😘😘😂

"You are awake," Zhu Zhen's deep voice resonated as G.Li's eyes fluttered.

Shit! Busted!

G.Li wanted to pretend to be asleep for the rest of her life after the embarrassing incident near the lake.

Who on earth faints in the midst of such mind-blowing kiss?

Ladies and gentleman, it's me, the greatest idiot of all times!

She was definitely not ready to face the emperor now, not when she was all curled up on his lap and his arms were on a death grip around her body.

"Look at me! " Zhu Zhen ordered. G.Li flinched at the sharp edge on his tone but still continued to keep her eyes closed.

"Gongsun Li!", He called her name with an underlying warning tone in his voice making her shiver.

"No," she replied stubbornly hiding her face in the curve of his neck to avoid looking at him.

Zhu Zhen sighed feeling her hot breath on his neck. He cupped her nape and stroked her racing pulse with his thumb.

Now they were heading back to the imperial palace in the royal carriage.

An Ran!!!!

G.Li jerked away from Zhu Zhen as fear crawled up into her guts remembering about her friend.

How could she forget about him?

"Where is An Ran?", she asked agitatedly. Her determination of not looking at her husband flew out of the window.

Zhu Zhen's jaw clenched at the mention of that scumbug's name and his grip on her nape hardened.

"Don't ever say another man's name from those lips," he warned before again burying her face against his throat, his fingers finding its way into her hair.

Gongsun Li really wanted to continue her interrogation, but her husband's strong hold on her hips were warning her against it.

She knew he was holding himself back from burning the world considered the amount of rage fuelling within him.

So, she closed her eyes letting herself lose into darkness under the magical touch of her husband's finger in her hair.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" an earth shattering scream rang all around the emperor's chamber.

"Niangniang (madam), please punish nubi if nubi did any mistake while doing your make up." All the panicked maids chattered all around Gongsun Li after hearing her horrendous scream as she saw herself in the mirror.

They could not figure out why their madam's reaction was so scary to the make up they bestowed on her face.

According to them, it was quite standard and all the princesses and noble ladies liked this kind of look.

But to Gongsun Li, shit looked better than her face right then. Her cheeks were colored vermillion red on each side, her eyebrows drawn into black crescent shape, and worse, her lips were painted red just in the middle forming a cherry shaped pout. Her hair looked like a tiny accessory shop with all that zan[1] and buyao[2] hanging on her huge double bun.

In short, she looked awful!!!

All the maids could tell that she was extremely dissatisfied with her look right now, and so, they attempted to placate her,

"Niangniang looks heavenly in this make over. So beautiful."

Beautiful, my ass! This morning I saw my poop and it looked better than my face.

"Remove all these paints from my face right now! I don't want any make up." Gongsun Li winced as she stared at her face again.

All the maids gasped and kneeled down as they heard her,

"Nuangniang, his highness ordered us to serve you well, and get you ready properly. If you don't, he will punish us severely. Have mercy!"

G.Li's heart melted at the sight of their overflowing tears and she budged finally. Pursing her lips, she trailed her gaze down at the girls,

"Where is his majesty?"

I swear if I see him, I'll strangle him to death. How dare he didn't even bother to show his face the whole day and leave me here like a clueless monkey?!

To her utter horror, when she woke up this morning she found herself in the emperor's royal chamber with all these maids licking her ass from the moment she opened her eyes.

And that irritating bastard, he didn't even bother to show his face!!!!

Xiao hua, one of her maids replied to her question meekly,

"Nubi is not so sure, but nubi heard some palace guard say that his majesty went to join a very important meeting with Gong[3] Li Cheng."

Li Cheng? The name sure rings a bell.

G.Li clearly remembered Gong Li was one of those officials who didn't support the emperor's decision of crowning princess Qiao Tan as the empress. Li Cheng wanted the empress throne for his pampered daughter Li Lian and tried many ways to marry her off to Zhu Zhen.

That's a story for another time. For now, G.Li's main concern was to remove this shit from her face.

After some time, when G.Li saw herself in the mirror after doing her make up herself, she was quite satisfied.

Her hair was tied in a double bun with only one buyao[2] hanging over there, she left some of her curls over her temples giving it a slightly messy look. The vermillion red spread over her cheek was reduced to a slight pink blush (which she managed to extract by squeezing a poor cherry), her lips were painted straight vermillion red and she left her brows as natural as they were.

Though she didn't have any idea why she was being suddenly treated as a princess whereas she was just a lowly concubine, she was more than happy to try these expensive stuff..

Not to mention, her attire, the traditional dark blue diyi[4] was really eye-catching.

"His highness himself chose it for you', a maid chimed happily as she gawked at her madam's attire.

G.Li couldn't believe her ears. She trailed her gaze over her reflection again and again.

Whatever that wanker is up to, it is no good.

G.Li was about to say something but she was cut off in the middle by a high pitched voice.

"How dare you enter into the royal chamber without her highness' permission?" the squeaky voice rang out all around the chamber making the maids gasp with horror.

But their horror was no match to G.Li's, when she turned only to face her greatest nightmare,

The Empress Dowager!!!

[1]- One type of hairpin

[2]- Hairpin that makes sound while walking

[3]- Duke

[4]-Ming dynasty traditional attire for noble ladies.

G.Li's attire Diyi: