The Empress Dowager watched in stunned silence as her son allowed the other person to cluck and huff at him like henpecked Chicken.She again took a closer look at the boy.
Ah!
She hadn"t noticed earlier but he seemed to be wearing clothes st.i.tched by The Imperial Seamstresses.
Ah!
Why did her son give this unknown child so much freedom?
From Empress Dowager was standing, it looked like her son was almost leaning all of his weight on that boy"s shoulder.
Ah!
They were standing so close to each other.
Ah!
It almost looked like they were sharing body warmth.
This...This position was far, far too intimate to be used between casual friends.
His Majesty"s body language was far more relaxed as compared to the rigid stance he would usually take when anybody tried to encroach upon his personal s.p.a.ce.
Even couples who had married for long wouldn"t necessarily be so carefree around each other.
Quite frankly, she was starting to worry about her son.
A shock of lightning struck, and she stood there dumbly.
However, now wasn"t the time to ask questions and put her son in a difficult spot.
No.
Right now, she needed to gather accurate information, look at it from a third-person perspective, a.n.a.lyse it and if her fears turned out to be true, then and only then would she start asking questions and demanding answers from His Majesty.
With that thought, she composed herself.
First things first, her son wasn"t harmed by the dagger hastily thrown by Ning Fu.
Ah!
Ning Fu had been one of the few ones who had gone to the hollow at The k.u.mbh Mountains for The Rain Ritual.
He must have seen the interactions between His Majesty and this new interloper.
Giving it some further thought, she decided to start her enquiries from Ning Fu himself.
With her Imperial mask firmly in place, she spoke, "Ah! Your Majesty, Ajia was thinking that since Your Excellency haven"t been harmed - thankfully, Ajia will see to the punishment of Unit Commander. What does Your Majesty think?"
Her son looked at her with his own mask of politeness for a few seconds, turned to look at the kneeling Ning Fu and gave an almost hesitant nod.
He also spoke haltingly, "Zhen doesn"t blame Unit Commander for what just happened here. Mohou, don"t make things too difficult for beloved official."
Ah!
Even now, her child was worried about the well-being of others.
Ai...ai...why can"t he see that his own mother is more worried about him.
Oh! It wasn"t that she was against him loving someone of the same gender.
No.No.
It was just that she was in despair because she had a duty to the late emperor.
She had to see to it that the late emperor"s family line flourished and here she and the later emperor"s only offspring was h.e.l.lbent on hammering nails into the coffin of their dreams.
Ah..ah!
No.
She shouldn"t think like that.
No.
She should try and see it from her son"s perspective.
Try to see what that hitherto unknown child had in him, to attract and ensnare her son"s heart so completely.
She had seen true life and a deep-seated longing in her son"s eyes that eventful afternoon when they had talked about his marriage.
More often than not, this place was such a cesspool of treachery and political machinations.
It was seldom that an Imperial family member found someone to share their burdens with - someone who wasn"t fawning over them because of their station or trying to curry favour.
No.
If her child loved that boy, she wouldn"t interfere in their affairs.
It was just...It was just that she was worried if it was really the right choice.
They wouldn"t have their own flesh and blood to look after them.
Anyways, turning to Ning Fu, she beckoned him towards her and they left the garden area.
"Come, Unit Commander."
Ning Fu didn"t know what to say or think when he saw the annoying blankness on The Empress Dowager"s face.
It was really perplexing to him, how these Imperial family members irrespective, of their t.i.tles, could leech away all the emotions from their face at command and leave a firm blankness on their faces.
He didn"t know what to say to her.
Anyways, she brought him into an adjoining pavilion and asked her own retinue to stay a few paces away from them.
He didn"t let the fear he was feeling inside, faze him and waited patiently at the side for his subsequent punishment.
When the silence had almost become suffocating, The Empress Dowager spoke, "Unit Commander, since His Majesty didn"t seem to blame you for your unintended actions, Ajia has nothing more to say about it."
Ning Fu eyed The Empress Dowager with a peculiar look on his face.
In his experience, getting any undue advantage or mercy from members of The Royal Clan was akin to asking a tiger for its hide.
It never bodes well for the person on the receiving end of such care and mercies.
Anyways, when he saw the lady looking at him as if trying to catch the emotional byplay on his face, he slammed his own Unit Commander mask on his face and stood in complete stillness.
The Empress Dowager"s hands curled into fists until she felt the pain emanating from her palms. When she lifted her hand, she found out that the sharp points of her nail guards had pierced her skin.
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Not paying any attention to the pain emanating from her hands, she looked at this person and tried to come to a decisive decision because she knew that once she set foot on this path and found out things that weren"t in accordance with the usual way of things, she wouldn"t be able to undo or forget it.
Taking a deep sigh, she turned towards Ning Fu and thus began another round of miscommunication and misunderstandings all around.