"Leave...all of you." The Emperor chillingly ordered, causing the audience to blink out of their stupor, "NOW!" The Emperor added with a frown when they were too slow to react.

They were all immediately jerked back to reality and with great urgency, they clamored out of the hall, people grabbing and dragging their slow family members along. Within just a few seconds, the hall was cleared out, leaving only Lei Xing and the troublesome couple with the Emperor.

Lei Xing apparently did not consider the Emperor's order to include to be referring to her. Princess Nalan's brain seemed to have frozen as she still had her mouth gaping at Prince Yi. And Prince Yi, well, he did not need to be told that he was the exclusion to that order.

Lei Xing looked from prince Yi to the Emperor, who were currently engaged in an intense stare-off. She inwardly sighed and then touched the Emperor's arm and said, "I'll take Nalan..."

The Emperor nodded to her, giving her a fleeting half-smile before fixing his back down on Prince Yi, who to the Emperor's further irritation had his eyes elsewhere now, precisely to the left where Lei Xing sat.

The Emperor's frown deepened and Prince Yi's frown also deepened when he returned his gaze to find the Emperor glaring at him. Lei Xing worriedly looked at the Emperor for a bit before inwardly sighing and rising to her feet.

She went down the steps and crouched down next to Princess Nalan, who still seemed to be in shock and lightly pulled on her arm, "Nalan, let's go..."

Princess Nalan blinked about in confusion, coming out of her shock but she quietly let Lei Xing lead her away. They went through the side and out into a hallway leading to the back exit to avoid the eyes of the crowd that had just left from the front.

Princess suddenly stopped halfway down the hall and said, "I want to hear..."

"We can't..." Lei Xing simply responded. While she would also like to listen out of curiosity, given the atmosphere in there, she was certain some words were definitely not meant for other ears...For hers it would be fine, but definitely not for a sensitive and impulsive Princess Nalan who also happened to be the point of contention.

Princess Nalan frowned, "This concerns me! So I should naturally be there..."

"Rightly it does..." Lei Xing calmly said, stroking Princess Nalan's arm in agreement, "And this is why we have our own conversation to have..." She added, glancing down at Princess Nalan's stomach.

Princess Nalan also looked down at her stomach and her frown deepened and she mumbled, "He wasn't supposed to mention it...why did he -?" She paused and let out a breath, feeling greatly disoriented.

"Desperation..." Lei Xing offhandedly responded, when Princess Nalan turned at her with a conflicted expression, obviously still not wanting to move, Lei Xing added, "...Desperation out of love perhaps...out of fear of losing you..."

"You think so?" Princess Nalan asked with a hopeful pout, obviously not entirely convinced of that possibly yet. He had said he loved her, but he did not seem the desperate sort.

Lei Xing slightly knit her brows, she did not actually believe that Prince Yi's move was anything but a calculated risk on his part. The last part about love, she had just said to satisfy Princess Nalan's curiosity and more importantly to spare her feelings.

Why tell the poor girl that she had been royally played? Most importantly, she could not imagine that Princess Nalan would peacefully walk away with her if she said her true thoughts so they were best kept to herself.

Moreover, she knew nothing of their relationship so perhaps, Prince Yi was desperately in love with Princess Nalan.

So Lei Xing put on a reassuring smile and truthfully responded, "Perhaps, I'm sure he has his reasons and in them, I'm sure he would have taken your feelings into account in making his choice..." Lei Xing was certain that he would have considered it, as to whether or not, he chose to dismiss her feelings in his consideration was an entirely different matter.

Princess Nalan knit her brows in thought and Lei Xing gave her a few seconds before gently pulling her along again. The Emperor and Prince Yi were still engaged in their quiet death glare match, but they could start talking anytime now and the last thing they needed was another emotional gatecrasher adding to the fire.

Thankfully Princess Nalan calmly followed her lead again because there was no way Lei Xing could take Princess Nalan in a fight. Not to mention that would most likely this whole thing worse, not that Lei Xing was going to fight her anyway.

When they got outside, Lei Xing instructed one of the guards stationed there to go get her retinue from the front. While Princess Nalan plopped down at the top of the steps.

Lei Xing looked at Princess Nalan's back and inwardly groaned, this was exactly the kind situation she avoided in her life. But now handling troublesome royals was another aspect of the life package she has signed up for.

Lei Xing sighed and then walked over and plopped down next to Princess Nalan. It was not an "Empress-like" thing for her to be sitting on the ground, but here was a born and bred Princess on the ground. Most importantly, who were the busybodies going to complain to?

Princess Nalan stretched her legs and then said, "You know I didn't even tell my father yet...about it." She said frowning down at her stomach. She and Prince Yi had decided to keep the info about her pregnancy secret, they had agreed that it might complicate matters so they kept it simple and simply explained their intention to form a marriage alliance through Prince Yi rather than the Emperor - who had sworn absolute devotion to his Empress. This seemed like a valid argument that made sense, her father technically got what he wanted and they got what they wanted.

Princess Nalan was certain that even the Long Emperor would not have an issue with this idea but Prince Yi was obviously not persuaded. So they agreed that if faced with rejection then they would reveal the pregnancy given them no choice but to allow the marriage...But it was supposed to be to select few - on a need to know basis, not a revelation to the entire world!

She had done reckless things in her life but never anything this big...this damaging.?Arrrgh, she had to go write to her family right now before they heard about through the gr.a.p.evine. So she shot to her feet, "I have to go."

