17 A Flawed Bloodline (2/2)
Hearing the response, Mister Song was relieved, as if a large weight placed upon his chest had been lifted, and he could take in a breath of fresh air. He was about to bid farewell to Madam Lin.
But she arose from her game of carefully placing her game pieces in strategic locations, leaving the entire board in a stalemate between both sides.
”Wait, Mister Song, don't you wish to know why the past generations of emperors have been ill so frequently, to the point of meeting their deaths before the age of thirty?” Madam Lin asked in an eerie voice that plunged the entire room endowed with light, straight into darkness.
It was the smile across her face that seemed like a smile, yet it was not quite there, that made her seem a little off.
Mister Song felt the urge to leave, yet it was a strange sense of curiosity building up within him that held him back. It was near impossible for him to resist this temptation of knowledge, so he patiently waited for Madam Lin to speak.
Madam Lin reverted back to her original expression and gave a gentle grin as she began.
”Ah, it is times of peace that give birth to the schemings of the inner palace.” Madam Lin shook her head as she began, ”You know very well that the emperor generations ago married with his cousin or the empress dowager's niece.” She smiled and continued ”This continued on over the past generations, the emperor would always give the Phoenix seal to his cousin, and the child born between them would undoubtedly become the crown prince. It would never matter how many consorts he had, as long as the empress gave birth to a son, the child would be destined to become the next ruler.” Madam Lin's voice slowly trailed off.
”What of it?” Mister Song asked. He could not draw the conclusions between the story being told, and the early deaths of the monarch.
”At first, it was fine, but as time passed, you would notice the many monarchs dying an early age, while their brothers born of different consorts lived longer.”
”You mean to say, what's killing them is the bloodline of the empress?” The question was proposed in a manner lacking all confidence.
”You could say that, but it's only the blood relationship between the empress and the emperor that causes them to give birth to children who are ill.” Madam Lin replied with a careless tone.
”Thank you for your time madam.” Mister Song cups his hand before seeing himself off.
”Hm.” Madam Lin slightly hums as she places down a pitch black stone, slowly picking up the glistening white stones around it, collecting it up in a single hand.
In this battle that was the Go board, one side had won, while the other had lost all its troops and was doomed to lose this game.