Chapter 2

I was done for. Completely done for.

I turned around with agonizing slowness.

Lu Liheng stood beneath the covered walkway, his face icy.

“Why stop? Have I spoiled Your Highness’s pleasure?”

I didn’t actually feel that I had done anything wrong.

But under that stare,

somehow I felt as though I had been caught in another man’s bed.

Instinctively, I tried to hide Chi Yao behind me.

I had forgotten that he was considerably taller than I was. There was no possibility of concealing him.

And so,

behind my back, where I couldn’t see, Chi Yao’s usual soft allure vanished. His gaze sharpened at Lu Liheng, and his smile turned rakish and provocative.

Lu Liheng’s expression grew colder.

I tried to salvage the situation. “Lord Lu, let me explain!”

“Oh?”

His gaze settled on my lips, red from kissing.

“Very well. Let us hear Your Highness’s explanation.”

“…”

We stared at each other.

Silence.

Excruciating silence.

I had thought we would always have something to say.

But there was very little room to talk my way out of this.

After a long silence, Lu Liheng gave a cold laugh, turned, and left.

I hadn’t intended to follow him.

Then I thought: Lu Liheng, always so serenely unruffled, was actually angry.

Didn’t that mean he was jealous?

How was that any different from an outright confession?

I immediately started after him.

Someone caught my sleeve.

Chi Yao’s beautiful eyes shone with tears. “Your Highness, it’s all my fault. I’ve made Lord Chi angry with you.”

“Please don’t blame him. He didn’t mean to show contempt for your royal standing.”

Impatient, I shook him off. “All right, I know.”

Perhaps I was too anxious. As I turned to pursue Lu Liheng, I missed the sudden viciousness in Chi Yao’s eyes.

Lu Liheng appeared to be striding away, yet he wasn’t moving particularly fast.

I hurried after him. Without looking back, he said flatly, “Why has Your Highness followed me?”

“If your attention is not on your studies, I shall request to resign tomorrow. I would not wish to interrupt your refined diversions.”

I raised an eyebrow and stepped into his path. “Don’t you know perfectly well where my attention is?”

“Lu Liheng, don’t you know I’m in love with you?”

His expression didn’t change. “Your Highness must be joking. You and that entertainer seem very much in love.”

I didn’t deny it. I only smiled. “Lord Lu, are you jealous?”

He paused. At last, his gaze came to rest lightly on me.

“And if I am? If I am not? Since Your Highness has already given her heart away, why trouble anyone else?”

There was hope!

“Given my heart away? He’s an entertainer. A diversion, that’s all.”

“If you’ll be with me, I’ll dismiss every gentleman companion and entertainer in my residence. Every last one.”

Lu Liheng suddenly laughed softly, looking somewhere far behind me.

I followed his gaze.

Chi Yao was standing in the shadows.

Staring fiercely at Lu Liheng.

Lu Liheng returned his look with indifference.

“Very well.”

After Lu Liheng left, a pale-faced Chi Yao followed me home.

I comforted him in a soft voice.

One moment, I was whispering tenderly in his ear.

The next, I fed him the colorless, tasteless potion.

Friends were like limbs.

Men were like clothes.

What was wrong with trying on a few different outfits?