Chapter 17

Second Class Female Attendant Wei
Lady Wei Li Lian
Hougong

Li Lian agreed with the Grand Dowager Empress for ranking her lowly. If she got ranked any higher than a concubine, it could make Yuwen Hong speak against the decree.

So far he was quiet and there was no reaction from his side.

Li Lian inspected her allocated quarters in Hougong later that day, after leaving the Rose Flower palace. Her quarters were small, only consisting of a make-do welcoming room and bedchamber. The decorations were hideous, she was going to replace them with her own. She would sow her own zabuton covers, fabric paintings and bed covers.

The Grand Dowager's court lady was showing her around. Li Lian wished the court lady and her attendants left as soon as possible. The second Grand Consort Shu heard the news of her arrival in Hougong, she would visit. Li Lian did not want confrontation with her mistress on why the Grand Dowager Empress's retinue was with her.

Speaking of the dragon's mother, Li Lian could have gone to Grand Consort Shu for help and her mistress would have managed to convince her son to revoke the decree sentencing Li Lian to exile. However, in the long run that wouldn't be beneficial. To be empress, Li Lian needed more than Grand Consort Shu by her side.

The Grand Dowager was prideful so Li Lian saw it wise to appeal to her when she seemed desperate. It made the woman feel she had the upper hand and Li Lian needed her.

Grand Dowager Empress lived in failure all her life, her only achievement in becoming empress. Her clan was next to nothing, no woman in the harem was from her clan and she had no other son than the fallen dragon. The old woman sought a basket to lay her eggs because of old age and her need to retire.

Li Lian would be loyal to her for now but when she was powerful enough, she was not sure they would still stick together if the old woman opposed her and her Huticah.

"His Majesty arrives!" someone shouted from outside but before they could finish, Yuwen Hong broke in.

He was in his full morning court robes, black and red, which defined his mood; his black slithering death wish and red magmatic anger.

Yuwen Hong strode to the cabinet with vases of flowers on top.

Crash!

He hurled the vases to the floor which rattled into cracked clay. The paintings were stripped off the walls, then torn into pieces. He kicked the zabuton cushions and strew them all over the room. The table was banged to the wall, plummeting. Everyone within the welcoming room scurried out for their lives.

"Have you gone insane?" She went to him.

At her approach, he violently took her hand and swung her against the wall, her back slamming the concrete. "What is it that you want from me?!" he growled.

'Breathe, breathe, breathe. He wants you to react so that he can have an excuse to hurt you.'

"Greetings to His Majesty." Li Lian calmly acknowledged his presence, swallowing back how shaken she was after being banged on the wall. The ache crippled her back momentarily.

He swore and snarled. "What do you want? Just because I am letting you live, you think you are above my authority?"

She shook her head and gave him a helpless adorable look. She was a copy of a cat with glistening eyes at the mercy of a dog with a temper. Yuwen Hong loved control. Let him know quietly that he has the control and you would be the rat that escaped the cat. "I want us to sit like adults and talk."

"Talk?" he sneered, reigning in fury. "What is there to talk about?"

"Everything. Firstly, we could address why you lied about your name. You are not Luo Meng."

"And you aren't Elora."

"It is my name."

"Then that proves my point that you are not from Nevoria. You don't even look to be from here," he accused.

"I am the illegitimate daughter of the Wei clan. My mother gave me the name Elora. I was raised in the Borderlands, where we met. I couldn't tell you this before because those are unspoken words in my clan."

That was the story that she was told to give if he asked why she didn't look to be from Nevoria. It was convincing in her mind but he wasn't buying it.

"See?" He regarded her contemptuously, disbelief in his gaze. "This is why we can't talk. Before we have begun you have started with your lies."

"But my emerging feelings for you are not lies, Yu'er. I earnestly have begun to like you." She attempted to push him away. He was overcrowding her, and standing in that position with him felt unsafe. The last time they were like that in his mood, she almost died. Because he choked her.

"How can they be emerging feelings? You liked me already at the Borderlands, or was that a lie too?"

"I liked Luo Meng. Not Bai Shen Hong. Luo Meng was kind, nice, soft and respectful of me."

