Xing woke up late afternoon as she felt a gentle hand caressing her forehead. His other hand was placed over her hand over the blanket warming her up. He always had the perfect warmth for her." I"ve prepared a meal for you, just like you asked", Chenglei kissed her forehead.
"Hmm", she turned to face him and his handsome face was filled with gentleness just like the rays of the winter sun that entered their room.
As if everything he did yesterday wasn"t enough, he had to prepare a meal too? Xing was touched in her heart.
Then she saw the swing hanging inside their room and her eyes widened with surprise.
"Isn"t that the swing in the Light Wind Courtyard?", she asked sitting up.
"Mmm", he leaned in her shoulder wrapping his arms around her waist. "Don"t you like it? So I brought it here and until I find something better than this, you can have it", he added.
He had mixed emotions about the swing but still brought it home.
His brother told him it was not the property of the Imperial Palace and it was a gift to her and so he can take it back.
His explanation had the answer but Chenglei stressed on the "gift" part rather than the "take it back" part.
He didn"t realise "take it back " means the Emperor implied that he was the one gifted it to her which is the truth.
All his thoughts were, "Could this be gifted by the other man she is waiting for?"
"I used to like it. I needed it at times even", she hugged him back. In that cold temperature, she wanted to snuggle in his embrace all the time.
"Now that you are here, I won"t need that anymore", she took a deep breath taking in his scent.
In the end it is just a thing and it"s worth is determined by the person who gave it to her and he is more close to her heart than the thing he gave and he is more precious.
"These kind of lazy mornings are fun!", she thought after eating the sumptuous meal he cooked for her as she was leaning on him sitting on the couch.
Chenglei on the other hand was relieved by her indifference towards that swing.
Guess, it is not that important to her, he thought.
That night they had a family dinner in the Prime Minister"s Manor and Xing had a good time there. Rijin brought Takano there and she apologised sincerely to Xing and Xing planned to try and forgive her.
Xing might forgive her for setting up to violate her but she had no heart to forgive her for poisoning her father for three years and making him miserable and pitiful.
Days pa.s.sed and the capital city buzzed with activities as usual. Xing took care of her duties as the Princess Consort rather enthusiastically. Four years back if someone told her that she"d he happy living the life of a lady of a house, she"d have laughed in their face but after everything she went through, she felt relieved to have a peaceful and quiet life.
A week pa.s.sed and that"s how much Xing could enjoy the peace and quiet. It was too quiet for her and it felt like she was living in a dream or like when she was in the netherworld. It was eerily quiet back there too.
The chatters she"d hear from the Heavenly realms entirely stopped for some time the past few days and she couldn"t even feel the presence of Fei Lian and Mazu at times. But it was not continuous and it happened for some hours in a day and then it will return back to normal.
Xing knew the portals that were functioning for the past thousand years that made the mortals communicate with the immortals are collapsing for some reason. And she could not say whether it would bring construction or destruction of the human race, if the G.o.ds decided to entirely stay away from the human realm.
Chenglei would leave for court in the morning when she"d be taking care of the manor and the businesses and after Chenglei arrives, they"d have dinner and "night exercises". This regular routine made Xing a bit bored.
And there wasn"t much going on in the court either as she gathered from her father.
Why is everything so quiet? She wondered. Might it be the calm before storm?
That day Lin Mubai with his entire life worth of gathered courage, asked for the hand of Xiao Mei.
For some reason, Xiao Mei knelt before her too making Xing roll her eyes.
It"s not like I"ll snap his neck for asking, right?
That night Chenglei was not allowed to speak or sleep as Xing explained him the wedding plans of her maid.
And so for another month Xing was too engrossed in planning the wedding and in the history of their Kingdom, Xiao Mei was the only maid who got married like a young lady of a respectable house.
Chenglei didn"t mind spending money to alleviate his wife"s boredom. And he also knew it was not the only reason, his wife is willing to spend that much for her maid. She really loved her maid.
As he discussed with his wife, Chenglei gave a piece of their land for Lin Mubai after asking him if he is willing to leave and be on his own. Lin Mubai can be considered rich in their kingdom as he has earned a lot being with Chenglei for a long time but he refused and expressed his willingness to serve his brother wolf till his last breath.
Xing got messages from Lady Shaoyao that the fox clan is going to handover the Heavenly Flowers palace to the humans to manage, entirely. She also had written that there were talks about closing all the portals to the demon realms and everyone stays in their own realms.
