Chapter 1 Kicked Off the Bed
When I woke again, a day and a night had already passed. The palace maids, it seemed, had all been shut outside the door in Xie Linmu's anger. Duanyang Hall was empty, which only made Xie Linmu's storm-dark face more frightening.
His hair was a little messy. Ink-black strands fell at a careless slant. A faint web of red showed in his eyes. It looked like he had barely slept. The exhaustion sat plain in his gaze.
I swallowed. A bright idea struck. I prepared to fake memory loss.
"Who are you?"
Xie Linmu did not look convinced. His face stayed heavy. "I am your Dad."
My whole grand play jammed in my throat at that one line and never came out.
The two of us went silent for a while, faces sunk, neither speaking. In the end I broke the quiet.
"Dad."
"..." Xie Linmu froze. He stared at me as if he had seen a ghost. Only after a long moment did he get out one line. "What did you call me?"
I called again. "Dad."
Xie Linmu rubbed his swollen temples and shook all over. "Song Huanhuan, keep acting. See if I lock up every person who writes Storybook, so you never see a sequel in this life."
At those words my heart filled with unease. But the act had already started. How could I stop halfway. "Dad, you are so cruel."
Those black eyes of Xie Linmu let me read no feeling. He looked me over for a while, then spoke. "You truly do not remember?"
I nodded like pounding garlic.
The corner of Xie Linmu's mouth drew into a thread of a smile. He came closer, slow. "Do you know who I am?"
"...Dad."
"I am not your Dad." Xie Linmu took my wrist and set it on his chest. "I am your Husband."
That gaze looked full of feeling, and that face was extremely gorgeous. I could not hold out against the temptation. The roots of my ears warmed. I lowered my head a little and wanted to shrink back, yet my body would not move.
Xie Linmu saw the state of me. His mouth curved up. His face looked flirtatious. "Do something with Husband?"
I had not caught on. I looked up at him. "Do what?"
"Do what a married pair ought to do."
That night, word that I had kicked the Emperor off the bed spread through the palace. The matter of the Empress losing her memory was confirmed as well. Even Noble Consort Shen, newly married by the Emperor, came to Duanyang Palace with top-grade medicine to pity me.