Chapter 325 - Pit of Confusion

Lei Xing's heart stopped when she saw the Emperor. Her mind quickly computed and she dreaded turning her head to see the person whose arm was around her. Prince Yi on the hand, had his gaze fixed on Lei Xing with a slight smile on his face. It was only when he noticed her stiffen that he turned his head to see what was causing her distress and locked gazes with the frowning Emperor. 

Prince Yi immediately realized what he was doing, he blinked and promptly released Lei Xing, hastily stumbling back and landing on the floor himself. He blinked up at Lei Xing in confusion, he had even realized when he had grabbed her. He took a deep breath and then glared at Lei Xing.

Lei Xing blinked at Prince Yi, taken aback by the sudden hostility in his gaze before quickly looking away. Her eyes met the Emperor's own hostile gaze and she lowered her eyes with a frown as her face heated up with embarrassment. 

{... I didn't do anything, okay?! It was Nalan who was being stupid! >_

Seeing Lei Xing look away, Prince Yi lowered his gaze with a disgruntled frown but then he met Princess Nalan's gaze and he immediately went stiff, realizing his biggest mistake. Princess Nalan was on her hands and knees on the floor, glancing back and forth between him and Lei Xing with knit eyebrows in confusion.

"This is why I can't trust you..." The Emperor's calm voice cut through the reeling thoughts of the other three. Lei Xing and Prince Yi's frown deepened and they did not look up, Princess Nalan was the only one of the three who looked at the Emperor. They exchanged a strange look before the Emperor side-stepped Princess Nalan, took Lei Xing's hand, and stormed out the door, leaving the other royal pair to pick up themselves. 

Once they were out the door, Prince Yi let out an irritated breath, finally regaining himself. He got to his feet and then went to help Princess Nalan up.

Princess Nalan accepted his help and then frowned at him, "You-you helped her...Why?" She was aware the question did not come out quite right, but it was all that she could manage right now. She was honestly not even sure what she was asking. But she had seen that look between the two, not to mention the Emperor's expression... There was definitely something.

Prince Yi frowned in irritation and let go of Princess Nalan's arm and matter of factly stated, "She would have gotten hurt -"

"She would have gotten hurt?" Princess Nalan repeated in utter disbelief, her mouth hanging open with a frown.

{...What about me?! I could have gotten hurt!...}

Prince Yi blinked, realizing that was not exactly a good excuse considering all things. He put his hands behind his back and added, "She's fragile..." Which got him a raised eyebrow in response, so he quickly followed up with, "...If she got hurt, the Emperor would have been angry with you and then it would have been harder to get his approval for US...nullifying all my hard work." He finished, disapprovingly narrowing his eyes at her. 

Princess Nalan blinked, realizing that she almost caused another incident. But still, she had good reason and so she explained, "I was just worried... And I don't like being excluded from my own matters." She muttered, glancing off to the side with a disgruntled frown.

Prince Yi faced forward and inwardly sighed in relief, glad she accepted the explanation. That explanation was weak at best but thankfully Princess Nalan was easy to distract. In truth, he was not thinking about any of that when he did what he did. The point is he was not thinking at all because if he had been thinking, he would have grabbed Princess Nalan instead!

He was not stupid. Of course, he was aware that saving his brother's wife got him no merit here, especially not when his own wife-to-be faced the same peril. Most especially not when he was trying to persuade the world that he was in love with said wife-to-be. Thankfully, the whole thing was only seen by a select few.

Prince Yi frowned, this was why he hated being around that Lei Xing, she made him think and do stupid things. He let out a sigh and turned to storm down the hallway, he needed to distance himself from all this nonsense. But he had only taken a few steps when Princess Nalan grabbed his arm and asked, "Where are you going?"

Prince Yi irritatedly looked at her, "Home-"

"But we haven-" She paused, knit her brows, and let out a breath to calm herself. She knew they were both tense right now, so she simply went straight to the point, "How did it go? Did he agr-"

"Princess Nalan, the Emperor has ordered for us to escort you back to your palace..." An eunuch suddenly interrupted from the open doorway. The pair followed the voice and saw three eunuchs standing there along with five guards.

