“Prince Rong Changling and Princess Mei Yuan have entered the court,” announced eunuch Lim in the imperial court.
The doors opened and in walked Changling wearing a white royal robe with a gold dragon embroidered in front and smaller dragons on the hems of his robes. Behind him, Mei Yuan wore her purple royal tunic.
The ministers and officials bowed at the entrance of the two royal siblings. Changling flicked his hair out of his face and walked forward with Mei Yuan at his heels. They arrived at the front and separated.
Changling was here for a court trial after what occurred three days ago and for holding Youxian hostage in his palace. Mei Yuan stood on the left with all her siblings, Hwan Youxian, his parents, and the crown prince.
Changling stood on the opposite side and watched them all glare at him While Youxian couldn’t stand to be looked at by him.
Changling wasn’t in his best of conditions because of an issue that occurred after they removed Youxian from his palace a few days ago. Although his outer demeanour seemed unfazed but under it all, he was in excruciating pain.
“The court shall now begin,” Eunuch Lim spoke.
A minister stepped out and bowed. He briefly looked at Changling and scoffed. Facing forward he began, “Your majesty, today we are all here on the account of the multiple crimes Prince Changling has committed since his arrival.”
Stepping back, another minister stepped forward, bowed and began, “Prince Changling’s first offence was entering the palace empresses palace, his second offence was entering the crown prince’s palace and thrashed him. Prince Changling’s reason being, the Crown Prince refused to give him what belonged to him—the Crown Prince has received treatment unbefitting of a Crown Prince and Prince Changling has admitted his guilt but refuses to acknowledge his crime.”
The members of the court snuck a peek at Changling and saw how he stared into oblivion as if he were at home and not in a hearing.
Scoffing, the minister continued, “Prince Changling has yet to be coronated and with the ruling of the Hwabake, Rong Changling is to be punished with fifty lashes and his coronation into the royal family be pushed back until further notice.”
“So you don’t care about the life of the person who will touch my body without my permission?” Changling spoke as he saw the man bow.
Everyone’s attention was drawn to Changling. They stared at him in disbelief. Anyone who heard his words knew what it meant.
“Prince Changling, please mind your words,” Eunuch Lim reprimanded him.
Changling rolled his eyes, “This fool just stated that I am not a prince, why are you referring to me as one?” He asked with a tilt of his head and smirked, “I don’t care about your punishment, stop wasting my time and tell me why you have summoned me here.” Changling said, staring at his father.
Emperor Wu Yong’s eyes narrowed on him.
“Prince Changling, you have created a ruckus within the imperial palace and committed crimes against the crown equivalent to treason,” another official stepped forward and spoke.
Opening his mouth, he was about to say something, but the wound on his body pulsed.
He shut his eyes, closed his mouth, and rubbed his nose. Mei Yuan, who saw this, stared intently at her brother.
Rucheng and Yuhua were in Silla and she was the one who attended to his wound, she knew how bad it was and he should rest but he had to come here—if it wasn’t for Qinghe convincing him he would have still refused to attend the court hearing.
Seeing that he remained silent, they continued, “Prince Changling’s second offence is kidnapping Commander Hwan, Godson of the Emperor, Hwan Youxian. Hwan Youxian entered Prince Changling’s palace two weeks ago and did not return to his duties in the army—a week ago, Hwan Youxian escaped Prince Changling’s palace and went into hiding in the Crown Prince’s palace which lead to Prince Changling entering and thrashing the Crown Prince—Prince Changling reason was that the Crown Prince was keeping something of his and because refused to return Commander Hwan Youxian to him led Prince Changling into teaching the Crown Prince a lesson—Prince Changling proceeded to forcefully remove Hwan Youxian and returned to his palace. With the ruling of the Hwabake—Prince Changling is to be punished for kidnapping the Emperor’s godson and his punishment is to serve in the army at the border.”
Hearing these words Changling’s brows knitted, opening his eyes, he gazed at Youxian but remained quiet and closed them again.
