Love of Lifetimes

Introduction and Celebrations

It was a regular night at the Nightfall Brothel. Ruo Chen was attending the guests with her dancing in her gorgeous bright red long sleeve hanfu dress and a thin white veil that only revealed her eyes to the crowd of men. She was the main and best dancer of the brothel and maybe even the whole Yan state. Even though she was there to pay off her parent's debt, she was well taken care of because she brought in the most money from men watching her dance. She was never into sleeping with the men that watched her dance, she was simply just captivating them. Ruo Chen was really known in the state as a beautiful dancer but never showing her face to the public eye. This intrigued many men from all over Yan state to come and see her dance only to fall deeply in love with the way her body moved to the sound the instruments made. Since she was pretty well known in the state, she was given an invitation to the Empress Dowager's birthday celebration to showcase her dance to the imperial harem.

After being gone for half a year, the third prince, Shen Qiu Rong finally came back after leading the army in the war against the Liang State. He came home just in time for the Empress Dowager's birthday with a victory in his name. He was granted many gifts by his father, the Emperor and was given the official army seal to lead the army whenever and wherever they are without hesitation.

As the day of the celebration approached quickly, all the palace maids were running around everywhere to make it perfect for the Empress Dowager. At the Nightfall Brothel, Ruo Chen was getting fitted into her most beautiful dress, veil, and head piece to attend the celebration. After getting ready she got in the palanquin and was headed straight to the palace. She was excited to go into the palace but was not happy that she was only there for dancing as a brothel lady. She decided to just focus on her performance in hopefully getting praised by the imperial harem and generals. Qiu Rong was in his quarters getting ready in his finest clothes to go to the celebration. He walked to the throne room where all the generals and the concubines and consorts were sitting to take his seat at the second table to the left, next to his fourth brother Shen Li Xu. Li Xu was the closest to Qiu Rong since they had the same mother. The Crown prince and the second prince sat at the first table to the left too as the consorts sat  at the right. Ruo Chen arrived shortly in her beautiful dress and veil and was escorted to the back seats as she was just a performer. When the Emperor, Empress, and the Empress Dowager came in, everyone bowed and wished the Empress Dowager's a happy birthday and a happy future. As they passed out the delicacies of the Yan state, the first performers, who were from the circus, started their performance creating an enjoyable show. After they finished everyone applaud and waited for the next performance. It was a sword dancer who was showing off his moves. Everyone was in awe of how amazing he was at it and how he moved with the sword. After the sword dance, it was the last performance which was Ruo Chen. As she walked from the back seats to the front stage, everyone was captivated by her beauty and grace, mostly Qiu Rong. As the musicians started the music, she started to swiftly dance to the beat of the instruments swaying her hips and hands. When her dance came to an end, she bowed and was about to go back and take her seat, but the Empress Dowager told her to stay and praised her for such an amazing performance. Ruo Chen thanked her and when she turned around, her gaze met with Qiu Rong's and everything seems to had disappeared as they stared at each other. Just then Ruo Chen snapped back to reality when a commotion was heard at the back seats. It was the sword dancer running towards her with his sword pointing at her. In an instant Qiu Rong jumped out of his seat to move Ruo Chen as he pushed her. As they fell to the floor, Ruo Chen could feel his hot breath on her neck and his heart beating like crazy. They fell to the ground. The sword dancer was caught by the royal guards after a nasty fight and was sent to the palace dungeons for questioning later. Everything stopped for a moment as Qiu Rong was laying on top of Ruo Chen with his hand under her head. They stared at each other as if there was no body there. Qiu Rong rose his hand to touch her veil but then she quickly got up and apologized to Qiu Rong for causing him some inconvenience. She did not want anybody to know what she looked like.  After everything was settled and everyone was safe. Ruo Chen thanked the Empress Dowager for inviting her. She walked back to her seat in the back when all of a sudden the crown prince, Shen Ting Bai, got up from his seat to request a dance with her. Everyone was quiet and at the corner of her eye she could see the unhappy face of Qiu Rong. She appropriately refused crown prince as she said she only prepared a special dance for the Empress Dowager that day and it wouldn't be right for her to hold the celebration for just one dance. Ruo Chen thanked him and bowed. She could see his fist clench at her refusal as she bowed down and she knew she was in deep waters with the crown prince. She looked at the corner of her eye and saw that the third prince looked more relieved now. She knew there was tension between them and she got in the way of them even more.  As she walked back to her seat, she could feel all the eyes of the people watching her go back and she could see all the grins of the ministers and general as she walked pass them. She knew that it was a big mistake coming to the palace now.

Omg hi, thanks for reading my first ever story. I'm excited to share this experience with you guys and hopefully you guys will like what I put out. Thanks for reading it means the world to me that someone at least someone is reading something that I wrote through my hard work. Love ya.  XOXOXO

btw Jessica is my "fake" name I use. 😂 but feel free to follow me on Instagram @_mai_c._thao_

                                                               

                                                             - Jessica Babe ❤️