant taste that she can never get used to.