CHAPTER 03

YEAR 236 of the Yong Calendar

 The beginning of spring and news circulated that the Emperor passed away.

The palace was decorated with white ribbons for mourning. A mourning procession was held in the kingdom.

“His Majesty, The Emperor was a wise ruler!” shouted by a villager and then was followed by the crowd. The agony cries could be even heard in the palace.

Though the palace was in a state of mourning, there lay huge responsibility on the current Crown Prince. A general meeting was held on the sudden rebels taking place in isolated villages along the borders.

“Your Excellency, I suggest that before your coronation, you must go for an expedition. Right now, it is high time to earn the people’s trust. ” One minister spoke. He was a trusted noble too during the Emperor’s rule.

“I was thinking of visiting and I entrust the palace affairs to my siblings.”

 The cavalry and the Crown Prince set off on the expedition after a week.

Ziteng took charge of internal affairs of the court.

Soon after some few days,

“I should go visit Fen, it’s been days since the last time I visited her. The last time I saw her was at the banquet” saying shyly to her maids.

She reached the palace of Tranquility. The palace looks so dark, it seems like no one visits here.

“Yi, Xi’ai…stay here and guard the entrance”

“YES!”

Ziteng enters the palace and looks for Fen,

“Fen? Where are you?”

She sees Fen’s shadow and goes towards the balcony.

“There you are, I was looking for you the whole ti…”

Ziteng suddenly met with horror. She saw Fen standing on the rails of the Balcony.

"NOOOOOOOOOO! FEN, Get down!"

“You came at a bad time. It was today I dismissed all my maids to have some alone time.”

“Princess…please live freely…and when the time comes, go with him…this is my only wish”

And then she departed from this world.

Ziteng was shocked and couldn’t move at all. She fell down to her knees and tears started rolling down to her cheeks.

A few minutes later, the maids gathered around the Crown Princess’s body.

Ziteng, still traumatized, calls out to her familiar.

 “Phoenix! I need you. You can heal Fen’s body, right” Her voice wasn’t even clear and her continuous weeping made her throat dry out.

“Your highness, your mind is not in a state of calmness, you won’t be able to control me and you shouldn’t use your powers here”

 “THEN TELL ME! AREN’T YOU ARE MY GUARDIAN! WHAT I SHOULD DO?”

The Phoenix said nothing and made her put to sleep.

 A week has passed after the death of the Crown Princess.

Ziteng, still depressed, tried to find out the cause of her death. She had to find it but how?

She fabricated it as an attempt of murder by a jealous concubine of the Crown Prince. The concubine was a lover of the current Prince. If the Crown Prince were to be crowned, she would’ve become the Empress. So, she decided to poison the concubine as the Head of the Harem should do.

 Secretly she sent the message to the Crown Prince that the concubine had been dealt with and the Crown Princess passed away as a result.

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