4 THE CROWN PRINCE PART II

Forbidden Area

I am not used to the etiquettes but my father had brought home a teacher to teach me etiquettes and I had to master it in only a week because the teacher was a Court Lady and only granted a week leave just to teach me the 'Palace Hundreds Etiquettes' rule book. I was lucky to have a good memory and had learned everything in such a short amount of time.

The last selection process will take place in another three days so we were asked to rest before the event. We were staying at the Guest Residence which was near the South Gate.

I heard from the court ladies that there was a beautiful flower field behind the South Gate but the gate was not used anymore and had been locked since years ago.

When everyone went to the Tea Hall to see the Tea Making Ceremony, I told them I had a stomachache and I wanted to sleep in my room.

I slipped out from the Guest Residence's backdoor and a few steps later I arrived in front of the South Gate.

The gate was covered with bellflowers and green plants that made the gate looked beautiful. It's like a gate to a secret garden.

"I wonder if the plants creep from outside," I looked around the gate to find a way to get to the flower field, however since the wall was also covered with the plants, I'm doubtful of any doors at all.

As when I was about to give up, I saw the plants moved as if it blown by the wind but I couldn't feel the wind blew at all. I examined the walls and touched it. As I thought I was going to touch a wall, I stumbled forward and dropped to the ground.

"Ouch!" I was lucky as instead of the hard ground, I landed on a flower bed. I stood up and looked in front of me – thousand flowers greeted me with their colours and as the wind blew, I could smell their scents.

"It's true!" I exclaimed. "The flower field is real and it's beautiful."

The flower field was so large that I thought it could have covered half of the Palace, I wondered why no one was there.

I took a stroll around and appreciated the flowers; there were few flowers that I knew and few others I thought I needed to learn about their existence.

In the middle of the field, I saw a dead tree. My curiousity piqued so I decided to look closer at the tree.

As I was getting closer, I saw a person sat while leaning against the tree, eyes closed. This view was so beautiful that I didn't realise the two eyes had opened and were staring at me.

"Who are you?" The person asked.

I didn't know how to answer the question, so I just told him what I was doing. "I'm looking at flowers."

The person stood up and brushed his clothes off the dead leaves. Based on his silk clothes, I assumed he was a noble.

"You shouldn't be here, it's a forbidden area," he said.

"What about you?" I asked since a forbidden area should have no entry.

"Good question. I'm the owner of this field," he said with a smile.

He was so beautiful that my face reddened when I saw his smile. "You have a nice flower field. I'm sorry for my intrusion, I shall take my leave," I nodded at him.

"Stay," he said. "It's okay, take your time but don't let anyone else in here," he said then he left.

I looked around for awhile but the wind gotten chilly so I decided to go back to the Guest Residence.