Bathroom Lord heard me, then gently nodded: “Rest assured, Your Majesty, I will take out all my strength to assist His Majesty. And I also hope you will give birth to a son as soon as possible, which will help reinforce the foundation of the country.”

He was already enlightened, so I suddenly felt relaxed and smiled, “You do understand. That’s good. It’s getting late. If you want to send greetings to the Empress Dowager, better go there as soon as possible, or else you will interrupt her daily worships to Buddha.

He said nothing more, only paid respectful salute to me and receded from the Wangyun Pavilion.

I called out to him again and rose from the bench. I asked Lv Li to pass the cloak over to him, and said with a smile, “Thank you for your kindness. It’s cold outside and you’d better take it on yourself.”

Lv Li took the cloak and handed it to him at a trot.

He lightly smiled, shook out the cloak to put it on and tied it. After that, he bowed to me, turned around and strode away.

Lv Li came back to me and whispered, “Your Majesty, now that we’ve finished, we’d better return to our Palace.”

In the distance, the maid with a leather mattress in her arms ran to the pavilion in small steps. Behind her, there was a eunuch holding a basin of charcoal fire.

I shook my head. Since they had come, I’d better stay here a bit longer. I sat down again on the bench, and said, “Talking too much made me tired. Take them somewhere away to have some fun.  I need a moment of peace here.”

She didn’t understand: “Your Majesty?”

I waved and gestured her to leave.

She slightly pressed her lips and took a few maids to retreat.

Wangyun Pavilion was located in a rather high place. When you looked ahead, you can see a few groups of palaces in the distance, which seemingly made a harmonious and peaceful scene. If not living in them, who could see the hidden waves of crisis under the calm surface?

I sat in silence for a long time before I got up and went out of the pavilion. I walked to Lv Li, who stood outside, and said to her, “Let’s go. Back to the Palace.”

Lv Li heaved a great sigh of relief and followed me back with obedience.

I couldn’t be bothered to talk. Lv Li kept silent, and those maids following behind didn’t even dare to make a sound. When we reached a rockery mountain, we could hear clearly the soft sobs coming from inside.

A bad feeling came to me that this might lead to a trouble again. I should have had my presence here announced loudly!

But as an Empress, and since I heard the sobbing, acting like a deaf was not reasonable.

I sighed and said to Lv Li, “Go and see who’s in there.”

Without any hesitation, Lv Li walked a few steps to the front of the cave in the rockery mountain and asked in a high voice, “The Empress is here, who is in it? Get out right now.”

Good. What a clever girl. No matter the title of “the Empress” wa intimidating enough, try it out.

There was a moment’s silence within the rockery, and then the faintest sound of footsteps was heard. A little maid, of slight build, came out timidly and glanced at me quickly. Then she plopped down on her knees, begging for my mercy with repeated kowtows, “Please spare me, Your Majesty.”

She banged her head. It was only in the blink of an eye that blood was shed on the ground.

I was stunned by this. I sighed in my heart that she was simply honest to kowtow like this. However, I hadn’t said anything yet, why was she scared like this? I asked Lv Li to hold her up, and said, “I’m not a devil. There’s no need to do this.”

She didn’t expect this, timidly looking over to me.

I was stunned too, feeling her a little familiar, and suddenly remembered her after thinking for a while. Wasn’t she the little girl I saw in Youlan Palace last time? At that time, she was scolded by Qi Sheng because she didn’t know how to address me properly.

Lv Li saw my strange look, came up to me, and said in a low voice, “What is the matter?”

I did not reply. Instead, I walked to the little maid, bent down and looked at her face carefully. For such a young age at 14 or 15 years old, her facial feature was still childlike, and there were tears on her face. Her bruised forehead was swollen and couldn’t stop bleeding, which made her more discomfited. I couldn’t bear to see this and tried to give her a handkerchief to wipe it clean, but I fumbled in my pockets and found nothing, so I turned to Lv Li for one, ” A handkerchief here.”

She handed one over quickly. I gave it to the maid, and asked her softly, “Why did you hide inside crying? Did someone bully you?”

The maid couldn’t believe that I was so nice to her, with her tongue tied for a long while, and then vigorously shook her head, replying in a shivering voice, “No, no one bullied me.”

Well, that’s good. Since she said no, I would take it as nothing happened. Anyway, as long as she had nothing to report, I would not trouble her.

I straightened up, clapped my hands and smiled. “That’s good. Better go back to your own palace right away, and don’t let yourself heard next time when you feel the urge to laugh or cry. It’s forbidden in the harem.”

