Green Phoenix by Poon Alice;

Author:Poon, Alice;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Earnshaw Books
Published: 2017-07-13T09:25:06+00:00

Seventeen

Upon arrival at the Imperial Palaces at Mukden, Dorgon took a tour around the Complex in a nostalgic mood. The empty and cobweb-infested Dazheng Hall looked dreary and maudlin. Trees in the square were shedding big teardrops of dead leaves, which echoed the gloominess. The forlorn surroundings plunged him into the abyss of his painful past.

He had been the golden boy of Nurhaci and Lady Abahai, destined for the throne, and he had won the innocent love of a sparkling Mongolian Princess. But Hong Taiji had brutally murdered his mother and had schemed to snatch the throne and the love of his life from him. True, his mother’s death had been avenged. But what about the Qing throne? What about Bumbutai? The Empire should have belonged to him and his descendants! He had sweated in battle more than anyone else in the clan. He and Bumbutai should have had a blissful union and the joy of breeding and raising an heir – his heir. A spasm of agony surged through him and he stomped away from the ghostly hall.

His wandering legs took him to a stop at the garden gate of the Yongfu Palace, and he went inside and sat on the stone bench underneath one of the two weeping willows. He fell into a trance and went down memory lane to the time when he had first laid eyes on the girl Bumbutai. Fumbling in the pockets of his surcoat, he took out a pink package, untied the purple ribbon knot and unfolded a letter with fraying edges, exposing a lock of hair. He held the hair in one hand and the letter in the other, reading it hungrily as if he wanted to devour every word in it. Then he carefully folded it up, putting the lock of hair back inside, wrapped it up in the pink silk kerchief and tied the package neatly again. Unaware of what he was doing, he fingered the blue swallow embroidery, and his eyes turned misty.

Then his thoughts leapt to the time Bumbutai had danced a butterfly dance for him right inside this Palace. His pulse raced as he vicariously relived that night of torrid passion. Every fiber in her had yearned for him. How he had hungered for her too.

In a flash, the image of Fulin appeared to him, twisting and twirling like a vicious tsunami, and tore to shreds the raft of daydreams to which was tied his very existence. His face wrenched itself into a scowl. Fraught with despair, he silently moaned as he fumbled his way out of the garden.

The following day, Princess Yi and her entourage arrived at the Imperial Palaces. The noblewoman and the other two Korean beauties settled in the Yongfu Palace, as previously arranged. The wedding was to be held the next day at the Emperor’s Residence main hall. Dorgon had deliberately chosen the Mukden Palaces to hold this wedding, as he felt that he could really feel and act like an emperor here, away from the Qing Court in Beijing and all its cumbersome protocol.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.