Chapter 7 A Kiss before Everyone
The sky had gone dark. Clouds covered the crescent moon. I set my legs on the bed and swung them now and then. I suddenly remembered the year I first met Xie Linmu. It had been on this hundred-year-old tree in Duanyang Palace.
I had picked a fruit and was eating it with pride when a stone thrown by Xie Linmu under the tree hit me and knocked the fruit from my hand.
Rage took me at once. Hands on my waist, I shouted, "Where did this thief come from?!"
Xie Linmu wore black. He looked up at me. Sharp brows, bright eyes, elegant, fierce and still polite. For a moment I could not move my eyes away.
The words stuck in my throat.
Xie Linmu put his hands on his waist too. His small face looked displeased. "Who are you? Why are you in my mother's bedchamber?"
"I am General Song's daughter, Song Huanhuan." I lifted my brows, full of pride. "Well? Are you scared?"
"General Song's daughter? General Song is that good-looking. Why are you this ugly?" Xie Linmu clicked his tongue twice. "Liar."
That was the first time I struck the Young Crown Prince hard. I pinched his ears bright red and scraped several red marks on his neck. He looked wronged, yet he still comforted me, the one crying hard from being angered by him.
"Stop crying. I will buy you candy, all right?"
At those words my crying drew back. I wiped my tears on him without hiding it and gave a muffled nod. He did not seem to mind. He carried me on his back. "Big Brother will take you to buy candy."
It was probably that one Big Brother. A matchmaker paired us, and we became a troubled bond.
The Young Crown Prince Xie Linmu had been bullied by Song Huanhuan from childhood up to now.
I hooked the corner of my mouth. My mood was very good. "It has been a long while since I called him Big Brother."
Night came with a light dream, and I grew drowsy, sunk in memories of Xie Linmu and me.
Half asleep, I felt someone draw me into his arms and pinch my face, playing with me like a doll for half the night.
"A liar from childhood until now."
I was too sleepy to bear it. I recognized his voice, settled, and could not be bothered with him. I sank into sleep.
"Wake up."
I opened hazy eyes and looked at the person I had dreamed of all night. Before my mind caught up, I hugged Xie Linmu and kissed him. It was not enough. I slid my hand into his clothes.
Xie Linmu smiled at me, all careless ease. Those tender eyes narrowed a little. "Are you going to tease Big Brother in front of everyone?"
The words exploded in my head. My pupils shrank. Only then did I see Qiao Qingmiao and Shen Yiluo standing behind Xie Linmu. My face went green. I wanted to crawl into a crack in the ground.
Xie Linmu did not seem to care. He even made a joke. "What? You got up too early and forgot to act?"
Shen Yiluo covered her mouth and laughed. "Song Huanhuan's face is as red as an apple."
I glanced at the mirror beside me and only then found a rouge-like flush on both cheeks. I pulled the bed curtain down, shutting Xie Linmu out, and said in a muffled voice, "I am changing!"
When I heard the door close outside, I let out a breath. I touched my burning face. My heart gave a jump.
Thinking it through, I had never told Xie Linmu that I liked him, and I had never heard him say he liked me. We had become a pair so naturally. It seemed that from the moment I met him, the two of us had been bound to stay together.
I suddenly felt wronged. Set beside Qiao Qingmiao and Shen Yiluo, General Qiao had fought on battlefields, a heroine of endless grace, all for that one line from Shen Yiluo, I like General Qiao.
It seemed to me that Shen Yiluo had married the Emperor, not greedy for name or virtue, only to seek a safe place for her and Qiao Qingmiao under this worldly life.
When I set the two beside each other, I felt even more that Xie Linmu and I were too plain. I kicked my lower legs forward and rolled on the bed in anger.
The bed curtain was lightly lifted. Xie Linmu's soul-catching phoenix eyes curved. "The Empress has such a large morning temper."
I ignored him. My heart was full of the grievance of being plain.
He sat beside me and lightly played with my hair. Between his brows and eyes he looked gentle. A wicked idea rose in me. I grabbed his collar, leaned in, and kissed him. He lifted his brows a little, and the happiness was plain to see. "Remembered Big Brother?"
I sat back and shook my head. "No. I only had a wicked idea for a moment."
"A wicked idea?" Xie Linmu was teased into a laugh by me. "When you have a wicked idea, you may kiss me as you like. When I have a wicked idea, I get kicked off the bed. That makes no sense."
I folded my arms, displeased too. "I think you got me too easily!"
Xie Linmu did not seem to catch my meaning. "What?"
"How earth-shaking the love of General Qiao and Shen Yiluo is.
Our past is too plain." The more I spoke, the more wronged I felt.
"In a Storybook, when a man chases a woman, it is all heaven-shaking and earth-moving.
You never even said you liked me, and I married you in a muddle. I will not accept it!"
"Just because of this, you have kept ignoring me?" Xie Linmu pinched my face. "Give me every Storybook you have."
"What for? Are you going to burn my Storybook again?"
Xie Linmu smiled in helplessness. "Big Brother will learn how a Storybook does something heaven-shaking—so I can chase Song Huanhuan back."
I held down the rise of my mouth. I stepped over Xie Linmu, got off the bed, and set the long-treasured Storybook in front of him. "Study well. I am going to play with Shen Yiluo and the others."
Xie Linmu sprawled lazily on my bed, picked up one Storybook, and started to flip through it. "Go."
"You go out first."
Xie Linmu went still. "Go where?"
"I am changing."
"Oh." Xie Linmu stood. Just when I thought he would go out, he walked up to me with folded arms, like a lecher. "I want to watch."
"..."
I kicked Xie Linmu out of the bedchamber.