Arc 5.15 Empress of Four Kingdoms
""Greetings to the Emperor and Empress!""
Everyone in the hall ceased their previous murmuring and talks as they stood and bent their backs and knees accordingly. As opposed to the other officials who were more humble in their approach, Hua Shen, Long Zheng, Li Hao, and Li Yun only lowered their heads slightly while their backs remained straight.
"Forgo the formalities. Let the party officially begin," Emperor Li generously waved and allowed everyone to rise from their bowed positions as he declared the start of the farewell banquet.
The Royal Family were seated above the officials and their families, giving off a sense of alienation and estrangement due to the vast difference in power and status. Though it wasn't particularly against protocol for those below to come up and talk to the Royals, none wanted to be the first especially so soon.
The banquet was like a buffet and a free-for-all where the guests were not confined to their appointed spots. In fact, if they so wished, they didn't have to eat at all and could just mingle and walk around to form connections. The ladies still had to conform to the customs and maintain propriety but as long as they were not alone they could speak to their male counterparts freely.
Thus, the venue was quite lively below.
As for those seated above where the Royals sat, Li Hao's concubine mother glared incessantly at Li Hao for failing her expectations while the other Imperial Concubine attended to her son and acted as if she were free from all worldly affairs.
Li Hao acted as if he didn't notice his mother's disappointment, but Bai Ping knew he was upset so she consoled him by reaching under the table and grasping his hand with hers. He visibly regained some vitality and couldn't help himself from harassing her with his sneaky hands underneath the table, "hidden" from the stares of the surrounding people.
But Li Feifei, Li Yun, Hua Shen, Emperor Li, the Empress, and Long Zheng all knew what was going on.
Li Yun sighed and pretended to not have noticed anything amiss as he retained his gentle smile and aloof manner.
Long Zheng had no feelings for Bai Ping in this timeline, and he had almost no close interaction with Li Hao either. As this royal couple with no ambition had no appeal to him, his attention remained focused on Li Feifei.
Emperor Li rested his own hot palm on his Empress's thigh over her thick layers of clothing whilst maintaining the regal aura of a monarch. Only they knew that he and the Empress were thinking that the apple surely did not fall far from the tree.
Hua Shen saw that this brother-in-law had some game. He approved and didn't want to lose, slipping his hand between the slit of his wife's attire and directly caressing her smooth thigh with his coarse hand.
As he was the one who had personally designed the gown, how could he not know every inch and gaps hidden within?
In response, Li Feifei purposefully and inconspicuously rubbed her body on his rising member with a soft smile while staring straight ahead as if merely appreciating a scenic view of nature.
Shame?
That word simply did not belong in the dictionary of this Royal Family.
It wasn't as if anyone below them aside from Long Zheng had taken notice of the rising sexual tension above anyway.
Distressed by her teasing, Hua Shen called out to her with a low and restrained voice by her ear, "Baby, don't push your luck."
001 robotically sneered before quieting down again.
The sound was like an ear-piercing buzz that was full of obvious mockery which was grating to Li Feifei's ears making her imperceptibly cringe.
With a black face due to the mention of that pathetic stat, Li Feifei was about to get up and sit somewhere else, but Zero popped up out of seemingly nowhere as Hua Shen's personal eunuch.
"Sis-in-law!" he gloatingly smirked with his delicate face as he mouthed, "OOC."
This son of a bitch! Whose side is he on anyway ah?! He always laughs when his host fails but never misses the chance to push us together!
In truth, Zero was just a pervert.
Li Feifei wanted to cry but had no tears as she regained her composure as the dignified princess of Li.
But if they thought that was enough to keep her from throwing her passive-aggressive tantrum, then they were royally mistaken!
With her staple slight smile her small hand latched onto Hua Shen's still-wandering one as she coyly whispered into his ear loud enough for the surrounding royal family members to hear, "Husband, Fei-er wants to spend the rest of the day with Imperial Father, Mother, Yun-gege, Hao-didi, and Luo-didi. Because Fei-er won't have the chance to see them often in the future, please understand and grant Fei-er's only wish."
Gritting his teeth until they were sore, even though Hua Shen was pleased with the way she so pleasantly called him "husband," how could Hua Shen let her go just like that when Long Zheng was still perfectly full of blood? Thus, his other hand squeezed her soft round butt cheek as he laughed twice dryly, "Fei-er, this Husband understands."
