My first book was in an exercise book. I would cut out magazine pictures and paste them on a book to make my cast.

My classmates would be the ones to read my books and they loved them. I remember having a deskmate who would do all my notes so that I would rather finish the story I had started. She just couldn't wait to find out what is next.

Fast forward to university. Before moving out of the university residence, I shared my dorm with a girl who threatened to kill me while I sleep if I dare kill Yuwen Hong or Li Lian. Lolol

I'm forever grateful for the people who supported and loved my work to be where I am now.

PS: I can't believe it! Just +/-20 chapters left. Ahh! It makes me want to cry. The experience I got writing His Majesty And I has been the best. I love this book so much. It is my baby because this is where I fell for the ML and FL so hard. Just one more book, how will I part from them? There is none that can be like these two. And Grand Consort Shu, who can be like her? Dao, Luo Meng... All of them are the most authentic characters (to me) I can only find in my mind.

Chapter 61

Imperial Concubine Wei
Wei Li Lian

Li Lian stumbled out of the wagon and waited for the tattooed man to cut off her ties. She was calmer than expected.

"You are the most beautiful so we will have you first." Tattooed man winked and closed the door with Consort Wang inside, not bothering to lock it.

Li Lian plodded behind him, looking at the men that stared at her like she was the next meal―well she was. They were about ten of them, not as much as she imagined. Few of them sat under the tree, enjoying the shade and a game they had constructed for themselves.

Others were hanging around toward the cliff, dressing up beside the bodies of the concubines that lay recklessly on the ground.

Li Lian did not shake or react when she saw the head of the familiar concubine separated from the rest of her body. She was a bloody mess, yet not to the extent Concubine Pi was.

Concubine Pi had many knives punctured onto her body, and a row of them led to her belly from her thighs. She was naked and neglected like a sacrificed voodoo doll with a circle of five knives on her belly.

Li Lian shivered and almost fainted. The site was awful, blood-drenched horror she was sure she would never forget. It was a massacre.

When the fingers of Concubine Pi twitched and a groan came from her, Li Lian's knees weakened. She was repelled by the bile rising within.

Li Lian blinked her tears as she looked at the tattooed man to escape the nightmare she was seeing.

The man gave her a questioning look when she kept glaring at him, but she naturally simpered with her best smile. "I like the work you did with those two wantons."

His eyebrows lifted, even more surprised.

"I really hated them. I hate Nevoria, it is the worst nation ever. They think they are better than everyone."

He laughed and scratched his stomach as his head fell back in bliss. "I thought you were a harem woman. We found you in the palace."

"Me? Why would I want to be in that place? I am proudly Furian, but that horrible emperor had me as his slave. That's why I was in that awful palace. It was disgusting because I was only there for his pleasure."

"Yes, I got her from Baho, who found her in the emperor's palace." A short young man who seemed to be her age walked over and took out a bottle of water that was on the sack hung on the horse.

"Good afternoon, Young Master." Li Lian bit her lips and tried to brush her hair, though her hands were still tied.

The young man laughed. "You are surely naughty for a woman who looks innocent."

"I get paid to look like this. It is my work."

"We don't want courtesans. We want the emperor's women." The tattooed man grumbled and went to join the men under the tree.

"Leave him, beautiful lady." The young man's eyes twinkled. "I like women like you, rather." He took her by her ties and pulled her, taking her away from the crowd.

"Where are you going? We want her too!" A man under the tree shouted.

The tattooed monster said something about her being wanton, while someone said, nevertheless, he wanted her. They seemed to discuss between themselves before the tattooed man shouted to the young man that he should bring her back to be shared.

Someone added on to remind them that she should die too in the end. She was found in the palace and no one should survive.

"Goodlooking Master, can I relieve myself first before I perform for you all? I do not want to fail the job I take very seriously."

He sized her again, drinking her in and his mind ravenous with forbidden images.

"I am taking her to the bush!" He shouted at them.

"Don't have her alone! The plunder is for everyone to share."

"You dirty pig!"

