Chapter 132 - Enlightenment (1/2)

Prince Rui sighed as they watched Lei Xing dragging the amused Emperor off. Molin also sighed, ”Nalan, it looks like you don't stand a chance at all.”

”Tch, who needs a chance? That's just father's proposal. He hasn't accepted... or declined actually...but he clearly doesn't seem interested at all AND I don't think we can get along AT ALL so I'm perfectly happy with this.” Princess Nalan responded still annoyed with him for questioning her tutoring methods.

{...Not my fault if she's fragile...}

Princess Nalan pouted and grumbled, ”What do you guys see in fragile girls like that? A little nudge and she breaks, what's the fun in that?”

Prince Rui narrowed his eyes at her, ”It's not a matter of fragile or not, character is what matters...and No, I don't like her that way. Don't even think about it.” Prince Rui sternly warned when he saw Princess Nalan cast him a suspicious glance, He then continued, ”I'm just saying, a person's character is more important than their strength. You also seem to like her quite a bit, don't you? And it's obviously not because of her strength.”

”I guess...” Princess Nalan mumbled, then noticed their group was missing a person and asked, ”Where did Prince Yi go?”

Prince Rui smiled, ”He stormed off a little while ago. Something must have irritated him...Let's hurry along before we lose them. Although I doubt our presence is being missed, I would still like to avoid any unnecessary problems.” Prince Rui finished and kept walking so as not to lose the royal couple ahead.

Lei Xing finally stopped in a corner after they cleared the rowdy vendors, which she had now dubbed opportunist vultures. She understood it was business, but she was quite annoyed by their ruthlessness.

{...How could all of them try to bleed one person dry like that?! There should be a limit! And ONE is my limit! How dare they take us as fools?! It's his fault for being so obvious with his weaknesses! >_

”You surprisingly have quite the amount of strength.” The Emperor commented.

Lei Xing's lips twitched and she slowly turned around to see the Emperor smiling at her, and it further irritated her and she blurted out, ”How can you be that gullible?! She was obviously taking advantage of you AND to think you were actually considering going to those other vultures! Even if you have money, you still have to be smart in how you spend it or you will end up dead, broke and dry. No, I mean dry, dead and broke. What? Arggh! You get the point!”

Lei Xing said all that in one breath. It was only after the fact that she realized she just blew up at the Emperor as she stared at his stunned expression and eyes blinking at her. Lei Xing blinked back at him and then tried to correct this error, ”Hehe~ I'm s-”

”You scold with very reasonable words.” The Emperor said knitting his brows.

Lei Xing gulped, ”I wasn't exactly scol-”

”You don't like spending money?” The Emperor asked with a raised eyebrow.

Lei Xing blinked and then sighed, ”It's not that I don't like spending money...It's just...Well, just spend more meaningfully. I already have enough in the palace, and I get more on a regular basis...so those sorts of trinkets...” Lei Xing trailed off, looking down with a frown. She understood he was being nice, but en masse does not mean better, and she really was not particularly interested in jewelry. Especially, not generic ones like those.

”That makes sense...” Thinking on it back it now, Jewelry truly did not seem to be something she cared about. Save for the bracelet and ring she always had on, he rarely ever saw her with any other jewelry on when in her palace.

She was very different from what he was used to, his mother and the Empress were always completely dressed up and adorned with their jewels every day.

Lei Xing, on the other hand, did not seem to care at all. She liked to be comfortable and so always stayed in the simplest and easiest state possible. He had noticed she had a bit of a lazy personality and disliked anything that would inconvenience her. He had also figured out that she must have thought of him as an inconvenience before, which was why she always seemed annoyed whenever he showed up. It seems he had made a mistake again. He knit his brows in thought and then asked, ”So what do you like?”

Lei Xing blinked up at him and then knit her brows. It was a surprisingly hard question.

{...Is it weird that I don't have the answer to that question?... Money? No, that's a -...}

”Money?” The Emperor suggested when she did not respond.

Lei Xing narrowed her eyes at him, ”Everybody likes money.”

”Well, you seem to like it quite a bit more than usual.” The Emperor jokingly said with a smirk.

Lei Xing frowned, unamused and flatly said, ”It's a need...not exactly a like.”