Mingxia Jie entered Kangxi wangfu with the cheerful cries of the crowd. She hadn't expected that her plans would go so well, so fast. As soon as she entered a maidservant was waiting for her. The maidservant bowed properly to Mingxia Jie stating:
-"Wangfei; please follow me. The room has been prepared."
Mingxia Jie nodded softly and followed behind the maidservant. As she looked around the courtyard she noticed that it's design was noble, but it wasn't extravagant like that of the Crown Prince; who had been spoiled since birth.( She knew from her past life, since she had snuck into it when she was younger. But that's a story for another time.) With multiple bamboo gardens and a simple quietness to it. But it was also lonely which made the mood dampen. While looking around the courtyards she noticed two women were standing playfully beside a pond.
One in a pale blue and one in a bright yellow, they both noticed her and stared back at her with a scrutinizing gaze. Mingxia Jie laughed to herself, thinking that she could slip in and out of her courtyards easily. In Kangxi wangfu, the courtyards had been separated from east to west, having a the flow of a rock garden. Where she had multiple layers of courtyards that surrounded the inner ones. The two women she saw had possibly smaller ones but coexisted with the grandiose of both the wangye's and wangfei's courtyards on the east side, while following rank everyone moved to the west side.
Mingxia Jie ignored their gazes as she went forward with her thoughts. When she arrived at the room, she had still been occupied with her thoughts and hadn't asked the door to be opened yet. Quickly pulling herself together and pushed her schemes to that back of her head she nodded her head for the door to be opened; only Lifen followed Mingxia Jie inside the room.
Lifen took care of her feet, as she massaged them and gave a bit of food to Mingxia Jie to eat. They chatted for a bit before Lifen left the room. Mingxia Jie's smile disappeared, she sighed and took the red veil off.
-"Wangye; it is a bad habit for you to listen in on a woman's conversation, no?"
A dark corner of the room lightly chuckled as its voice rang out a bit husky:
-"Ah, Xiaoye has been caught by wangfei. But it is not a habit. Though I see you are fond of staring at other women and scaring my guards."
Mingxia Jie chuckled at this wangye's words.
-"If Wangye refers to those women in your garden, it felt more like they wouldn't stop staring at me and your guards aren't very good at their jobs. Now, are they? Wangye really likes to keep what's his under his thumb."
Kangxi Di Guo roared with laughter at this wangfei, he truly did like to take what was rightfully his. But he was still too cautious of her. Kangxi Di Gou made his way out of the dark shadows, the silver fox mask reflecting the candlelight perfectly against his jade white skin. Mingxia Jie stood up and made her way to Kangxi Di Gou, her steps quick, yet so elegant. Kangxi Di Guo unconsciously took a step back. Mingxia Jie reached a slender white jade hand out.
Kangxi Di Guo's heart started to race not knowing if it was fear or excitement that rushed through his blood. He had never felt this way before, but yet he craved for the touch of this woman's hand. As he reached out to touch her hand, a faint scent of camellia wafted into his nose. 'This is why they call her the camellia wangfei' he thought to himself. They were close, so close that they could hear each other breathing. His hand about to touch hers when she hand moved quickly past his reaching for something behind him. It was a book, her eyes gleamed and she turned around and walked away with the book in hand.
In all honesty, it was a book that would be useful to Mingxia Jie, a cultivation book to be exact. Mingxia Jie in the past had never had experienced love because the men were too afraid to approach her in the first place. She hadn't realized that what she did had excited the man standing intrigued with her.
Mingxia Jie spoke softly as she read the book:
-"Wangye; where will I be staying?"
-"Isn't it our consummation night wangfei?"
-"There is no need; we can hold it off. I have no interest in you, and you have no interest in me."
Kangxi Di Guo was speechless. This was the first time that he had heard a woman didn't have an interest in him. It was a vicious blow to his ego, but Mingxia Jie didn't know that. She just merely stated the facts. Kangxi Di Guo sighed and grabbed her hand, Mingxia Jie didn't expect that but her eyes betrayed her overall blank expression. She was dragged by Kangxi Di Guo to her new courtyards speaking as he walked:
-"Tomorrow the ce fei and shiqi will be coming over to pay respects to you."
A devilish smile bloomed on Mingxia Jie's face, she quickly replied:
-"And here I thought you were a cut-sleeve?"
Kangxi wangye turned around quickly and loomed over her intimidatingly.
-"Say that to my face again."
-"And here I thought you were a. Cut. Sleeve. While we are talking can you as well send over some advanced medical books and cultivation books?"
-"As for the women, I couldn't get rid of them. If you get rid of them for me, I'll reward you."
-"Deal."
Kangxi Di Guo shook his head and rolled his eyes, 'She certainly has guts, I'll give her that'. He was confused but still did as his wangfei asked. That night Mingxia Jie couldn't help but squeal in her mind. 'I'll be killing two birds with one stone!' How fortunate for Mingxia Jie because the next day the ce fei and shiqi would be arriving at her courtyards. The woman known as the ce fei was Che Baozhai; her family was that of a scholarly one helping Kangxi wangye in court. Behind Che Baozhai was Li Chutao. Her family as well followed Kangxi wangye but her father was only a fifth-ranked officer so she needed to rely on bigger families for help.
The next day after being left alone by Kangxi wangye, Mingxia Jie rose from her bed and prepared to receive the other two women. On the way to Mingxia Jie's courtyard, Che Baozhai knew that this new wangfei wasn't favoured by their wangye so she still acted as she normally did thinking she could subdue the wangfei. She spoke up without Mingxia Jie allowing her to:
-"Wangfei; you mustn't worry about the wangfu. I have been controlling it this whole time there is no need for you to step in."
-" Ce fei; I thank you for your offer, but would you disgrace our wangye by not letting bengong take care of it? Of course not, you would become someone else's playtoy. You know whose, right?"
Che Baozhai's face paled immensely as if she had heard the words to her death row. Though they weren't that far off. She blurted out:
-"Please don't give me to Lou Chang! I don't want to be like those other women!"
Mingxia Jie's ears perked up.'There were other men in this fu? Who was Lou Chang? Where was he? And what other women?' She decided to leave these questions on their own because she had yet to look for an answer. She realized that she would have to do some digging if she was going to be able to make sure no one could trap her.
She had heard through the maids and whispers that the emperor gifted Kangxi wangye multiple concubines, but he had gifted all of them to Lou Chang, though she couldn't further explore this new idea because she was interrupted by Li Chuntao.
-"Wangfei, this lowly servant had not the intention to be rude but may we leave?"
Mingxia Jie mocked Li Chuntao in her heart and a beautiful smile grew on Mingxia Jie's face:
-"Yes, of course, you can. I just had the same idea. Also, I'd much rather you two do not come to pay respects to me at all. Actually you two should just be relocated to your own residences in the countryside. How does that sound?"
Their mouths hung open for at least half a day before they recovered from it.
-"W..Wa..Wangfei.. you must be joking? Every fu's ce fei and shiqi not living in the wangfu."
-"Yes wangfei, you must think of the wangye's face."
Mingxia Jie's smile flourished even more beautifully:
-"I'm not the type who likes to receive fake respect from others and besides; this is Kangxi wangfu; and not every other fu. Right?
Che Baozhai couldn't handle this wangfei, and out of pure terror, she fainted. The ce fei's personal maid screamed:
-"CE FEI!"
-"Well. Shoo. Your places will be ready in a bit."