Changling and Qinghe stood before the emperor. Wu Yong gazed at his son first and saw that he wasn’t happy. He then looked at Qinghe and saw that he was slightly frowning.

Pulling the parchment before him, he looked up and asked, “So, have you informed Changling of the meeting tonight?”

Qinghe nodded his head and looked at his brother. Changling’s face immediately steeled, and he said, “I’m not attending it!”

“Why?” Wu Yong asked calmly.

Changling remained silent…

Qinghe sighed and rubbed his temples, saying, “Your Majesty, Changling and Long Wu, they never got along. Remember, Long Wu wants our sisters and we’re protective of them. I know he means no harm with the fowl words he speaks but that doesn’t mean for the same for Changling. And I do suggest that if we can separate the two in order to have a peaceful discussion, but how peaceful, that will all be up to the twin generals.”

Wu Yong looked at his son. The meeting was soon, and Changling wasn’t in a good mood, anyone could tell.

Nodding his head slowly he said, “Fine but Changling, this rebellious behaviour of yours needs to calm down. You cannot present yourself as a hot headed Crown Prince and in the future, all matters involving the kingdom, you will need to attend to them.”

“Fine,” was all he said.

Qinghe sighed, relieved inwardly. This Emperor was easy to fool, but then again, they were very good at lying and Wu Yong didn’t know them.

Wu Yong looked at Qinghe, saying, “You are dismissed.”

Qinghe bowed and glanced at his brother as he left.

Changling sat down and asked, “How could you do this to me? You didn’t even ask me about this marriage and why is my mother here?”

Wu Yong remained calm and said, “We’ve spoken about this already. I told you what I wanted from you and waited for your answer, but you never got back to me. I went along with my plans, seeing that you were being irresponsible as usual.”

“Irresponsible? On what grounds? I forgot about it the minute you mentioned it to me,” Changling said, irked.

“Then it’s time you understand the position you are in. The title of Crown Prince is not a joke and I need you to behave like one. I’ll have Qiang Wu train you and you must show interest–even if you have to pretend,” Wu Yong said as he opened a book.

Changling glared at him, remaining silent. This man was fucking up his plans and how he wished to strangle him right now wasn’t even funny.

*

As they were walking back to his palace, Changling turned back and saw the guards behind them. He sighed inwardly. ‘This is so annoying. I need to get back to my palace.’

“I’m leaving now,” Qinghe said, pulling him from his thoughts.

Looking at his brother, he asked, “Where are you going?” 

Qinghe had moved in the direction of his palace. He stopped walking, saying to him, “To my palace. I’m going to rest, then get ready for this shitty banquet.”

“Oh right, I forgot about that,” Changling said as he started walking away.

Qinghe shook his head, Changling was all over the place and right now, he wanted nothing of this.

Rushing home, he made it to the chamber and saw Mei Yuan on the bed, staring at the wall. Worried, he walked up to her and sat down on the bed. She turned to him and immediately he saw that her cheek was swollen.

He wiped away the tears that fell. He rested her head on his shoulder. Running his thumb over the swelling, he asked her, “Have you prepared our clothes for the banquet?”

She nodded her head, “Yes…”

“Thank you,” Qinghe said and went silent.

CHANGLING’S PALACE

“Ah-Xian, where are you?” Changling called. 

Youxian was in his room, but he had no energy to answer him. 

Changling rushed around the palace looking for his lover and finally found him when he burst into his chamber. When he entered, he could immediately feel that Youxian had bad energy around him. Thinking that it must be bad news from the physician, he rushed up to him and knelt before him.

Looking into Changling’s worried gaze, Youxian didn’t know what to do.

“Ah-Xian, I called you. Why didn’t you answer?” He asked.

Taking a deep breath, he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“What did the physician say?” He asked.

Youxian was regretting a lot of things right now, especially being born. Meeting Changling too, but nothing more than wishing his Godfather hadn’t done what he did. The tears fell from his eyes, wiping them away he chuckled and said, “It’s nothing serious but I’m just sick and weak so the physician said I should stay in bed until I recover and your highness, you must stay away from me, I don’t want you getting sick.”

Changling rolled his eyes, “As if I am capable of staying away from you.”

He stood up and started undressing, saying, “We have a banquet to attend tonight because my mother and father are here. You’ll get to meet them later.”

Youxian went silent as he nodded his head. How should he react? Was he supposed to pretend that he didn’t meet Changling’s parents, and what about the information he learned?

He looked at Changling briefly and saw that he didn’t have a care in the world.