Chapter 9 — Chinh The Muu

I stood in place, watching his silhouette being carried away, the night wind blew the blood stains he left on my face cold, I reached out to touch, the tips of my fingers were stained a little red, it was his blood, the fifteen or sixteen year old prince of Tran Quoc Cong Bui Chieu, used his life to pry me away from the blade. Many years later, I still clearly remember the shape of that wound. It was on the side of his neck, from behind his ear to his collarbone. After healing, it left a pale scar, like a stretched moon. He lay in bed recovering from injuries for many days. The news spread to Vinh An Ba palace, my parents were scared to the point of panic, they were not worried about me, but were afraid of Tran Quoc Cong palace's prosecution - the girl from Ba palace implicated the crown prince of Quoc Cong palace, the prince almost lost his life to save her, they gathered all the most precious medicinal herbs in the house, filled a box, then stuffed me on a carriage, and took me to the gate of Tran Quoc Cong palace. I remember very clearly that day, my mother stood under the carriage, looked up at me, she held my hand very tightly, her nails dug into the back of my hand, but what she said was not "you have been wronged", but rather:

"When you come in front of Princess Truong, you must obediently admit your mistake. If the prince blames you, you will kneel down and kneel until they calm down."

Then she let go, took a step back, and the car curtain fell, obscuring her face. Princess Chu Tri Doanh sat at the top of the main hall. I presented the medicine box and knelt in front of her. She looked at me and looked at me for a long time. Her eyes were not as I imagined. There was no blame, no coldness. There was only something that was difficult to articulate. It was like an interrogation, but like a very distant memory.

“Raise your head.”

I raised my head, she looked at me for a while, didn't say forgiveness, didn't say punishment, just told my mother to take me back down, to settle down in the guest house, every day someone brought me food, no one told me how Bui Chieu was, and no one said how I would be handled. I stayed in the guest house for many days, those days I hardly said a word, the maid brought food to me and immediately ate it, took it away and then I sat down again, unable to sleep at night, so I sat in front of the window and counted the stones in the yard that could be seen, one stone, two stones, three stones, counting until morning. I thought I would be beaten and chased away, or taken somewhere further away. But after he woke up, the first thing he did was pray for me. Later, I heard from the maid's mouth, the day he woke up, his throat was still hoarse, a thick white bandage was wrapped around his neck, with just the slightest movement, blood leaked out. Princess Truong sat in front of his bed, saying that the people from the Ba Palace had sent it, it was up to my Highness to handle it. After listening, he was silent for a moment, then said - "It has nothing to do with her, I changed it voluntarily, don't make it difficult for her." The princess looked at him for a long time, then said one word: "Okay." He ordered someone to let me out of the guesthouse. When I arrived at his hospital, he was leaning on a bench in the hallway basking in the sun, his neck was still wrapped in a white bandage, his face was as white as paper, his lips were bloodless, the sunlight fell on him, making his whole body almost transparent. He saw me standing at the door of the courtyard, smiled, a very light smile, pulling at the wound in his neck. He took a deep breath and held it back.

“Why are you standing so far away? Come here.”

I walked forward, walking very slowly, until I arrived in front of him stop. He tilted his head and looked at me for a moment, then reached into his sleeve, fumbled for a while, took out a candy, a malt type sold at roadside stalls, wrapped in oil paper, slightly melted. He stuffed the candy into my hand, the candy was still warm, warmed by his warmth.

“Don't cry.”

Only then did I realize that my face was full of tears. I didn't know when they had flowed. I raised my hand to wipe, the more I wiped, the more he wiped, he didn't say anything, just put his hand on the back of my hand, gently holding it... His injury was almost healed. Once he could get off the ground and walk, he refused to sit still. After that, he took me around the palace, treating me like his younger sister. He took me to see the martial arts arena in the palace, pointed at his wooden poles for practicing swords and said "I've cut a few of these", took me to the horse stable, took out his black horse, patted the horse's neck and said it was called Truy Van, even when I ran up the wind couldn't catch up with me, he took me to the lake in the back of the garden, squatted down to watch the carp, broke into small pieces and threw them into the water, watched the fish fighting for food, water splashing everywhere. When passing by a sugar candy stall, he stopped... That was the time we went out, he took me on the street, came to a sugar candy stall and stopped, the seller was an old man, recognized him, smiled and called out to me, he pointed to the candy images on the counter and asked which one I wanted. I looked for a long time, chose a butterfly, he shook his head, told the seller, drew a sun, the seller scooped a spoonful of sugar, his wrist hovered over the iron plate, the golden sugar flowed down, on the iron surface it curved, changed direction, retracted, soon formed a bright sun, the seller inserted the bamboo stick, waited for the sugar to cool, carefully lifted it up and gave it to him. He stuffed the sun candy into my hand. The sun is yellow, transparent, under the sunlight it reflects amber color, the bamboo stick still has warmth, I hold it up, the sunlight passes through the gaps in the candy, falling on my face in small squares of light, in front of the sugar candy counter he drew such a bright yellow sun, I ate it for a long time before I could finish it, at that time I thought, that was the best thing he gave me. Now I understand, the best thing he gave me was himself, from the age of fourteen until today, he gave himself to me little by little, not once, but little by little, like snow falling, piece by piece, falling for many years, by the time he turned around, the whole mountain was white. The sun is in the hospital. Not made of sugar. Won't melt anymore. At this point, I suddenly realized that the smile at the corner of my lips had spread...I couldn't close my mouth. (END OF FULL TEXT)