Weeks turned into months, and the once-magnificent Emperor Lee Chang Hao became a ghost haunting his own palace. His clothes hung loosely on his gaunt frame, his dark hair grown long and unkempt. Servants reported finding him staring blankly at Bella's old paintings or sleeping fitfully in her former chambers.
Cheng, meanwhile, reveled in her newfound authority. She chaired council meetings with increasing confidence, using their daughter Princess Yumi/Tirzah as a prop to win hearts. At one session discussing border fortifications, she held the toddler on her lap while addressing generals.
"My little princess understands the importance of secure borders," she cooed sweetly, bouncing Yumi on her knee. "Don't we, darling? Tell the generals how important it is to protect mommy and daddy's kingdom."
The Emperor's private chambers had become his sanctuary of misery, where he spent hours cradling his daughter Princess Tirzah. Her small hands clutching his fingers, her innocent gurgles momentarily piercing through his grief.
"She looks so much like Bella," he murmured one afternoon, tracing the curve of Tirzah's cheek with a trembling finger. "Her eyes… she has Bella's eyes."
When Cheng entered to retrieve the child for her own purposes, she found him rocking Tirzah gently in his arms, humming a lullaby from his own childhood.
"Enough of this sentimentality," she interrupted sharply, crossing the room with purposeful strides. "You're turning our daughter into a weakling with all this coddling."
She snatched Yumi from his grasp without warning. "Do you want her growing up timid and afraid like some fragile flower? She needs strength, not pity."
Chang flinched at the abruptness of Cheng's action, his arms feeling empty without the child's warmth. "She's not fragile," he protested weakly, his voice lacking its former authority. "She deserves gentleness."
Cheng rolled her eyes dramatically while adjusting Yumi on her hip. "Gentleness won't protect her when Ichiro's rebels march on our capital. Strength will."
She began pacing the chamber with deliberate steps, rocking Yumi rhythmically to calm her fussing. "General Kenji reported another village surrendering to that rebel- four families died. Your grief is costing lives while you sit here mourning a ghost."
Her tone grew sharper as she stopped directly in front of him. "If you refuse to lead this empire effectively, at least allow me to raise our daughter properly. She shouldn't inherit your weakness."
Chang's face contorted with pain at Cheng's cruel words. He reached out instinctively toward his daughter, but Cheng shifted her weight away from his grasping hands.
"No," she said firmly, turning her back to him and walking toward the door. "You've had your time with her for today. She needs proper care, not melancholic stories about a woman who's gone."
Yumi began crying louder as she sensed the tension between her parents, her tiny fists waving in protest.
"I'm taking her to my chambers where she can sleep peacefully without your sad memories disturbing her," Cheng announced over the baby's cries. "Get some rest yourself - you look like hell."
Without waiting for a response, she exited the chambers with purposeful strides, leaving Chang alone amidst the echoes of his own despair and the fading sounds of his daughter's protests.