Our Journey - Chapter 19 My Fathers Reason
“What?” I shouted together with Zhiqiang Wangye.
“Wear your cloth! You must to go with me now. We will stay in an inn tonight,” my father asked me.
“General Zhou, you should stay at my palace. I will explain the truth to you tomorrow,”Zhiqiang Wangye said to my father. My father looked at him with a sharp look.
“Father, Zhiqiang Wangye said the right thing. We’d better stay here tonight and tomorrow we will both explain what happened to Daddy, “I begged him. He shook his head.
“You must obey my words,” my father said firmly. I was forced to obey and put on my outer clothes. My father also gave me a coat and I put it on.
“Tomorrow we have to meet again, Wangye,” my father said to Zhiqiang Wangye then he pulled my hand. We both walked out of Wangfu. All the guards watched us with suspicious gazes. They become very alert. My father has drawn his sword to their master. That made them consider my father as a threat.
My face feels very hot. My heart also felt anxious because my father’s face showed that he was disappointed and angry. I don’t dare to talk to him.
My father took me to an inn. The location of the inn is not far from Zhiqiang Wangfu. Father took me to a room on the top floor of the inn. We both sat facing each other. He glared at me. His brow wrinkled.
“Why did you leave home and take part in the selection of the royal military academy?” My father asked in a voice indicating that he was angry. His tone is low and deep. I bow my head.
“I want to fulfill my brother’s wishes,” I answered and my father immediately hit the table very hard.
“I was very panicked when I didn’t see you at home. You don’t leave any messages!” My father shouted. His words surprised me because I had written a letter to him.
“I left a letter. I put it near the ancestral altar,” I explained. My father fell silent hearing my words.
“I didn’t check it,” my father said in a low voice. I was silent.
“You know since your mother died, I have never taken care of our family’s ancestral altars anymore,” my father said in a low voice. I looked at her sad face. What father said was true. I never saw him go to ancestral hall. Every time there is a celebration, my father tells me to take care of myself.
“At first I tried to calm myself when I found out that you weren’t home. I thought you went to see your Shifu. However, after a month of no news, I went to the Monastery. Your teacher said that you didn’t come there. I became panic and went to all the cities near our village to look for you,” my father explained. His face looks sad. I feel guilty to him.
“I finally returned to the village after exploring many cities. I think you might have sent word. Apparently in the village, I met two men who claimed to be your friends,” my father continued his words. It turned out that Ma Hongqi and Zhang Shiyu had managed to find my village and meet with my father.
“They said that you were injured during the acceptance stage of the royal military academy. I immediately went to the capital city. In town, I heard that Zhiqiang Wangye made you a woman,”he said then hit the table hard. He looks angry and disappointed.
“Father, they have misunderstood and spread false news. Zhiqiang Wangye helped me. He took me to his palace so that I could get better treatment. The Imperial Doctor took care of me so that I could recover,” I tried to explain to him.
“Then in that room?You and him looks like that! Are you trying to lie to me? ”
“Father, Zhiqiang Wangye is giving his internal power to me. I can’t use my internal power to speed up my healing,” I explained to him. He doesn’t seem to believe my words.
“Honestly, you ara who lied to me. Father never told me and my late brother if father was a general. Why do you hide your true identity?” I asked him. I feel a little disappointed and angry at him. He is a general, why does he hide his true identity? Why did he forbid my brother from becoming a soldier.
“I deliberately covered that from you and your brother because of a painful experience. I stopped being a soldier because of the cruel politics of the Palace. I has closeness with the family of his mother Zhiqiang Wangye, Sui Guifei. After Sui Guifei was found poisoning her own child, the Emperor was suspicious of all the supporters of the Sui family. I decided to leave the military with hope that decision could make the Emperor’s anger would recede,” my father said in a low voice.
“At that time the situation was very chaotic. Many people have accused Sui Guifei of planningwill revolt. All suspect people who have closeness with the Sui family. If I stays in the royal military, they will assume that I can gather strength to rebel,” he continued his explanation.
“Is that what makes father reject my brother’s wishes?”
“Yes. I don’t want your brother to experience the same thing as me. I taught him to be a trader with me and hoped that he would live long by becoming a trader. However, what I forced turned out to make me lose your brother very quickly,” my father said he regretted it. I was silent. I know that since the death of my older brother, father continues to feel guilty.
“However, now you told me to be the wife of Zhiqiang Wangye. Are you not afraid if I enter the palace, I could get trouble like you? You once said to me that palace is most dangeros place in the world,” I said to him. My father sighed.
“What can I do now? Everyone knows that you have become Wangye’s woman. Who wants to marry you now? ”
“There must be a remote area that doesn’t know this, right?”
“If anyone wants to marry you, he will find out your background. They must have easily known this incident,” my father refused my words. I lowered my face again. I don’t want to be involved with that shameless man for the rest of my life.
“Do you not hate Zhiqiang Wangye? If he hadn’t said the truth that his mother poisoned him then you wouldn’t be like this. You could stay in military and not retaired,”
I said to him with a hope that my word’s would make him cancel his decision to pairing me and that shamless prince.
“You’re wrong, Liu Fang. If Zhiqiang Wangye doesn’t say the truth, the Emperor will still know the truth. If that happens, the Emperor will definitely hate that poor prince and consider the Sui family to be really involved in that terrible incident,” my father sighed.
“Because that poor prince was honest, the Emperor did not consider him as a threat to his royal peace. The emperor also released the Sui family and all those who were relations with the Sui family,” my father said in a heavy voice.
His reason make my feeling complicated. What my father said is true. Our emperor will punish Sui Family and their supporter because that incident if Zhiqiang Wangye didn’t said the truth. Even, he will punish his own son and make his life terrible.
“I left the royal military because I wanted to make the Emperor even more convinced that the Sui family and their supporters were not a threat for our kingdom’s peace,” my father said in a low voice.
“However, I did not expect that poor prince turned into an impudent prince who made you hurt and now makes you his woman without begged to your parents ?” My father hit the table again. I lowered my face. I don’t know how to convince him that I’m not Zhiqiang Wangye’s woman.
“Now you rest! Tomorrow, we will meet Zhiqiang Wangye and discuss the matter of your marriage,” my father told me then he came out of my room. I walked to my bed. I lie on my bed. However, I did not feel calm. I can not sleep.
“That selfish prince definitely won’t want to marry me. I’m sure that he will have a good reason to convince my father. He already has a lover. He will not betray her. I’m sure, “I said to myself. After said that sentences, I feel a little relieve. I sighed and hoped that morning would come soon and this problem will solve quickly.