“You seem… displeased, Lady Qing.”

“Hm?” She blinked and then feigned an innocent look. Of course, she was fucking annoyed at being interrupted and even more annoyed due to the sight of those little girls being so nervous of the Emperor. But she did not say that. She had already grilled the man once about it and the man had barely given a response back then. And she was pretty sure the man was wound up after what happened today. It was not a good idea to go off on him about how he should treat his daughters better at the moment.

“I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Without waiting for the man to speak, she turned to Manu. “Darling, you need to go take a bath while dinner is getting ready, okay?”

Samaya had Min take Manu for a bath and told the others to prepare dinner for them.

“You will stay for dinner, yes?”

She only thought to ask that after she had already ordered dinner to be set.

There was a pause and Samaya wondered for a moment if she would have to actually send some food back.

But then the man nodded. “Yes.”

He sat down on one of the lavish couches set against the wall and Samaya had no choice but to sit down on a couch to the side. There was a long moment of tense silence before she finally decided to speak.

“I gather this is not a regular visit?”

The man only tilted his head, his golden eyes moving to rest on her face. She felt her heart skip a bit. Those insufferable golden eyes.

“You would be right, Lady Qing.”

Another pause.

“How is the Empress?”

“She is well, thanks to you.” He gave a small nod, once again acknowledging her deed - which, honestly, was a basic fucking decency to not let a pregnant mother and her unborn child be poisoned to death.

She gave a small sigh. “I am not so sure about that.”

“Oh?”

She looked at the man. “It took me a while to realize it because I was swept up in the moment but … the Empress did not quite seem surprised when I spoke about her cup being poisoned. If anything, she was more surprised at the fact that I managed to deduce the method.”

“And how did you deduce the method?”

She rolled her eyes. “Please do not do that, Your Majesty.”

“Do what?”

“Question me,” she said firmly. “The Empress already did it once and I believe you already know everything I have told her.”

The man raised an eyebrow as if amused by her words. “And why do you believe that?”

Samaya sighed softly. She was already tired of all these tests and games.

“Because I have been here long enough to know that the both of you have been partners since before your marriage, in more ways than one.”

Her voice was sharp, and curt, with no room for nonsense anymore.

“Oh?” The man’s amusement seemed only to increase, much to her already existing irritation. “It seems you are very knowledgeable about Our personal matters.”

“I am knowledgeable about my surroundings, Your Majesty,” she replied immediately. “It is a necessity for survival.”

“Is that how you survived in the underworld?”

She was not proud of it, but the moment the question slipped out of his mouth, she lost her composure, not for long and not obviously. It was only a sharp inhale and a minute widening of her eyes. But it was enough for this man.

His lips curled up in a smirk as if the cat got the canary. She cursed herself for letting herself show emotion while pulling a blank mask over her face.

“Why are you so concerned about my past?” She asked instead of answering. “I have already told you, I am here only for my son and I will not do anything that might jeopardize him. My past is irrelevant and it will cause no one harm. That, I can assure you.”

“That may be so.” The Emperor leaned closer and Samaya resisted the urge to lean back. The aura this man had was unbelievable. “However, We do not like that an unknown variable is staying in Our Palace. We despise even the possibility of things going out of Our control. When something goes out of the Emperor’s control, it only brings chaos, sometimes to the entirety of the Empire. So, you can imagine why We are concerned, especially when We have an element here from the very underworld that We seek to destroy.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Samaya resisted the urge to snort. Destroy the underworld? What a joke. The underworld had always existed and would always exist. She was not saying this out of pride or because she thought that the underworld was too powerful. No. The underworld was powerful, yes, especially because of the existence of Siwang. But that was not the main factor there. The underworld existed long before Siwang came and would exist long after he was gone. It was because the underworld was resilient, it was full of desperate, destitute people who had nothing to lose and everything to gain. They were like cockroaches. You killed one, ten others would spawn. As long as the world existed, as long as the classist society existed, as long as the system of making the poor poorer and the rich richer existed, the underworld would always exist. That was to say, forever.

She did not allow herself to get lost in those thoughts though. Nor did she allow those thoughts to appear on her face. Instead, she sighed softly and spoke.