"We are the same person."

"You and him are completely different. You couldn't expect me to be alright with this personality change and lay myself down for you instantly."

Yuwen Hong stepped from her and gave her his back. From past observation, when he did that, it was because she had hit emotions he did not wish to expose.

"Hao. What if you like me now as Bai Shen Hong? You think I will change things just because you decided to like my beastly self?"

"What? No. I'm not condemning you, Yu'er. Luo Meng or Bai Shen Hong, I like all of you―"

"Stop making things complicated. I have no desire to pursue you anymore, anyway. Your sight disgusts me."

She knew what he was doing. He wanted to make her angry so that they would scream at the other like kids. Yuwen Hong liked that because he was the master of anger: throwing things, bashing, yelling and saying hurtful words.

"So much for your confessions of love. Yu'er, love stands the storm of time. It is relentless. It is patient. It does not oppress." She was quoting her favourite book. Hopefully, what they had would stand unlike the characters in the book that disappointed her by separating. "If you loved me as you claimed, what happened to that love? It died so fast I question whether what you felt was love in the first place. You hate me so much you bit me. What is that?"

He scoffed. "I did not stab you to have you near dead."

"It was a mistake! You don't have to slap me with that in every opportunity you get. I truly am apologetic about it." She circled him to be at his front. Li Lian took his cheek, grazing it softly. "I have no intentions behind being your woman beside the feelings I have developed for you."

He shook his head and pulled down her hand from his face. "You are a spider laying your cobwebs to trap me. Try something else because I'm not stupid."

"Yuwen Hong, please... "

"What do you want from me?"

"What I want from you is to give us a chance."

He frowned, surprised that it was what she requested. He half-expected her to ask for a title. Still, he said, "Never." He shoved her off his way. "I will make your life here regrettable, you will wish you never knelt before the Grand Dowager to be my woman."

"I'm ready for whatever you have in your nest. Show me your eggs."

His knuckles folded, hands fisting. "Fanny," he muttered under his breath and marched out just as fast he came in.

Aiya. Couldn't she like someone else? Why did she have to like a deranged person like him?

She heard screams and protests outside. Lifting up her skirts, she raced and was met with a crowd of palace guards running around her quarters with what smelled like paraffin. It was pungent in the air, evidence of its properties.

"What is going on?" She tried to understand the chaos.

Yuwen Hong was giving instructions to the leader of the palace guards.

She darted to him. "Yuwen Hong, what is this?" Li Lian grabbed his hand to get his attention.

Yuwen Hong smirked, pulling his hand out of her grasp. "You think you are immune and I can't kill you. Right? Well, I'm proving you wrong."

She shouldn't have provoked him. Whatever he wanted to do was his ego trying to prove a point.

He redirected his attention to the palace guard. "I want you to throw her inside, lock the door and burn this place. She wants to be my woman, let her die royally as my woman in Hougong."

What? He was crazy, deranged and mad!

"If Li Lian is burning then I will burn with her." Grand Consort Shu entered the premises. They had also gained other concubines' attention as the harem women peeked by the gate.

"Muqin! Don't interrupt. This has nothing to do with you."

"She is my maid, Yu'er."

"Now my woman. I will deal with her accordingly."

Alright. Yuwen Hong was right. Li Lian regretted asking the Grand Dowager Empress for help already. She should have let them lock her up till he calmed down and forgave her.

"If you respect me as Muqin. You will let her go."

"Oho." A vein was imprinted on his neck as he spoke. "Are you threatening me?"

"Yu'er, Muqin is in a bad space, therefore forced to."

Yuwen Hong whipped a sword and Li Lian gasped when it pointed at her. He was furious that he panted for breath. "Li Lian. You have been warned." He coldly assessed her shaking body. "You are my woman, I am the dragon. You obey, I rule you. I lead, you submit." The blade whooshed the air and missed her patched neck by an inch as he sheathed it back into its pocket.

Her journey in the palace had just started. And things were not looking up. Long were the days ahead.

Author's Note

All credits to Ei_Daisuki for the fan-made covers to both books in this series. Thank you! I love and  appreciate them so much.

S.V