Gifted Bride of the Sinned Prince

Li Hua got down from the bed when Lóng Wei grabbed her wrist. “I will be back soon,” Li Hua said, and let go of his grip on her wrist. She went out of the bedchamber, and after a few minutes, she returned.

She sat next to Lóng Wei. “I lied to the maidservant about my health. Should we talk about it more?” She asked. “If His Highness is uncomfortable, then I will stop here. I can help him go to sleep,” she opined.

Lóng Wei made a shaky motion with his head. “I think I must share everything with you, Li Hua. She hated me because I turned out to be the child of a man other than the King. If my father, who’s the King, finds out about it, I will be dead. I don’t want to die, Li Hua. I want to live normally like the others, as the other princes,” Lóng Wei pronounced. Li Hua found the pain in his voice.

“Does His Highness know who his father is?” She asked.

“I do not know. I never asked because I considered myself the King’s youngest child,” Lóng Wei stated.

She placed her hand above his and tightened her hold on it. “His Highness will have a normal life like others,” she asserted. Her tone was full of assurance.

“I am happy with you, but somewhere, I still feel this constant guilt of killing her. Whenever I think about it, I remind myself not to feel any remorse. But then, I am her son. I still feel the void that she created in my life. It would have been best if she had never told me this and asked me to kill her,” Lóng Wei said, tilting his head to look into her eyes.

.....

Li Hua was stunned to know the truth. The King was desperate to find the truth behind Yu Jun’s death. If he somehow found out, everything would end in Lóng Wei’s life. It would be a dead end for him.

“I decided to kill her because I didn’t want my father to find it. She would have died a brutal death then. A quick death is better than undergoing a torturous death,” he affirmed. Li Hua agreed with his words. Qiu Zedong would not have given an easy death to Yu Jun.

She was upset to find that in all this, Lóng Wei was involved.

“Will you listen to my past, Li Hua? Since you adore me, care for me, I will share what I was and why I am this today. Promise me you will keep it with you only. In this world, some things are meant to be secret,” Lóng Wei proclaimed. He knew that Li Hua was given a task by the King, where she must inform him about the truth.

“I will take these secrets to my grave, Your Highness,” Li Hua promised.

Lóng Wei hummed and looked straight. He recalled the time when he started to understand that his mother wasn’t affectionate to him.

***Fourteen Years Ago***

Lóng Wei dressed up in the prince’s clothes and was excited to meet his mother, who had returned from a long journey after one month. His mother had gone to the famous Buddhist shrine in the east.

The servant helped him put on his shoes, and he got down from the chair. He rushed to the allotted chamber to see his mother. The servant in his service ran after him, trying to stop him.

“Little Prince, please do not run like this. You may fall down and get hurt,” the male servant said.

Lóng Wei didn’t hear him. He hastily descended the stairs and ran between the line of maidservants, who were holding the baskets in their hands.

He halted outside the chamber and then pushed the door. He walked in, carrying a smile on his lips. “Greetings to my Mother,” Lóng Wei said as he came to a halt in front of the floor table where Yu Jun was seated.

He lifted his head and smiled at her. “I missed you, Mother,” he said.

Yu Jun’s facial expressions were blank. Like a mother, she didn’t embrace Lóng Wei nor did she respond to him.

He understood something was wrong with his mother, and he walked up to her. “Mother, you look pale. Is everything good? How was the journey? Should I come later? I heard from Princess Jingfei once that chamomile tea recuperates our energy. Shall I ask a servant to send the chamomile tea for my mother?” He asked with a glint in his eyes.

“Why are you here?” Yu Jun’s cold tone fell on his ears and his smile vanished.

His mother was always cold to him. He thought his behavior was the reason behind it. He tried to learn the etiquette same as the other princes and the princesses to impress his mother.

“Leave. I don’t want to see your face,” Yu Jun said. She averted her gaze from him and Lóng Wei fisted his tiny palms.

“Why is my mother this cold to me? I didn’t do anything wrong this time,” Lóng Wei complained. He was bewildered, thinking why his mother always talked rudely to him.

“Did you not hear me? Leave my sight! Why didn’t you die when I was away?” Yu Jun got angry at him.

Lóng Wei locked his gaze on her. “Why would I die? You always shout at me. When other princes and princesses encounter you, you always smile at them. This is wrong. I am your son, yet you treat me like an unknown kid,” Lóng Wei retorted at his mother. He would not stay quiet any more.

He would be seven years old soon, yet his mother was the same as before.

“Because you are an unknown child to me. Now, go away before you are thrown out. Don’t show me your face,” Yu Jun sternly said.