CROWN PRINCE'S CONCUBINE

“Erm, what should I bring to SuiLian? How’s the weather there? Is it hot? Or cold? And the food must be delicious, just like what Ying’er read last time in a book about people from WahYe country, then...”

LuoXiang let go of BaiYing’s embrace, looking at the young man with furrowed brows.

“What does YingYing mean? You must not come along, this journey is very dangerous, so stay in the palace to be safer.”

BaiYing looked at the Crown Prince with sharp eyes.

“Your Majesty, how could that be? This is related to Ying’er’s, of course, it should be Ying’er who goes there, after all, what does that have to do with His Majesty, and also in the palace it is not necessarily safe, what if someone comes and poisoning me? What if someone attacks the pavilion? Then, later if Your Majesty is out there, who will take care of Your Majesty”

“What can YingYing do about that? Even though in the palace it’s not necessarily safe but it’s not as dangerous as outside, YingYing can’t come along”

BaiYing held the Crown Prince’s hand tightly, he looked at LuoXiang with big sharp eyes, and a big rounded mouth as pufferfish, so adorable.

“Your Majesty said would protect me, how did this happen? How can Your Majesty forget what you just said a minute ago, it’s so unbelievable” the young man threw Crown Prince’s hand and turned to lie down pulled the blanket up to his head.

.....

BaiYing lowered his blanket for a while to continue his disapproved.

“Just say that Your Majesty really wants to be alone with that prince, really such a masher” and pulled the blanket back quickly.

LuoXiang stuttered, that kid, what’s going on in his head? He tried to turn the young man to him but he didn’t budge at all, even the blanket covered his whole head.

“YingYing, listen to me, don’t be like that, it’s not that I don’t want to take you, but at out there we don’t know what will happen, it’s better if I’d go first to see the situation and come back to take you if it’s safe enough, how about that? And, can you, not think about your XiangXiang brother can fall for anyone other than my sweet YingYing, let alone that kid, come on Ying”

BaiYing let go of LuoXiang’s hand on his shoulder.

“Your Majesty, I am tired, and tonight I want to sleep alone, please, Your Highness, you can go back to your room.”

LuoXiang stuttered, the young man was really pissed,

“Eh YingYing, don’t be like that, be a good boy this time, I’ll bring a lot of delicious food home later, YingYing just behave and wait in the palace ok, come on YingYing”

BaiYing covered the blanket more and tightly covering his head and ears,

“Ying’er doesn’t want to hear anything”

Not long after.

Brukk!

The door was slammed from inside, while the Crown Prince was already standing in front of the bedroom door trying to open the door that BaiYing had been holding inside.

“YingYing, quickly open the door, don’t be naughty!” he shouted, LuoXiang restrained himself, he could easily kick the door but that would make BaiYing angrier.

“YingYing”

While none of the servants dared to be in the room when Crown Prince and Concubine Hua’s had a quarrel like this, it was better for everyone to get out of the way, the only one dared to enter, BeiYau who’s already standing at the door.

“Hey kid” seeing BeiYau there, as Crown Prince, LuoXiang must of course maintain his dignity, he adjusted his clothes and walked over to his personal bodyguard.

“Ahem, I’ll be back tomorrow, YingYing just rests tonight okay” LuoXiang exclaimed.

BeiYau restrained himself, he knew how the Crown Prince would be so grumpy when Concubine Hua was upset with him, but the Honorable Crown Prince tried to remain calm,

“Come on Bei, let’s go back to the pavilion, we still have a lot to prepare for the trip later,” LuoXiang said while moving away from the room, but he hadn’t even stepped the door yet when the voice from the closed-door stopped him.

“Then Ying’er will go alone later!” BaiYing exclaimed, LuoXiang pulling his lips.

“Ich that kid”

LuoXiang and BeiYau walked towards the exit gate of Plum pavilion, the Crown Prince was still often deep in thought, with BaiYing’s very stubborn attitude the boy could be reckless, but taking him along was also not a safe option, many things could be happening on the way there, BeiYau noticed the Crown Prince’s confusion.

“Your Majesty, there is an update from Commander Liu, if one of the barn houses for aid in SuiLian City was robbed and burned down overnight and there’s a clear traces that the culprit is the Black Water Clan.”

LuoXiang stroked his chin.

“Heh those people, this time they’re not hiding anymore, they’ve started their action openly”

“I also got reports from other cities around that some people dressed in black also damaged government warehouse buildings and stole some weapons, even blowing up one of the administrative buildings, this news has reached His Majesty the Emperor’s ears and His Majesty has sent a lot of palace guards to investigate it, this has never happened before, so some officials and palace guards are not well prepared and become victims,” ??BeiYau continued.

