The King's Dancer

Chapter 10

Over the course of the following week, Mei NianQing worked on refining Xie Lian's footwork, and the precision of his steps. It was still taxing, and Xie Lian was starting to miss Banyue. On top of that, he'd twisted his ankle the previous day, and the swelling just wouldn't go down. It got worse instead, but Xie Lian absolutely refused to let anyone notice; he didn't want to risk not performing for the king tonight after all.

Luckily, the Guoshi hadn't noticed anything off with his ankle, and just sent him off like he had last week.

Now that Xie Lian knew the way, he was allowed to go to the king's chambers by himself, which he was pretty happy about. Not that he minded having General NanYang around him, it was just that he enjoyed every little bit of freedom he could get his hands on.

There were more significant differences to last time however, which were that, one, the musician's booth was separated by a screen that could not be seen through, and two, the king was already lounging on his divan this time, casually eating whatever fruits were in the bowl beside him.

Xie Lian bowed hurriedly.

"I'm late, pray Your Majesty forgive me."

"You're forgiven. And you're not late. However, I don't think I heard you calling me correctly", the king said while raising his eyebrow.

Xie Lian sighed silently in relief. So the king wanted to play around again.

He smiled at the king softly, and made his way to the middle of the room.

"I'm sorry, San Lang."

The king smirked.

"Stop apologising so much, gege. If one were to hear us they would think us strangers."

"Well, how would San Lang like me today?", he asked in an inelegant attempt to change the topic.

The king definitely noticed, but didn't comment. Instead he just stared at Xie Lian for a while, before he leaned against the backrest of the divan.

"Dance however you feel like, gege. I'm sure I'll enjoy every single movement you deign to show me."

Since Xie Lian had come here with the expectation of getting into the same playful mood as last time, he'd decided to wear a lavender coloured garment, however now that the king was staring at him with that intense eye of his, he wished he'd gone for the black and red one. It would be much more befitting of his current mood, but alas it couldn't be helped.

Playful it was, he decided, and started dancing.

For a while, his ankle didn't bother him too much, but the dull ache turned into a piercing pain the more he moved his feet. Xie Lian was good at enduring pain, and didn't let anything show on his face. However when he made the same step that had caused this injury in the first place, his ankle protested to the point of giving in, and Xie Lian tumbled to the ground ungracefully. He hurried to get up and keep dancing, but his ankle apparently had enough of being ignored, and his attempt at standing up, ended with him falling to the floor once more.

"Gege!", Xie Lian heard the king exclaim, but he didn't dare to look at him. "Gege, what's wrong?", he asked, and was beside him in a flash, kneeling down right next to Xie Lian.

"Nothing! Nothing, I just got dizzy, I'm sorry Your Majesty had to witness such clum-"

"Gege... don't lie to me", the king said, and he sounded sad.

The tone in his voice had surprised Xie Lian so much he inadvertently looked up at him.

"If you had been dizzy, you should have been unsteady, and swayed at least a little bit before going down completely, no? This looked like you hurt yourself", the king continued, even his face looking troubled.