My Sin

You Can Stay

The Empress stepped out of the side hall, his pace unhurried as the last of the palace music faded behind him. Lanterns lined the covered walkway, their red glow low and still. A few court officials were still lingering in quiet groups, but most had gone.

At the base of the stairs, the imperial palanquin waited.

The Emperor stood just beside it, his hands clasped behind his back.

"You're returning alone?" he asked.

The Empress stopped a few steps away. "The Dowager's banquet is over. There's nothing left to stay for."

The Emperor nodded once, then reached out, pulling back the curtain with one hand. "It's cold tonight. Ride with me."

For a moment, the Empress didn't respond. His gaze flicked briefly toward the palanquin. Then he stepped forward.

"...As Your Majesty wishes." The empress said calmly.

They sat across from each other, knees not quite touching, the curtain falling closed behind them. The bearers lifted them without a word.

Inside, it was quiet.

The Empress shifted his sleeve slightly, brushing off a bit of lint, and glanced toward the narrow slat of light where the curtain didn't fully meet. His posture was straight, shoulders held without tension.

"I hadn't expected you to respond to Xuilan," he said after a while.

"It seemed polite."

"It was."

The palanquin turned a corner. The Empress's fingers tapped lightly once against his lap, then stilled.

"She'll take it as something more."

A pause.

"I know," the Emperor said.

No anger, no explanation.

The Empress didn't reply.

The faint rocking of the palanquin filled the silence between them. The route from the Dowager's hall to Zichen Palace was not long, but not short either. Enough for a conversation, if one wanted.

The Emperor said, after a stretch, "The tangyuan... I made them myself."

"I know."

"...Too sweet?"

The Empress hesitated. "A little."

"Quiao'er-" The emperor called out, his voice breaking a bit.

"You're sleeping with her tonight?" The empress interrupted, it was less of question and more of a confirmation.

"If you say the words, I will not set foot elsewhere," The emperor pleaded desperately, his words coming out as choked sobs.

"Don't do this. Please Yichen.." The empress unable to hold on sunk into his hands, his body wrecking with sobs.

"Don't do what? Don't love you? You know that impossible, must you make me do this." The emperor said kneeling, his head into the empress's knees sobbing.

The Empress's breath shuddered in his chest, his fingers still clutching the thick folds of his robe as if they might hold back everything breaking inside him.

The Emperor was on his knees.

That alone was already a sight no court had ever seen. Not in this lifetime. Not in the ones before. Yet, he the empress had seen this countless time, even the Gods himself could not make him bow to them, yet few words from him would make the mighty emperor grovel.