Their gazes met, and the air went still.
Li Yuyu leaned back a little, wanting to put some distance between herself and Yan Xiu.
Yan Xiu refused to let her have her way; his palm pressed against Li Yuyu’s back, and just as she started to move away, he pulled her firmly back into his arms.
"Hey!" Li Yuyu was caught off guard. The tip of her nose bumped into Yan Xiu’s chest, and the pain brought tears to her eyes on the spot.
Was he wearing armor or something? That was way too hard!
Li Yuyu covered her nose, looking at Yan Xiu with tear-bright eyes full of accusation.
"Does it hurt a lot?" Yan Xiu couldn’t help asking.
No shit.
Why don’t you try ramming yourself and see!
The snarky words circled around Li Yuyu’s lips, but when she opened her mouth, her voice came out soft and sweet: "Of course it hurts, Emperor. Will this consort be disfigured?"
Hearing that, Yan Xiu’s thin lips curved in the slightest arc. He gently wrapped his fingers around Li Yuyu’s wrist and moved her hand away.
Then with his other hand he lightly lifted Li Yuyu’s chin, slowly bending down. "Since my beloved concubine is so worried, then I shall take a good look for you."
Li Yuyu stared at the rhombus-shaped lips so close to her own, faintly flushed, and pressed her own lips together hard.
"Gulp."
The sound of swallowing echoed crystal clear in the quiet air.
Damn!
Li Yuyu shoved at Yan Xiu’s shoulders, sprang out of his arms, covered her burning cheeks, and ran upstairs.
It’s over, it’s over, she’s lost all her dignity!
She’d actually been dazzled by Yan Xiu’s looks to the point of going full fangirl. God, she didn’t even dare recall how she’d just been acting like she was ready to let him do whatever he wanted—just, absolutely outrageous!
Li Yuyu sat by the window, fanning herself with the round fan in her hand without the slightest regard for looking elegant.
Hot, hot, hot—this damned weather, so annoying!
Hua Yin lifted the curtain and walked in, sulking. "My lady, the Emperor has left."
"Isn’t the Emperor leaving a good thing? What’s with you?" Li Yuyu pinched Hua Yin’s chubby little cheeks, asking in a very good mood.
He finally left. As long as the person making her embarrassed wasn’t here, she wouldn’t feel embarrassed anymore.
"My lady, how can you not be the least bit anxious?" Hua Yin dodged Li Yuyu’s hand.
"Anxious?" Li Yuyu was confused.
Hua Yin stomped her foot in frustration. "My lady! On his way here the Emperor ran into Beauty Zhou and Han Cairen, and even chatted with them for a while. The Emperor praised Han Cairen’s handwriting as beautiful, and now it’s spread all through the harem."
"Does Han Cairen’s handwriting look that good?" Li Yuyu asked curiously.
Feng Yin, who had followed in, answered casually, "Han Cairen’s ’flower-pinned’ small regular script is very pretty."
"’Flower-pinned’ small regular script, huh..." Li Yuyu twisted the fan handle in her hand. She knew how to write that too, and it was... apparently pretty good?
Last time when she wrote an IOU for Yan Xiu, she’d been in a bad mood, so she scrawled it out in cursive just to get it over with. Her plan was to never use cursive again and switch to a different style, so that when Yan Xiu came to collect the debt she could pretend it wasn’t hers.
After all, nobody knew she could write cursive.
Hua Yin stared speechlessly at Li Yuyu. How had they ended up chatting about Han Cairen’s handwriting? Shouldn’t her lady be worrying about whether Han Cairen would steal some of her favor?
"The lotus at Lotus Reflection Pavilion are in full bloom now. If my lady isn’t sleepy, why not go to Lotus Reflection Pavilion to enjoy the flowers?"
Lotus flowers...
Li Yuyu wasn’t all that keen to go see them.
"The scenery at Lotus Reflection Pavilion is excellent, and it’s cool inside the pavilion. There’s a master in the Imperial Kitchen who’s brilliant with pastries. Now that the lotus are blooming, we could pick a few and have him make lotus-flower cakes for Concubine to try." Feng Yin picked up another round fan and handed it to Li Yuyu.
A moment later, Li Yuyu was shaking the new round fan in her hand, heading happily toward Lotus Reflection Pavilion with Hua Yin.
She was only going because she wanted to admire the lotus, absolutely not because of the lotus-flower cakes.
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Thanks for the rewards and votes, cuties. (づ￣3￣)づ╭?～