Xing sighed deeply reading that letter. There sure are merits to this and also some demerits. There are sometimes when demons cause havoc in the realm of the humans. Even so, If the portals are closed legally, it would not solve much.
The demons have their own differences with many races and their own rules and if they stop getting to the human realm, they won"t get their perks and there sure will be certain illegal ways of crossings opened by not so good demons and those who use those illegal portals won"t be good demons either..
Whatever! Not my concern! Xing thought. But there was a little scratch in her heart that something big is going on and she wanted to know what it is.
Xing tried to contact Bai Li and her master Yuan but none of them could be reached. Xing in the end decided to let it go.
A couple months pa.s.sed after they got married and spring approached. Xing was sitting in the pavilion by the garden in their Manor sorting out the banquet invitations she had received. Most of them were spring banquets arranged by the various households and they all wanted the presence of the only Princess Consort in their Kingdom. But Xing was never interested in banquets and she sure as h.e.l.l won"t be gracious enough to let those women with daggers for tongues to brag that they are of equal status to her just because she attended their banquet. Most of them are just asking her to make connections since Chenglei holds a lot of power in the capital city. And not to mention people always liked to brag that they are connected to rich people.
Xing often visited her father and also the Zhong Manor and she never left her Manor much. Once she asked Chenglei to visit the western province but he refused to let her go alone and promised to go together.
She told him another time that she wanted. To visit her lands in the East where the rehabilitation process of the drug was going on and Chenglei told her that he had already sent people to take care of it and she need not go there.
With nothing else to do, Xing just spent her days reading everything she found. Her father would sometimes ask her to write certain bills so that they"d be submitted for processing in the court and somehow Xing spent her time without getting frustrated out of boredom.
Chenglei would practice sword with her in the mornings and Xing would get her spirit back for the day. She always had such a connection with swords.
It was spring and the time for court exams and the entire city was filled with various scholars from the various provinces. These few years there was a higher rate of commoner scholars writing exams courtesy of the schools the Emperor opened in every province.
Chenglei was busy arranging the stay of the great influx of scholars and he had no time to even get home in the past week. With more people in the city, the security has to be improved and also the scholars all should be screened for safety issues and Chenglei was in charge of interviewing them to see where their loyalty lies.
That morning as usual Xing woke up early and she was informed that Chenglei got home pretty late and not wanting to disturb her, is sleeping in the small outhouse in their courtyard.
Their courtyard had the main building where the bedroom and Xing"s closet and storeroom were and Chenglei kept his study in the outhouse since he as a simple man, believed work should not be brought to the bedroom and bedroom is only for doing much more fun stuff and sleeping afterwards.
Xing wrapping herself with just an outer robe walked towards the outhouse in a hurried manner.
It"s been a week since I"ve seen you, hubby!
The guards who were supposed to be guarding the outhouse were not there and she could hear some ruffling noises inside and Xing felt a tug in her heart.
She opened the door hurriedly and stood by the door frozen for a second and immediately composed herself.
Surely I"m not seeing Chenglei on top of a naked woman on the couch, right?
Her heart beat erratically but nothing was shown on her face as she processed what she is seeing.
"Oh! I won"t disturb you then", she said expressionless and closed the door behind her and left for her room.
Before Xing even took a couple of steps away from the outhouse, she heard the door opening with a bang and Chenglei got out of the room fixing his robes,
"JiaXing! It is not what you think", he grabbed her arms and turned her to look at him.
Could she be crying? This is bad and hard to explain!
But he was perplexed to see her calm face.
"Did you finish what you were doing?", she looked at him calmly and spoke with a gentle smile in her face.
"If so, clean up and join me for breakfast", she swirled elegantly like a Swan with her soft silk outer robe fluttering in the gentle wind and her jet black hair glittering in the spring morning sun.
Wait! She saw me on top of a naked woman and she is this calm?
Why?
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She doesn"t care about me?
Chenglei stood there rooted for some time with his heart beating in his throat.
I won"t be this calm would I? The thought of the possibility that she might be thinking about another man is making me go nuts and she saw me with another woman and yet she is so calm?
I"ve heard that women would usually grab the hair of the other women and start a fight. But why is she indifferent?
Will she point this as a reason and leave me? Is that why she is so calm?
Chenglei watched her entering their building and ran inside to see if she really is fine and not just pretending to be fine.