The Empress

Chapter 6: Unformidable beauties

Madame Red is a famous beauty. Back in her younger days, she stayed at the Kingdom of Long with her late father's adopted sister, Imperial General Hu. She has learned martial arts and military skills from her. And, she had also been taught by Imperial Scholar Gezi1. Because of him, she had become one of the best scholars in the 2 Kingdoms. Empress Huihuang, Senior Princess Long Xuanlu2 and her are amongst the best scholars in the 2 Kingdoms. Yes, all three of them dressed up as men to enable them to take the annual exam held in the 2 Kingdoms.

They are known as Scholars Hui3, Xuan4 and Lian5. The 3 of them, dressed up as men, loved to go to places that are only meant for the men. As in, the brothel. They do have a very close relationship with the famous prostitute, Hudie6. Hudie is indeed one of the great beauty back then but too bad she is a prostitute. Too bad that she had fallen in love with the wrong man too. Not them of course. She does realize that the 3 of them are not men from the first time that she was called to entertain those 3 gentlemen. A beautiful friendship has been borne since then. Every other day, any one of them will go to the brothel and Hudie will entertain each of them. Hudie has proven herself to be quite a dignified person, she still hasn’t slept with any men. Knowing that fact, made the 3 of them paid quite a huge amount of money to the madame of the brothel so that Hudie will no be forced to sleep with any men if she refused to do so. It also didn't help much when Gentleman Hui nearly murdered one passionate guest who tried to rape Hudie. Hudie's reputation then soared as being one of the famous prostitutes not only because of her beauty but everyone knew that she remains a virgin due to her 3 benefactors.

Once, just for the fun of it, they dressed up as a woman while being in the brothel, it created a huge clamour between the guest when they saw Hudie with 3 new beauties by her side. Oh, what a day it was. It will always be a day that she remembered for the rest of her life.

The four of them have since gone on their separate ways. ‘Gentleman Hui’ has become Empress Huihuang of the Kingdom of Long. ‘Gentleman Xuan’ is a successful woman in her own right and raising her daughter without a man by her side. Hudie is no longer a prostitute, she is now known as ‘Wondering Priestess Hudie’, she was quite devastated when the man that she loves disappeared into thin air. She, on the other hand, had to return to the Kingdom of Leng for her decreed marriage with the newly crowned Emperor before tragedy struck.

As luck has it, each of them lives a drastically different life. One is living a happy and contented life. One is living a life which defies all the norms of how a respectable woman should live her life. One is living in a life where her loved one left her without a word. One is living for the sake of her children and to seek revenge on those who had forsaken her.

Remembering how happy she was back then bringing tears to her eyes. She cannot wait to meet them soon during the wedding of Crown Prince Long Dongji. She also cannot wait to see the expression on his face upon seeing her as his so-called opponent, Madame Red.

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1. ** Dove2. ** Melody3. * Return4. * Dangerous5. * To long for6. ** Butterfly