The crashing sounds of the leaves of the trees outside are all they can hear. There are no other people in the imperial library aside from them so the room is very serene. He also hears her silent sobs. He feels the warm tears on his chest.
He strokes her hair and planted a small kiss on her head. "I see, you've been strong for a long time." He said in a low voice, almost whispering. This voice, this very voice that she misses the most, sounds soothing as usual. "I'm sorry it took me some time to get in the palace. But it's okay now, I'm here. I won't let you feel lonely again."
Xue BaiHua couldn't utter even a single word. She's afraid that if she did, her voice would break.
"I am aware of your position as the imperial noble consort but I also know that you're lonely. The emperor only has his eyes on her majesty." He said in a husky voice. Sincerity is evident in his eyes but she can't see it. "Sometimes, we can't have the person we admire the most."
"You're wrong." She said while her face was still buried on his chest. "I don't.., I don't admire his majesty." Although she's still sobbing, she still tried to speak.
Ye Feng holds her on both shoulders and slightly pulled to make her face him. Even after this, the imperial noble consort still refused to let the eunuch see her crying face. Despite the fact that Ye Feng already saw her cry, she still doesn't want him to see her like this. To her, it's not good when she cried the time they parted and still cried when they reunited. Also, in Ye Feng's eyes, she's the kind of woman who has a strong personality. Crying isn't really her thing.
This time, his tone is solemn as he asks her, "You don't? Then why are you aiming to be the empress in the first place? Why are you so heartbroken when the chosen destined highness got selected and not you?"
She responded, still her head hanging low. "It's because it's what the Xue Clan wants me to be. It's the very reason for my existence. Now, I'm just a failure in their eyes."
"Xue Baihua..." He calls out. This is the first time he calls her by her name. She won't deny the fact that she got startled by him. Ye Feng doesn't seem to notice her reaction and continued to speak. "Why did you let your family control you? If only I've known your real intentions I could have... I could have..." He paused. No, even if he had known it sooner he wouldn't be able to do anything. He could have what? Ask her to run away with him? Her status and his are very different. All her life, she lived a wealthy life. She never knows what poverty truly means. If he took her away from her family, would he make her happy? Is she even willing to come with him? He doesn't think so. He hates his poor life. He always feels so worthless.
"What do you want... me to do then? I... I didn't even get the chance to... to think about what I really wanted... to do with my life! I don't know what I want to do, I didn't bother to think about it. Am I... Am I even allowed to think about it?" She said in between her sobs. Tears flowed nonstop from her eyes across her cheeks.
Ye Feng could only let out a deep sigh. What's done cannot be undone. Things are already like this. There's nothing much they can do now.
"Of course. You have your own life. You should have lived your life." He wipes her tears with his thumbs as he tries to console her. "Young lady, remember that it's fine to cry if you're sad. However, you must not stop and isolate yourself in the corner. Whatever happens, life must go on, okay?"
The empress nods as she tries to calm herself down. She can't let him see her like this any longer. This is too embarrassing.
He added, "Don't worry. You may be a bird inside the luxurious cage now but don't feel down anymore. I am here to accompany you. You won't be lonely anymore." He wraps his arms around her again and remained like that until she feels better.
Little did they know, the empress dowager sees this. She sees Ye Feng as a threat to their plans. She might not seek revenge anymore if there's someone else comforting her aside from her highness herself. She thought, she must eliminate this eunuch in their way.
As days passed by, just like how the empress dowager, the imperial noble consort, and the eunuch are always together. Ye Feng is always cheering her up until the hatred inside her heart is slowly buried deep down in her core. Her bitterness is gradually replaced with smiles and laughter. She starts to get lively again, and the dark plan she has with the empress dowager seems to be swept off her mind. There are even times where she wishes she could leave the palace one day with Ye Feng. Outside these tall palace walls, they could start all over again. Live a normal and peaceful life. Away from dirty politics and hatred.
But these are too good to be true.
The empress dowager's prediction comes to reality. She thinks that she should make a move now. Eliminate the eunuch as soon as possible.
"What?" The expression that the imperial noble consort is making looks very complicated. Her face is filled with disbelief, shock, and confusion. "That... that can't be. He was just fine yesterday!"
The empress dowager taps her shoulder. "Hua'er, I, myself, find it difficult to believe it. It pains me to tell you that your eunuch friend is very sick and had to go back to his hometown."
"Your highness, can I please visit him? Please allow me to see him." She begs the empress dowager. She didn't know that she's the reason why Ye Feng fell ill.
Her highness had put poison on his food. A poison that slowly kills the victim. In the first week, the victim will feel bearable pain around his body. The next week, the pain will gradually worsen. By the third week, the victim will suffer intense pain and can only do limited movements. And in the fourth week, the one who took the poison will die a painful death.
This poison is one of the Liaodong Xue Sect's infamous poisons yet very effective. It is infamous since it is one of the products of their sect that they don't sell in the black market. It's only used by the clan for personal intentions.
"That won't do." She immediately disagreed. "Only the emperor has the right to issue a pass for any of us to step out of the palace."
"Then I will ask his majesty." She was about to leave the empress' hall to head towards wherever the Emperor is.
"Don't even think about it. Do you think he will grant you permission to go out? You can't get his attention away from that woman. And even if he did, what would everyone else say if you go after a eunuch?" The empress dowager leans closer to her ear and said in a low voice, "We have to drag her down first."
"..." Although it's against her will, the imperial noble consort nodded her head and didn't say anything further.
