Song Jian looked at the lost man before him. They were playing chess but that man's heart was not right there.

After observing the emperor for a while he sighed,

"His highness looks deep lost in thought. I think that little concubine of yours has something to do about it"

Zhu Zhen looked at his best friend with surprise.

Was he that obvious?

However, sighing tiredly he looked outside the window, his fingers making circles on the corner of table..

"She...is sulking. Not talking to me for days"

Song Jian eyed the grown man sitting before him who was now looking like a teenager discussing his love problems.

Sigh! The day he feared the most finally came.

He and Zhu Zhen grew up together. The emperor was always an ambitious man...

He had an unquenchable thirst for conquering and didn't want to compromise it with anything....

However, according to Zhu Zhen,the main element that could hinder his success was women and only women. So he refused to take a wife.

After being crowned as an emperor, his mother tried to persuade him to take concubines.

This old lady wants chubby grandchildren!

So, to cool off his mother's temperament, he invented a new way.

He agreed to have concubines, but only from lowly backgrounds and demoted their rank.

Thus all of them ended up as maids in the imperial palace.

It's not that concubines didn't try to climb his bed. They tried but all of them were banished to the Guan State secretively. Then the king himself spread the rumors that whoever sleeps with the king doesn't live to see the next morning....

Even after all of his calculative steps, a little concubine with nothing special wrapped him around her little finger.... What an irony of fate!

Song Jian suddenly felt pity for this man..

"Then, your highness should try to persuade her."

"Zhen tried. She pretends not to listen... Just does her job and leaves"

"Leaves! To where?"the General smiled.

"Her room"

Song Jian suddenly burst out laughing...

Zhu Zhen was transfixed at his friend's behavior..

Was he laughing at my misery?

Noticing his fierce glare, Song Jian suppressed his laugh. He loved his precious life anyway.

Leaning his head closer to the emperor, he matched his gaze with Zhu Zhen's. A mischievous grin appeared on his lips as he let the next words out slowly,

"She is your wife, your majesty. Why should she have a room of her own?"

Faraway... G.Li felt her heart suddenly clenched with an ominous feeling.

Why do I feel like something really bad is gonna happen?

👘👘👘👘👘👘👘

G.Li was confused with the king's sudden change of behaviour.

All these days Zhu Zhen tried his best to initiate a conversation but she didn't give in....

It's not that she was angry, she was not...

She was actually scared.

She knew the emperor was interested in her. It was not rocket science but she refused to join in anykind of emotional entanglement with him because,

First, the female lead is yet to come

Secondly,she must be his majesty's temporary entertainment to kill time..

And she refused to be "temporary"

So,she stopped talking to the emperor in hope that he would forget about his new interest...

But today,the king treated her like an air,and didn't bother to talk....

G.Li should be happy about this but something tells her that the emperor was upto something.....something which is definitely not good..

After the king finished lunch,G.Li started wiping his fingers with wet napkin...he had slender beautiful long fingers... some faded scars gave them a masculine beauty.....

Zhu Zhen looked at his little wife with amusement...she never bothered to look at his face but now gawking at his fingers like they were some treasures...

Finally, Zhen possesses something of your liking.....

G.Li would have done a full ph.D on the emperor's fingers if not a panicked guard barged into the chamber.

"Your highness,the north part of the palace caught fire"

The guard seemed like he would die out of his shivering.

Wait a second! North part? Isn't my room in the north part????

Panic seized her whole body as realization dawned upon her....

No,no,no,no.....it can't be,it can't be....

Before she could realize, her body shot up and ran out of the chamber.

Poor, poor G.Li! She was not even in the right mind to notice the glee in the emperor's eyes.

....................

G.Li ran and ran in a hope that there was actually no fire, in a hope that it was all just rumors....

Her body felt numb due to the pressure she put on it but she didn't want to go through the same pain. She didn't want to experience the same feelings...

The way you feel when you suddenly find out that you don't have a place to return.

The pain of not having a home...

She didn't want to feel that pain because she knew how it fudging hurts. She knew very well because she experienced it.

When she reached the north part,it was all burnt... all burnt to ashes.

Gongsun Li fell on the floor with a thud as flashback of that day before her eyes

Nothing is different, everything is the same. Like that day, nobody was there to console her, to share her pain. She was again all alone.

Hot tears started falling on her cheeks,as she sat there numb. She didn't even care when two arms pulled her to a hard chest encasing her in a tight hug. She needed warmth, so she pressed her cheek to the chest as unfamiliar fingers started caressing her hair gently not being able to hold it anymore, she let it all out...

"Fool... why crying over something so trivial?"

"It's...it's all go..gone".. G.Li managed to bring out the words between her sobs.

"The..there is no home now" her voice was not above a whisper...

G.Li felt the arms tightening around her as she heard his next words,

"Silly...It was not your home. From now on your home is with Zhen"

Your home is with Zhen....

G.Li didn't have the energy to process the words. Closing her eyes,she let herself being carried to she doesn't know where...

She just wanted to forget everything. She just wanted to lean on someone to take her somewhere safe, somewhere warm...

Snuggling closer to the warmth, G.Li didn't know when she fell asleep...

Zhu Zhen looked down at her sleeping face tenderly. Dried tears were still apparent on her cheeks. Leaning down he pressed his lips on her head..

This would be last time Zhen makes you cry. It's a promise.

The next morning when G.Li woke up, the first thing she noticed was the cozy bed beneath her. It was soooo comfortable...

Her eyes closed in pleasure.....

Wait a second!this bed is familiar....

Before she could figure out anything,a deep voice resonated in the room,

"You are awake"

Eh?

Her eyes shot open and she took in the surroundings.

She was in......the emperor's chamber!!!!!

O.M.G!!!!!

Watching her bewildered expression, Zhu Zhen chuckled.

Patting her head tenderly, he murmured,

"From now on, you will stay here"

Stay here? Here as in the chamber? The royal chamber!!!!!!

Her heart brimmed with joy as she looked around the chamber frantically...

The cozy bed, royal sofa, the balcony with magnificent view of the whole state..... All would be hers???

This would be her new home, sweet home!!!

She felt like she would faint out of her overbearing excitement...

"Really? Your highness is letting me live here?"

Smiling adoringly at her excited face,Zhu Zhen replied,

"Of course"

Gongsun Li squealed in excitement and clapped giggling....

Wait a second!!!! I should thank him properly first...

She instantly bowed and murmured sweetly,

"Your highness, xiaonu would be grateful for ever. You are the kindest king of the world. You even got ready to change your room just for xionu! You are the greatest!"

"Zhen will not change his room" the emperor deadpanned....

What on earth is he trying to say? If he is not gonna change his room where would I stay?

Don't tell me.....

"Your highness, don't you think living in the balcony would be hard for me?"

Zhu Zhen felt like hitting her head on the wall.

How does that little mind of hers work?

"Nobody is staying in the balcony. We both will live here.. together" he put extra pressure on the word 'together'.

Whaaaat! It must be my auditory hallucination....yes,it must be..

"Hahahaha, your highness please forgive jianqie's poor hearing. I just heard you said we will live here together...so rediculo...."

"You heard right" Zhu Zhen said with blank expression...

Whaaaaaat!!

Ummmm...can someone please call me a doctor?

Cause I am gonna faint right now..

Song Jian: Your highness,you didn't have to fire your own palace to make her stay with you...you just had to order her to do that....

Zhu Zhen: Yeah, but the idea of ordering didn't cross my mind then....

Xian Xu: That's the zero IQ I was talking about....sigh'