90 In Another Life (1/2)
WEI LI LIAN
WEI CLAN MANOR
”Your Highness, you are worrying me.
All you do these days is stare into emptiness.” Ai gently shook her mistress out of her daze. ”I have not seen you for so long and I miss you. Please be not be inattentive toward me.”
Li Lian was sat on a lounging chair of her bed chambers that looked into the garden. The house they were at, at the moment was a place that had been set apart by King Toba under the Wei Clan's name.
She rubbed her sleeved hands, made by cheap cotton meant for commoners. Since being demoted, she was getting accustomed to plain clothing on her body.
Li Lian breathed out heavily. ”What time is it?”
”The sun is about to set.”
”Father still hasn't arrived?”
”News has been sent that he will arrive anytime from now. Some officials have started arriving for the meeting.”
This was the meeting in which the South Wing would vent about how disgruntled they were, because of her loss in achieving set goals.
”Your Highness will you tell them the whole story?” Ai sympathised. The day Ai arrived after being requested by General Feng to come serve her mistress, Li Lian was emotional that she shared what Ai had missed on.
”What is there to tell?”
”Your Highness!” Ai whined, ”Stop beating yourself over everything.”
”I feel bad Ai, that even now though I must feel sorry for him and cry for him, I can't because my mind is more concerned about what will take place when father comes. Doesn't that show how uncaring I am?”
”No, Your Highness… please spare yourself from this pain.”
”I know it's too late to cry over spilt milk.”
”We could have you go see him, somehow. Tell him you love him.”
Ai was naive. Handling that word like it came so easily. Love and hate were like white and black, two strong words that could make or break. To some it came naturally, falling out of love, falling in love. Then for some it was like something unattainable. ”So many lies. I couldn't. He would see through that lie.”
”Do you not feel anything for him at all? Impossible.”
”I do to a certain extent but what I feel cannot be summed up to be called love. I could have lied, yes.” Li Lian stood up to adorn herself for her father's arrival. ”But have you thought about it, that the more I stayed the more it would hurt him in the end?”
”But Your Highness not telling him that you love him, risked your life. Our King may not let you live because of the circumstances. Don't you care for your life, while it is precious to me?”
”What does it matter? Living is already death without freedom.”
When Li Lian went to Yuwen Hong's chambers her goal was to lie her way into his bed. She would tell him anything he would like to hear. This she had done so well at the beginning but with him things were not so simple. He always brought her to a place of vulnerability that she couldn't hide behind a masquerade.