That night, Raine got ready for bed.  It was the 16th day, so she was not expecting a visit from Lui Wei.  Once she laid down to rest, a smile shined through her thoughts of that afternoon.  

After their first public display of affection, she “spontaneously”  showed him three other places where they also experienced their public display of affection. Afterwards, he hung on to her like a spoiled child, asking for love and attention.  

It was only when they came back to her courtyard, that they saw Bai Yu’s personal maid waiting for them.  With an excuse that Bai Yu had hurt herself, Lui Wei quickly left with the maid without even saying goodbye to her.  

“Ungrateful scum.”  Raine mumbled at Lui Wei’s actions.  A whole afternoon of sexual fun and pleasure and he didn’t even say goodbye.  He threw their eventful afternoon to the back of his mind like trash and ran towards that woman like her life was in danger.  “What did you expect?!? Men like him are all the same.”

Raine rolled over to her side and decided to go to sleep. She could finally rest well after all the physical activity she had that day.  Smiling at the thought of sleeping in, she fell asleep with a smile on her face.

After a couple of hours, two shadows walked in and lit a candle by the table.  After a while, one shadow left, closing the door after himself and the other blew out the candle.  The side of her bed dipped and the blanket moved so the body could lay down next to Raine.

Raine’s eyes opened the moment her door was opened.  Ever since her last life, she was a light sleeper. She could never sleep deep enough to get a good night’s sleep because she was always working.

She heard the removal of clothes before the man slept in her bed.  With her back towards the man, she closed her eyes as if she didn’t hear him come in.  

Lui Wei must of had a fight with Bai Yu.  That is why he is here. Seeing how he didn’t go anywhere else that night, it meant that she had gained a bit more favor over the rest of his women.  

Lui Wei laid still thinking about what happened between him and Bai Yu.  When he got to Bai Yu’s courtyard, everywhere he looked, was ruined. From the flowers that he had the servants plant for her, to the valuable vases, paintings, tea sets, jewelry, and clothes.  Everything was in disarray.

The flowers were pulled up from the ground and stamped on.  There were broken vases, tea sets, and jewelry. The painting and clothes were torn and some were shredded.

In the middle of all the chaos, was Bai Yu wailing loudly as she sat on the ground in the middle of the room.  Lui Wei didn’t feel like comforting her. He felt annoyed. The punishment was for her own good and yet she kept on acting out, making him lose more face.  

However, Bai Yu was the woman that he held tightly in the palm of his hand.  She was precious to him. Sighing heavily, he decided to give in to her and explain patiently that the punishment was for her own good.  

“Darling.”  Lui Wei said softly.  “What happened? Did you get hurt?”  

Lui Wei came close to her, ignoring the disaster she created and scooped her into his arms.  He brought her to the bed and checked to see where she was hurt and saw that there was a cut on her finger.  

She must of gotten cut by a vase or a tea set when she tried to pick up a broken piece and throw it.  Lui Wei frowned and placed the finger into his mouth. Bai Yu stopped wailing out loud, however her tears fell quickly and her body kept shivering.  

From the side, a maid came with some medical supplies and Lui Wei patiently cleaned her wound and wrapped it up.  The whole time, Bai Yu kept quiet and watched as the man she love took care of her.

“Leave us.”  Lui Wei ordered after he finished wrapping Bai Yu’s finger.  

Once alone, he looked over Bai Yu.  Her innocent, cute features were replaced with sadness.  

“Do you know what you did wrong?”  Lui Wei asked softly as he held onto her hands.  

Bai Yu’s head leaned forward not wanting to look at him.  

Lui Wei took his hand and lifted her head up so she could look at him, however she kept her eyes lowered, unable to meet his gaze.

“Do you know what you did wrong?” He asked again.  

Bai Yu shook her head no, stubbornly.  Her cold actions made him angry, however he knew this is how his Bai Yu acted if she felt she had been wronged.  

“When we are alone together, it is fine the way you usually act towards me.  However, when we are in public, you must act with decorum and care for your own image.  When you act like a noble lady, you are giving me face, letting others know that you are my woman.”  

“But… but  I don’t know how to act like that.  I was never taught how to.”

“I know.  But you must learn now.  Especially now that I am King.  Everyone is looking at me. Judging me.  Wanting me to fail. If they see a fault in you, it is also seeing a fault in me.  Do you understand?”

“Bai Yu understands.”  

