11- The Emperor was Right

A beautiful spring in the palace is truly captivating. The soon to be emperor is sitting with his wife in a grand pavilion. The sun is so bright, unlike his feelings.

"Gege, you don't look well. Are you okay?"

The Gege only sigh silently. Starring at the girl's stomach. She is soon to bear a child, the first heir in the generation.

"Lu Yu, if you are not an empress. What do you want to do?"

"Hm?" The young girl is confused. She had waited this coronation her whole life.

"Do you have a dream life? Like something that you really want to do."

"I want to be with long Gege."

She's too naive. My poor little empress,

"And?" The emperor asks.

Lu Yu thinking hard, she doesn't know whether she could say it or not.

"Speak your mind."

"Gege, Lu Yu actually really like the countryside life." She checks gege's face, looking for a sign if she can continue.

"That sounds great."

"Yeah, I feel like that would be awesome. I wish to live in a cottage next to the river. Right in the middle of San mountains. The weather will be so nice there. So we can harvest vegetables and fruits in our backyard." Lu Yu explains excitingly.

"Gege also wants to live there.." he smiles, stroking her long black hair.

"We can also hear Huang Li Niao* every night and morning." *kind of yellow bird

"Have you ever been there?"

"No.. but does Gege want to promise me something?"

"What is it?"

"Let's live there, in our next life." Lu Yu smiles at him. And the emperor kisses her forehead. "Sure."

"Now, do you want to promise Gege  something?"

"Huh?"

"Please wait for me." He looks straight to her eyes. "Our life as the parents of the nation will start in a blink of an eye, and it's no flowery path."

"..."

"Lu Yu, it may take a year, two years, or even five years. But trust Gege, I know what I'm doing." The emperor is now very serious.

"Lu Yu doesn't understand.. what does Gege mean?"

"Hahaha.. you don't need to think about it. Just remember that Gege will always love you, even when you thought Gege have totally forgotten about you." The emperor pinch her cheeks, smiling.

____________

At Lian Kingdom (present)

A forty years old king held a meeting with his officials to discuss about their invasion plan. Their first attempt to poison the river went smoothly. The river flows from Lian Kingdom to Zhang kingdom, that's why Lian Kingdom could still use fresh water.

"Your majesty, there are about 200 commoners died because of the river. If this plan succeeds, there are no way Zhang kingdom wouldn't surrender."

"HAHAHHA! I know we don't need our bilateral tractate with that small kingdom! Just burn the document." *talking about the other two kingdoms

"We don't need to act too hastily. Let's see the outcome first." A minister suggests.

"That's true your majesty. This minister got information that they may have found a way to solve this problem." Another minister joins.

"WHAT?! That's impossible!" The king slammed the table in front of him. Making his tea spilled everywhere. But he doesn't care, he is angry.

The hall is silenced. Nobody dare to say a word because it could make the king even angrier.

"ARE YOU REALLY NOT GOING TO SAY ANYTHING?"

"Your majesty, please calm down.." they bowed at the king, hoping it would make the situation better.

"This king doesn't need a bow! I need a solution!" The atmosphere is too tense, the ministers stay at their bowing position not knowing what to do.

"Your majesty, this lowly minister has an idea. Would the dragon hear me out ?" Finally someone break the ice.

"Speak!"

"It is no secret that woman is a men's weakness. And the emperor of Zhang is known as a tender hearted man. If we could do something with his woman*..." the minister stops, but the whole hall already understand. Are they really going to do it that way?

"Brilliant! Brilliant!" The king laughs happily. "How could we kidnap the empress?" His mood goes up drastically.

"Hmm.. this servant doesn't think we need to kidnap the empress." The same minister answers.

"What do you mean?" This plan really confusing for the king.

"The empress is only an empty title, my source says that the emperor haven't visited the empress in three years."

"Hahahaha.. that poor little empress. Then who do you mean?"

"The Consort, named Consort Hua. She is currently pregnant and has a dragon blessing."

"What? A dragon blessing? HAHAHHA.. that emperor really doesn't even try to conceal his favour towards Consort Hua."

"Great! This is a great idea! But make sure to make the plan as neat as possible!"

"Zhi."

_____________

Zhang kingdom, Present time

As always, the empress will go to the emperor's study to talk about the poisoned river.

Her expression really reflects her heart. When nobody's around, only that time they could show their real feelings.

Lian Kingdom really did a great job on pressuring them. Not by war, but this is even worse.

She exhale a long breath as she rolled the report.

"Please have a cup of tea." The emperor who sees her mood changes suggests.

A chamomile tea with dried wild rose. To calm your adrenaline down. The empress take a sip, but he guesses it doesn't really help.

"Your majesty, the situation now is very chaotic."

"I do believe that it's true, empress. We need to find a way."

They both think by themselves, not saying anything. The emperor took his Mao Bi* and start scrabbling. An hour passed by until finally the emperor got an idea. *Chinese brush

He drew a hole to the ground and show it to the empress.

"I remember the ground is also consist of water, there are like river under the ground. If we dug far enough, I believe there will be fresh water." (The concept of well)

"This empress also have an idea. We will need all ceramic artists to help us. Just like regular ceramics but make it a lot bigger, big enough to accommodate water for the whole village."

"Hmm.. that is a great idea. But it will take a long time to make the giant ceramic."

"Or we can make a huge box out of wood and use leather to prevent the water from leaking out."

"Yes! That's it. I will have few dozen armies to take fresh water from the mountain and have local carpenters to make the box."

"Lets discus this idea tomorrow then."

"Okay. You are dismissed."

After the empress is gone, Bai Lu enters.

"This is the picture of the house." Bai Lu shows a beautiful cottage.

"Awesome. Make sure they build it perfectly."

"Zhi." Feeling sorry for the emperor, Bai Lu continues."this servant thinks that your majesty must show his love to the empress."

And then he left.

Hello! So I will address the emperor of Lian as 'King' to avoid confusion.. thank you for voting this story and share! See you next week.