For the next week, Luqi continued to be summoned to the royal bed chamber, and Li Wan continued to feel more at ease in her presence.
...
One night, when the royal bed of His Majesty was as comfortable as ever.
"What do you do when you're not accompanying me?" It was the typical question he had been asking. Every time he did, he wondered what her answer would be.
Luqi pondered for a moment. "I live my own life."
"Your own life?"
"Yes, it's a private matter," she glided through the words, "that's something for me to know and Your Majesty to wonder."
His tone was visibly annoyed. "Doesn't that mean you have something to hide, Luqi?"
"I'd rather keep my time with me private. It's more special."
"You really like 'special.'"
"That's how things matter in a meaningless world." Luqi let out a soft chuckle as she gazed at him with a pair of relaxed eyes. "What's there to care about, if not things that are special to us?"
"So you are really not answering." Li Wan repeated his question. Eyes closed, he hugged the small figure tightly.
"Answer what?" she whispered, head laid on his muscular arm, feeling the warmth of his embrace outspreading through her body. His masculine scent was peaceful.
"What do you do when you're not with me."
"It's nothing special. I don't do much, Your Majesty."
"Hmm..." he pondered. "Then why don't you come with me to the imperial palace?"
"When you are working?"
"Mm." The emperor nodded.
"No way." She decided without even considering. "Why do you even want me there?"
"I want your company." He pulled her in closer. "You don't have to do anything, just sit there."
"Absolutely not."
"Why?"
"All the courtiers and generals are there, and you are working as well. The atmosphere would suffocate me."
Just envisioning the scene and contrasting it to Luqi's daily uneventful life made her sick.
"Didn't you say I am your comfort?" He used her words against her. "Is Your Majesty not reassuring enough for you?"
"I can't act as I please in the imperial palace, Your Majesty. I'd be a plastic doll." Her tone was slightly whiny. "You won't enjoy it."
Luqi was right. She wouldn't be able to just slouch or laze around. She would be expected to address the emperor respectfully and speak with utmost elegance.
He sighed. "Then join me for lunch." He suggested another idea.
"Mmmm," she grumbled, though that did sound better.
"Or do you want me to go to your chamber?"
She did not even entertain the idea. "I will go to the imperial palace."
"Is there something you're hiding at your chamber?"
"No." She answered honestly. "Your Majesty is busy. Going through all that trouble, you'd burden my conscience with guilt."
"Mm..." her voice softened, barely above a whisper.
"…"
"Luqi?"
Ah. She fell asleep. The princess fell into a deep slumber. Could one sleep this easily in the presence of the supreme emperor himself?
Or had he become a joke to her now?
He couldn't be bothered by such an unserious thought any longer and soon also slipped into dreamland. Heart eased, mind freed.
...
"AHHH!" The ceramic tea cup was smashed into pieces, sharp shards scattered across the wooden floor of the mistress's chamber. "HOW DARE SHE!!" Mei Ying yelped, anger shrieking through her usual honeyed voice.
"Noble Concubine, please calm down!" The maids dropped themselves onto their knees, heads glued to the ground as they begged for their mistress to cool down.
Her outburst wasn't unexpected.
Flashback:
"Your Majesty~" Mei Ying, in the most attractive nightgown, laid herself against the emperor's body, reaching for his intimacy. "Please allow Mei Ying to make you feel good tonight~" she whispered.
"Mei Ying." He grabbed her by the wrist. His tone was not upset, but it was cold.
She knew he wanted her to stop whatever she was doing.
"Y-Your Majesty…" Her head lowered under his glare.
As the stillness enveloped them, Mei Ying ventured to suggest easing his burdens with a soothing massage, a gesture of solace in the face of his stoic demeanour.
Unexpectedly, the emperor succumbed to weariness, drifting into slumber without a word, leaving her alone at the edge of the imperial bed.
The sting of rejection lingered in the air as she grappled with the sudden rift between them.
The emperor never requested her attendance again, but rather a hall of other beauties.
She could guess His Majesty was looking for a spark with someone, or perhaps a distraction, and Mei Ying hadn't done a good job.
It was frustrating that she didn't know what she had even done wrong. His Majesty loved her ways before, and now, after that war, he had changed.
That was what she would like to believe. But something about the princess from Qi Tian... that b*tch, was bothering her.
Since the day Mei Ying had gotten the news of her spending the night at His Majesty's chamber way past serving hours, she knew something was off.
That had never happened before. It was a concubine's common sense to make haste and leave after the emperor left for duty.
"What must I do... to get His Majesty back..." She was pulling her hair. Her round eyes of innocence were now raging with greed and hatred.
She couldn't let her rank dribble out of her hand like that. For the past years, the hierarchy of the palace's maidens was in her control.
She had been at the top for as long as she could remember. She was the emperor's favourite. No way could that have changed so abruptly.
"M-Mistress, there's no way His Majesty could have forgotten you!" one of the maids, Xin Yi, exclaimed.
"But he requested other concubines for service… that is four days in a row, do you understand that?!" Her high-pitched yelping had the maids' boots shaking. "And it was with that Yin Luqi again today…" Mei Ying munched on her nails. "She is bad news, I can feel it..."