The Emperor's Pampered Wife 19 A Light That Still Shines

"I'm back" Wei Yan said with a smile on her face, her little encounter with her stepmother already forgotten. "Come drink your milk"

Upon her arrival, Jun Shen stood up while looking at the milk on her hand in terror. Dear lord, he hates the taste of milk. Wei Yan knew this very well so she gave him a close eyed smile and in a warning tone said. "Jun Shen don't even think about running away"

He can only sigh at her as she handed him his own milk. "Man, your eyes is really something sis"

Wei Yan simply giggled at him and watched him carefully as he gulped down his milk in one go. No matter how many times she sees him gulp it down in such a way she still finds herself surprised and amazed. She can't understand why he hates it so much.

Jun Shen's face contorted as the milk made contact with his tastebuds. The disgust he's been trying to supress since he accepted the gla.s.s suddenly surfaced on his face. This made his siblings laugh at his misery. Wei Yan enjoyed it the most.

"Sing now?" Jei Li and Wuxi asked as they positioned themselves in the most comfortable state.

Wei Yan gently placed back their gla.s.ses on the tray and went back to sit on their bed with a smile. "Okay okay"

Noticing Jun Shen just standing around, Wei Yan gave him a look. She looks at Jun Shen and urges him to sit on the bed with her "Come here"

Jun Shen immediately shook his head in protest. He just wants to hear her voice again, not sleep with them. They'd be like squished sardines if he joins.

"I'll stay here" he said as he pulled a chair from their study table and sat down like an obedient child.

Wei Yan had no choice but to smile at her grown up baby brother. With a gentle voice, and her hands touching their hair, Wei Yan began humming the intro of their lullaby.

She looked at them tenderly and lovingly as though the most precious of gems was in front of her. "Cast away your worries, my dear

For tomorrow comes a new day"

Jei Li, Wuxi, and even Jun Shen looked at her with some tears in their eyes. Oh how they missed this! How they missed this sweet angelic voice of hers. "Hold to me, you've nothing to fear

For your dreams are not far away"

"As you lay your head and you rest

May your dreams take over, my love" Wei Yan placed a kiss on their forehead making them purr like cats. Her touch was so gentle, so sweet, and so caring they can' t stop purring.

Wei Yan smiled at them and sang even more gentler than her last. "Listen close, my child of the west

For your destiny lies above"

"Though the world is cruel

There's a light that still s.h.i.+nes

In the darkest days of our lives" Jei Li who was the most hyped earlier slowly closed her eyes, forgetting of all the bad things that happened in her day. She bid farewell to nightmares as the song of her sister brought peace in her sleep.

Wuxi looked at his twin and slowly, very slowly, allowed himself to fall asleep. He who was usually guarded when sleeping was so relaxed at this moment, because he knew that with his sister around they are protected. "When all hope seems lost

and you can't find your way

Think of me as you look to the sky"

"Child mine, your future is bright

For your father's blood's in your veins" she sang silently as though a whisper and looked at Jun Shen to confirm something.

He didn't look at her. Instead he was looking outside the window absentmindedly. Wei Yan frowned at this but continued her lullaby nonetheless.

"In dark times, I pray you will fight

For the world will soon know your name" she finished and smiled ever so wide as she saw her twins snoring softly with a smile plastered on their face.

Once again, she planted a kiss on their forehead and touched it as though easing all their pains. "Goodnight, my angels"

She took hold of their quilt and gently placed it on them. She made sure they were well covered before looking at her drowsy brother. "Hey sleepy kid, can I talk to you?"

Jun Shen who was starting to feel sleepy, suddenly felt something wrong with her tone. "Sis, what is this all about?"

"Did they find out?" Wei Yan asked out of the blue without restrain.

The room suddenly fell completely silent. It took a minute for Jun Shen to speak up as he looked at the twins with worry.
"Lets go to my room"

Jun Shen immediately stood up and went outside. His actions already confirmed Wei Yan's a.s.sumptions. As they entered his room and shut the door, she asked once again, her voice much more sure than before. "Did they?"

With his sister's worried look, Jun Shen knew he can no longer hid it from her. "Eventually"

There was suddenly a lightning strike in her heart. "What's going on? How did they find out?"

Before she left, she made everyone in the household promise. They vowed not to tell the kids about their ident.i.ty. So how the h.e.l.l did they find out.

Jun Shen sighed at his sister's helpless confusion. She relied and trusted their father too much. He knows they promised, his father made a heavier promise, but with everything changing that promise was bound to be broken. Specially with his father's crazy and thoughtless love sickness towards Fe Rou Chao along his jerk-ish nature.