Then, he loosened his arms around her small body and helped her fix her clothes before she gracefully rose from his lap, ready to head to Emperor Li who was nearest first.
Unfortunately for Li Feifei, just because Hua Shen assented did not mean he'd let her go alone. Right after Li Feifei stood up on her own two feet, she felt a large shadow looming over her own figure before her hand was grasped entirely within a much larger one.
Pulling his wife along with him to personally accompany his father-in-law, Hua Shen felt that this could also help him to achieve his goal in making Long Zheng puke gallons of blood today.
The seats of the two monarchs were originally not that far apart from each other, but it still took a few steps to get to the other and as they were at the very top anything they did was very conspicuous.
The sounds and commotion below slowly came to a stop as their gazes were fixed upon Hua Shen and Li Feifei's two figures. It was unknown what they wanted to do, but it was a fact that if Hua Shen were to speak to Li Yunzhi, they as the common folk in comparison to these two Sons of Heaven should cease all actions and cautiously witness it all.
Upon seeing his daughter and that eyesore of an emperor approaching them, Emperor Li reluctantly removed his hand from his wife's thigh and eyed their intimate closeness indifferently as the two neared.
With his skills, how could Emperor Li not have seen how that pervert had harassed his precious daughter?!
"Father-in-law, mother-in-law," Hua Shen greeted as the two finally stood in front of the Imperial Couple with one hand politely behind his tall, straight back and the other lightly grasping Li Feifei's.
"Imperial Father, Mother!" Li Feifei abruptly pulled away from Hua Shen's now sweaty paws and held her mother's hands in her own affectionately.
It wasn't the first time she'd met with the Empress. After all, she'd been in this world for almost a month already. Li Feifei's looks resembled the Empress's about 90%.
The Empress was actually ten years younger than Emperor Li, so she looked especially youthful in comparison to some of the wives and concubines below in the venue. Not to mention, the Imperial Couple were relatively young to begin with, as Emperor Li had taken the throne at 26 and his Empress was only 16 at the time.
They were childhood sweethearts, practically having been raised for each other. Currently, even though neither of them looked it, Emperor Li was only 41 while the Empress was 31.
It could be seen that Emperor Li had especially waited until his Empress had gone through her hairpin ceremony to formally marry her and then proceed to conceive their eldest son Li Yun before they officially ascended the throne.
"Fei-er! Come, sit with mother," the Empress gently pulled Li Feifei down to sit beside her, leaving Hua Shen to stand alone in front of them. Due to her relatively young age she had yet to have any wrinkles on her face. In fact, she was beaming with vitality and youthfulness so much so that if one did not know, one would assume that the Empress and Li Feifei were actually sisters!
Even though most others would feel awkward being left out so blatantly like that, but who was Hua Shen? He shamelessly squeezed himself beside his wife at the other edge of the exquisite table that now seated four royal persons with Hua Shen at one end and Li Yunzhi at the other, their soft and beloved women between them.
It was pretty obvious that the Empress hadn't expected his action, as her face immediately blanked before quickly restoring its usual calmness and virtuosity as if the minor lapse had never happened in the first place.
She had ignored him to test his character. If he were angered by such a petty act then no matter what, she'd make sure his days could never be peaceful in the future even separated by over vast lands and territories. It was obvious that if he could not reign in such impulsive emotions then her daughter would only be in for a world of hurt in the future what with how whimsical she had been recently.
Fortunately Hua Shen was not as childish and willful as the rumors had stated. Her only complaint now about her daughter's marriage would be that she as the Empress and Li Feifei's own mother was left out of the discussion even though it was originally her responsibility.
But there was no use crying over spilled milk. More so because she was the Empress of her kingdom.
Emperor Li had spoken with this childish and unyielding son-in-law too many times already, so he was familiar with his temperament. To Emperor Li, this action of jumping onto his own throne to accompany Li Feifei was not unexpected.
Only after Hua Shen settled himself comfortably with Li Feifei's waist habitually snuggled in his strong and muscular arm did he sit silently and obediently so as to not disturb the family bonding time any further.
