Yuzu unpacks his bags while humming a melody. He feels refreshed suddenly.
"You look far too happy for being abandoned by emperor, himself."
Yuzu looks up "Sister ... How are you ?"
Yimli walks in Yuzu's room while biting an apple "I am fine. What about you ? Finally out of your daydream ?"
Yuzu stops unpacking "huh ? What daydream ?"
"Daydream of being the empress , being loved by your husband and all those shit ..you said before your marriage."
Yuzu smiles "oh .. those dreams.. yeah I am out of it. Me and Zixuan .. we are more like two players of chess. We both can't be happy together."
"Wow .. what a companion. I warned you before. You were blind in love." Yimli laughes "Anyway why did he break the marriage ? Any reason or just like that ......"
"Break the marriage ?" Yuzu frowns. "Why would he break our marriage?"
"He dropped you here , my brother ..."
"Yes ! But I am here for just few days. It's like a vacation. Gezz what are you thinking?" Yuzu chuckles.
Yimi becomes serious this time"you are here on vacation ?"
Yuzu nods "yeah !"
"Yuzu .." Minister Bai walks in the room with a big smile on his face.
Yuzu Beam's in happiness "father ... I am here ..."
Minister Bai hugs his son after so many years "where is Meimei ?"
"In guest room. She is unpacking her things."
Minister Bai nods "ok then unpack , have lunch and take rest. No need to roam around the market like you used to do. You are a noble consort now."
"You are telling this because of the rumours of his highness replacing Yuzu, right ?" Yimli chimes in "He is going to marry prince Yaad. Yuzu doesn't know, right ?"
Minister Bai's face suddenly turns serious as he looks at his daughter.
Yuzu chuckles "my dear sister, I already know the rumours. There is nothing to hide."
Yimli frowns "you are ok with this ? Aren't you upset ?"
Yuzu shrugs "let the marriage happen first then I will be upset , let's have lunch first."
Minister Bai nods again. "Let's go get Meimei too."
***
"So, you got the information ?" Zixuan asks Xingchen with a serious face.
"There is no one in prince Ze-min's life. He is not expecting any baby from anyone." Xingchen replies. "But ..
"But ?"
"The person Ze-min used to love and wanted to marry was from Amari kingdom."
"Amari kingdom ? Consort Afreen's homeland ?" Zixuan eyes lit up suddenly. All the puzzles are falling into their places. "Don't let mother know. I am going meet Jia-li today."
Xingchen widens his eyes. "Why ... "
Zixuan looks up.
Xingchen realises his mistakes "I didn't mean it that way ..."
"Jia-li knows something about Ze-min. I am sure of it." Zixuan cuts Xingchen's apology while standing up. He looks around Xingchen's room for a while. Until his eyes falls on the veil in front of the mirror.
"Whose veil is it ? I never knew you use veil ?"
Xingchen's face flushed "I don't use veil, your highness. That .. prince Yang Xi has dropped it in Zi garden. I picked it up to return him."
"oh .. great. Then I will take my leave. You try to search a little bit more about Ze-min." Zixuan's lips curve upwards as he turns around to leave.
***
"You are a stupid bitch." Empress dowager shouts at Afreen.
"Empress mother, trust me. I never thought his highness would actually fall for Yaad." Afreen tries to reason out "And I swear empress mother, his highness has no good feelings for Yaad. He is doing it to make consort Yuzu jealous."
"I also know that. But to make one Yuzu jealous, he is taking in another Yuzu ? You want me to accept this ?"
Afreen scoffs in her mind. She doesn't care if his highness marries Yaad or someone else. She is sure his highness doesn't ever care about Yaad. But her problem is consort Yuzu is not out of the equation.
She thought Zixuan would fight Yuzu, murder Xingchen and create a massacre out of the situation. But nothing went according to her plans.
"Empress mother, we need to do something. Consort Yuzu indeed got into an affair with minister Xingchen yet he is still his highness's consort. We need to stop Yaad and eliminate Yuzu at the same time."
Empress dowager nods. "Didn't consort Yuzu leave for minister Bai's residence?"
Afreen nods "yes he did. He is too clever. He thinks if his highness doesn't see his face for somedays, his highness will miss him and forget about his affair."
Empress dowager nods "Do one thing. Spread a rumour about consort Yuzu. Make the rumour bad. So bad that our commoners demand consort Yuzu's out of Zi."
Afreen's ears perk up "what rumour ?"
Empress dowager grins "rumours about his affair. There will be no lies so that even if Zixuan wants, he can't search for the source of the rumour."
***
Meimei combs Yuzu's hair with a pout on her face. "I don't like her."
"Meimei ! I apologised to you for her. Don't be upset na... I am really sorry .."
