Yīng Kingdom
After the festival
Mîn Jíng chewed her bottom lip and sniffed back tears of shame and pain. She straightened her back and carefully touched her backside over her long skirts and winced at the throbbing. With a glance at Sī, she listened to her father’s voice echo out into the passageway from his chambers.
“This is all on you!” King Yīng Yǒng Chāo accused his youngest son and looked at his oldest, as well. “You allow her to behave as your brother rather than your sister. She has this idea she is as free and safe as a boy because you haven’t taught her otherwise. As her older brothers, you both have an obligation to instruct her on the ways of men while keeping her safe from them.”
“Father,” spoke his youngest son, “neither Féng Wěi nor I ever imagined she’d run off unescorted at night. Had we believed she could be so reckless, we certainly would have instilled upon her the dangers she could face.”
“Father,” spoke Féng Wěi, “I know Yong Wěi and I have sheltered her, but isn’t that our duty? She isn’t a usual princess. She never has been. Even Mother knew and the Daoshi often reported her cleverness and skills.”
“Cleverness with words and skills at carving jade would not have saved her from what you both know could have happened,” the king refuted. “You say there were men nearby when you found her in the garden. What of them? Who were they?”
“Sī said they were no one,” Yong Wěi answered.
“And you believed her?” King Yīng snorted. “That girl will say anything to protect Mîn from punishment.”
“Not this time,” mumbled Yong Wěi.
King Yīng glared at his son. “You think a thrashing was too harsh. I have never allowed such a punishment on my beloved daughter, but this time, she went too far. You cannot understand because you aren’t a father.
Féng Wěi, what would you have done if Wén Mĕi ran out in the middle of the night without an escort and no word to anyone?”
Féng Wěi sighed when he thought of his daughter and knew his father had valid concerns.
“I would have been distraught, Father,” he admitted. “I would have torn apart the capital and every village and likely killed any man standing too near her. I likely would have thrashed her, myself, when I brought her home.”
King Yīng gave his eldest a satisfactory nod for his understanding.
“What will you do now?” wondered Yong Wěi. “She’s afraid that as soon as Féng and I are off to battle, you’ll confine her to her manor and not allow her freedom outside of her walls.”
The king looked at his sons for their concern and then toward the doorway of his private study, where he knew his daughter was listening. With a deep sigh, he finally answered.
“I have no choice,” he solemnly replied. “I must find her a husband. It’s the only way to calm her unruly propensities.”
“No!” shouted Mîn Jíng as she ran in. “I’ll never marry anyone but my Black Butterfly! Mother said I was never to marry anyone but the man I loved. You aren’t allowed to do this. It was Mother’s last wish!”
“Black Butterfly?” wondered the king and turned toward his sons for an explanation.
Féng Wěi rolled his eyes and shook his head. “She’s been going on about her promise to this Black Butterfly from her story. She said she will never love another man but him.”
“The fairy tale she wrote for Xiù Guī?” wondered King Yīng in regards to his late wife, the queen.
“It isn’t only a fairy tale!” she insisted. “I won’t marry anyone else, and you won’t make me. Mother wouldn’t approve and you cannot dishonor her!”
King Yīng leaned back against his chair and rubbed his throbbing forehead. No one could give him a headache like his daughter.
“She’s right, Father,” Yong Wěi defended her. “Mother insisted this was part of her prophecy. The man Sister marries will help her stop the Wáng Píng. Her husband has to be her choice because the gods will make her feel it. You can’t choose for her.”
“Silence,” King Yīng ordered, albeit quietly through the jarring pain. “I’ll think of this more later. Until I have decided, Mîn will be confined to this palace. You both have preparations to make to leave in the morning. See your sister to her manor and rest.”
He stood and left his children to sort through the matter alone.
“Sister, we should go,” Féng Wěi advised and motioned for her to follow.
She looked toward Yong Wěi with a gaze he knew all too well. She was already planning something, and he worried how much trouble he was about to be in.
His question was answered a few hours later. When he went to the stables to ready his horse for the journey, there astride one of his father’s steeds was Mîn Jíng.
“If you don’t let me come, I’ll find another way and leave this palace alone again,” she insisted.
“Mîn Mîn …” he began to protest, but she stopped him.
“There is nothing for me here, Yong Wěi! At least at the battle, I can help the soldiers with my medical skills. You know Father is wrong to insist I marry for the sake of marriage. You and Féng won’t be here to stop it. What will you do if you returned home to find I’m a miserable wife of a grumpy old man who doesn’t let me leave his home and keeps me fat with children every year for the rest of my life?”
Yong Wěi grinned at her over-exaggeration of a scenario their father would never allow, but she was half right. The king was determined to quiet her restless spirit, even if it meant defying his promise to the queen.
He shook his head and huffed.
“What about Sī?” he asked as he looked around.
“In my chambers,” she answered. “She’s going to hide my absence for as long as she can.”
He shook his head again and readied his horse.
“I’m going to regret this,” he muttered as he mounted.
Mîn Jíng gave him a large smile and took in a deep breath in anticipation of the adventure that awaited.
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