Down-on-her-luck healer x blind emperor
I once saw the most wretched prince in the palace.
He was frail and sickly, born with an eye condition. The Emperor of Chen had no affection for him, and sent him to Ji as a hostage when he was only four.
Within the vermilion walls and green-tiled roofs, in that little world of his, he was like a heap of mud, left to endure the eunuchs' insults and abuse and the noble youths' mockery and beatings.
I was the youngest princess of Zhou. I had mastered music, chess, calligraphy, and painting from an early age, and my father adored me.
That day, I saved him.
I begged my father to grant him to me and brought him back to my palace. From then on, I gave him a home.
I ordered the servants to treat him well, tended his wounds, changed his clothes, and made sure he had good food, because he was a member of the imperial family.
I thought he deserved to live with dignity.
In the twenty-third year of Yongguan,
the enemy invaded and Ji fell. I was only sixteen that year.
With a million enemy soldiers before me, I went alone to the top of the city wall. I condemned the emperor's incompetence and the officials' corruption.
After denouncing them, I gripped my sword and took my own life before the enemy, fulfilling my duty as a princess and preserving the last shred of dignity for Ji's imperial family.
After being reborn, my soul transmigrated into the body of a female physician.
She had astonishing skills and could treat rare and difficult illnesses.
But after her family fell into ruin, I was forced to enter the palace and became a young maid serving the emperor. I never expected the Emperor of Chen to be that same helpless little blind boy.
What I expected even less
was that in the three years since I died, the little blind boy had become even more silent, gloomy, and coldhearted, to a frightening degree. His condition had grown almost pathological.
His room was full of paper and wooden figures made to look exactly like me.
He curled up in a dark corner, tormented by his loneliness, and spent every day talking to the figures. He imitated them when he ate, slept, and read...
As if he were a puppet himself...
How am I supposed to help him through this...? I'm at a loss...
*
A puppet emperor, without power or influence, could only watch the woman he loved die, without even the right to arrange her funeral.
I heard that
on the day the princess of Ji died, the sky was heavy with clouds, the wind howled, and rain poured down. The Emperor of Chen came alone to the foot of the city wall, held her remains, and wept uncontrollably. He insisted on taking her home...
[Content warnings]
1. The blurb is a rambling mess. I'll revise it later. The story itself is written in third person.
2. This is writing practice, and the prose is average at best. Read at your own discretion.
3. The male lead is blind, withdrawn, and not particularly likable.
4. A short story about healing and salvation. It's not angsty; the blurb may sound a little tragic, but the romance is actually very sweet, so feel free to bookmark it. The whole story is very short, estimated at around 100,000 characters.
Theme: Wishing you peace and happiness.
