The Curious Play 13 The Woman In The Painting!

He picked it up and take a closer look. He frowned, the girl in the painting was somehow familiar. 

He called his personal attendant. .

When he saw the girl's eyes he was transfixed. Its not the color of her eyes that caught his attentions but a pair of lovely eyes that says about her soul.

An expression of love, pain and loneliness, the eyes he could never forget even a thousands of years. How could I forget you? 

"You looked so beautiful!"

His voiced was full of love and admiration to the woman sitting in front of him. She smiled adorably, her eyes were grey that reminded him of ashes and smoke blowing in the wind, they always get darker and grayer depends on her emotion.

"Don't stare at me like that. ." She complaint. "Soon you will get tired of me!"

"How could that be possible. ? Would I paint you a couple of times if I will be tired looking at you?" He painted her with love and adoration.

Then he suddenly saw an image of them walking in the palace hall, she was wearing a red wedding dressed with a crown in her head and so was he, they bowed before the heaven and on the eyes of their ancestors. .

He was smiling at her, kissing her pa.s.sionately. .then suddenly another flashed of vision came, he saw her died in his arms with an arrow stuck in her chest. .

An arrow that was supposed to be his but she pushed him away instead. .his heart breaks a thousand times seing his beloved dying in his arms, the pain was unbearable. .

"Tàizǐ diànxià. ."

His thought was pulled back when his attendant called him. .he suddenly dropped the portrait. .he was holding his chest as he felt the pain in his heart, its still fresh. .just like yesterday!

His hands was shaking. He never realized that there were tears in his face, he cried.

"What was that. ?" He asked himself, turning his back to Ma Chunli so he could not see him. Silently he wipe it.

This is not the first time he had that kind of visions. .he always dream of it but this is the first time that it appear so clear. .

"That woman in the painting, who is she?"

Ma chunli come closer to examine it, he frowned when he recognized.

"Tàizǐ fēi. .Ye  Gōngzhǔ !"

When he heard it, he was stunned. he sat heavily on the chair, as if all his strength was draining out on him, How is it possible that I forgot her ?!"

"It was her!" What he meant was the time when he first saw her in the bridge.He did not recognized her because the refined and composed lady in the painting that he saw, was exactly opposite to her.

Before the selection of consort. .

He remembered he already excluded her in the list. .

In his dream. .the girl that stood next to him in the past, will be the one who stand beside him in the future. 

She is the girl that wields swords and block arrows to protect him. . the girl that always believes in him even if the worlds go againts his will. 

Just like Princess Ye'er he also had vision in his past life and he knows that as long as she stays beside him, her life will always be in danger. .he saw her died in his arms protecting him and he doesn't want it to repeat again. 

In that dream she was his beloved wife. .his Empress! Maybe by not choosing her as a consort will protect her from danger. .

But as the saying goes what may comes will always come. .

"Your highness. .Huángshang   already chose someone for you!"

"Is that so. ?" He asked dryly." Is that what makes you so happy?"

"Tàizǐ diànxià. ." His attendant give a discreet laugh." Its not like that but I think you might like your future wife."

"Oh. .really?"

"Princess Ye the daughter of Prime Minister Yan."

He suddenly drops the blade that he was polis.h.i.+ng, his heart beats fast, as if something inauspicious will going to happen, again.

He already exclude her  in the list, how on earth it happened?

"How it happen?" He asked grimly.

"They said that. .Huángshang accidentally meet her in his excursion*. .sometimes ago, and Huángshang give her a riddle. .

"What is that about?"

"They said. .

"What?" He ask impatiently.

"It was a riddle that only you could answer!"

He clenched his hands tightly in his robe. For the first time in his life, he felt an extreme fear. .When fate decides, no one could ever change it.

That riddle was given to him by someone in his dream when he was ten years old. Out of his curiousity he asked his father, eventually, time had past that he forgot everything about it. 

He could not believe his father still remember it and even asked it to  someone else. 

"There's no way in the world that girl knows the answer. .that lady in my dream told me about it. ." he thought.

"Chun'li from now on, you have to secretly protect,Tàizǐ fēi. At any cost!" He commanded his a.s.sistant.

He doesn't  know how long he could protect her but this time, he won't allow the tragic history repeat in this lifetime.

"Its time for me to pay what I owed her in our past life. !" he bowed to himself.

"Nu. !"

Ma chunli answered with out hesitation.

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Note:

Tàizǐ diànxià  - honorific name for                                  crown prince

Tàizǐ fēi.   - crown princess consort

Ye'er Gōngzhǔ - Princess Ye or Ye'er depends on who is calling her

excursion a traditional visit of the Emperor in a certain place.