As Li Feifei had only used the excuse of spending the day with the Li family to save her face earlier, their talks had amounted to nothing more than idle chatter and meaningless jokes. Occasionally, Li Yun, Li Hao, and Bai Ping would pipe in cheerfully from their own seats not far away.
Before anyone had noticed it, the sexual tension from earlier had already been replaced with the innocent and cheerful atmosphere of a warm and loving family.
It was only Long Zheng amongst the original cast of the world's plot that seemed quite lonely and alienated from the rest as he sat below them silently and stoically staring straight ahead without a care in the world.
Every once in a while, he would take a sip from his wine cup with a confident posture. This served to attract the affection of those unmarried young ladies who had a hard time choosing which man to pursue.
Needless to say, there were originally three of the most wanted golden bachelors in Li—Li Yun, Li Hao, and Long Zheng. With the addition of Hua Shen these girls could no longer hide the ambitious glints in their eyes as if they were ready to pounce on those men at any moment's notice.
It was obvious that Li Hao favored the girl from General Bai's household, so those who vied for the seat of official wife moved their sights to the other three.
And, after today Hua Shen would no longer be considered a bachelor, but it was believed that he would always be in search of more women even after marriage as he was a monarch.
Although Emperor Li had broken the normal tradition of having countless flowers in the Imperial Harem by only taking in two concubines after such a long reign, as young and undoubtedly vigorous as Hua Shen was who would believe that he wouldn't want the standard hundreds to thousands of concubines in his harem?
It was not yet made public that Hua Shen had no plans to ever take in concubines as he never really had the chance. However, if someone wanted to send themselves his way he would readily decline and at the same time make this promise of his known to all.
Even Long Zheng was still unaware of Hua Shen's wholehearted devotion to Li Feifei as when General Bai finally found that he had waited long enough and finally led both of his most-favored daughters along with him to the center of the hall to kneel, Long Zheng could not hold back a sneer.
He wanted Li Feifei to open her eyes to the kind of man she was marrying. Needless to say, Hua Shen likely had an endless sex drive as someone even more powerful than himself by leaps and bounds. Furthermore, he was an emperor who would be demanded by his own ministers to take up concubines every month if not every day.
Long Zheng knew he could be regarded as a hypocrite if anyone were to hear his thoughts. This was because his aim was to rule over the four kingdoms as their sole ruler. Someone with such a position, how could that supreme ruler above all the lands only have one woman in his Imperial Harem?
But Long Zheng believed that if that one woman were to be Li Feifei, even he who had always been ruthless and indifferent to all women would be content. Li Feifei was full of secrets, vigor, sensuality, and strength all at the same time. Which man would have time to worry about other women with Li Feifei around? In fact, one feared that after having a taste of such a beauty, the rest would forever pale in comparison.
He totally did not believe that someone like Hua Shen would actually be able to settle down with only one woman. With his discerning eye and experience with all sorts of different men in the battlefield, Long Zheng had immediately sensed the peculiarity within Hua Shen.
Even though this young emperor was only fourteen like himself, who knew if Long Zheng was simply able to tell by the youth's bearing or the look in his eyes, but the General was certain that Hua Shen had plentiful experience with women. It was not a matter of the boy's body, but the combination of a mature soul in such a young and most likely pure vessel did produce some discrepancies that only the sharpest of eyes could catch.
Such a promiscuous man, Long Zheng felt that Li Feifei would surely only be eating losses if she remained by his side. Then again, knowing her, it also wouldn't be surprising if she already had the young emperor spun around her delicate finger.
With this thought in his mind, how could he ever cough blood out of jealousy and regret towards their displays of affection? Just knowing who the dominant party in the relationship was, was enough to make the eternally frozen Long Zheng's thin lips raise ever so slightly as he ignored General Bai and continued appreciating Li Feifei's endless charm.
Really, made one want her even more for himself.
"Your Majesty! This General has a proposal to make. One feels that the road to Hua will be a lonely one and could not help but to feel concerned over gongzhu's feelings all morning," General Bai tentatively paused to let the meaning behind his words seep into everyone's ears before continuing.
"That is why, this humble General is painstakingly offering to allow his own beloved second daughter, Yi-er to accompany gongzhu so that gongzhu would not feel as much heartache after leaving Li."
Finally made that discord channel OTL
There's a direct link on my profile :0
https://discord.gg/e3wazHH