Everyone was expecting a response from Changling, but the prince was silent. The court remained silent as well until Changling couched.
When everyone looked at him, he was wiping his mouth with knitted brows and glaring at the other side of his robe, which he lowered and put behind him.
Mei Yuan’s body started trembling. They left her in charge of looking after him, but she couldn’t when they were here in the royal court.
The left prime minister stepped forward and bowed. Qiang Wu was his grandson, and he was extremely furious, “Your majesty, not only did Prince Changling commit these crimes, he committed manslaughter, held Commander Hwan captive, he is holding Princess Mei Yuan hostage as well and making her work as a slave, something a princess shouldn’t do but this can be ignored since Princess Mei Yuan has spoken in Prince Changling’s favour but your majesty, you witnessed it yourself when you yourself went to fetch Hwan Youxian from Prince Changling’s palace. He had lashes all over his legs and behind, he was in a terrifying state and dressed like women in a brothel.”
Turning his gaze to Changling, who was looking at him profoundly. Seeing that Changling was unfazed, the left prime minister continued, “According to the Crown Prince and Commander Hwan, Prince Changling enjoys the pleasures of another man.”
After hearing his words, whispers broke out between the ministers and officials.
“Disgusting,” the empress said with a frown gaining everyone’s attention, including Changling’s.
The Empress thinks I’m disgusting, huh? Did she forget that I’m her husband’s child? Changling frowned but remained silent. This woman, he’ll deal with her soon enough.
“Prince Changling, your actions are against the royal family. You are guilty and not to mention that you, being a cut-sleeve is against everyone’s morals! Do you still not deem your actions as unbefitting of a royal?” The left prime minister scrutinized him.
As everyone was waiting for Changling to answer, he remained silent, but his skin colour suddenly faded. He had sweat beads on his forehead that wasn’t there a second ago and his breathing was hitched. On Changling’s end, the court was spinning and his body was feeling heavy and drained from the stress it was experiencing.
Why did it look like he was fighting something? Everyone wondered.
Mei Yuan squeaked and quickly made her way over to Changling just in time to catch him. His vision went dark, and he collapsed in her arms.
She wasn’t strong enough and landed on her back and instantly, when he was planted on her, she could feel something wet against her legs.
She quickly got up and turned him over. When she saw the white robe had red stains on it, she quickly undid his robe and paled, seeing the bandages soaked in red.
“WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!” Emperor Wu Yong yelled in panic as he made his way over. Mei Yuan’s body was trembling as she started taking out the vial in her sleeve.
She opened Changling’s mouth and poured the clear liquid down his throat.
“Mei Yuan!” He yelled sternly.
She jumped, almost falling back, when she heard his voice again, “Father?” she asked as she turned to look at him.
“What happened to him?” Wu Yong asked as he reached them and knelt down beside Changling’s body.
Mei Yuan shook her head. She quickly undid his inner robe and pressed her left hand on his wound while she took out a powder sachet out of her sleeve. “I told you to postpone the hearing, but you didn’t listen to me. I don’t know what happened to Oraboni, I only do what he says and don’t ask questions.”
Closing his robe after applying the white powder, she wiped away the sweat beads on his forehead. “Why do you think he stopped answering you all? He was in pain and you didn’t notice, but he was standing here!”
Mei Yuan looked at her father frustrated, “I don’t know how he got this wound but it’s deep and he is refusing to see the physician, I’ve already sent someone to inform the twins but please can you help me move him to a room near the physician’s pavilion and get him treated.”
Wu Yong nodded his head and ordered the eunuchs to inform the physician that they were on their way with the prince and carry Changling to the physician’s villa. The court hearing was postponed until further notice.
Youxian came over to Mei Yuan with the crown prince at his side and pulled her to a stop.
Mei Yuan could see that Youxian was panicking as he asked her, “What happened to him?”
She shrugged him off. “How would I know?”
Youxian looked behind her and saw that Changling was out of sight. “How can you not know?” He asked, looking back at her, “Where are Rucheng and Yuhua?”