But before Lei Xing could say anything, Princess Nalan sat back down,?"I'll just wait here for him...It can wait." She honestly was not sure how to go about writing said letters, she was never good with words and even worse with explaining things, much less something of this gravity so it was best to wait for the professional.

Princess Nalan took a few deep breaths, Lei Xing was right, he must have his reasons for changing the plan, he must have thought things through. He knew what he was doing, he understands his brother than she did. Therefore, he must have realized some form of deceit.

She had to believe that Prince Yi knows what he is doing and that the Long Emperor was really not trustworthy.

"Are you okay?" Lei Xing asked, looking at Princess Nalan's conflicted expression. Princess Nalan simply shook her head but did not say anything. So the two sat in silence and Lei Xing sent a look to Xiao Ruo and the others and they kept their distance from the pair.

"XIng er'...we're friends, right?" Princess Nalan asked, finally speaking up.

Lei Xing calmly responded, "We are..." They were considered to be on "friendly" terms.

Princess Nalan nodded and then they sat in silence again. Lei Xing inwardly sighed and looked at the clear blue sky...It was such a nice day, too bad it had to go hell.

Lei Xing knew she was supposed to be having an inquisition of some sort right now to figure out how this all happened, but then was there really a point to that now? It would not change anything and scolding the already clearly panicked girl did not seem appealing.

After all, she was not her mother or anything like that. But still, there were some things she had to inquire about, it was required of her. So she took a deep breath and finally began the inquisition, "Is he the reason you wanted to stay back?"

"En..." Princess Nalan simply responded. Lei Xing nodded, feeling somewhat irritated with the confirmation. Of course, he was the reason. How had she not noticed anything between them during those times?

Lei Xing sighed and then asked, "Are you really pregnant?"

"En...I - " Princess Nalan paused and then shook her head, "...A doctor checked so...I am?" Princess Nalan finished, somewhat confused and then groaned as she buried her head in her hands.

Lei Xing awkwardly stretched out her hand and then pat her back and awkwardly said, "Are you...crying?"

"No..." Princess Nalan mumbled back without raising her head.

"It's okay, we'll check again..." Lei Xing said and then turned back to the servants and said, "Send for the head physician..." And one of the maids scurried off and Lei Xing continued to absentmindedly continued to pat her back.

They could confirm her pregnancy, but at this point it did not really matter. The fact that they was suspicion of pregnancy meant that they were intimate and that alone was enough for problems in this time period.

Lei Xing inwardly sighed and?wondered how the conversation on the Emperor's side was going.

Princess Nalan suddenly and looked at Lei Xing with knit eyebrows, "I need to ask you something..."

"Alright??Ask." Lei Xing skeptically responded with raised eyebrows. Usually, when people started a question like that, it was usually not a welcome question.

"Your Emperor...why is he against this?" Princess Nalan asked with a frown.

Lei Xing blinked at her and then knit her brows, "Nalan, he didn't say that he is. It w -"

"He is! That's why Jun Shan did that." Princess Nalan irritatedly said.

Lei Xing blinked in confusion, "Nalan, you-"

"If he's not, then why not just say yes then? Huh? My father will have no issue with my choise so why make it into an issue then? Look at the mess he's caused now!" Princess Nalan barked, jumping to her feet in annoyance.

Lei Xing's eyebrows twitched in irritation and she closed her eyes and let out a breath.

{...The one who made this is an issue is obviously your newly found dearly beloved as***le! ?_?)...}

Lei Xing opened her eyes and looked up Princess Nalan and went, "Nalan, he wasn't making it into an issue, he was taking considerably reasonable steps which you and your beloved failed to consider in your wayward approach."

Princess Nalan frowned, "We-"

"You were not thinking." Lei Xing interjected with exasperation, also rising to her feet, she let out a breath and then turned to Princess Nalan and explained in a less than pleasant tone, "You hijacked an event and demanded for an Emperor to sanction your marriage. He receives you in you good cheer and then you go against his order several times in the span of a minute. You're lucky he's lenient enough to let that blatant disregard for his authority go..."

"...And no, he doesn't have a personal problem with you and Ju- Prince Yi being together. The problem stems from who you are - who you both are, and in the manner in which this has come about. You are a princess in a foreign country here for diplomatic relations and you not only go about frolicking about with a foreign prince but you get yourself pregnant in the process and rather than handling this with dignity you let yourself be led by the nose, disregarding who you are and the people you represent..."

"...Since you cannot maintain your own dignity, at least maintain that of your nation and stop stirring up trouble. Now sit down and wait patiently." Lei Xing irritatedly ordered, Princess Nalan glared at her and Lei Xing repeated, "Sit down."

then sat back down in a huff... Delicate was really not her thing.

"Hmph!" Princess Nalan went as she sat down in a huff, facing away from Lei Xing as she mumbled, "Things aren't so complicated in the grasslands..." She did not appreciate being spoken to like a child. Alright she was pregnant but it really was not that big of deal, after all the responsible man did want to marry and she liked him, so there really wasn't that much of a problem...They just skipped a step is all.

{...Well, we're not in Kansas anymore, you brat...Get used to it ?_?)...}

Lei Xing looked up at the clear sky and let out an irritated breath, before sitting down and massaging her aching head as she hoped the Emperor was having better luck with the better half of this mess.

Clueless people were the worst kinds of people to deal with.

{...Such a waste of a good day...}