LuoXiang crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“So far YueYang has been relatively safe, all of these attacks were meant to stir up rebellion, they poked at the palace, and father is also not a fool, the old man has also been monitoring the movements of these people, and, that senile old man is also dare to put spies among your bodyguards, just see what I’ll do later”

“Your Majesty, regarding this matter, will Your Majesty not do anything to that spy?” asked Bei Yau.

LuoXiang took a deep breath.

“Heh, let it be Bei, he’s just doing his job, this time before father hears this news from his subordinates, I must hurry to the palace to report everything, after all, he must know more than us”

LuoXiang waved his wide sleeves, and hooked his hands behind his waist, walking leisurely along the path back to his pavilion, the night air was quite warm, the dark sky with a few night birds still visible flying through the half moonlight sticking out behind the clouds.

“Your Majesty, forgive me for being presumptuous, but with my martial arts as well as Princess aYa and many well-trained guards, we can protect young master Hua, and, Your Majesty also possesses unrivaled martial arts, why not, take Young Master along on the journey with us?”

LuoXiang stopped in his tracks, briefly looking at BeiYau’s face which was deeply bowed.

“The problem is not that, Bei, I don’t want the kid to have empty hopes, meeting his maternal family, which, it might not necessarily as what he thinks, he lost too much, I don’t want to see him disappointed for the umpteenth time”

LuoXiang continued his walk, BeiYau followed him.

“I understand Your Majesty”

“Princess aYa will stay in the palace to protect YingYing, and, I must ask helps from Father to keep an eye on him, this trip, may take longer than the last time we went out, heh, far from YingYing, just imagine It’s just so hard, but, this has to be done”

...

BaiYing’s room.

The room was already dark, and it was also almost past midnight, but BaiYing was still having trouble closing his eyes, even though he was very sleepy and had almost fallen asleep several times but opened his eyes suddenly back thinking about the Crown Prince plan to leaving without him, with annoyed BaiYing pulled all the blankets over his face.

“Akkh this is so annoying, how can His Majesty go and leave Ying’er alone in the palace? This is a matter for the Ying’er family, whatever it is Ying’er has to come along,” he shouted inside his head.

BaiYing got up and sat down, patted his cheek a few times until his eyes were no longer blurry, then quickly rushed out of bed, first lit a candle then looked for his cloth bag to put clothes and everything he needed, he pulled out the drawer, took out his coins, opened the cupboard, brought simple clothes that won’t too catchy and nice to wear, wait, SuiLian is hot or cold? Well whatever, just bring the coat that Grandpa Po gave him the other day, as well as a few pairs of shoes with hard and flexible soles, maybe take two, if they pass a mountain he can’t wear shoes with very hard soles, he could slip, um, ropes, he remembers having it and putting it somewhere behind the counter, liniment, in case he sprains, stomach-ache medicine, toilet paper, a lot of to carry with.

Right outside the room, Yan and Bi, who was still standing guard at the door before their working hours ended, straightened their ears when they heard a noise in the room, the two glanced at each other, not a noise from fighting but still, it made them worried, they knocked on the door.

“Eh Your Majesty, does Your Majesty hasn’t slept yet?” Yan shouted quietly, there was no answer from inside, the maids began to worry until Bi opened the door, the two maids widened their eyes at the messy room.

“Your Majesty, what is Your Majesty doing at this time of night? looking for clothes?” Yan asked,

“Sister Yan, Sis Bi, Ying’er couldn’t find the blue belt, it matches the clothes Ying’er is going to bring, um, I already have the red one, but where do you put the blue one?”

Bi helped look for it because he rarely used his young master’s clothes so that sometimes his clothes were scattered from each other, but the two maids were still confused about what the young man was going to do in the middle of the night.

“Your Majesty, where are you going?” Yan asked, seeing BaiYing filling his cloth bag until it’s swelling.

“Where else? following His Highness the Crown Prince to SuiLian, he thought he could just leave me here, no matter how Ying’er would go alone, but, um,” BaiYing stopped his hand movement, he frowned in deep thought about something most importantly, he looked at his maids who still looked at him confused, BaiYing scratched his head.

“Em sis Yan, sis Bi, umm,, do you know where SuiLian is?”

Hearing BaiYing’s very innocent question, the two maids covered their mouths and chuckled.

#######