Waking up this morning, she was already gone, wondering if she had already headed to her pace. As I get ready for the day, I am going to the main pace to talk to my dad and reveal what had happened st night. I will also have the innkeeper testify about what he has witnessed.

  "Shuming, can you head to Na's pce and check on her, please?" I ask.

  "I will check things out if I am right. She will be called to them," he reminds me.

  As I am making my way through the streets, thinking to myself, I hope all this evidence will close this case involving Fen. Finally reaching the gates of the pace, seeing Fen get dragged to the emperor's court that means mom is already here, and she spoke to dad.

  Deciding until we are called, I will not head to my father's court. I need to check on Na because I know she is still hurting. Walking up to Na's pace, I see Cao moving furniture out of the study. This is the secret room's furniture.

  "Where are you taking that?" I ask Cao.

  She says, "Your highness instructed me to throw it away." She responded.

  "Did she say why she wanted it gone?" I ask.

  "Yes, your highness. She told me you would not be coming back for visits." She informs me.

  While surveying the study, I observed that the doors to the secret room were shut, but I couldn't locate her. I made sure she was not in her usual pce, so I looked there first. I realized where she was hiding, debating with myself if I should enter or not.

  Deciding on entering the room, I went inside, ying down next to her just holding her as tight as I could. Waking her up on accident, she will not look at me though I know w I messed up badly this time.

  "Why did you bother showing up here? It is it because you felt pity for me?" "I am no longer what you desire. You are going to be a father soon. I am gd you are taking an interest in your other consorts." She says.

  As she continues, "I do not need pity from anyone, let alone you. The poor second wife she gets ignored used to be the favorite. You do not think I hear the rumors? Leave me alone. I am tired of getting my hopes up for you."

  Feeling upset over the misunderstanding between us, I flipped her onto her back.

  "Now you are going to listen to me. The sight in the garden made me feel betrayed, so I stopped coming that night." I say.

  "I am not the one who rejected you. Why do I have to pay the price?" she asks?

  Laying there looking into her eyes, not knowing how to answer her. I wanted to tell her how I felt, but it seemed selfish since I didn't care about the crown princess.

  "You could have sent for me. Why do you bme me for what that witch did? There was nothing I could have done about it. I just walked with you in the garden. I knew she was there, but I thought it was something else, such as handing off messages to your dad. That is what I thought you were going to see." She says.

  Understanding what she wanted me to see, I could feel her pain and hurt. Knowing that she wanted to help me with the Fen thing, it was showing me she really cares about my burdens.

  As she continues "I did not know that we were going to uncover an affair. Fine, bme if you want to, but you are at fault for making me fall in love with you. What happened to our promise that you would always communicate with me? I would not feel this way if you would have just communicated with me."

  Could not control myself much longer. I feel the anger and sadness building up inside me.

  "Can you please be quiet for a moment? One I love you. Two, I want to be around you all the time. Three, I was going through something. I could not expin how it was to tell you how I feel about the situation myself if I did not understand the feelings as well. Finally, I was not meaning to ignore you. I am sorry about that. Please forgive me and I will make it up to you. We will go somewhere after the investigation is over with." I say.

  Not being able to help myself, leaning in and kiss her like she deserved to be kissed. Grabbing her arm to hold her down so she will not get up and walk away. Suddenly, she screamed out in pain.

  "What happened?" As I look at her wound.

  "Shuming sliced my arm with his sword. I know he would not of if he knew it was me," she says.

  "How did you learn to fight like that?" in shocked.

  "What else am I going to do when you don't visit for three months?" she says to me

  "I love you so much and it won't happen again." As I lean in to kiss her.

  "What happened st night?" she asks

  They will charge both of them because sleeping with the crown princess is a crime, and Fen is now confined to her pace. It is a crime to sleep with the crown princess. They will charge them both with having an affair. Since he served our country well, they will turn him into a eunuch, seeing she knew she was doing wrong. She will feel the hand of death.

  She was just taken away from what I had said so far continuing.