“I will tell you what I told Her Majesty,” she said softly. “I did what I had to to survive and make sure my son survived. My only other option was prostitution. I do not regret the choices I made and I will not be shamed or blamed for them. However, I will promise you this, those choices will not haunt this Palace.”

The Emperor’s gaze bored into her. And this time, she did not look away, no matter how much she wanted to. Instead, she held his gaze, her own eyes full of conviction. And then, finally, the man leaned back.

“Very well. We hope, for the sake Our child, that you are right.”

Samaya sighed softly. “Then, you will stop asking me questions?”

“If and only if you give your word that you shall tell me yourself should anything from your past ever come or even loom over the Palace.”

Samaya hesitated. Even though she really made all those tall claims - which she was about 90% sure of - she could not completely guarantee that the elements from her past would never come. Heck, she brought Ah-Liu with her. But … it should be fine, right? She was deep in the Palace and barely anyone knew from the underworld where she was. Siwang might know but he was not stupid enough to barge into the Palace.

She took a deep breath and then nodded. “You have my word.”

If that was what it took to get this man off her back, then so be it.

“Thank you, Lady Qing. I hope you will not go back on your word.”

His voice was calm and casual but it sent a shiver down her spine.

She quietly inclined her head in acknowledgement of the silent threat just as the maids entered with the food. As they were setting up, she called Yu and told her to see if Manu was done bathing and ordered her to bring him if he was.

“Now, Lady Qing.” The Emperor’s voice brought her attention back to him. “What do you want?”

“Pardon?” She blinked.

“We believe we have promised you a reward for saving Our Emrpess and child.”

“Oh. That.” She shook her head. “I really do not need a reward, Your Majesty.”

Again, it was a basic fucking thing to not let people get killed … unless it was necessary for a mission.

“We have already given Our word.” The man said, his tone leaving no room for argument. “The Emperor’s word, once given, cannot be taken back.”

Translation: I am telling you to take it, so fucking take it.

She sighed softly. Fine, it wasn’t worth fighting over. But there was a problem.

“I… do not know.”

The man tilted his head. “You do not know?”

She shook her head. “I do not know what I want.” It was not as if she was lacking anything. And anything she wanted, she could get herself.

The corner of the man’s lips once again quirked up, amusement visible in his eyes. Really, what about her did he find so amusing?

“Very well, you can save this reward and ask for it anytime you want in the future.”

She raised an eyebrow and smirked, leaning forward. “Are you sure that you want to give an unknown variable that much power?”

The man stared at her for a moment before glancing away. “It is just a reward. We hand them out every so often. You will not get much power from it.”

Wait, were those ears red…

Before she could think about it, Manu came out of the bath chambers running towards her. She quickly opened her arms and embraced him. Glancing at the Emperor, she found him staring at her, no trace of red on his face or even ears. Huh. It must have been her imagination. She was thinking weird things these days.

“Alright, let’s go have dinner, shall we?”

The dinner was amiable. The Emperor had Manu sit beside him and fed him from time to time, Manu happily eating and giggling as he talked about his day to the Emperor. She smiled softly, her heart filled with warmth at the sound of his laughter. But… she could not help but remember Ai and Mei, those little girls who had been so nervous around their father, not even daring to speak up when they clearly wanted to stay. If it was Manu, he would have at least whined for a bit before agreeing after a bit of coaxing. But these children… they barely even spoke. When Ai tried to, Mei stopped her, clearly afraid of her own father. It left a bad taste in her mouth. Just how distant were they from their father? She really didn’t like it, she didn’t like how it made her feel and how it stirred memories of her childhood. She did not want to see children growing up afraid of their own parents if she could help it.

But what could she do? How could she bring them closer? It wasn’t like she could just force the Emperor to spend time with them… she frowned as a thought occurred to her. The thought soon took the vague structure of a haphazard plan.

“Your Majesty, I have decided on the reward.”

The Emperor looked at her, a look of genuine surprise on her face. “Oh? So quickly? That’s a surprise.” He tilted his head. “Well?”

“Spend a day with me.”