She couldn’t believe her ears and looked at me in a stupor.

I turned to Lv Li, “Let’s go. It’s cold outside. Better go back early.”

She gave the maid a look of fury, and then came forward and held my arm. I felt awkward to be supported by Lv Li while I was walking, so I hurriedly shook off her hand, “It doesn’t matter, and I could walk by myself.”

I had just walked no more than two steps, when I suddenly heard the maid behind us loudly yelling, “Your Majesty.” When I turned around again, she was already throwing herself on the edge of my feet, crying, “Please do justice to me. I was wronged. I have never thought to seduce the Emperor. I only made a cup of tea for His Majesty, but never seduced His Majesty.”

In her endless annoying weep and wail, I was confused and could not understand what she meant. I said helplessly, “If you want to cry, you should cry out loud. If you want to talk, you should talk clearly. I cannot hear a word if you keep doing this.”

The maid stopped wailing and sobbed as she looked at me.

I guessed that she had not cried enough, so I said, “You might as well have a good cry first.”

She kept sobbing but still refused to speak. I really didn’t know how to deal with her, so I advised, “How about going back to that rockery mountain and crying for a while?”

Lv Li, standing besides, got furious. She rushed forward immediately to give her a slap in the face, roaring, “Answer Her Majesty at once. Stop the annoying sobbing.”

I was surprised but could do nothing. What Lv Li disdained most was the women trying to gain favor from the Emperor, what’s worse, the girl even used the word “seduce”, which was beyond Lv Li’s tolerance.

The maid was hit down on the ground, and her petite and exquisite stature showed more delicacy. Lv Li got even more angry, rolling her sleeves, ready to beat her again.

I was shocked and stretched out my hand to stop her: “My goodness, stop and calm down.”

While we were tangling with each other, I suddenly heard a maid greeting respectfully in the distance, “Your Majesty.”

I looked in the direction where the sound came from and saw Qi Sheng, dressed in a blue uniform and followed only by a small eunuch, was coming this way.

I was stunned and then let go of Lv Li.

The little maid sobbing on the ground sobbing suddenly seemed to have gained more energy. She rushed to my feet and cried even much louder, “Spare me, Your Majesty. I really did not seduce the Emperor.”

I could barely breath after hearing her words. Why did she still use the word “seduce”?

When I finally caught my breath, I could not help but get so angry that I poked the forehead of Lv Li beside me and said in a regretful tone, “Lv Li, I have told you many times. You’re already 17 or 18 years old, but you’re still so irritable. Who would marry you in the future?”

Before I finished, I saw Qi Sheng was tripped over by the bluestone crevice when he was coming this way.

Lv Li, who came to her sense, was immediately furious and said in a low voice, “Who on earth does she serve? How dare she set me up!”

“The one in Youlan Palace.” I replied casually.

Lv Li immediately whispered, “Damn.”

I stooped down and whispered to the maid at my feet, “Well, the Emperor is coming. Remember, you can cry as you want, but don’t forget the words you are supposed to say. ”

The maid opened her mouth slightly and looked at me stupidly, forgetting to cry for the moment.

I could not help laughing, pointing to Lv Li and said to her, “Watch what she will do first. She is really good at it and you really should learn from her.”

After I said it, Lv Li already took the initiative to greet Qi Sheng. She suddenly knelt before him, cried and said, “Your Majesty, it’s all my fault to let the little maid disturb Her Majesty. Just now, Her Majesty was on her way back from sending greetings to the Empress Dowager and met lord Chu wang in the road. They had a small talk. Then when Her Majesty was about to go back, she heard someone crying behind the rockery mountain. Her Majesty was so kind that she thought the one who was crying there might have being bullied. I failed to stop her, and asked the little maid crying here to come out and meet Her Majesty. The little maid said she was from the Youlan Palace and was slandered by others in that palace to seduce Your Majesty for just serving a cup of tea. She wanted to beg Her Majesty to do the justice and prove her innocence. Otherwise she would commit suicide by knocking down the rocks in front of Her Majesty.”

Though Lv Li was tearful, her words were simple and clear, not to say that the maid had been dumbfounded by what Lv Li’s actions, even I was amazed.

Clever girl, she always surprised me.

Qi Sheng raised his eyebrows, and asked while looking at me, “What happened exactly?”

I couldn’t help but frown. Was he deaf or something? Lv Li had just told him everything clearly. The time, place, characters and events, even the background information was provided. How could he not get it?

What the hell, was he an idiot?

I threw up my hands helplessly and told Lv Li, “Cry again, oh no, say it again.