"No master, why would you be sorry ? Also I have no problem in calling your sister 'master' .. but she wants me to do her work instead of yours. She said that you didn't need me." Meimei pouts harder.
Yuzu turns around "Meimei, I need you. And you don't need to call anyone master except me. Also I always asked you to call me gege, but you ..."
"You are my gege .. but you are my master too. You are the Noble consort of Zi. How can she look down on you."
"She didn't, Meimei. It's just for her I am only her brother, not any consort. That's why ..." Yuzu coos at Meimei.
"Yuzu !"
"There she is." Meimei rolls her eyes.
Yuzu turns at the door "yes Yimli , come in."
"I have an invitation in my friend's house tonight." Yimli walks in happily .
"Oh, it's a good thing then ..." Yuzu gives a tight lip smile at her. He is a little upset too. He never expected Yimli would treat Meimei as servant. He has never treated Meimei as servant. He should have warned Yimli.
"So, I am here to ask you something." Yimli almost jumps in excitement.
"What ?"
"Can I wear your hair-stick today ?"
"Never !" Meimei shouts in anger.
Yimli glares at Meimei "look you ..
"Yimli" Yuzu cuts Yimli hurriedly. He was too shocked with Yimli's request to reply before Meimei.
Yimli looks at Yuzu "can I borrow it ?"
Yuzu sighs "no , Yimli. This is not just a hair-stick. It's like my wedding seal with his highness. I can't give you this. But I have other beautiful hair-sticks. You can grab the one you like."
Yimli looks at Yuzu with a scroll on her face "No .. I don't want any other. I want blossom. I told my friends that I would wear blossom today."
"You shouldn't have told them without asking me, Yimli." Yuzu looks worried.
"How would I know that I can't borrow a hair-stick from my own brother ? Would it be a disaster if I wear it for one night ?" Yimli asks again.
Yuzu frowns. It wouldn't. But ..
"Yimli, this is not the blossom. I have left blossom in Zi palace. So even if I give you this, it wouldn't help."
Yimli frowns"Really ? It doesn't look like an ordinary hair-stick to me. It is the most beautiful hair-stick they talk about. Don't lie."
"Master isn't lying. It's blue moon. It's the blue version of blossom." Meimei glares at Yimli.
"Really, you got two ? Then why can't you gift one to me ?"
Yuzu closes his eyes in headache. "Yimli, I can give you any other hair-stick you want, you can choose any other piece of jwellery, I will give it to you but not my hair-stick. This is my identity as noble consort of Zi."
Yimli scoffs before standing up "I asked you as my brother Yuzu. I also have other hair-sticks and jewelleries. So I don't need your charity."
***
Zixuan enters the brothel wearing a disguise. He looks around with a curious gaze.
"Does this man need any help from this beauty ?" One girl in pink robe almost hugs Zixuan's arm.
Zixuan frowns but doesn't push the girl away "Where is the concubine that emperor has abandoned?"
The girl pouts "why ? Does this face not appeal to ...."
"I will come for you again if you answer correctly. I need to take some information from her."
"You will not get her tonight. Come tomorrow... If she doesn't get herself killed .. you can meet her tomorrow."
Zixuan raises his one eyebrow "why would she get herself killed ?"
"That's her matter.. I don't interfere.. if I don't appeal to this handsome, I should take my leave."
Zixuan pulls out a sack of gold coins from his robe. "Now ... Can you interfere in her matter ?"
"I don't want to get into trouble." The girl eyes the gold coins with greed.
"Fine !" Zixuan pulls the gold coins back.
The girl jumps "wait ... If you promise me that my name wouldn't ..."
"I don't know your name. I don't want to know your name." Zixuan cuts her words.
The girl looks around before whispering "she escaped."
Zixuan almost snaps "what ?"
"She escaped tonight. You know, the noble consort of Zi .. consort Yuzu is in his paternal house now. She heard that news and said that she needs to clear some debts with consort Yuzu.
She looked murderous. If you ask me, I think she is planning to hurt consort Yuzu. But she is a fool to think that his highness hasn't sent any guards to protect his noble consort. Isn't she ?"
Zixuan clenches his fist in horror. He hasn't sent any guards to Yuzu. He has left Yuzu without any guards so that Ze-min can approach him easily.
How could he be so careless ?
"What are you thinking ?" The girl asks worried , still eyeing the sack of gold coins.
Zixuan hands over the gold coins. "When did she escape ? How long ?"
"She escaped in the afternoon. " The girl looks outside. "It's already evening..when she left there was still daylight."
Zixuan blinks "Walking distance of Minister Bai's house from this brothel ?"
"She has reached there by this time."
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