TPITWOHEF

Chapter 16

This unexpected award came suddenly.

But Lower Concubine Liu knew exactly why it was given.

Lower Concubine Liu took a deep breath, looking at the young girl that Emperor Xiao Yunzhou was holding possessively in his arms.

Hasn't the Emperor had enough of holding her?

She wanted to hug her daughter too.

The eunuch Wei Zheng beside them couldn't help but cough, reminding her to kneel and thank the Emperor for his grace.

But before Lower Concubine Liu could kneel, Xiao Yunzhou made a gesture as if to assist her up.

"No need for formalities."

He looked at the stunned Lower Concubine Liu, or should she now be called Concubine Liu, with a smile in his eyes.

"These past few years, I have neglected you. You have given me two wonderful children."

As Xiao Yunzhou looked at Lower Concubine Liu now, he found her more and more appealing.

In fact, after his two or three years of Taoist cultivation, he had not been too interested in visiting the harem this year.

But the women of the harem would come to him, bringing him soup or handmade handkerchiefs and pouches, or saying that a prince or princess was ill, or that they themselves were unwell, asking him to visit them.

Lower Concubine Liu, however, had never done such things.

Xiao Yunzhou had not noticed it before, but after hearing the good deeds of the Imperial Noble, he felt a sense of wariness that the concubines might try to harm him.

Like the Imperial Noble, the more frequently they brought him soup, the more likely they were trying to harm him.

Lower Concubine Liu paid him no heed and showed no eagerness to please him, which made him feel exceptionally at ease.

Xiao Yunzhou glanced at Lower Concubine Liu, who showed no great delight on her face and did not even kneel, displaying a refreshing sense of honesty and lack of desire for status. He felt an immediate sense of admiration for her.

"Concubine Liu, do you have a diminutive name?"

A woman's diminutive name is not to be revealed to outsiders.

In the inner chambers, only her parents and close relatives could address her by it.

Xiao Yunzhou had never asked before. He might not have remembered the names and backgrounds of even the scholars and officials from the previous dynasty, let alone the women of the harem.

But today, Concubine Liu was different from the ordinary harem women in his heart.

"This humble servant's diminutive name is Chaniang."

"Then I shall call you Ah Chang from now on, is that acceptable?"

Concubine Liu, now Liu Chaniang, felt a twinge in her eyes.

Chu Chu was held in Xiao Yunzhou's arms, eating the metaphorical melon and giggling heartily, looking at her mother's seemingly shy lowered head one moment, and the handsome face of her Imperial Father Xiao Yunzhou the next.

"Your Majesty, the Imperial Noble Consort requests an audience."

"Hmph!" Xiao Yunzhou's good mood was instantly ruined.

Liu Chaniang immediately snatched her daughter from his arms, "This humble servant begs to take her leave."

Xiao Yunzhou glared, never having encountered a woman so bold as to defy him in this way before.