Chapter 13 - Too Comfortable (1/2)
The next day in the afternoon while Lei Xing was lounging around in her room enjoying some fruit. Xiao Ruo came running into the room like she was being chased. Lei Xing raised her eyebrows and gaped at her.
”Is the building on fire?”
”Ah? No...Miss, the dowager empress has invited you to go admire the Imperial garden.” Xiao Ruo said while trying to catching her breath.
Lei Xing knit her eyebrows, ”Just me?”
”Ah? No, all the candidates.”
”Oh.”
{...How annoying, I'd rather not go...faking pleasantries has never been my strong suit...frankly, it hasn't been a suit at all for me...}
”Miss, you should start getting ready.”
”Ready for what? Am I not dressed already?”
”Ah? Miss, you must not go like this! I will be punished!” Xiao Ruo begged as she got on her knees and looked at Lei Xing with imploring eyes.
Lei Xing looked at herself, she was dressed but she had chosen a simple light green robe that was tied loosely around her, and her hair was let completely loose.
{...Ah, I see...this might be a bit much...}
Lei Xing awkwardly laughed a bit and said, ”I understand, there's no need to rush...Go get the stuff ready.”
”Miss, we have to rush, the dowager empress is already waiting there.”
”Already?”
”Yes, so we have to hurry.” Xiao Ruo said as she got up and quickly went to get a blue dress with silver threaded designs on it and dropped it in front of Lei Xing.
Lei Xing slowly got up.
{...What's up with this impromptu invitation? I hate it when people abruptly interrupt my time like this, doesn't matter that I'm not doing anything -_-)...}
After changing clothes, Xiao Ruo put her hair in a half bun and stuck some hairpins in it, then started applying makeup. Xiao Ruo looked at Lei Xing and sighed, she would have liked to apply some more makeup on her, but she has learned that Lei Xing does not like makeup.
{...Actually, as the Miss puts it, she doesn't like ”bothersome things”...and it seems to her everything is bothersome...her letting me put on light makeup is already a great concession...*sigh* thankfully she is naturally beautiful, otherwise...}
”Are you done?” Lei Xing asked after a while of watching Xiao Ruo holding powder puffer and staring at her blankly.
”Ah? Oh, almost.” Xiao Ruo quickly finished putting on the powder and applied some light pink lip paint, ”Done.”
”Oh, thank you.” Lei Xing got up and they both got up and made their way to the Imperial garden.
It seemed Lei Xing was the last candidate to arrive, the rest of them already seemed to be comfortably settled and had divided into groups and were happily chatting and laughing.
Lei Xing stood at the entrance way and scanned the scene around her, most of them were in groups, there were a few stragglers who were standing on the sides, looking at the groups, seemingly trying to find an entry point to join one of them, but there was no dowager empress in sight.
Lei Xing sighed. The idea of trying to fake pleasantries with people right now was off-putting, she has always been the kind of person who one would call a ”lone wolf”, she wasn't shy or anything, it's just she felt most comfortable on her own and didn't feel the need to interact with people most of the time, she had very few friends and amongst them very few she could truly connect with.
She could get along with anyone and have great conversations with anyone about almost anything, the problem is usually whether she was in the mood to or not, and right now, she was definitely not in the mood, especially not in the mood for dull conversations.
After looking at the crowd of people for a while, she wandered into the garden on her own, with Xiao Ruo following behind her. She admired the flowers and took a leisure walk.
The garden was huge and had various segments with different trees, flowers and rest spots all around it.
As she wandered along, soon she couldn't hear the merry voices of the others and she was enjoying the sereneness of the place.
***
On the second-floor balcony of a building that was overlooking the Imperial garden, the empress dowager was standing observing the candidates and she had seen Lei Xing wander off earlier.
{...How can she not even bother to even acknowledge the others? Behavior like this will only get you enemies in the palace...definitely not suitable...but on the other hand, she is unlikely to be the sort to cause trouble...hmm...}
The dowager continued to observe the candidates until her thoughts were interrupted, ”Mother, you sent for me.”
On hearing those words the dowager turned to the side and saw the emperor had just arrived, she smiled and waved him over to her side, ”Kai'er, what do you think?”
The emperor came to her side and followed his mother's line of sight and sighed, ”Mother, I have told you to choose as you like, it is all the same to me.”
The dowager also sighed, ”How can you say that? You are the one who will be marrying them. You - ”
”Mother, I have a lot of memorials to review. I am sorry I cannot accompany you.” The emperor cut her off, bowed his head and walked off swiftly before she could stop him with a frown on his face.
{...If it were up to me, none of them would be here...}
As the Emperor walked through the Imperial garden with his guards and servants trailing behind him heading towards the South exit, he heard some voices of people talking.