Side Story- Long Lian [1/ 5]
LL 1 - Your beauty is worth the price
For the nth time, Long Lian, the only princess of Guilin Kingdom, wondered if this was her punishment from Heaven for cross-dressing and went to visit the marketplace during the New Years.
Because after that day, she got an unwanted visitor that frequently visited her courtyard.
She was a little disappointed by the guards assigned around her courtyard that failed to detect the intrusion of the King of Munzhu that acted unfitting of a gentleman.
However, she had, ever since the beginning, not expected him to be a gentleman with his barbaric looking appearance, coarse hair with small braids, and the addition of his crass words before a lady. The King of Munzhu country, Tian Liang, was the exact symbolism of a person that gets to be the king because he was the strongest.
Today, he was here again.
"Ah Lian, let's go somewhere."
"Please mind your conduct. And you should call me by my title, Your Majesty," Long Lian replied primly and managed to keep her irritation on the lid. "I will have a knowledgeable eunuch to act as a tour guide on my behalf."
Tian Liang would call Long Lian as 'Ah Lian' to tease her for liking it when Xiao Hua called her that. Of course, she disliked it when he called her that, but till now, she had yet to succeed in stopping him.
"I only want you as my tour guide." Tian Liang cracked the shell of the peanuts with his nimble but thick fingers.
Proper teachings from her etiquette teacher helped her to maintain her composure even when she wanted to pull out her sword and chop him into pieces.
"I'm busy," Long Lian rejected coldly.
She had been stuck with archery lessons in the morning and lunch had been lonely without anyone eating with her. She wanted to have a brief nap to erase the headache, but Tian Liang appeared like a persistent fly!
"Entertaining guests is a very important matter," Tian Liang said in a meaningful tone. "Will Ah Lian risk making this important guest upset?"
Long Lian frowned at his unveiled threat. "Then you should have followed Duke Heng properly. He is the one assigned to entertain you during your stay."
"I'm not into males. His body does not have soft curves as yours does."
After a few seconds, Long Lian blushed after she caught on to what he meant. "Y-You rogue!"
"Only for you, princess." Tian Liang smirked, enjoying the blush that makes her look more lively.
"Y-You..." Long Lian was in a truly difficult situation, not knowing how to deal with this persistent and immoral man! "Could you please stop bothering me? Why do you want from me?"
"Hmm... What do I want from you?" Tian Liang rubbed his chin and absently reminded himself to shave his growing beard later. The princess never liked the sight of his beard even though the ladies back in Munzhu were crazy about it.
Long Lian squirmed uncomfortably when he eyed her like she was an expensive commodity. "What are you looking at!"
"When Long Zhu demanded your freedom in exchange for a very rare night pearl from the Xuanwu Kingdom... and adding in a few benefits for me in the treaty contract, I started to get curious about you."
"Your Majesty thinks this princess is not worth the price?" Long Lian inquired with a politeness that could not hide her hostility.
Even if she was the favoured princess in the Kingdom, that does not mean she was ignorant of how people viewed a princess should be in their eyes.
A princess was only useful as a bride to gain benefits for the Kingdom.
Tian Liang's mouth slowly forms into a smirk. "Your beauty is worth the price. Not even the most beautiful lady in my country could be compared to you."
Although his way of saying was a little offensive to listen to, Long Lian still blushed lightly from his crass way of praising her. Long Lian raised her chin in a haughty manner. "I am worth more than my looks."
"Of course. Ah Lian is a good conversation partner too. You can speak whatever you want and I can enjoy your beauty at my own pace."
"Y-You..." There were just so many things that offended her from his sentence!
"I already know all your values." Tian Liang smiled slyly. "I don't mind having you as my Queen."
"You hate royalty!" Long Lian quickly pointed out. She had heard from her third brother how Tian Liang came to be the King of Munzhu, who was without a drop of royal blood in him.
He was a commoner born, the son of a weapon crafter.
He was one of the rebels that successfully overthrown the royal family and killed them all, except for the youngest prince. Yet, none of the Munzhu people hated the rebels, because they hated the royal family, especially the useless yet greedy King of Munzhu. As the strongest man among the rebels, Tian Liang was directly chosen to be their new Emperor, and no one contested for the throne.
When she started interacting with him in the beginning, Long Lian could sense his distaste towards her and her royal family, with the exception of her third brother. She suspected that if she was not his sister, Tian Liang would surely treat her worse.
Tian Liang shrugged, not denying it. "I started to see that perhaps I've wrongly grouped every royalty into the same category as those trash. Although that fly of a brother of yours could be annoying, he did not step out of the line."
Tian Liang eyed Long Lian, who was also not the same as what he originally expected. Her unwillingness to associate with the noble ladies during the gathering was actually an act of protecting herself from their scheme.
Long Lian could not decipher the look in his eyes as he gazed at her steadily, but she found herself hard to meet it and her heart was acting in a strange manner.
Could it be fear?
It was satisfying to see the princess finally react differently around him and in the direction he wanted. Tian Liang never thought that being honest and frank about his intention would help their relationship take a big step forward.
Tian Liang could see that the innocent princess does not understand the matters of adults, and he can only go slowly without scaring her away. If she was from Munzhu, he does not need to court her slowly when the other party would immediately understand his intentions.
Long Lian was wary when he suddenly stood up, then surprised when he intended to leave. She had thought he would continue harassing her until she gave in and do what he wanted.
"Your Majesty, where are my servants?" Long Lian asked when Tian Liang seems to have forgotten.
When he started to come over, Long Lian's inner maids dutifully blocked the King's path and hindered him. Not long after, Tian Liang grew fed up with their antics and threw them into a room after tying them up.
Since then, whenever he came over, he would deal with the servants first before taking his own sweet time interacting with the princess.
"The smallest room in the east. I will come again tomorrow."
Long Lian: Please don't! (╬ Ò﹏Ó)
If Long Lian really wanted Tian Liang to stop coming, she could have spoken up to her parents and have them deal with the King for her. Tian Liang was also aware of that and had been testing the waters, pushing her boundaries, yet not taking it too far.
Long Lian always felt that a great tornado passed by whenever Tian Liang came and acted rather forward towards her. When he leaves, the trail behind him was never unscathed, including her mind. It did not take long before she started understanding what he was doing.
At first, she had treated it as him making fun of her, but he looked so earnest and serious that her inner voice filled with denial gradually diminished. His sweet teasing and helpful advice in archery gradually changed her initial opinion of him and affected her heart, which often made her feel giddy from his attention.
But could she hope for more from this barbaric man that was very different from the sophisticated Guilin men?
Being an older and experienced man, Tian Liang naturally could see her heart was quickly being captured by him.
It was time to take a very big step forward.
Tian Liang was truly bold and forward, expressing his interest clearly by dropping a kiss onto her lips. "Be mine?"
But he forgot she was not a commoner lady in Munzhu that was more accepting with such displays of affection between unmarried couples. "How dare you?! Rogue!"
That day, Tian Liang returned to his guest residence with a red handprint on the side of his cheek. At the same time, Long Lian would occasionally blush as if reminded of something with her fingers rubbing her red lips.
But the kiss had successfully broken the thick walls between them and it did not take long before Long Lian reciprocated his feelings.
Awww, Yes! Wooohooo! ? The ship have sail!