The young man laughed. "You are horse dung, yourself!"

He then pulled her away, a few feet more before they entered the forest. Li Lian kept eyeing the sword that was on his back, how could she get it?

And afterward, would she run for her life or go back for Consort Wang?

They neared a bush in which she pulled down her underwear and squatted after he cut her hand ties. She truthfully did need to relieve herself before dealing with the situation.

"Young Master, you are the most handsome man I have ever seen."

Warm urine trickled on the ground, some splashing on her feet. At this place, being a lady that was neat and refined, who would care?

"Young Miss, I am also captivated by you." He shyly rubbed the back of his neck, tint on his cheeks.

She teeheed. "Have you been kissed by a woman before?"

"Never. You can be my first."

"Hao, I can teach you."

He checked on the rest of his men.

"I will keep it a secret." She pulled up her underwear as she rose. "It is easy to kiss."

"I would like that."

"Good." Her heart accelerated. "We first close our eyes."

"All right." He pecked his lips and closed his eyes.

Snap!

She knocked him out by ramming his neck, immobilising him, and down he fell on the ground. She did not waste any time seizing the sword on his back, sliding it out of its case.

Concubine Pi.

She had to save Concubine Pi. Maybe her blood could do something for her. She would drain all of herself if she had to. The royal heir was inside of her. Concubine Pi was pregnant and a fellow woman suffering.

Li Lian meandered, running back on the longer track through the forest. She skipped from tree to tree, camouflaging herself. They would not expect her to come from the other side of the cliff. 

Li Lian spotted two of the men carrying the corpse of the concubine. One had the head while the other took the body, then they threw her over the cliff.

"Look at that, Nevoria! We are doing what you did to our wives and children!"

The men under the shade growled, cheering on and shouting profanities against Nevoria. They raised their swords in triumph.

That was discouraging, they were all armed. Li Lian tightened her hand around the sword. Yuwen Hong once commented on her lack of horned skills when it came to fighting.

She could hold her own, but her skills were rusty as she barely used them since entering the palace. They were there for convenience, like earlier, but not for fighting that whole crowd.

Li Lian sighed as she looked into the sky for help. May the heavens tell her what she should do.

Should she run away?

Surprisingly, the craziest thing ever, she found a man. That had her frozen on the spot.

A man sat on the tree's branch with his legs crossed and a black cloak on. It was a similar cloak to the one Yuwen Hong wore when they met for the return of her pendant.

But this man she had never seen before. How could she forget such a strikingly handsome man if she had met him?

He looked to be around forty summers in age and notably, his looks were foreign. Not of the kind of Gurio but definitely the kind of the Qi clan.

Li Lian had seen the brother of Noble Consort Qi. He was refined and had comparable looks to this man. But not just him, the tree man was quite familiar to something else too. What was it?

Could it be...

Yes, that was it.

Li Lian could piece it now.

The Qi clan had many Furians and that is what the man looked like, a Furian. He was raw and the replica of the Furians that Li Lian saw on the paintings at the library.

Li Lian shook her head to escape her reverie, realising he had noticed she was staring.

He smiled at her, relaxing a bit more against the tree as he crossed his hands. Li Lian looked up the tree trunk that had no branches or a rough trunk that could be used to get to the highest height he was at.

How did he get there?

The stranger nodded at her, his thin lips smirking. He had amber orbes like hers and his nose was arched perfectly like hers.

The more she knew more of these Furians, the more she was convinced she was one of them.

Li Lian played with the sword in her hand nervously and looked up again. Maybe she could ask the man for help. He didn't seem to be one of the Gurians.

However, when she looked up again the man tilted his head towards the group of men.

She hesitated, not understanding.

Again, he tilted his head to them, and there and then she got it. He was telling her to go and get them.

His aura was warm and magnetic, it was as if she had met him before and they knew each other. No person had she met and felt as if she must trust them instantaneously like this man.

Moreover, what was in his eyes intrigued her the most. No one had given her those eyes before.

The eyes that said, "I believe in you. You can do it."

S.V