“Now you must learn how to act like a noble lady.  You must learn about the palace rules. And this must never happen again, do you understand?”  

“Bai Yu understands.”  

“And you must never destroy your home like this again.”  Lui Wei warned. “A lady must act with grace. All these things, were things I gifted to you.  They were given with you all my love. Should you easily break them, it brings me great pain to know that you do not treasure them.”  

“I do like them.  I do treasure them!  It’s… just that… I was so mad at Queen Ame that I… I’m sorry.”

Lui Wei lightly kissed her lips and hugged her close to his body.  Her soft and warm body fitted perfectly inside of his arms.

“I know you were, but Queen Ame was in the right.  How you treated her was disrespectful. If she was malicious, she could of had you whipped or killed if she wanted to.  You cannot and must not disrespect her. She is Queen and Mother to a Nation.”

Bai Yu began to cry silently again.  She didn’t like the fact that she had to share Lui Wei with others.  Didn’t like the fact that Ame was Queen instead of her.

“You said you love me, but why didn’t you make me your Queen instead?”  

“You know why. We talked about this already.  We’re not having the same conversation again.”  

“You’re King now!  You can change who your Queen is now!”  

“Bai Yu.  You know that I cannot do that, even though I am King now.”  

“You’re a liar!  You don’t really love me!  You don’t think about me at all!”  Bai Yu shouted as she began to punch Lui Wei’s chest and escape his hold.  

Lui Wei held her tightly and let her vent her anger.  If it was up to him, of course he would have made Bai Yu his Queen, however he still does not have a hold over the government yet.  Ame’s family held too much power and has a lot of support for the contributions they made to the country and to him. Until he can reign over everyone with his own power, he was unable to dethrone Queen Ame.  

“I love you.  I love only you.  I cherish only you.”  Lui Wei said as Bai Yu cried bitter tears on his shoulder.  “If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have married you and made you my woman.”  

“But you have so many women.  I am just one of many.”

“But you are the only one I love.  The only one I cherish. The only one I favor. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t love you.”  

“But you were with Queen Ame last night.  And today you took her side.”

“You know I do not favor Queen Ame.  I was only with her last night because it is required of me to spend two nights with her out of the month.  And today, what she said was right. How you acted and broke the palace laws, you must now accept the consequences.”  

“You made me lose face in front of everyone.”  Bai Yu cried out, not giving in. “Especially in front of Queen Ame. Why did it have to be in front of her.   You say you love me, cherish me, and favor me, but why is she Queen and not me?”

Lui Wei couldn’t hold himself back any longer.  Bai Yu did not understand why she was punished. The words he said to her were like water through an open hand.  

“What is the first rule about being Queen?”  Lui Wei asked as he pulled back and stood up.  “Do you know? No! What makes you think you’re qualified to be Queen if you don’t even know the first rule to be Queen?  You don’t have the skills to be a noble woman, you don’t follow the palace rules and you don’t know what the punishment is for not following the palace laws.  You don’t know how to manage a household, especially with so many concubines and servants in the back palace. You don’t know how to manage money either nor do you know how to speak to others to win their favor.  You don’t know how to even act decently! Just look around you! All these valuable things that I personally gave you, you broke them and treat them as if they are nothing. So what makes you think you’ll ever be qualified to be Queen?”

Bai Yu could only look at Lui Wei speechlessly.  Her Lui Wei just yelled at her and said she would never be qualified to be Queen. It wasn’t her fault she was born a commoner.  It wasn’t her fault she doesn’t know how to act like a noble lady. It wasn’t her fault that she fell in love with him and followed him into the palace.  It wasn’t her fault that she couldn’t be Queen. Why was he blaming her when it wasn’t her fault?

He only yelled at her after spending a night with Queen Ame.  He only yelled at her for Queen Ame’s sake. Before this, he never said a word to hurt her and now… it’s like he’s someone she doesn’t even know.   It was all Queen Ame’s fault. She changed her Lui Wei. It was Ame, who made him yell at her.

“You will learn the Four Womanly Virtues as well as copy them, 20 times, 10 copies for Queen Ame and 10 copies for me.  You will relearn back palace rules, and half of the allowed courtyard allowance will be deducted for two months. Your privileges as Noble Consort will be revoked and be replaced with Concubine privileges until all 20 copies are handed in.”

Lei Wei left Bai Yu in the chaos she created and did not look back.