Chapter 318 - Reservations

This news was truly an irritating one, handling a wayward Prince Yi was already enough trouble, the Emperor really did not need a combination of the two on his plate right now. As for addressing the problem, grounding Princess Nalan and sending her off as quickly as possible would be enough for her.

For Prince Yi, it seems it was time the Emperor talked to him a bit more sternly. He had obviously let Prince Yi run free long enough and Prince Yi had made it extremely that he did not take him seriously at all. After all, he even went as far as touching the Emperor's own wife without even an ounce of remorse. 

The Emperor frowned at that memory and looked across the table at Lei Xing, who blinked and then tentatively asked, "...Is it really bad?"

"What?" The Emperor went and then shook his head, realizing he was frowning, he flashed a smile and said, "Nothing serious...eat, we're running out time." He instructed doing the same, looking down at his plate as the frown quickly returned. 

Lei Xing absentmindedly picked at her food, also having lost her appetite now. She could tell from the Emperor's expression that he was very bothered by this news. It was not often that something bothered him...so this could be very bad. 

Lei Xing frowned down as she remembered Princess Nalan's words about not wanting to have any regrets.

She was really having a bad feeling about this now. She inwardly and decided to find out what Princess Nalan was up to as soon she was back in the palace. 

{...Nalan, please don't tell me this a***ole is the reason you wanted to stay T_T)...} 

***

The royal couple and the "princesses", the guest of honors finally arrived at the main hall where the guests were already waiting. The setup was similar to how it had been the day they were accepted into the palace with the girls being sat in the front rows closest to the throne. 

The Emperor courteously held out a hand to Lei Xing with a smile to help up the steps and Lei Xing accepted with a grateful smile, considering she could not really look down to watch her step with this heavy headdress on. 

But this little heartfelt gesture of theirs got a lot of mixed reviews from the peanut gallery. A few people, particularly Prime minister Zhao "hmph-ed" at the little exchange. After Lei Xing and the Emperor took their seats, he sat down and proceeded to glare daggers at his daughter, who was unfortunately sat right across from him.

Zhao Lan saw her father's condemning gaze and immediately lowered her head, knitting her brows. She could not believe that her father was seriously blaming her for this too. How was she to blame for the Emperor's decision? How could she have expected this, and even if she did, how could she have stopped this? Even he had no idea about it and he was the Prime minister... If the Prime minister himself could not do anything about it, how could she have any impact on it?

She was suddenly dreading her "decision" to go home...not that she had much of a say in the matter. Whether she stayed home or stayed in a royal residence, her father would still be there, wherever it was to scold her. 

Meanwhile, on the other spectrum of things, Xiao Ting was happily staring at the Emperor and Lei Xing. 

It was quite ironic that her sister who had no interest in a fairy tale life was the one who was given the joy of living one. She was very happy for Lei Xing and even now she watched her sister and her loving Emperor with a smile...but she was honestly a little jealous.

She wanted her own fairy tale too.

Oddly enough, Xiao Ting found herself thinking of An Hao quite a bit recently. It had been over a month now and he was still not back, yet he had not even bothered to write her a simple letter. For all she knew he could be dead somewhere...but then Lei Yong would know about and would have told her. 

She asked...a few times.

But then again, perhaps she was expecting too much. After all, they were just ordinary "friends", why would he write to her? And thinking about this again annoyed her and she grabbed the wine jug and poured herself a cup. She had heard alcohol was good for forgetting unpleasant affairs so it was perfect!

But as she soon as she picked up the cup, it was yanked out of her hand, "No." Lei Yong said, frowning at her.

"I'm old enough!" Xiao Ting quietly protested with a pout.

"Not quite." He responded, as he took the wine jug from the table and waved over a maid. "Just tea." He said, handing it over.

"Hmph!" Xiao Ting went with an even bigger pout, facing the other way. 

Lei Yong sighed and pat her head, but Xiao Ting shrugged him off. She was still upset with him over the issue with Tung Mei.

It was not that she expected him to force himself into a relationship with someone he did not like, but the problem was that he actually liked Tung Mei. He even paid more attention to Tung Mei than he did to her, so Xiao Ting could not understand what his problem was.

Also he has been a bit annoying recently. Since that day with Tung Mei, Lei Yong has been hovering around Xiao Ting. It seemed he had much more free time and was trying for some sibling bonding which has not been going too well... He was really not much fun and very limiting.

"Ying jie is not here..." Xiao Ting muttered and Lei Yong knit his brows and solemnly responded, "En." picking up the confiscated wine cup and drinking it himself with a frown. 

The mood between the siblings was now completely sour as both quietly contemplated the state of their lives. 

***

Following the Emperor's request, Eunuch Li went to the Zou representatives' manor to deliver the Emperor's message as well as to escort Princess Nalan back to the palace. 

"She already left for the palace... Is something wrong?" Molin asked, knitting his brows when Eunuch Li asked for Princess Nalan. 

"No, nothing like that." Eunuch Li swiftly responded with a smile, it was good enough that she was already on her way back to the palace. "We must have missed each other on the way. The Emperor sent me over to deliver some urgent news that required the Princess's presence -" 

"What news? Did something happen to the Prince? I knew something was wrong. Is he sick? Injured?" Molin asked in a panic. He had still not heard from Prince Rui since he left and it has been quite worrying for him.

He had even spoken to Princess Nalan about this and asked her to her find out about Prince Rui's situation from the Emperor. Princess Nalan then came back to inform that there were just some delays on the way and that Prince Rui was fine. Even with that, Molin still felt uneasy and had been hounding Princess Nalan about when they were leaving but she kept blowing him off and he was not happy at all. 

Eunuch Li furrowed his brow, Molin's words seemed to indicate that Princess Nalan had not even informed the other Zou representatives about Prince Rui's situation. 

"Is it really bad? -" Another of the Zou representatives asked when they saw Eunuch Li expression.

"Did he get attacked?" Another asked and Eunuch Li shook his head with a sigh and said, "Nothing so serious...but the situation is nonetheless urgent..." Eunuch Li set aside his questions about Princess Nalan's character and priorities and went about informing the group of Prince Rui current situation.

Although to not kick up any unnecessary drama, he did not mention the fact that Princess Nalan was already aware of the situation - this was an internal matter that they could discuss while on the way back to their country. For now, all they needed to know was that they would be living the day after tomorrow to catch up to their waiting prince.