My Cruel Little Empress
Chapter 2

After the departure of Father, Mother and Gegeku, I then went to a large mirror in the corner of my room. I saw my appearance there, pale skin, tiny nose, thin lips and round cheeks visible from the mirror reflection.

I remember that my current appearance was like my 14-year-old self. A year later my appearance will change again with both cheeks becoming a little thin and my height increasing.

When I was 16, that was when I began to share my feelings with young general Wu Cheng. I kept trying until young general Cheng saw me, I continued to work hard and even changed my appearance according to the advice of young Ma Mei Rong by wearing thick makeup and clothes with striking colors in order to steal the attention of the young general and many people.

Of course it worked, he managed to make the young general glance at him as well as many pairs of eyes of many people who looked at him. But the gaze they gave was not a look of admiration, but rather a look of reproach.

I used to remember that Mei Rong's suggestion made me appear to be a girl with thick makeup in clothes with inappropriate colors that made me look older. All of Mei Rong's suggestions made me a joke of Zhang's royal society and this I will never forget especially the beautiful and meek girl seemed to be a behind-the-scenes foe who supported everything the ambitions, plans and schemes of the young general in seizing the throne and all that is mine.

I don't know if the terrible thing I've been through is just a dream or that I'm now back in time two years before that. Although at this time I do not know for sure, but all I need to do is make a plan, make amends and sins that I do, he said, take advantage of my opportunity and luck now so that nothing terrible happens the same.

Before devising plans and schemes to deal with my true enemy, I must first figure out the cause of my slipping and falling on the lake. Because in my previous memory, I never experienced that. Although I was stupid and naive enough, but I knew that I was not such a careless person to hurt myself. If my prejudice is right, someone might be trying to harm me.

Thinking like that, it seems that I should find out soon. No matter how my life is now threatened, I obviously need a protector when Ayahanda and Gege are busy taking care of government and justice. Maybe I should immediately ask for a bodyguard whose talent and martial ability are high. If not wrong, as I recall there is someone who has above average martial talent and ability. His ability equaled that of a general, but that person never enrolled himself in the recruitment of royal soldiers just because he was an orphan, he said, his ability and talent would always be inferior to the bear youth who was able to bribe judges and appraisers in recruitment. If I am not mistaken, the name of the young man is Bo Qing he always works as a manual laborer and hauler.

'I must immediately find the talented young man immediately before he is taken by someone else' I thought

"But how do I get out of the palace alone without a bodyguard or a party of eunuchs and maids?" I mumbled thinking

"Ah.. I'll just ask gege to accompany me" I said as I found a solution to my anxiety.

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The sound of noise from the crowd of the center of the royal capital Zhang greeted my sense of hearing. This afternoon I made it out of the palace and all that was thanks to my brother, crown prince Zhang Yong Liang.

After taking a long time to persuade her, my gegeku finally agreed to my request after I explained my reason and purpose to leave the palace. Had I known that if he would have strongly agreed with my desire to find a personal bodyguard for security reasons, I would not have had to waste my energy long enough to persuade him.

I thought I was the only one who thought that someone would harm me when I said I was worried about my safety last time. I slipped and fell on the lake was an accident that could have taken my life, lucky when my gegeku was walking - the road in the backyard of the palace right when I fell. Unfortunately, when he helped me, he found no one. Likewise with me who does not remember anyone at the time of the incident.

"What's gege?" I asked the crown prince Liang who is now 20 years old.

Because we are now out of the palace in hiding, we also do extra disguise so that no one knows our identity while wandering around without guard and protection.

We knew what we were doing was a very risky thing, so I and crown prince Liang made a very big disguise so that our identity would remain safe as well as our safety.

Currently my gegeku was wearing clothes like a noble youth with a dark color, dark blue color was his choice. In addition to wearing dark clothes, crown prince Liang also wore a headscarf with matching-colored satin cloth with his clothes dangling up to his shoulders so as to disguise his handsome face and captivate him. As for me wearing bright clothes, white hanfu made from silk was my best choice, and to hide my face, she said, I was wearing a straw headscarf with a matching satin cloth with my clothes dangling to my waist. The white satin cloth dangling down from the headscarf I was wearing almost almost covered the entirety of my tiny body.

"Why do we have to get out of the palace just to find a personal bodyguard for you? While you shouldn't have to bother like this because in the palace there are many soldiers of Zhang's kingdom, you only have to choose one or more of them" the crown prince asked Liang.

"Not all of them had above-average martial talents and abilities, some of them were just a bunch of warriors with ordinary abilities. Their existence was among the warriors who had the talents and martial abilities that they naturally possessed just because they were lucky. They were lucky to have successfully bribed an insider, not because of their ability" I replied which then left crown prince Liang quite surprised by my broad and profound answer.

"Where did you learn such profound things from, how did you know that some soldiers only have ordinary abilities even after being trained many times?" ask crown prince Liang

I bit my lower lip, I forgot that when I was 14, I was known as a stupid and naive princess. Of course crown prince Liang was so shocked. Because the vast and profound knowledge I have today is the result of my determination and desire to capture the attention of young general Wu Cheng two knew of the past.

"I just guessed it originally" I replied that seemed to make crown prince Liang look doubtful.

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**TBC

Wednesday, 8 April 2020**