"Wait, we're b-"

"The Emperor was very explicit. Please come with us...Now." The eunuch added for emphasis.

Princess Nalan frowned, "I sai-" 

"It's alright." Prince Yi cut in, putting his hand over Princess Nalan's and quietly said, "There's no other choice for him, it's all fine..." He finished with a reassuring smile. Princess Nalan gave him a dubious expression but before she could argue, he urged, "We shouldn't give him a reason to impede us... go with them."

Princess Nalan knit her eyebrows, she was still getting a bad feeling about all this and also wanted to talk about what just happened. It was true that Lei Xing was more delicate and needed rescuing from little things like this while she, Nalan did not. And it was also true that the Emperor would probably have been very angry if Lei Xing got hurt and could have made their lives difficult just for the sake of it. Those reasons made all the sense to her, but still, it felt off.

It was not that she wanted to be rescued, after all, she did not need it. But still, she did not like it. Regardless, she could not dive into this discussion with the eunuchs and guards hanging around so she had no choice but to shelf it for now. "Fine..." She mumbled and then turned and stormed out the doors. Prince Yi lightly sighed and then raised an eyebrow at the others, when only one eunuch and guard left with Princess Nalan.

"Ahh, the Emperor also instructed for us to safely escort you to the palace gates...Your carriage and an escort should already be waiting for you there." The eunuch again supplied bowing with a polite smile.

Prince Yi scoffed in his mind, and went, "Of course..." He then flapped his sleeves and put his hands behind his back, and continued on his way, with eunuchs and guards following behind him.

Prince Yi knew that this was not a simple escort. He could guess that the Emperor was putting both he and Princess Nalan on lockdown until his decision was made. But Prince Yi was not worried, the Emperor could flaunt his power all he wanted, but in the end, this marriage was the only outcome there could be. 

It was either this marriage or war. The thing about war was that it needed adequate justification to persuade the people - and waging war because you refuse to let your brother and a foreign princess, whom you did not want, to get married, especially when she was already carrying your brother's child just does not make the cut. 

***

Meanwhile, the Emperor in his irritation had dragged Lei Xing all the way to the royal study. It was only when they were through the doors that the Emperor released his iron grip on her hand. He then proceeded to take a few steps toward his throne before stopping with an irritated sigh. 

Lei Xing flexed her hand to ease the pain as she scrutinized his demeanor. His grip had been quite painful but she silently bore it because she could understand that he was tense, caught off guard, unhappy and angry.

"Are you angry with me?" Lei Xing tentatively asked, after a while of observing him.

"No." The Emperor simply responded with the frown on his face deepening. 

"...Upset with me then?" Lei Xing amended.

"No." The Emperor flatly responded again.

The room went silent again for a while with the Emperor deep in his thoughts, while Lei Xing stared at his back, not sure how or what she should be feeling right now. Finally, she sighed and broke the silence, "Then why aren't you looking at me...?"

The Emepror blinked and then let out a sigh and turned to face her, "I am neither angry nor upset with you..." He stated with his head held high, raised eyebrows with his hands behind his back.

Lei Xing raised an eyebrow at him, looked him over, and went, "That's not a very reassuring pose..."

The Emperor knit his brows, then mirrored her expression and flatly said, "It is irrational for me to be upset with you because my brother has feelings for you-"

Lei Xing blinked at him, completely taken aback by this statement as she switfly went, "He doesn't-!"

"Don't deny it!" The Emperor loudly and sternly cut her off with a fierce expression, causing Lei Xing to jump back a bit. She quickly straightened her back, opened her mouth to protest but then closed it, and pursed her lips. She did not like the aggrieved expression he was giving her, nor did she care for his accusatory tone. He had said he was not upset with her but that was not the message his body language was excluding right now.

{...Guess we're going with irrational today -_-)'...}

Lei Xing let out an irritated breath, "Fine, let's say for the sake of argument that he does... But that has nothing to do with me. I have done nothing to lead him on - Okay, there was that one incident that night..." She admitted with a frown remembering the kiss incident, "But you know and he knows that I wasn't myself... It wasn't my fault and if he's stupid to think that means something, then he's obviously confused."

"...And if you think there is anything between him and me, then you are too." She added, glaring at the Emperor, "...Even more so."