Chapter 8

I caught Murong Su in the end.

He’d hidden in the empress’s residence. Luckily, Wei Qinghe showed me the way. “He’s in there. Take him away. And don’t come back yourself.”

I approached the enclosed canopy bed, pulled the gauze curtains aside, and smiled gently. “Your Majesty. Long time no see.”

He laughed in exasperation. Though it wasn’t entirely anger; he seemed amused and a little helpless too. The smile made him seem more human, like an ordinary little pig next door instead of the lofty Pig Demon Emperor of the palace.

He looked at me and smiled wearily. “Mei Anqing, if you mean to assassinate me, just get on with it.”

After these days together, I knew very well that Murong Su was a good man and a good emperor.

The world was full of prejudice and discrimination.

Even though prejudice had tormented me deeply, I still couldn’t help judging other people through it.

I was tired.

Silently, I lay down beside him and stared ahead. “What does it matter if you’re a little fatter, uglier, or slower? It’s all right to be different, to want different things from other people. Isn’t it?”

Weren’t all our pupils the same?

Didn’t we all look at one another with a pair of naked eyes?

Had someone fitted humanity with filters of prejudice, put spectacles of discrimination on us, creating all the hatred in the world and setting us against each other?

“I really meant it for your own good. I thought helping you lose weight would make you healthier. Haven’t you noticed how well you’ve slept these past few days?”

As soon as I said it, I realized how hateful I sounded.

For your own good. For your own good.

I’d hated those words most of all as a child.

Nobody could truly become someone else and know what was good for them. Imposing your will on others only made them feel stifled and resentful.

I changed tack. “But you’re fine as you are, too. All that matters is that you’re happy.”

“You’re a good person. A good emperor. You have so much power. You could simply have had me arrested.”

I meant the praise from my heart.

He was silent for a long time. “…I didn’t think of that.”

I burst out laughing.

Just then, Wei Qinghe’s voice reached us. This time she was the one laughing in exasperation. “You two went to all this trouble, came all this way, just to lie on my bed and chat?”

I sprang upright and winked at her. “Sister, would you like to lie on top of me and chat instead?”

“Get out.”

——

Murong Cheng complained to his imperial brother. “She kicked me! And you won’t punish her? She even called me a monster!”

“What if I’d damaged this devastatingly handsome face, worthy of an immortal exiled to earth?” He tossed his fringe with a wounded air.

He inspected himself repeatedly in the mirror to make sure his looks were intact. “How could I look like a monster? Is something wrong with her eyes?”

Reviewing memorials, Murong Su instinctively wanted to ask Mei Anqing what he should do when someone filled a memorial with nonsense.

She usually had a funny, sharp answer that cut straight to the point.

He looked up, the words on his lips, then silently swallowed them.

Why did he keep thinking of her?

Because something was wrong with her eyes? Because she was amusing?

No.

To his own surprise, he realized he envied her a little.

After a moment’s thought, he consoled his younger brother. “At least she didn’t call you a pig demon.”