The Dowager Empress

Cloud were looming over the palace's roof. The gray sky bringing forth cold wind that blew mercilessly. Just like the solemn weather, the palace had also been plague with incoming predicament regarding the empress dowager's health.

The 90 year old esteemed empress dowager had been bedridden for few weeks and her health had been deteriorated for a couple of months already.

Her condition worried the emperor. He had put aside many official engagement as he spent most of his time visiting the empress dowager.

Just like any other day, the officials in the royal court were making a scene outside of the emperor's place demanding him to go back to the royal court. Frustrated with the behaviour of the unruly officials, the emperor clenched his fist tightly.

He was sitting in his study room with the empress by his side when the eunuch rushing in to inform him about the stubborn officials.

"Preposterous!" He pounded his fist on the table. "I have been a filial son attending to my royal mother and they dared to come to me with the worldly problems!"

The empress quickly gotten up from her seat. She went and patted the emperor on his back in an effort of trying to calm him down.

"Your Majesty please calm down" The empress pleading to him. The emperor was already reaching his seventies. Hence, excessive rage would not do any good to the emperor.

"These officials knows nothing about how important the royal mother is to me! They would be ceaselessly complaining about me not attending to the people. I did! Look at these paper works!" in his rage, he pushed the pile of paper works off his table.

The eunuch hurriedly crawled on the floor to retrieve them back.

"I was putting off the royal court meeting for two times as royal mother was very sick at the time! And they dared to say I have been forgetting my responsibilities!"

The Empress began to cling on his side. While he was worried about the dowager empress, the empress - meanwhile- was worried about the emperor's health.

The emperor himself was not a young man anymore. But he refused to lifted the burden of his shoulder by transferring it to their oldest son. Now that the empress dowager is sick, his hands are now both tied with huge load of responsibilities than no man his age could endure.

"Your majesties, why don't you attend the royal court today. I would replace you to visit the dowager empress ."

The emperor turned to his wife with sceptic look. "It's not the same" He said quietly to her.

"I know. I know. But, why don't you appease the ministers for this one day. Let me handle royal mother. She will be fine"

After mulling over for a while, the emperor agreed to attend the royal court for this particular morning. He left the study room with the flustered eunuch towing behind his back.

Without waiting any longer, the empress called after her maids. They went straight to the dowager empress' place to visit her on the behalf of the emperor.

It did not take long for the empress to arrived at the empress dowager's place. The place was located close to emperor's place as he dotted so much on his mother and vice versa.

All her life, the empress had never seen a more loving mother and son duo that matched the bond between the emperor and empress dowager. It was till the point that the empress felt embarrass on the behalf of both of them for being so loving toward each other in front of the servant.

It was a shock for people that did not know about the fact that the empress dowager was not the emperor biological mother.

The dowager empress' place was as quite as it had always been. Since the first day the empress step into the palace almost forty years ago, this place had stayed the same.

It was calm and tranquil. But, this place also carried a melancholic aura that was indescribable for the empress. One would feel the urge to shed a tear or two whenever they visited the place.

'Just like the dowager empress.' She thought.

The eunuch announced that the empress had arrived and of course they did not expected the owner of this place waiting for them as she was very ill on her bed.

As soon as she arrived at the empress dowager's chamber, the empress cast a look at the frail body laying on the bed. Truthfully, she should have been gone by now. The dowager empress had been stricken with so many illness her body was left with only skin and bones.

It pains her to see the kind dowager empress in this horrible state. However, she knew that it was even more painful for the emperor as he loved and respected the dowager empress dearly.

She closing in near to the bed. It seemed that the dowager empress was deep in sleep. She didn't even move he eyelids when the empress entered the room.

Being a filial daughter-in-law, the empress decided to wait on the chair beside the the dowager empress's bed.

She took her time examining every lines formed on the older woman's face.

'When did these wrinkles appeared on royal mother's face?'. the empress began to touch her own face. She must be getting a lot of wrinkles too.

The dowager empress used to be one of the prettiest woman she ever seen in her entire life. The empress entered the palace at the age of sixteen. The dowager empress was in her late forties. Despite of her age, she still exude regal and elegance match by no one in the palace.

Not even by the late emperor's favourite concubines. The empress secretly believe that her beauty came from within. She was by far, the kindest woman in the inner palace. No one, not even the most volatile concubine in the late emperor's harem had any ill intention toward her as she was kind to almost everyone .

Sadly, that was also the reason she was laugh at by the bunch of them. The late emperor was a practical man. He had gone through so much during his teen years until he developed a thick wall that separated himself from other people to probe even further.

When he was a young prince, the late emperor was entangled with his siblings' fight for the throne. Ironically, the late emperor who was also the youngest prince became the only survivor in the bloody battle among the princes.

Since that day, he was wary of a lot of things. He was careful in choosing women in his harem. He was also taking extra precaution in selecting the servants who worked closely to the royal family. Not to mentioned, he ruled the royal court with sharp claw, no ministers would dare to conspire against him.

However, one particular woman magically managed to worm her way into the late emperor's heart. She would marry him, became the empress and later on, bore his one and only son .

Unfortunately, the inner palace is a cruel place. The unassuming empress was poisoned by a concubine from a powerful family while she was pregnant with their second child.

It took the late emperor several years to recover from the shock of loosing the his dear wife. Many moon later, the ministers kept on bugging the emperor to officiate a new empress.

Most of them had been eyeing the position for their female relatives in the inner palace. They were already planning and scheming to get their daughters or nieces for the position.

The previous emperor was well aware of this, and had made a shocking decision by selecting an unassuming, low-profile concubine from a family with less power to be the new empress.

That was how the kind dowager empress was selected to be the empress. Everyone knew that the previous emperor had specifically chosen her in order to balance out the power in the royal court. Not to mention, she also had less influence in the inner palace, thus making her the best person to lead the harem.

Despite not having any child of her own, the new empress was so motherly and nurturing toward the emperor's only son. They bonded well and form a genuine mother and son relationship afterward.

Out of all good thing that befallen onto her, there was one thing that the newly officiated empress would never be able to get and that is the her husband's affection.