Chapter 31 - She Never Smiled
Rui could not sleep again no matter how much Li Hua insisted her to. Lying on the bed, Li Mei's figure kept revolving in front of her eyes. In a soft whisper, she asked Li Hua staring at the ceiling of the room.
"How did she reach there?"
Tears slid through Li Hua's eyes as she sobbed and replied reminiscing the morning's events.
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Li Rui went inside her room to get ready after telling Li Hua and Li Mei that she was going to enter the Imperial Palace again.
With an anxious face, Li Hua said to Li Mei.
"How can we let Miss go alone to Imperial Palace?"
Even though both of them were afraid to enter the Imperial Place but this fear was nothing in front of worry that they had if their mistress went alone inside that Palace.
The First Princess Wenling still lived there.
Li Mei who was pacing with a tense face suddenly looked outside the window and stopped pacing. Her face brightened and she jumped in front of Li Hua like a child.
"I have a plan. We..."
Li Hua only shook her head nervously after hearing her plan.
"What if Miss finds out?"
Li Mei narrowed her eyes at her and said
"So do you want her to go alone?"
Li Hua shook her head in 'no' and after a few seconds of contemplation she nodded her head with hesitation and said
"Then, let's go."
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"We wanted to hide in the carriage that carried gifts for Princess Consort. But the carriage was filled with things and only Li Mei could hide inside it. She told me that it was enough for her to go and I should wait here in the manor."
More tears fell from Li Hua's eyes and Rui closed her eyes after she heard everything. When she opened them, she glanced sideways at Yi Junjie who was standing silently on her left side, she didn't know for how much time.
"You should have kept her. I could at least try to save her."
Yi Junjie glanced at her pale-white face and hid the worry and distress in his eyes as he replied in a very gentle voice.
"You can't bring life to a dead person, Rui. She had already stopped breathing when we found both of you."
Rui let out a trembling sigh. A few seconds after, she pleaded to him softly.
"Elder Brother, I want to see her."
Xi Ying who was sitting by her side frowned hearing her words. Her body was still weak. But he could understand her after all Li Mei didn't care for her life while protecting her. He heard Yi Junjie saying
"I will take you there but first of all, you will have to eat something."
Rui nodded her head in yes although she didn't have any appetite. Knowing her elder brother, she knew that she will not be able to see Li Mei if she didn't eat anything.
"This servant will go and prepare some dishes."
Li Hua immediately wiped her tears and stood up to cook something but Yi Junjie's voice stopped her.
"No need."
He glanced at Yi Ju who was standing at the door. Yi Ju bowed her head and flew out of the courtyard to do what her Master had asked.
Fifteen minutes after, Li Rui was sitting on the chair. In front of her was placed all her favorite dishes but she didn't even glance at them. Xi Ying was full of displeasure when he saw Yi Junjie serving her. But he suppressed it remembering how Li Rui called him 'Elder Brother'. It seems that Rui didn't even know about Yi Junjie's feelings towards her. He wondered how his smart and bright wangfei could not see this.
Li Rui ate calmly till Yi Junjie stopped her. Then Yi Junjie and Yi Ju holding Li Rui flew out of the Xi Manor followed by the invisible Xi Ying.
Xi Ying saw that they were going to Li Manor. When they stopped, in front of them was a deserted area behind a wall.
When Li Rui's feet touched the ground, she left Yi Ju and walked a few steps forward in the direction of the large tree.
Under the tree were two graves. On one grave was written Li Mei that looked newly made and On the other was written 'Li Zhan'. Li Rui kneeled in between the two graves. Her hands trembled when she caressed the names engraved on the two graves.
The figure of two young girls flashed in front of her eyes as they followed her and called 'Young Miss'. Looking at the newly built grave, a memory flashed in her mind.
"Why did you take all the blame when it was my fault?"
Li Rui had asked Li Mei when she was once punished by her father because of her sneaking out of the manor.
Li Mei had chuckled although she was in pain.
"Then Master had punished Miss in my place. It is this servant's duty to protect Miss till my last breath."
The words had confused her at that time. But now her eyes felt blurry remembering them. She blinked them glancing at the two graves and thought
'Did she even deserve to cry for them when they lost their life because of her?'
The one who brought her up sacrificed her life without any hesitation for her. The one who used to shed tears seeing her suffering died because of her. fre(e)webno(v)el
Will she be able to live peacefully knowing all this?
Xi Ying heart pained a lot seeing her like this and Yi Junjie who was standing a few steps away looked at her with distress in her eyes.
When Rui stood up and glanced at the graves for one last time, her smile was full of sadness and sorrow. She walked back to Yi Junjie and her face gained the previous calmness.
"Elder Brother, Rui is very grateful for burying Li Mei here."
Her words were full of gratitude towards Yi Junjie who shook her head and said to her gently.
"There is no need for this between us."
Then they flew out of Li Manor while Xi Ying thought.
Since the first time, he had seen Li Rui he never saw her smiling because of happiness.
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