Song mama dragged her feet as she approached the Empress dowager's "tea" making room. She was dreading her meeting with the Empress dowager at the moment. A week ago, she would not have been cowering over something like this.

Then she knew that even if the Empress dowager would get angry, she would understand that it was not her fault and would definitely not blame her for it.

But now with recent events and the Empress dowager's increasingly bad mood, her hands began to tremble a bit as she approached the doors.

As soon as she entered the room, the Empress dowager calmly said without even looking up from her activity, "Send them in."

Song mama gulped and then hesitantly said, "Y-your majesty, I...I- I could not get anyone."

The Empress dowager's hands froze and then she slowly turned to Song mama with a questioning gaze and menacingly asked, "What?"

Song mama immediately fell to her knees and bowed her head as she explained, "T-the girls I had been prepping all this time suddenly -... They said the Emperor forbade them from going to any other palace except for Noble consort Lei's palace. When I tried to solicit their help another way, t-they just left...Your majesty, it seems the Emperor is - is already suspicious!" Song mama finished kowtowing to the ground.

"Suspicious?" The Empress dowager menacingly asked as she clenched her fists and banged them on the table, "I should have just gotten rid of her already!... This is all your fault, you said to use her, what use is she to me right now?!" The Empress dowager barked.

Song mama trembled and quickly apologized, "...Your majesty, there will be another way. With time the Emperor will forg-"

"I don't have time!" The Empress dowager barked throwing whatever she could get her hands on in Song mama's direction. The Empress dowager took shaky breaths as her chest heaved in anger. She had not told Song mama about the Emperor wanting to send her away simply because she did not plan on going anywhere.

"Your majesty, why don't you go for the slow approach? Even if she becomes Empress, you are still the Emperor's mother and she will have to show you respect. We can wait until they let down their guard. For now, you can just accept her..." Song mama quickly said to pacify her irate mistress.

"You want me to apologize?" The Empress dowager asked in disbelief with knit eyebrows.

Song mama glanced up at the Empress dowager and shakily, "Your majesty, isn't that what you initially decided on? Y-you can still do it...Moreover, it's not like she will become Empress tomorrow, it will take at least a month for the preparations to be ready and by then...there will be fewer obstacles."

The Empress dowager's frown intensified as she glared at Song mama's beseeching face. It is true that she initially was intending to accept Lei Xing's bow. If not for the Emperor showing up and irritating her all over again everything would have gone smoothly. But now for her to apologize and plead her way?

With the way things stood, that may be her only option if she wanted to stay, but still, she could not do it. It was beneath her, they were beneath her.

"Get out." The Empress dowager coldly said.

"Your majesty -"

"I said Get OUT!" The Empress dowager barked. Song mama jumped and quickly shuffled to her feet and ran out. The Empress dowager glared at the door and then held her head as a stabbing pain shot through it.

{...I do not cower. They should be the ones bowing to me!..}

***

The Emperor woke up much earlier than usual and just laid on his side watching Lei Xing with a small smirk on his face.

Last night was amazing.

Lei Xing was a lot more active than usual. It was, she was just perfectly wonderful. If he had felt at all aggrieved by her withholding information from him last night, he had definitely gotten over it now. She made sure of it.

He was completely convinced that Lei Xing loved him, despite the fact that whenever he said he loved her, rather than respond in kind, she would hug or kiss him as her response. It was now very clear to him that she simply had a problem with those words.

The Emperor lightly chuckled to himself and lightly kissed her cheek, then because he could not help it, he planted another on her lips. When he raised his head, he saw Lei Xing's eyes were open. He smiled at her, she blinked at him and her face and ears speedily turned red. Before he could say anything, she covered her head with the blanket.

The Emperor snorted and then laughed as he went to remove the blanket from her face, but she held on tightly, "Stop hiding." He said in amused voice.

She had been avoiding looking at him directly since last night. He had simply made one little comment about how he never expected that she had such a -...an adventurous side to her and she turned beet red, hugged him tight and buried her head in his chest to hide her face from view.?The Emperor laughed and thought it was extremely adorable that she was feeling shy after all that. She was such contradictory sometimes.

But he was amused and let her hide last night, hugging her back until they asleep.

But now this morning she was still being like this. It would be a problem if she actually started to avoid him because of a stray comment. He should have kept his commentary to himself but it was too late for that now.

Besides, her shyness was quite amusing.

"I'm not hiding!" Lei Xing responded back in a muffled voice,? "I'm just cold." As she knit her in annoyance.

{...Why the hell am I hiding? This is making it more awkward than it needs to be!... It's his fault, why would he shock me with his face and that stupid smile so early! I panicked...stupidly >_

"Cold? You looked rather hot to me...Are you feeling ill?" The Emperor asked in a "concerned" voice as he pat the top of her head.

Lei Xing cleared her throat and lowered the blanket a bit to reveal her eyes so she could glare at him. The Emperor smile brightened and then he said, "Have I mentioned that I love your blushing face? It's perfectly adorable..."

Lei Xing narrowed her eyes at him, "If you keep making fun of me then it'll never happen again, you can trust me on that."

The Emperor sighed and sweetly said, "Xing er', there's no need for such drastic measures between you and I. As adorable as it is, there's no need to be so shy~" He said as he lowered himself to her level as he lightly pulled the blanket down.

Lei Xing looked at him and then glanced off to the side. She had tried her best to ensure that it was a private matter. She had made sure to draw the curtains down before she began. As for the bracelet, she tossed it and it was probably lying on the floor somewhere. And she was sure she would get an earful from its owner later.

Now that she thought about it, she had completely forgotten about the Emperor's voice.

{...O_O) What kind of big brother bullshit is this?! >_

The Emepror was leaning in for a kiss when she suddenly grabbed his arm and asked, "D-do you think it was w-watching?"

The Emperor raised an eyebrow, "What?"

Lei Xing knit her brows, "T-the Voice thing, d-do you think it was watching or listening? You know what I mean!"

The Emperor blinked at her a few times, he had never thought about that before. He looked at Lei Xing's red face and put on a reassuring smile, "It wouldn't have..." There was no way he could tell her he did not know. With how agitated she gets, their s.e.x life would most likely end when it had only begun and that would definitely be a big problem.

Lei Xing frowned and the Emperor caressed her cheek and said, "I told you there's nothing to worry about with it...It's a friend."

"Friend doesn't equal 'not pervert'." Lei Xing quipped back. The idea of an old man sitting somewhere sipping wine and watching her do those things was most disconcerting.

"Don't worry, it's a principled entity." The Emperor reassuringly said, going for the kiss again. But Lei Xing again stopped him and the Emperor knit his brows, suddenly regretting sharing this secret with her.