Chapter 4

Hua Zhu Yu woke up to find herself in a luxurious and elegant room. She knew she was in palace now. Tao Se, her dowry maid, was waiting on her there. She was confused and sad that emperor again suddenly issued a decree, and this time ordered her miss to marry a crown prince of Northern Kingdom.

Hua Zhu Yu still felt weak in her whole body. Except for being powerless, there was not any other symptom of poisoning. It seemed that she was fed with tendon weakening powder, probably to prevent her from refusing to marry Northern Kingdom’s prince and causing a ruckus.

Hua Zhu Yu asked her whether she had any news about her father but Tao Se did not know since in the palace news was kept strictly.

Outside the room, a young palace maid reported to Hua Zhu Yu that Aunt Qing Luo requested an audience with her and Hua Zhu Yu let Aunt Qing Luo came in. Aunt Qing Luo was a not too old palace maid, she seemed around thirty something years. She was ordered by emperor to help Hua Zhu Yu dressed up since Northern Kingdom’s envoys had come to pick her up and they were going to leave immediately.

Seeing her looks, Aunt Qing Luo was a bit surprised at first. Hua Zhu Yu was ugly, but Aunt Qing Luo did not say anything and acted normally. Yesterday, Hua Zhu Yu’s grandmother had Hua Zhu Yu dressed up prettily but on a sedan chair, she secretly painted a black birthmark on left side of her face. Originally, she planned to use this to play a joke on Ji Feng Li, but now, this fake birthmark which made her looks ugly could be used to fool the emperor. Knowing that she was ugly, he might cancel this marriage. Thus, Hua Zhu Yu only allowed aunt Qing Luo to do her hair only and did nothing to her face and clothing.

A sedan chair was already waiting outside. Tao Se and a few palace maidservants helped Hua Zhu Yu to get into the sedan chair. The sedan chair was carried to front gate of the palace. Emperor, empress, civil and military officials were there. Hua Zhu Yu was helped by Tao Se to step down from the sedan chair and bade farewell to the emperor and the empress.

Probably, the empress already heard news of the ugly birthmark on Hua Zhu Yu’s left face. She did not permit Hua Zhu Yu to lift open her bridal veil. She told Northern Kingdom’s envoys that bridal veil was one of marriage customs in Southern Kingdom. It was only meant to be removed by the bridegroom in the bridal chamber, otherwise it was inauspicious, and misfortune would befall on this marriage. This was an important marriage to secure an alliance between the two kingdoms, they naturally complied.

Hua Zhu Yu did not dare to act recklessly since she had not got any news on her father. Thus, this event ended peacefully. Tao Se helped her again to get into a carriage that had been prepared by Northern Kingdom.

Ministry of rites sent 500 soldiers to escort Hua Zhu Yu. Along with Northern Kingdom’s envoys, they went westward, out from Yu Town. In the evening, they arrived at Yuncheng District and spent the night in a biggest inn there.

After she finished having a dinner, Hua Zhu Yu leaned on the back of a couch. She did not know what drug was fed to her by Ji Feng Li. Tendon weakening powder wore off after twelve hours. Now, twelve hours had pa.s.sed but she was still so powerless, did not know whether this drug could bring harm to her body or not.

She was about to lie down on the couch to rest when suddenly there was a sound coming from window. Someone climbed into the room. Tao Se was so happy to see that person, Jin Se.