"Your highness" the sight of the eunuch running towards him like a headless chicken made him scowl and he didn't hide it as he ambled his way towards the door and pushed it aside. The man stopped by him and he raised a brow. Of course he couldn't be stupid enough to stop him. "Your highness. Your food would be ready, you didn't take your breakfast—"
"What is it, eunuch Shui?"
"Your, your, the…princess Mei-Ling is inside your chambers. I swear I tried to stop her. I did. I know I did but-but I don't know how she—"
Li-Rong raised his hand, stopping him from continuing his gibberish words. He knew Shui and knew this man didn't try to stop his First sister from going into his chambers. He could have stopped her and took her somewhere else.
Yet let her have her way in, she was harmless but still the daughter of his enemy. He flicked his hand in a shooing motion and his eunuch nodded his head eagerly with his breath coming fast, fleeing like the way he came.
Li-Rong took a deep breath, schooling his face to a neutral expression, he pushed the wooden sliding doors completely aside. He stepped inside, his gaze unswerving as he closed the door behind him.
His chamber was big, one of the biggest in the palace, the southern palace was his but not everything inside was his. This was his private chambers, his eunuch knew how he hated people in here most especially his siblings.
The silhouette of someone standing by the window brought him back from his musings. Her dark hair pinned up in a high bun, his sister never liked the feel of hair strands brushing against her back since they were kids.
Gold hairpins from the both sides with dangling tassels, her floral jade ornaments sparkling as he scrutinised Princess Mei-Ling, the way her silky cloth flew in the wind, definitely smooth on the skin.
His heart constricted, his breath shallow almost to asphyxiation. This was the life Xin-Yi was meant to live and not as a palace slave. She could've lived as a princess though never crowned one.
Her life was supposed to be different, peaceful and devoid of stress but never, his father had to drag her into a feud she knew nothing about. His mother wasn't here to stop the madness.
No one was here to help his father quit his actions towards the foolish path. He was the emperor doesn't mean he has the capacity or the brains to lead them anymore. He needed to get out of that seat.
"Every time I see you Li, you're always angry, a frown marring such a beautiful face. Xin-Yi would always say you were born angry but I disagree. No one was born angry, they were just thrown into a sad life to provoke such animosity towards the world"
And yes, his sister was one of the few people that liked Xin-Yi probably because she was also a woman and there wasn't any woman to play with in the palace when they were little.
But that didn't stop the blood running through her veins, the woman she called mother. The brother she wished was rightfully on the throne next to their father. She was still the enemy's daughter.
He cleared his throat, his voice flat and curt as he walked in "This world is only wicked to people that want to try to change it. The evil people sitting on the seats are always deemed as the lucky ones and we?" He spread his hands out, his lips tipping up in an uncanny smile "are tagged the sad unlucky ones. Aren't we princess Mei?"
He stood in front of his First sister, her face coming into more light. He didn't like his doors open and maintained the light coming from the side windows but they still weren't enough but that would do.
Her skin smooth and slightly pale, a laugh nearly bust through his lips at it. Her mother, the empress, was a wonder and a disappointment. When he tries to reconsider his hate for her, she does things that rekindle and makes it burn hotter.
Princess Mei was set out, her debut as the empress had said had been but no suitor had come to the standards of her mother, the empress. She was getting older as her mother always said when she was also the one stopping and perusing every notable suitor.
Eligibility wasn't a word the empress used. Being eligible doesn't qualify you getting married to one of the main three kingdoms only princess. You have to have some more words added to your personality and last name.
"How many times have I told you Li to stop calling me princess when we are alone?" His First sister closed the space between them, her calm voice, nothing like her mothers' swept between them.
She was everything angelic, he always loved her like the sister he never had. He shook her hand off his face that she'd placed and moved to the seats. He sat down on the low seats, the tea was already served.
He gritted his teeth, that slimy… "I told him you asked me to be here. Don't go all dragon on him" his First sister chided, coming to sit down. She gathered the ends of her cloth and lowered herself onto the cushion seats in front of him, her legs folded to one side. So gracefully and demure.
"You don't have to chase everyone that cares about you away. People in the palace—"
"No one in the palace cares about me, Mei. You know, stop covering them up. Your mother hates me for taking her son's crown. Same with your brother and you know the rest with the brothers"
Only Xin-Yi truly cared about him after his mother but she was going loose and wary of him now. He sighed, the tea set in front of him disgusting him at how they seemed so organized and arranged to perfection and his life was anything but.
"What are you here for Princess Mei?" He had slipped and called her by her name but not anymore, lapse in feelings. She was here for something and not just came to visit him like they ever visited themselves in their chambers or palaces'.
"I'm getting married"