Chapter 67 - Birthmark

Like a storm, Prince Li breaks through the Li Mansion with noises. Some servants who in guard are surprised with the sudden arrival of their master.

"Uncle Tong...Aunt Tong, call a physician immediately... Clean the way!!!" he shouts.

With a rush, Prince Li brought the unconsciousness TanTan back to her room, and laying her down quickly but with gentle. then in reflex, he starts to open TanTan's cloth which so wet and sticky. Just until her b.r.e.a.s.t's cover can be seen, Prince Li realizes and feels shame for what he almost did. At the right time, Xiao Rue enters the room with a bucket of warm water.

"Change her clothes immediately and wipe her body clean !!! I'll wait outside"

Prince Li stands up and lets XiaoRue continue to change TanTan's clothes while he steps out from the room.

At the outside of the room, Aunt Tong with confusion and scared look tries to understand the situation, she feels guilty for not doing her job well of taking care of TanTan in the mansion.

"...I don't understand...Young Madam, she...she supposed already sleep. Please forgive me, Young Master...it's my fault not to check her carefully..."

Prince Li shakes his head,

"It's not your fault, Aunt Tong....don't worry, I don't blame you or anyone else in this Mansion...just please do me a favor, make us a warm drink tonight..."

Prince Li's words relieve Aunt Tong. Although she still wants to know more for what happened she knows Prince Li wants to be alone so she obeys the order and steps into the kitchen, preparing some warm tea.

Looking to the moon in the sky, Prince Li now tries to clear his mind for what just happened.

"HuaMuTan..." This woman really p.i.s.sed him off for not obeying him to stay at Li Mansion. But at first, he admits that he himself feels amused by her presence at the auction. The unselfish HuaMuTan who willing to save a girl from slavery has given a strong impression in Prince Li's heart. But not only that, the way he feels, teasing her...and now feeling fear to see her condition like that... he never has these kinds of feeling to HuaMuTan before in the past.

He admits that these past days, as he continued observed HuaMuTan...all her acts and reactions toward others are so different than the past HuaMuTan. In this point, he is so sure that HuaMuTan who is unconscious in that room definitely not the same person with the real HuaMuTan... then who is she? and why he is so attractive to her? why she eagerly want to find the killers until being on that s.h.i.+p? What relations.h.i.+p between her and that silver masked man or with the Crown Prince?

So many questions he wants to ask...but now he just couldn't help himself to keep feeling worried about her condition.

"What a long night..." He sighs. Not too long, ManQi has returns also with QingQing, they take a Han woman who is saved by TanTan with them.

Prince Li feels weird,

"Why do you take her here, ManQi?"

Suddenly the Han woman kneels down and bowed her head before Prince Li, she cries and seems to beg for something.

ManQi explains,

"She didn't want to eat and drink till we agree to bring her back here..."

Prince Li looks suspiciously to the woman,

"Stand up and speaks what do you want?!" But the Han woman shakes her head strongly and still didn't want to stand up.

QingQing sighs,

"She can't talk, it looks like her tongue has been cut before the auction cause she tried to fight back over there but she can write so she has explained what she wants in this paper"

She hands over a paper to Prince Li.

Prince Li reads it carefully, in the paper the Han woman explains that she felt very grateful to HuaMuTan who has saved her from the auction. She doesn't have any family and doesn't have any place to go, she also doesn't have any plan except willing to serve HuaMuTan with her life to pay HuaMuTan's kindness.

Prince Li observes the Han Woman, 'Having writing ability is unusual for the commoners especially for the women...it seems this woman's ident.i.ty is not easy as her looks. He can investigate it later. But for now, considering the condition of how they met, Prince Li follows his instinct to believe that this Han woman aims nothing evil toward HuaMuTan.

"If you want to pay HuaMuTan, you must wait for her agreement...for now, you may stay here...We'll continue to talk about it after HuaMuTan awake..."

At that moment, XiaoRue has done with cleaning up TanTan. As she opens the door, Prince Li right away gives her the next order as she notices the presence of od ManQi and QingQing, with the unknown woman she first meets.

"XiaoRue, guide this..." Prince Li stops to ask, "How do we call you?"

The Han Woman kneels again, this time to write something on the ground, it read as 'Xing'.

"So, hm...we call you A Xing, is it okay?" The Han woman nods, then Prince Li continues to give order to XiaoRue, "XiaoRue, guide Miss A Xing to meet Aunt Tong so you both can help to prepare a room for her. She will stay here for now."

With confusion, XiaoRue obeys. QingQing walks approaches XiaoRue,

"Let me accompany you, I'll explain it later..." whispers QingQing. Both of XiaoRue and QingQing escort A Xing go to find Aunt Tong.

Not too long Uncle Tong is also bringing a physician there, which immediately entering the room to check TanTan's condition.

Then while waiting for the result, ManQi reports the progress to Prince Li.

"The Crown Prince and his men have been put in the prison. As your command, their cells have been given the extra guards. I'll stay there too..." ManQi stops as he notices Prince Li is staring into HuaMuTan's room. ManQi can see a worry look on his Master's face.

"Master....?"

ManQi's calling makes Prince Li now giving full attention to him.

"Ah...okay...you're doing right...just don't too burden yourself...you need to prepare yourself for the other mission..."

"Thanks for your concern, Master. I will remember it."

But Prince Li has not paid attention to him anymore. ManQi realizes its time for him to excuse so he gestures a polite greet before finally he leaves. But even before he walks away, he has a chance to turn and see how fast Prince Li reacts when the physician comes out from the room, so fierce till it makes the physician hard to answer.