The plan to take down the empress is not an easy task even after the empress dowager and the imperial noble empress joined together and plotted an evil plan against her. The empress at that time is very charming, caring, and most of all loved by the emperor with all her heart. The two really love each other to the point that the emperor rarely visits the other members of the harem. By the time he visits, it's always because it's part of his duties. Not more than a year after their marriage, they already have three little angels. These infants are triplets. The emperor himself picked their names.
The empress may not be from a well-off family but there's nothing else they can use against her to degrade her highness. Then an opportunity comes knocking on their door, a rebellion in the southern part of the empire has declared war against the emperor. As the commander-in-chief of the Ministry of War and Defense, the emperor has to go to the battlefield along with the imperial soldiers. His majesty is forced to leave his wife and children's side to carry out the call of duty. Who would have thought that it would be the last time he'll ever see his family?
While the emperor is away, the empress dowager and imperial noble consort started their move. The empress dowager tasked the imperial noble consort to put poison on the empress' food. The same poison that the empress dowager gave to the poor Eunuch Ye.
Xue BaiHua carried out the plan and successfully sneaked inside the imperial kitchen. With her swift moves, she sprinkled the powder on the food that's intended to be delivered to the empress' hall without anyone seeing her.
This is how the agony of the royal siblings started.
It was indeed delivered to the empress. The poison scattered all over her body after eating that meal. Just like what Ye Feng had gone through, the poison kills the empress slowly. She suffered mild sickness in the first week. By then, she suspected that she had been poisoned. However, she doesn't know who would do such a thing. There are a lot of people who have an eye on her. A lot of people are against her just because she's born from a lowly family. There are a lot of people who wish to be in her place, people who are more suited to be called 'the empress'. If she's going to investigate it herself, she may not be able to find out before her time is up.
She got distracted from her thoughts when the infants cried. They're most probably hungry by now but she can't feed them herself. She decided not to feed the infants with her breastmilk. She feared that the poison might get passed to them. In the meantime, she tasked her loyal servant to feed their child with cow's milk.
She never thought that the 'meantime' would become permanent.
The empress never gets better. In fact, the effect of the poison gets worse. There are even times that she thinks she would collapse anytime soon. One day, she decided to go to the empress dowager to have a word with her. She doesn't think she still has a week to live. Although it was very painful to move around, she still insisted to go to the empress dowager's place.
"Oh my, this is bad." The empress dowager said. She covers her mouth with her palm as if she can't believe the bad news that the empress said. Her acting is way too good that even the imperial noble consort would believe it if she's not aware of her real intentions.
"We should let my son know this so that he can hurry to your side."
"Please, empress dowager, there is no need for that. I do not want him to get distracted. What if he gets very troubled and..." She got interrupted with a cough.
Her white handkerchief got stained with her crimson red blood. The imperial noble consort saw this and a smirk formed on her lips.
The empress takes a sip of her tea that Xue BaiHua prepared. Unfortunately, this tea has also a poison in it, cutting off the remaining life that remained in her highness even shorter.
"I just want to ask a favor to you, empress dowager." She pushed herself to speak.
"Speak, tell me, what do you need?" The empress dowager asked, still acting all worried when she's actually pleased deep inside.
Her highness speaks in a low voice, "I just want you, your highness, to relay a message for me to the emperor. Please tell him that I just got sick. Please don't mention the poison. I do not want him to do anything reckless."
"Yes, I understand. Please, your highness, you need to rest now."
Actually, this is what she planned to tell her son. Her empress died because of an unknown sickness that even the royal physician can't cure.
Later that day, her highness can't move her body anymore. Just like how the bright sunlight goes dim during sunset, her highness seems to be running out of life too.
Tears flow from her eyes as she stares at her children. She decided to spend her remaining time staring at these angels. Even though she won't be able to see them grow, she's still satisfied with the short time they had together. Those are the happiest days in her life.
The empress just realized who did this to her. It was the imperial noble consort. After she drank the tea she served, she felt even worse.
With a soft voice, she calls out her loyal servant who is currently shedding tears as well.
"Shi Miao... after I take my last breath, please take my children away from the palace. Anywhere is fine, as long as they're away from here."
She's sure her children aren't safe inside the imperial palace anymore. Especially now that she's dying and their father is out there, risking his life for the empire.
"But... but why your highness? Your children might encounter hardships outside the imperial palace." Shi Miao is worried that these children will not be treated as how they should be.
"It's much more difficult for them to live here. Please do as I say."
Now that she knows that the ones who plotted against her can easily get close to her children, it's better to let them live outside the imperial palace even if it means that they'll live a poor life than being murdered mercilessly.
"Yes, your highness."
After her highness took her last breath, Shi Miao sneaks out of the imperial palace with the triplets. After that, no one knows what exactly happened. The royal siblings went missing but are destined to find their way back to where they should be two decades later. As for Shi Miao, no one saw her ever again.
The emperor returned victorious to the palace after the war. Even though he and his men defeated the rebellion, he still felt he lost his own battle. He didn't even get to see her wife before she returns to the ground, and his children went missing.
Following the law, the imperial noble consort got promoted and coronated as the new empress. Everything went according to their plans.
The emperor, on the other hand, got depressed and eventually committed suicide. With that, the empress dowager seized the power and gained the greatest political authority.
After their plans got carried out, the newly crowned empress asked to visit her 'sick' friend. This time, the empress dowager gave her permission to do so. She traveled so far with the hope of seeing her friend that she hadn't seen for more than a year, only to learn that Ye Feng died a few days after he returned to his hometown.
But there's one more thing that surprised her even more. She learned that the symptoms he had were the same as the deceased empress' before she died. That could only mean one thing; Ye Feng got poisoned by the same poison as the one she used against the previous empress.
"Empress Dowager... why..." She whispered in the thin air as her tears flow down from her eyes.