Empress Of The Lost Kingdom

"Princess, is he is the friend whom you have mentioned yesterday?" 

Liang glanced at Li Juan with a surprise.

"She mentioned about him?"

"Are you the one who gave her the ring?" Bai Yu repeated his question.

"No, he is my friend and my doctor." Li Juan said with an annoyed face. Why is her cousin is extra nosy today? 

"I thought princess was a nerd, it seems like you know how to socialize." Bai Yu commented with a mocking tone. "You are even friends with a doctor?"

"Bai Yu, save your questions for some other time. You must not tire the guest." Bai Qi warned him. 

"He is the princess's first cousin, Bai Yu." Bai Qi introduced his grandson.

Liang smiled and shook hands with him.

"Princess, here you are, I was looking you all over the place." Wu Xuan Yi came looking for Li Juan. "The prayer ceremony will start now,"

Li Juan turned and glanced at Liang.

" I will be okay," He assured her with a smile.

Li Juan smiled and left with Wu Xuan Yi.

Within fifteen minutes the prayer ceremony started in the ancestral hall in the Yu Palace. In the alter various ancestral tablets were arranged according to the seniority. At the end of the long line of memorial tablets, Li Juan saw her parent's names as a new addition.

Bai Ze and Li Qin.

Finally Bai family accepted Li Qin as their daughter in law.

"If they would've accepted her while she was alive, how different would have been their lives?" Li Juan's eyes turned misty.

She kneeled and bowed thrice before the altar and burned the incense sticks for the ancestors as well as for her parents.

Everyone in the hall followed the same gestures and gave their offerings and prayers to the ancestors. After the prayer ceremony, there was a memorial meal served with various delicacies and wine.

Even after the ceremony was finished, Li Juan was busy meeting with the guests who are from the Yu clan. Everyone was amazed to see that they have a princess.

While Li Juan was busy chatting with her relatives Liang was patiently waiting for her. He was indeed treated specially by the Bai family since he is Li Juan's friend. Even Li Juan's cousins came and sat with him so that he won't feel left out.

Liang's eyes were on Bai Ling who was sitting with the twins. His eyes were filled with unknown happiness whenever he saw the high schooler who is playing on his mobile phone without paying any attention to his surroundings.

"He is our little cousin, Bai Ling." Bai Yu informed Liang. He has noticed it earlier that Liang was scanning Bai Ling. Since Bai Ling had feminine features and looked like a pretty flower boy, he indeed gets advances from women as well as men. He wasn't surprised when this dashing, prince charming started checking out his little cousin. Instead of feeling agitated, Bai Yu was calmer.

"It means that this guy doesn't have a romantic relationship with the princess."

"He resembles Li Juan," Liang commented.

"Yes, we get that a lot, since we follow endogamy, most of us look like our ancestors or parents. " Bai Yu explained.

"The Princess, Bai Ling and my third cousin can be treated as siblings since they took after our great grandmother. Whereas I resemble my great-grand Father. The Twins and Bai Long resemble their maternal grandfathers." 

"It is truly amazing that you guys take after your ancestors, it is almost like a reincarnation," Liang said with bewildered eyes.

"I agree with that, but I hate the fact that there is no individuality among us." Bai Yu shared his viewpoint.

"You must have really happy to meet your friend," Bai Yu changed the topic. "She even rushed to hug you in front of everyone?" He tried his luck on getting the truth behind their relationship.

Even Liang had a similar doubt. He never expected that Li Juan will be happy to meet him, that she ran into his arms.

"I was really happy to meet him." Li Juan who walked towards them answered.

"You must be princess's friend, I am Wu Xuan Yi, her second aunt." Wu Xuan Yi introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you," Liang said with a smile.

"I heard that you are a doctor, I am just curious, how did you become friends with, Princess?" Wu Xuan Yi asked him.

Oh no! Li Juan looked at Liang in disbelief, both of them exchanged looks without panicking.

How can they say that they met when Li Juan had an accident and he helped her with it?

"Not a while ago, we just met through a common friend," Liang said.

"He is lying. He knows me from school days itself". Li Juan corrected him.

"Oh, you knew her from childhood? How was she?" Lin Li-Hui and others joined into their conversation when they heard Li Juan mentioning about her childhood.

"She was the topper of her school. Highly studious," Liang said with a proud face. 

" Oh really, I thought she studies some stupid course because of her low grades" Bai Yu commented with a jealous expression.

Liang looked at him baffled and turned to Li Juan. 

"You didn't tell them, did you?"

"WHAT???" Everyone was curious.

"No, don't" Li Juan tried to stop him.

"She is known as the Ace of the archaeological department," Liang said with a smile.

"Oh princess, you must be really popular."

"She is the university rank holder."Liang continued. "Even students from other universities used to have a crush on her. If you visit her in lunchtime, you can see the queue of men chasing her. "

"He is lying again." Li Juan refused his claim with a smirk. "He was the one who is chased by girls. We went out for one day and he was crowded with girls."