  "There might be more crimes and the adultery, her dad cannot do a thing about it. Her dad was already at my father's, pleading for his daughter. We ended up locking up her staff so no more information can leak out. Please stop worrying about it now. We have it all under control. I want to make up the st three months, but first you need to heal." As I looked into her eyes,

  Still a little confused, "Can we please put everything back in the room?"

  "I threw it away." She shouts.

  Cao is speaking up "Madam, I did not throw it away. I thought maybe you might regret it. When I was cleaning, I put it in a storage area. I was looking at your new books and found some of the stuff they described in the book in the storage room."

  She looked at me like this was something for me to decide on.

  "I just moved into this wing. This used to be where the emperor stayed when he was crown prince. This used to be the empress's old pace when she was the crown princess. Each individual pace had their own secret rooms except for Fen's pace." I say.

  Cao found the right people to help move the items back into the room. Cao really is enjoying the fact that we are getting along again. I know it affects people in the pace when we do not get along.

  "You are not off the hook. Why are you visiting the house?" with a questionable voice.

  "What do you know of that pce?" I ask.

  "Wait for that answer. We have a banquet tonight. I must get ready now. It is time for me to bathe and get dressed." She informs me.

  Raising my eyebrows with a coy look in my eyes. Should I go join her in the bath or should I behave myself?

  "What a coincidence. I have clothes here as well." I remind her.

  "Fine, join me if you dare." She says.

  So, of course, I follow her into the bath, climbing into the bath first so I can guide her in. She ended up slipping into me, so I took advantage of the situation, putting her back up against the wall of the tub.

  "Is this ok?" softly whisper in her ear.

  Feeling my heart beating fast, feeling her as well, you can tell that we missed each other just by the way our hearts are beating.

  She nods at me; I start by running my fingertips down her body. I left her legs around my waist, kissing her lips so softly and working my way down her neck. Holding her body against mine, I slid my dragon right into her lotus. Feeling the water spsh up against us with every stroke. Feeling her hands tightening up around me, her breath is shallow. Trying to draw it out if I could, but it has been a long while since I was with her. Her touch against my skin makes me realize how much I miss her.

  With every stroke, I feel her tightening up around my dragon. She is ready to explode. I lean into her, and whisper, let go. Feeling her warm juices flowing all over my dragon and her muscles tensing up at the same time making me unload all my juices inside her. As she colpsed on me, I could not help but flip my back to the back of the tub now so she can just rex.

  We just sat there long enough to get cleaned up and rexed so we can head to the banquet.

  "Do you need help with your eyebrows?" I ask.

  She quickly responds "No, we got it." meaning her and Cao.

  As I wait out in the sedan for her, I know she and Cao are finishing, and she wants to look great seeing it was the family banquet tonight. Thinking about how she felt tonight and how much I really missed her. Completely spaced out, thinking of her, I did not even notice her walking up.

  Feeling a tap on my shoulders, I come too. Reaching out my hand to her to help her up into the sedan. We sat there quietly on the way to the banquet hall. As we pull up to the banquet hall. Getting out first so I can help her down. Noticing everyone was there already seems like they were waiting for us to arrive.

  We sat down to enjoy the evening, noticing I was not too far from her at all, seeing we have our own seats as well.

  "This is a family event. There is no need for formalities tonight." My father informs us.

  "I have a special guest joining us tonight for the entertainment." My mother spoke.

  Gncing over at her, I can see a smile on her face. Being so grateful for her smiles after all she has been through this whole time.

  "We have already seen this show." As she looks at Chen and Diu.

  At first, they looked confused, but when they saw the woman that walked in, all four of them ughed. Me and my brothers squirmed a little because it was one dancer from the Lotus House. How did my mom know her and how come they knew her?

  "Where did you find her?" My father asks.

  "Well, I might as well tell you. Me and our daughters-in-w went out st night. Dressed appropriately not to be discovered. We found this little pce called Lotus something." My mom informs my dad.

  My dad had the most amusing shocked look on his face. I had to chuckle to myself.

  "Her dancing mesmerized our son, and I noticed it." So, I invited her to the pace to perform for us," she continued.

  They could not help but ugh some more, like they were enjoying our discomfort.