When Lei Xing arrived at Princess Nalan's residence, she found Princess Nalan by herself in the garden brooding. Prince Rui and Molin were off somewhere else in the manor and she was unhappy out of boredom. So Lei Xing happily told her about the merchant festival and the cool things she saw there to help. And as she expected, Princess Nalan was interested and luckily for her Lei Xing also found out that today was the last day of the festival.

Princess Nalan wanted to immediately head there but Lei Xing quickly explained that it started in the evening and so she begrudgingly sat back down and went back to brooding. Her brother had been busy in the palace the last few days, and since he felt the need to chaperone her it meant she could not leave the residence. What's worse was that he annoyingly left Molin behind to ensure she stayed put, and Molin dutifully watched her like a hawk, she could barely even exhale without him popping up, much less sneak out.

Princess Nalan sighed dejectedly, there has not been much to look forward to in her life recently. Lei Xing looked at Princess Nalan's poor mood and then quickly proposed they go to the theatre house to kill some time. Princess Nalan immediately perked up, anywhere but home was fine to her. She grabbed some money and Lei Xing and happily made her way to the exit, only for them to be intercepted by Prince Rui and Molin at the gates, with Prince Yi tagging along behind the two.

Apparently, Prince Yi had arrived a while after Lei Xing. The truth was that he had someone watching their manor, who was to inform him of when Lei Xing came and if she came with anyone. This way he could spare himself the insult of watching his brother gloating about his life before him. He was not interested in watching the Emperor play husband and neither was he interested in coming to play friends with Prince Rui. But he was interested in talking to Lei Xing and so once he received the news of Lei Xing's solo arrival, he made his way here. He?smiled at Lei Xing, who slightly knit her brows and returned a half-smile then quickly looked away.

Prince Yi's expression fell.

{...She couldn't possibly still be upset about the snake incident? It's been so long...and I even fell ill because of her panic...}

Prince Rui insisted on tagging along with them and although Princess Nalan was disgruntled with her brother's constant surveillance, she was still happy to finally be going out and so they all made their way to the theatre.

Lei Xing still rode in a carriage despite the fact that she had been getting horse riding lessons from the emperor every evening. They both agreed that she was not yet ready to ride on her own.?At first, she was really uncomfortable with him teaching her. It was one thing for him to teach her things in private but with this everyone would see.

So she suggested one of the guards could teach her instead and The Emperor frowned and flatly said "No". Lei Xing rolled her eyes, she realized from the time at the night market that he seemed to get jealous at the slightest thing. It was a bit annoying, but luckily for him she found it a lot funnier than annoying.?She then suggested Li Ru and even pointed out that she was a woman and that she could ride. He narrowed his eyes at her for a bit and then commented, "You seem to care a lot for this Li Ru...She won't do either. How can she help you if the horse goes out of control? No."

Lei Xing narrowed her eyes at him and he did the same with a smile. She thought what he said made sense, she was also scared of breaking her neck or spine, but she was still not comfortable with him doing this.

Another realization that she had also found recently was that he's quite the stubborn individual and one with good reason for it too. If she wanted to continue arguing with him, he would indulge her and happily run around in circles with her, explaining why each of her options were inadequate and why his remained the best option. The worst part was that his explanations always made sense to her. Although sometimes if she were in the mood to bicker she would also stubbornly persist and they would go on and on until one of them gave in.

Lei Xing eventually sighed and let him do as he wanted.?Considering he has been her roommate for so long, the horse-riding thing was really just a cherry on top of an already ready to go bitter cake.

The Emperor even chose a tame beautiful black horse for her and was making her familiarize herself with it by making her feed it and pet it...Actually it was more like forcing her to. He basically held her in place in front of him and held out her hand holding an apple to the horse's mouth while Lei Xing froze and closed her eyes scared for her hand, while he was chuckling behind her, to her annoyance.

Lei Xing sighed as she watched the stage, it was another palace romance story and with everything going on in her life, she was not too keen on watching this plot. She wondered why nothing had happened yet. Not that she wanted arrows to be shot her way, it was just that she expected something to have happened already...but yet, nothing from the other wives or even the Empress dowager.

{...Have I been overestimating this whole harem business?... I mean, not even a poisoning attempt, seriously? Maybe they just don't care that much?...No, at the very least Chen You does and Zhao Lan too, probably... The dowager I don't get...As for concubines, they are borderline, trying to make friends to help them while still wanting their chance with him. Nothing wrong with that, I guess...-_-)'...}

Lei Xing sighed again and poured herself some wine then she caught Prince Yi intently staring at her from his corner. She blinked and knit her brows. Prince Yi also seemed to be startled, he blinked a few times at her and then immediately looked down, frowning at his wine cup.

Lei Xing looked at him for a while and wondered what his problem was with her now. He was pleasant in the first group meeting, odd in the second one, but she could understand the Emperor being there must have upset his sensibilities...and now he's just being plain weird. She had been noticing him looking at her oddly since they met at Princess Nalan's residence. Sometimes she caught him just blankly staring her way, and at other times she caught him glaring at her.

{...Is he transferring aggression?... Dude, I am not the Emperor, if you have any issues to discuss please go find him...And leave me the hell out of it! -_-)...}

Lei Xing tiredly sighed and slowly turned back to the stage, it was much better to watch the show than to try to decode the agitated royal across from her. She casually sipped on her wine and tried to cast Prince Yi and his problems out of her mind.

{...The wine is particularly sweet today...Quite good, actually...*sigh* I honestly don't understand what this guy wants from me -_-)...}

After the show, they finally made their way to the merchant's festival. It was much rowdier today than it was on her visit with the Emperor. There were more performers and it seemed more like a celebration than a market today. They had to meander their way through the crowd and Lei Xing wanted to leave as soon as she arrived, it was way too crowded for her liking.

It seemed she was not the only one disliking this atmosphere, Prince Yi was also frowning feeling disgruntled about having to rub shoulders with the commoners. On Princess Nalan's suggestion, they left their servants behind and roamed around. Since her brother made no protest, Prince Yi and Lei Xing begrudgingly went along behind the three merry Zou people who were jumping from one place to another.

As Princess Nalan raced to another stand, Lei Xing sighed and followed along. Honestly, keeping up with Princess Nalan was hard work, it seems her brother and Molin were used to it, and had developed quick reflexes to keep up with her level of impulse.

Lei Xing sighed and mumbled, "Being a companion is hard work..."

"Isn't it?" Prince Yi responded with a slight smile. Lei Xing blinked at him and then immediately faced forward, knitting her brows.

{...What's this now?... This guy is so confusing, bipolar maybe?...}

As they walked by, someone bumped hard into Lei Xing and she fell back and Prince Yi immediately caught her and stopped her fall and Lei Xing immediately righted herself and brushed his hands off then mumbled, "Thank you." And kept walking with her eyebrows knit as she rubbed her now aching arm.

{...What the hell were they wearing? A freaking pin cushion?...I'm tired, I want to leave -_-)...}

Behind her, Prince Yi frowned at his hands and then frowned at her back.

{...She let him hold her as he likes, even in public...but then she brushes me off like I am as? ?insignificant as...as an Ant...when I was just trying to help her?...}