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Chapter 1 : We caught the fish!
“Miss Yuan! Miss Yuan!” A girl’s excited voice broke through the quiet afternoon.“Miss Yuan! The fish has bitten the bait!”
Xian Suyuan, who had been dozing beneath the shade of the willow tree, startled awake by the scream. For a moment , she stared blankly at the river before remembering where she was. Then, she heard Ayao’s hurried voice again . “The fish! Miss quickly!” Suyuan sighed softly and reached for the fishing road.
“Don’t pull too hard or you’ll frighten the fish away”.
“But it’s already caught , how can I let it get away”. Ayao’s eyes sparkled with excitement . Together the two girls carefully pulled the line toward the riverbank. The fish fought fiercely, splashing the water everywhere before finally being dragged onto the shore. It was a large river carp, bigger than the two of Suyuan’s palms placed together.
Ayao stared at it with great satisfaction , “we caught it!”. Suyuan looked at the fish , then at Ayao’s delighted expression before answering, “ Yes we did “. They placed the carp into the wooden bucket they had brought. Both girls crouched beside the bucket, Ayao looked as if she had just discovered a treasure. “Miss , now we can have something hot to eat”. Suyuan couldn’t help but laugh , “little greedy cat. Is food the only thing that can catch your attention?”
Ayao pouted, “ I only want to make something nutritious for you and Her Highness. I heard from Nanny Zhang , her health has worsen”. The smile on Suyuan's face faded slightly, “ Mother's health has worsened?” Ayao nodded slightly. Suyuan lowered her eyes toward the fish in the bucket, her mother had always been weak. But recently, even servants began whispering about how frequently the princess became ill.
She couldn’t simply just sit here, “ help me to pack everything”.
Ayao blinked , “now?”
“Now”.
“What about the fish?”
“We’ll take it with us, the bucket is too heavy, let's just tie it with the grass… We need to return to the palace before they find out we’ve sneaked out again”. Suyuan stood up and brushed the grass from her skirt while Ayao tied the carp with the grass. The two girls quickly gathered their belongings and followed the narrow path hidden among the trees , it was a path few people knew existed.
The Khan’s palace was heavily guarded by the soldier but the Orchid Courtyard, where Princess Shuran lived, was watched far less strictly. There was little reason for the Khan’s guards to concern themselves with it since Princess Shuran had long fallen from the Kan’s favor. Unlike other women in the harem , she had no intention to compete for his attention. She did not flatter him, seek his affection or even try to win his favor.
After giving birth to Suyuan , she devoted herself almost entirely to raising her daughter. Once Suyuan was old enough to take care of herself, Princess Shuran gradually withdrew even further from the world. She spent her days praying, reading scriptures, tending to the small courtyard, and living a quiet life that resembled a woman who had already renounced worldly desires. To the Khan she is almost invisible but to Suyuan she’s everything.
Suyuan walked silently along the hidden path, her expression calm. She heard countless stories about her mother, a princess of Xian . A woman who had once been so in love with a great general but in the end she had given up everything to marry a foreign ruler. Suyuan had never cared much about those titles but there was only one thing she had always wanted to know , what kind of man had General Su been?
What kind of man could make her mother , even after all this years , look as though half of her heart had remained buried with him on a distant battlefield? Suyuan tightened her fingers around the edge of her sleeve, maybe one day she will find the answer.
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