Will Of Heaven

二十五

His Woman

✤

IN the end, I sat on the settee at the side, two feet away from his right. There's no way I'm going to sit at the chair he pointed at, that's like obeying his order and I don't take orders from anyone below the imperial family, much less a low-born like him who acts arrogantly.

Renshu didn't speak for a while, as if he was thinking of how he will convey his next words better.

That's good, he better make it humble this time. If he does something that will make my temper explode I might plot an assassination against him.  “Can you tell me of the nobles you saw in the gambling house, princess?”

“Why should I tell you?” I don't even know what exactly they are investigating. Giving information about things I don't know about to someone I hardly knew is putting myself to harm. Who knows what noble families I'll pull in the process, it can be clans of some powerful consorts in the harem which I couldn't afford to offend such as the Wangs and the Ye's or their close allies. Granted I have my adoptive mother but who can guarantee that she can truly protect me until the end when she can put herself in danger in an attempt to take down Consort Ye? I'm nothing but a chess piece in their power struggle.

“You're making this difficult” he look helpless. Yes, he should be in front of me.

“I wouldn't make things difficult if you didn't make it difficult for me first”

“Fine. Why are you with the heir of the Jia clan?”

I replied to him with my previous answer “Why should I tell you?”

His sharp jaw tightens. Even he can't conceal his temper sometimes. It seems like he's quite vexed by my repeated answers.

“Have you forgotten, princess? I can report to his majesty that you were fooling around at the gambling house?” he goes back to threatening me again, I see. My usual elegant but cunning smile arched up on my lips. He's mistaken to assume that he can bully and threaten me for the same reason.

“Have you forgotten as well, General? You invited me out of the Palace and my personal handmaidens knew. However, I can deny that. I'll say that you kidnap me out of the Palace, touch and threaten me. By then, your reputation will be ruined, do you think his majesty will still believe you? Even if he did other ministers wouldn't let this one slide, especially those old nobles. They can't tolerate a newcomer such as yourself and will strike whenever there's an opportunity”

“You don't care about your own reputation?”

“I'll play a victim, what else can it do to me? At most I'll have to marry you, by then you'll be wrapped around my little finger” What I'm spouting were lies of course, it's the other way around, I'm not going to willingly marry this bastard. He's very controlling, I'll probably die in suffocation. A man like him can never be controlled, he'll control you instead.

He leaned at the back of the wooden chair he was sitting on, giving me a long hard look.

“Your Highness, you could really be of great help if you state something that you saw in the gambling house” seems like he was about to give up with my stubbornness

“I don't help anyone who needs help”

“Aye” with my attitude, he eventually give up as he knock his scarred knuckles on the table lightly “There's an illegal trading going on from the Xie territories to the Jiye. Irons and horses, things that have long been banned to be traded from the Empire to any foreign territories as we are in the midst of war campaigns ourselves, it is valuable for us, if anything we have to get more of them. We suspect it's a spy of mixed descent of Han and Hu that easily infiltrate our ranks, the Jia clan might have something to do about it, and that gambling house is one of the meeting points of these illegal traders for irons, and to gather intelligence as well”