"How's she? Is she okay?!"

"Don't...don't worry Your Highness... Young Madam is fine... just a small fever, as she gets enough rest and drinks medicine, she will recover soon..." The physician hopes he has explained it well enough before Prince Li shakes his old body again.

'Looks like Master is really concern about HuaMuTan...' ManQi smiles and then he really leaves.

After instructing Uncle Tong to escort the physician out and ask the servant to prepare the medicine. Prince Li stays in the room, he sits quietly beside TanTan on the bed. TanTan lays unaware and unconscious but some times she shows uncomfortable looks, she s.h.i.+vers and babbles, sweats keep coming out beside her face. In reflex, Prince Li takes his handkerchief and uses it to wipe TanTan's face gently.

XiaoRue who enters the room surprises to see such a view, she feels shame to let Prince Li wiping her XiaoJie,

"Master, let me do that,...let me take care of XiaoJie..."

But Prince Li stares at her sharply,

"XiaoRue, I still not yet asking your responsibility about how did you let HuaMuTan sneaking out from here...!! I know you are HuaMuTan's servant but in this Mansion, you should obey all my command!!"

XiaoRue shocks as she didn't expect Prince Li would scolding her at this kind of time. Actually, without being scolded, XiaoRue has been feeling guilty to let TanTan went before. XiaoRue kneels down right away and cries,

"Master is right, it is my fault to let XiaoJie went without considering the danger...please punish XiaoRue..."

"I'll deal with you later but for tonight I don't want to see you here serving HuaMuTan. Go out and do some reflection for yourself...!!" scolds Prince Li coldly. XiaoRue doesn't dare to object, she just follows the order, walking out from the room and crying. In the middle of the way, she meets QingQing who want to check TanTan's condition too. But after hearing what happens from XiaoRue, QingQing turns away, she definitely doesn't want to hear any more scolding from Prince Li.

A few minutes later, Aunt Tong delivers the medicine to HuaMuTan's room, Prince Li immediately takes the medicine and uses a spoon to drink it into TanTan's mouth.

"Be careful, the medicine is still hot..."

Aunt Tong warns, so Prince Li blows it first. But because TanTan is still unconscious, it's hard to make her drink the medicine. Each spoon of medicine keeps flowing out from her lips.

"Maybe we have to wait till she awake..."

Aunt Tong suggests but Prince Li grabs the bowl of medicine, drink it in his mouth and with one move, he gives the medicine directly from his mouth to TanTan's mouth till it been swallowed into TanTan's gullet. Prince Li's action surprises Aunt Tong and makes her embarra.s.sing to see so she turns away when Prince Li did it again for the second time till the bowl is empty.

"Take the medicine, Aunt Tong...I'll stays here to watch over her..."

If she didn't see what happened just now, Aunt Tong may protest about letting Prince Li for not resting. But now she can't say anything than taking the empty bowl and leaving the room. Outside of the room, Aunt Tong still cannot believe what she saw, she never expects that her Young Master already has that strong feeling toward HuaMuTan. 'Does it mean he has no longer feeling to Miss ShuangAi? Aiyah,...poor Ai Er...' Aunt Tong just can shake her head while walking away.

As time pa.s.ses, the medicine's effect seems working. TanTan's face is no longer pale and she seems to sleep peacefully now. Prince Li glads to see it, but now as he feels relief, he observes TanTan closely.

'This woman really looks similar to the real HuaMuTan...how can she find her twins so well?' Then suddenly he remembers about the birthmark of HuaMuTan.

'No matter how similar they are, they can't have the same birthmark...'

Prince Li feels hesitated, it is his chance to prove his suspicious all the time but taking benefit of a sleeping woman is really not his principle.

However, his curiosity defeats his dignity. At least after he can prove that this woman is not the real HuaMuTan then later he can confront about it to her and find what happens to the real HuaMuTan and who this woman really is. So he slowly takes off TanTan's first cloth, thankfully to see the birthmark's position, he doesn't need to take off all her clothes. Prince Li just needs to lay TanTan's head for a while to his chest so he can see clearly the back of TanTan. The position makes him a little uncomfort, his heartbeat starts to beat faster than usual.

But then what a shock when he sees clearly the three moles on TanTan's left shoulder. As they respond, he immediately turns back TanTan laying on the bed and then he walks out from the room, running out exactly. He can feel his breaths are unstable. He feels unbelievable, rage and being silly at the same time.

"It can't be...she is the real HuaMuTan???" Prince Li still can't believe what he saw. He was so sure that HuaMuTan inside that room wasn't the real one, as he realizes he starts being attracted by that woman. But how comes she is the real one....the same HuaMuTan who he hated so much in the past... has he become crazy to let himself attracted by that evil woman...

"Then...all of these....are they just an act?...to get my attention?" Prince Li is still not sure that what happened just an act. The way HuaMuTan changes are too exaggerated... No matter what that exactly had happened to HuaMuTan, acts or real, one thing for sure, Prince Li has realized his own feeling toward HuaMuTan tonight. If these all are HuaMuTan's plan to get his attention, then he has lost and HuaMuTan has won.

But Prince Li won't accept the defeat easily.

'Well, at least now I know she is truly HuaMuTan, it's fine...I just need to control myself...I won't let myself to be attracted by her anymore...'

After making that decision, he return to the room and close the door quietly.