Frozen Fire

Chapter 13

Brewing the Storms

It was still early in the morning, the night watch in the eastern tower just rang the bell six times not so long ago. Yet, the consort of Hong Palace had been ready with his beautiful attire for the day. The long outer robe clung to his curvy body perfectly and the purple color was bringing out his beauty even more.

The maid-servants and the guards that already appointed by the emperor to shadowing his steps were right behind him, more than ready to protect the new favored consort of the great emperor Wang Qing. They knew it very well, a little displeasure from the beautiful man meant the end for their career. A small scratch on his skin meant a death sentence for them.

It was really scary and stirring confussion at some point. They saw it for quite plenty of times how the emperor used to put his favor more on one of his consorts or concubines compare to other all these while. That was usually occurred to the new consort or concubine. But it never stayed for long time enough, as the time went by, the emperor was immediately losing his interest. The consort or the concubine was soon forgotten and lost behind the shadow of new more favored consort or concubines. They kept wondering the day when the emperor would lose his interest of his male consort, yet that day not yet to come. If it was possible, they were who used to trailed behind the male consort all the time began to realize that the loving gaze from the emperor even became more prominent nowadays. The eyes that used to filled with stern look and authority seemed so different whenever they were staring at the beautiful consort.

The other consorts and concubines were long forgotten and this situation seemed not going to change for awhile in the future.

Knowing the depth of love the emperor had for the male consort, they were both excited and terrified at the same time. Excited because they knew served the most favored consort meant that they would get paid more and the other maid-servants would respect them more. Yet it was terrifying because they couldn't possibly bring themselves to offend the consort. And this was really hard task to do.

As if they didn't notice it before, but the male consort was really quiet. His face was avoinding any kind of emotion. It was really hard to tell what he was thinking or what he was feeling. Was he disappointed? Was he feeling content? Was in he in pain? Was he wishing for something? To read the male consort's expression was as hard as to read the expression of the general Lun's statue in the palace gate. It wasn't needed to mention that not even once they saw the consort smiling.

However they noticed that there was a small change that suddenly happened these past few days. The male consort was occasionally showed triumph expression on his face lately. Taking the advantage of the emperor busy days, the male consort was asking to go out from the Hong Palace even more often. The destination where they went always the same everytime; the vast ground in the eastern side of the palace where the armies and the Forbidden City main squadron used to train. It's not that the male consort really interested with their combat skills training, it seemed that his attention was solely directed to the great general of war and the former crown prince; Wang Zhiyuan.

The thought alone was already sending chills to the maid-servants and guards of the male consort. This was the first time they heard that a consort openly went to see another man another than the emperor himself. To put even more tension of the odd situation, this was happening just right when the emperor was busy preparing the official ceremony to officially welcoming the male consort as his Imperial Noble Consort.

How ironic.

-

"Your Highness..." Ming Lei called the consort softly. They arrived at the eastern vast ground shortly just awhile ago. They arranged the a small table and chair across from the vast ground where the consort still managed to see the entire area of the training place. The sheer of morning sunlight fell upon the lining up armies in the large field as they continued their training. This was the reason why these past few days the male consort always had his entourage leaving the Hong Palace so early in the morning, because the training for the armies started just right after the dawn everyday.