Of Soil And Sovereign

Shirong bowed to his grandmother, and she permitted him to rise. After the greeting, she asked him to hurry with his reason for visiting as she was tired and wanted to take a nap.

The last time he was here, he came to plead with his grandmother to see his sister as she kept crying all day and insisted on meeting her. When he told his grandmother to see her, she asked why would she.

He explained to her that his sisters had grown up beside her and she should not be punished for his father's and grandfather's mistakes.

What she responded to hit him hard and kept him awake for days. It also made so much sense and kept him from returning to beg for her to see his sister again.

She told him that if Mei and Mingde were punished for their father's crime, they would be, too.

From that day onwards, his grandmother did not see anyone and just locked her courtyard. Her coldness hurt him, but he could understand why she was acting the way she was.

He told her that Su Rui invited him to dinner, and when he went to the residence where he saw Mingde and Mei, they were back in the capital and owned the residence.

Looking at his grandmother, she had disbelief in her eyes, and she asked him to repeat it, and he did.

Looking up, he could see tears in her eyes, and she sobbed. He felt awful because his grandfather's stubbornness made his grandmother cut off contact with all her grandchildren.

Madam Fang could not believe what she was hearing it had been two years of horror for her and she felt very useless she could not assist her grandchildren to be honest people usually said the prime minister was rigid and followed the rules but she knew he was nothing more of a coward he just did not want to be caught up in any scandal.

Two years of heartbreak passed since they locked her in her chamber; the old man replaced all her maids except her dowry maid, so she made the hard decision to cut everyone off.

She had thought of everything and every way possible. She even thought of asking for a divorce, but she knew the old man would rather kill her and himself than grant her that.

Someone intercepted every letter she sent to her maiden family, and she decided that if she couldn't help her grandchildren, she would rather rot in her chambers than do anything; the grandchildren in Fang's family would also suffer too.

Her beloved daughter Fang Shui was a clever girl who never disobeyed any orders she was brighter than her two sons and was far suited for politics than her sons, in her teenage years she burnt hundreds of poems of hers criticising the royals, former emperor and his entire cabinet but despite all that, she has shown none disobedience to her father who chose her partner the Li family son.

She died young, giving birth, and she has never healed from that. Even her good son-in-law turned into someone she did not recognise after the death of his wife. It was like he lost his will to leave, but a few years later, his compound was full of concubines, and he turned into a very greedy man.

But since her husband was the one who chose a husband for her daughter, why should her grandchildren pay for something that was not their fault? If anyone was at fault, it was her husband as it was his choice to get his daughter married to that man.

Madam Fang regained her senses, asking the dowry maid to take her to her chamber so she could dress and asked Shirong to prepare a carriage as she planned to see her grandchildren.

Shirong readied a carriage and waited for his grandmother at the gate. After a while of not seeing her, he went and found her being prevented from leaving by some servants, and that enraged him. Although his grandfather gave the order she was the Madam of the Fang family, and he would not let her be disrespected. He will take her to Li's family estate today and will deal with whatever the outcome is later.

He ordered the servants to get their hands off her and went by her side, held her hand, and led her out of the gate into the carriage. After she and her maid entered the carriage, he joined them as he wanted to make sure they got there safely. Once he was in, the carriage started moving smoothly.

After some time passed, the carriage stopped, indicating that they had reached, and he alighted, standing at the foot of the carriage and gently helped his grandmother and her maid down.

He could see that her grandmother was very nervous because of her demeanour, and he had never seen her like this before. With him holding her hand, he reached the gate and asked the guards at the front gate to inform the Master and the Mistress of the house that their grandmother was here to see them.

Mei and Mingde had finished lunch and were playing a board game in the tree shed when the steward arrived telling them that an older woman claiming to be their grandmother was at the gate asking to see them.

They looked at each other in silence, but both knew what the other was thinking. They were wondering how to treat her, and Mei was the first to break the silence and told her brother since she was an elder, they should welcome them even though they wanted nothing to do with the Fang family.

Agreeing, they left with the steward to go see their guest, and Mingde remembered how he loved his grandmother as she was warm, and whenever he saw her previously, she would always remove something from her sleeve, be it snacks or coins or even jewellery and give them both as a gift. 

Her hugs were warm; he had never seen his mother, The only thing he could equate to his mother's love was his grandmother's hugs.

When they were banished, they waited and waited for her until disappointment struck, and they realized she would never rescue them.