Chapter 5 – Envoy from Ruanyu

CHAPTER 05

ENVOY FROM RUANYU


 

A month passed since the day when King Song Min informed his only daughter that she would be entering the Emperor of Ruanyu’s Imperial Harem. At that time, Song Lijing immediately threw a tantrum and even threatened to run away from home. But King Song Min had made up his mind.

The poor king knew that he was not being fair to his daughter but at the same time, he has the responsibility of a king. As the saying goes, country first, citizens second, and the monarch is the last.

Today, the streets of Dong Xing capital city was busier than usual. The news that the envoys from Ruanyu are arriving today, has been spread far and wide throughout the kingdom. Thus, there were a lot of people who came from other towns and villages outside the city made their journey to the city in order to catch a glimpse of the envoys.

At the palace gate, two guards stood by the entrance with a nervous expression on their face. Before them, are the main streets of the capital and they could see how crowded it was.

“The envoys from Ruanyu… they will arrive today, right?” the guard who stood on the left side of the entrance asked his partner.

“Should be. Look at those excited people… one might think that the envoy came for them,” the other guard replied. “If nothing goes wrong, the envoy should be arriving at Wu Shi. At least, that is what I hear the people say in the mess hall last night.”

After that short conversation, the two guards becomes silent again but still faithfully do their duties. After a while, the guard who stood on the left once again was unable to hold his boredom.

“Say, what do you think about His Majesty sending the only princess to the Old Jin Emperor?” he asked his partner.

The other guard stared at him with a look of ridicule. His face shows an ugly expression as he did not want to believe that his partner had just questioned their king.

“If you want to seek death, seek death alone, ah!” he replied. “Don’t drag me along. I still have my wife and kids to feed!”

After reprimanding his partner, they once again stood guard quietly. The two continues to stare at the busy street before them, and can’t help but feel jealous at how carefree people were in this very important day.

Soon, they saw that there were some changes happened in the busy streets. People turned their head to the same direction and the excitements on their face couldn’t be hidden. The citizens paused from doing their daily activities and started to move towards the source of the excitement.

Though they moved to the same direction, they also gave way in the middle. The guards saw that the citizens had split themselves and naturally, they could see a large group of men riding their horses at a distance.

The two leading men on the front row were holding the flag of Ruanyu, which is a blue coloured dragon surrounded by floating clouds. In the middle of the horse riding men, is a high-quality carriage which was prepared for Song Lijing.

“Looks like the envoy is here,” the guard on the right told his partner.

“Looks like it,” his partner replied before letting out a heavy sigh. “Aaah… I guess we will not be able to see our beautiful princess’s face again once she leaves…”

“Idiot! Watch your mouth!” the other guard was really afraid of his partner right now. He is afraid of being implicated along due to his loose mouth.

One person from the envoy came down from his horse and walked over to greet the two guards. His armours were different from the rest of the guards in the envoy and one could see that he is of a higher rank. He greeted the two guards with a Fist and Palm Salute. This man was none other than Bai Ruohan.

“Greetings. We are the envoys from the Kingdom of Ruanyu. We came here to guard and escort the princess, Song Lijing, back to our Great Ruanyu,” Bai Ruohan said, his tone was serious, void of any playfulness that he showed to Jin Rongqiu.

Bai Ruohan then gestured to one of his men who then came down from his horse and took out a scroll. He held it up with both hand as he bowed his head, and Bai Ruohan took the scroll from him.

After taking the scroll, Bai Ruohan turned back to the two guards and handed the scroll over to one of them. “This is the proof of our identity. You may inspect them.”

The guard looked at the content of the scroll and saw the seal of Ruanyu Imperial Seal on them. He then looked over at his partner and nods his head. His partner then looked up at the gate and yelled out.

“The Envoy from Ruanyu has arrived! Open the gate!!”

The two red iron doors of the big gate slowly opened and the envoy finally made their way inside. As soon as they were all inside, the gates were closed once more and their figure could no longer be seen from the outside.

The two guards on duty looked to the citizens who were crowding the palace entrance and quickly shooed them away.

“Alright! There is nothing to see anymore! Go on and return to your daily routine! If you dare to cause any mishap today, you’ll be thrown directly into the dungeon,” the guard warned the citizens and only then did they disperse.

Even so, they still couldn’t help but be excited as they converse with each other. Gossips are, after all, one of the main entertainment of the olden days.

 



Written by: Lin Xiaolong

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