Li Juan remembered the day when she went out with Liang for breakfast. Wherever they went everyone was  oogling at Liang. Some of the girls even came to Li Juan and asked whether they are a couple. 

While Liang was chatting with Li Juan's family, Bai Qi and his eldest son were having a conversation over her in his study room. They were discussing about Li Juan.

"What did you find Huang? Bai Qi asked the man in suits.

"There aren't any suspicious activities with Princess, boss. She used to be a front runner in studies and her record is clean. 

However, she used to have a troubled childhood." 

Bai Zhu has informed his father about Li Juan's misfortune. He was heartbroken when he got to that Li Juan survived hell lot of things. Only if he decided to accept Bai Ze and his decision, Li Juan wouldn't have gone through any of these adversities. 

"What about the bullet wound found on her body?" Bai Zhu asked in concern.

"Dr Su mentioned that the wound is comparatively new, so I checked her schedules for the last six months. We didn't find anything suspicious. She only went to the university and her part-time job." Huang stopped for a moment.

"During the new year, she went to Xi city and stayed there for a week. But the mysterious thing about the bullet wound is that, there is no medical record of her treatment in any of the hospitals in Jing city or in Xi city. So it must have been done illegally. "

"Are you implying that she got related to some- Bai Qi didn't want to complete his question. 

"Back in school, everyone used to bully her and it is true that she used to fight with others to defend herself. But after her accident, she became more silent and dejected." Huang said with a straight face. 

"I still don't understand. She used to live as a commoner. It is impossible for her to have enemies who wished to end her life." Bai Zhu shared his doubts.

"There is someone behind all these things; I am 100 per cent sure about that." Bai Qi said in denial.

"We don't have any evidences, so we can only have wild guesses," Huang stated.

"What about her relationship with others?" Suddenly Bai Zhu asked as if he remembered something.

"She doesn't have a lot of friends. But her relationships with men are quite complicated." Huang reported without sugar-coating anything.

Bai Qi looked at him in disbelief.

"Her classmates used to ostracise her during the school days because of her skin colour. The Only friend she had in school was a girl from the Tang family in Jing City. 

And it was rumoured that young master Tang used to like a princess. That boy went abroad to study and Princess got into an accident when she went to the airport to send him off. Huang reported.

While she was in S city, she used to be really close to the intern doctors who treated her, when she was suffering from memory loss. 

In university, quite a lot of people fancy her, but she is in an ambiguous relationship with one of her colleagues."

"I really admire the fact that princess doesn't care about a single rumour. She is too carefree." Bai Zhu couldn't help but point out.

"What about the man Zhang Zi Zhong has mentioned, that boyfriend of hers?' Bai Zhu asked. "Is she currently in a relationship with him?"

"He is the young master of the Tang family- her friend's brother. He is one who is funding her research. It seems like they had a really close relationship that princess even came to Xi city with him and stayed with him in his private villa."

"Hmm, it seems like they are really close." Bai Zhu said in disdain.

"But he is engaged with another woman and even after the engagement he used to visit her often."Huang hesitantly reported.

"She is having an affair with an engaged man?" Bai Zhu's eyes flared in anger and disbelief.

"It seems like that." 

"But Zhang Zi Zhong said that it is already over between them." Bai Qi mentioned what he heard from Zhang Zi Zhong. 

"I don't know about the details. However during that time her disease relapsed. She ignored it went and for an expedition which is the part of her research. But she got disqualified due to her medical conditions and suggested to go back. 

She was about to return to Jing city when Mr.Zhang invited her to his house for dinner. When her boyfriend found out that she left the research team, he came looking for her and created a ruckus. It's true that he used violence to lock her in Mr.Zhang's house in order to prevent her from returning to Jing city." Huang explained every information he gathered about Li Juan.

"Indeed her love life is complicated." Bai Qi sighed.

"Like Bai Yu said, how are we going to deal with Jun and young master Guan. Do you think that they will agree to choose a girl like her? 

Did we make a mistake father?" Bai Zhu was in confusion. "How can we coronate a person like her as the queen?"

"About her marriage, it is her life, so let's don't interfere in it and about the coronation," Bai Qi hesitated.

"We cannot neglect that fact that she is the only girl in the Bai family line."

"But how can we coronate a woman with such a-" Bai Zhu got interrupted by his father.

"Even though I don't doubt your resources, I don't believe everything you just said. After all, that information was from a third person, I hope the princess will have something to say about it." Bai Qi said to them.

"There are two sides for a coin, we must give her a chance to say the truth." Bai Qi stopped for a moment.

" What about the man who came today?

" His relationship with the princess is the one which worries me the most." Huang dramatically paused his words and looked at Bai Qi's eyes.

" Nobody knew where he is from and how he became friends with the princess." 

"He keeps a low-key profile that even his name " Dai Liang" is fake.