The King's Mate - Part 1: Banyue

Chapter 29

Here, have some fluff for gege's birthday :D

Xie Lian was starting to regret having agreed to play hide and seek with his daughter.

They had previously agreed to limit the hiding area to within their home, and he'd even asked the guards if they had seen Ruoye leave, but he still couldn't find her and it had been more than a whole incense stick worth of time since he started searching for her!

He'd systematically gone through every single room, on every single floor of their manor. He'd even searched the king's entertainment room. But he still couldn't find her! Xie Lian even thought of going down to search through the armoury, but he knew for a fact that Hua Cheng kept the door that hid the stairs firmly locked. And there was simply no way for Ruoye to have found the key for that door either, since Hua Cheng had the habit of keeping it on his person at all times.

For a hot second, Xie Lian panicked, and thought maybe she had hid herself in the mating chamber, and he was already dashing down the stairs in a blind panic at the thought of his daughter drowning in the pool, while he was wasting time up here, when he remembered that they'd made sure to keep that room locked at all times as well, because it was simply too dangerous to leave it unlocked. Still, he hurried to make sure the door to the mating chamber was truly still locked. Which it was, thankfully.

Xie Lian heaved a huge sigh of relief, but unlocked the door to throw a quick glance into the room, just to make completely sure Ruoye hadn't somehow found her way in. There was no sign of anybody having been in here, so Xie Lian managed to calm down properly.

After he locked the door once more, he realised he hadn't actually searched the garden yet. He immediately got to work, knowing it would take a lot of time to find her between the bushes, if she was even there.

Eventually, Xie Lian managed to find Ruoye underneath one of the white camellia bushes. Which was really clever, Xie Lian had to admit, because the flowers had the exact same colour as her hair, and he'd almost missed her because of it. However, when he announced that he found her, she squealed, before chiding him for having taken so long. She was right, too. The sun was already setting. Which meant Yin Yu had probably already served their dinner in the dining room.

Xie Lian was right, too. Though, after he'd ushered Ruoye in to eat dinner, her mood suddenly changed to a sombre one.

"When will father come back?", she asked, while poking her food with the chopsticks, instead of eating.

Hearing the question, Xie Lian's heart went out to her, though he had to admit he missed his husband as well.

"You read his letter yourself, didn't you?", he reminded his daughter, which earned him a non-committal hum.

"Your father is usually right with his estimations. So he should arrive some time next week. Be patient."

Ruoye sighed, mumbled something Xie Lian couldn't quite catch, and finally started eating, albeit slowly.

Honestly, Xie Lian could understand her frustration. Hua Cheng wasn't around as much as all of them wanted him to be, but it simply couldn't be helped. With any luck, his husband would have a lot more free time once they'd actually moved into their new palace in Guishi, but until then Xie Lian could count himself lucky that at least he himself got to spend so much time with Ruoye. Because frankly, it would be much easier on Hua Cheng if he let Xie Lian handle everything concerning their move, but both of them agreed that at least one of them should have full control over how Ruoye was raised, instead of having someone else raising her for them.