"Honestly, it wasn't hard to find out. Over the course of the years, father's treatment turned worse"

Wei Yan looked at him in confusion. It was their father? He's been trying his best to separate them from her but it never occurred to her that he was something even more brazen. "Tell me"

"He treats us like normal persons, like we are outsiders and not actually a part of his new found family. The twins tried their best to get their way in his heart, but he only showed them too little of his affections. He accepts their gifts but he never really showed thankfulness over it, but rather a sour att.i.tude towards it. He keeps them hidden as though he was ashamed of them"

Her face slowly turned ashen as such words began sinking in her head. She thought that once she left, his focus would land on her siblings and that his overflowing affection would be sent to them. But alas, it was only her wishful thinking.

"Aside that, his new wife is a blabber mouth. The twins found out from her how they never got father's affections because they were an unknown mistake" he said making nothing hidden from her.

It broke her heart to think they found out and she wasn't there to comfort nor console them.

The twins are not born from her parents. They were only half siblings as they were born from another mother. A mother they have no idea of. She was told by her mother their true origins. They were placed outside her small house in Paris when she went there for business transactions. It was registered on Guanyu and it was indeed his home more than hers.

She didn't believe it at first so she took a sample from Guanyu and conducted a DNA test. The results made her feel terrible. Her mother couldn't believe that the husband she's been loving quite secretly and holding tightly had escaped her grasp and banged another woman behind her back. She knew she cannot have his affection but it made her feel worse knowing he had done what a married couple should be doing on another woman. An unknown woman!

When she went back home with the twins, Guanyu wanted nothing to do with them. Angered by his irresponsible behaviour, her mother took matters to her own hands. And by hands, it really meant her fist. She released her anger at him, her everything at him, and was forced out by Guanyu.

"That all three of us are mistakes" Jun Shen suddenly added.

Wei Yan whose holding her tears looked at him in shock. She actually said that?

'Fe Rou Chao! You wait for your retribution' she yelled in her mind as she inched closer to her wounded baby brother.

"Jun Shen, stop saying that. You're not a mistake, mother never considered you like that" she said and pulled him for a hug.

"She never did, but what about father? He always shoves how great of regret he has that I was born. Because of me, his misery with mother was prolonged. He thinks I hindered his reunion with that rotten first love" he said in anguish as he pulled away from his sisters embrace.

Tears began falling from his eyes. He's been holding it in for quite a time now. For once, he wants to let it out. To cry it out.

"Jun Shen" Wei Yan scooped his face and began wiping his tears away. What the h.e.l.l did they do!

"You're not a mistake" she said gently and hugged him once more.

"Its true. I am nothing but a drunken mistake and he still hates mother for making him drunk that night. Along his hate for her is his hate for me. I think his right, we three are his biggest mistake"

Amongst them, the most love was Wei Yan. It was because she was born at the peek of Guanyu and Xing Mei Yi's marriage. It was when Fe Rou Chao was nonexistent and both were caring towards each other. Her brother, Hou Jun Shen was unfortunately born at their breaking point.

Guanyu was already set on divorcing Xing Mei Yi, but he was conceived. Her father got drunk and did something to her mother. He accused her of doing it on purpose, that it was Xing Mei Yi who placed something in his drink, and it made him more mad when she said nothing to prove her innocence.

"Stop saying that!" she yelled. "To me and to mother, you're not a mistake, you're our greatest blessing. No matter how much he denies it, you're not his mistake as well"

Jun Shen smiled at his sister and wiped the remaining tears from his eyes. "You don't have to say it like that because I've grown enough to accept the truth and not get affected with it too much"

He touched his sister's hands and looked at her eyes with seriousness. "Don't worry about me"

"Jun Shen"

"I'm just glad I have you and mother. But the twins are the ones who are really pitiful because they don't have mother" he said as he was reminded of their sad gaze on Fe Rou Chao and their brother, Hou Shuren.

Wei Yan felt heartsore upon this reminder. "But they have us"

An image of her father suddenly flashed in her mind which made her itch to confront him. "I'll talk to dad about this"

Jun Shen immediately shook his head to dismiss her suggestion. "Don't bother. He'll only think we're using you"

He held his sister's hands even tightly and with all honesty and seriousness said. "Sis, we're really fine with things. The twins are tough, you taught us to be tough"

Wei Yan found herself unable to retort back as Jun Shen engulfed her in his hug. They are tough, but that doesn't mean those who did them wrong deserves no punishment because they withstood their attacks. For them, she's going to knock them back to their senses she's not someone to be offended. Her relations.h.i.+p with her siblings should not be taken lightly because no matter the impurities and darkness, she'll be their light to extinguish it all away.

.....

On the darkness of the night, the big blue moon illuminated the twins bedroom. It was the only source of light inside the room. Everything was already silent, everyone inside the household asleep, except one. Wei Yan was wide awake despite such late hour.

After her talk with Jun Shen, she went back to the twins with so much pain in her heart. She was struggling to accept such behaviour from her father. She was used to his nice and pampering nature towards her that knowing his other side became suddenly foreign and frightening.

A soft sighed escaped from her lips as she looked at the twins on her left side. They were fast asleep looking so peaceful. It was like they never really got bothered by her father's behavior.

"I'm so sorry" she mumbled as she kissed their forehead before standing up and heading outside their room. She wore a robe and decided to take a walk on their maze to clear her mind for a bit. She took careful strides outside as to not wake anyone up because she thought everyone was already sleeping.

But alas, a certain guest was still rhapsodic that he too can't fall asleep. The room was pitch black and he had no intention of lighting it up. No one knows he's there except Hou Guanyu who gave him a key to his new wife's room.

He was watching outside the window with a whiskey on his hands when a certain noise outside the room caught his attention. It was like someone was sneaking out and it sparked his attention. He placed down his whiskey and opened the door very carefully.

A smile escaped his lips as a woman in red robe slowly descended from the stairs. She was watching her steps that she didn't even notice someone was watching her with a big smile on his face. But as she walked outside the house, the man's smile slowly turned to a frown.

'This woman' he thought as he walked back inside the room and took out a thicker coat from her room...their room. He followed her outside and was like a ninja as no one saw how he was stalking her.

Wei Yan was oblivious of her husband's stalking as her mind was filled with nothing but her family's messy situation. She walked inside the maze with her mind wandering like crazy.

She wants to take the kids out of her father's territory but she can already predict he would never allow such a thing. He might be showing them too little of his attention but he still has his sense of responsibility. He gives them their needs and a home, provides them of the education they need, and even secure their protection. So she can't simply take them away from him without valid reasons.

Hou Guanyu was indeed in the wrong side, she knows that. But that was because he was forced to marry someone he doesn't love and when the time came when he was beginning to love her, his first love came back. On this matter she's still quite unhappy with the ending. She always says she's okay because it made both of them free. But in truth, things could have better if only they tried harder to fix it, if her father decided to understand her mother more and if he just didn't give up their marriage.

Without her knowing she reached the middle of the maze. She wasn't sure how she arrived, she just did and of course she didn't want to leave. After spotting a bench, Wei Yan decided to stay and take a seat. The air was already cold but she didn't mind it at all as she was already engulfed by her thoughts again.

Gosh what is going to do with her father. The more she thinks of it, the more she's beginning to turn quite bitter towards him. Just because he has a new family doesn't mean her siblings should be casted away like throw away things. Its unfair. Somehow its unfair.

Because in the first place, they are Hou Guanyu's flesh and blood. Even if none of them knows who their mother is, they are still Hou Guanyu's children. They are his product.

"Thinking in this cold weather won't solve your problems, it only gives you more problems to solve" a deep cold voice said out of the blue which startled Wei Yan.

She was so frightened she even fell on the bench, her b.u.t.t making contact with the cold gra.s.s first. What the h.e.l.l was that!

"You okay?" the voice asked once more. She looked around in terror and alert. She was sure she came in alone.

What's going on! There was no one. She can see no one at all!

"Before you go crazy thinking of something odd, wear this coat first"

A thick coat that seems too familiar to her flew out of nowhere. She remained frozen as she went crazy looking around for the source of the voice. Dear lord, she's to young for death to come visiting her!

She wanted to talk, to ask, to know, but she was tongue tied out of fright. She was going somehow crazy because she wanted to run but its a maze! She also doesn't know if its a killer or an alien! What was she to do?!

Ji Li Zhao who was watching from a very small hole on the bushes can't stop but smile at his silly woman. Not wanting to sent her into a more panic state, he decided to speak up again, this time extraordinarily gentle with his tone. "I don't want my wife to get sick"

Wei Yan was stupefied! His wife?! Then, it must be her husband! She turned around once more for the voice. Its her husband! Dear lord, its actually her mystery husband!