My Sin

Tactics

The rest of the breakfast went on pretty smoothly. Though the other kids ignored the emperor, Tao'er was really excited to talk to his father. The empress barely spoke to the emperor about personal stuff or things about himself. The conversations between the emperor and the empress were all centered around Tao'er. The empress didn't talk to the emperor about his other two kids since the kids did not want a relationship with him. 

The emperor of course noticed this, but he once again could only concede and reflect back on his old behavior. He didn't try to make small talk to the empress so as not to make him uncomfortable, plus the empress made a strong point about only co-parenting because of his children.

The emperor wanted to stay a little bit more, but he had to go to the morning court so he could only bid them farewell and went on to work. He didn't know why but the moment he talked and carried Tao'er it felt like he'd done this before, and the gentleness he excluded toward him was ingrained in his bone, and when the other kids ignored him, he felt helpless and even felt like their pouting was a little cute. He felt like everything was already predetermined.

"Your Majesty, we have arrived," One of the eunuchs reminded him.

"Oh, Okay, then let's begin," The emperor could only push the thought to the back of his head now.

The empress didn't know about the emperor's worries, and he probably would not care even if he did. As soon as the emperor left, the empress prepared himself for morning greetings. He knew that the concubines would be fussy today because of the emperor's visit so he dressed in bloody red today to warn them to stay in their places or he would put them.

As soon as the concubines walked into the hall they knew what was up and obediently shut up. They knew what the empress was capable of and they didn't want to risk their lives trying to offend the empress. So they just gave their greetings and sipped on their tea, as they made plastic conversation with other concubines.

"Beauty Meixiu, how are the preparations coming along on your side?" The empress suddenly asked.

"Everything is well on my side your majesty," Beauty Meixiu responded as he bowed respectfully.

"Okay, then are you ready for the banquet?" The empress asked with a subtle smile.

"I hope I am," Beauty Meixiu responded with a chuckle.

The empress was only suspicious of Beauty Meixiu because of the death of Yingtai Niu in his past life. All the evidence pointed towards him, but after catching Official Lady Lifen, he knew it was just a ploy. And since there was no suspicious activity coming from Beauty Meixiu he didn't see any reason to make things difficult for him so he just left him alone.

"Morning greetings dismissed," The empress instructed as he got up. He was feeling sleepy and just wanted to lie down.

"This concubine will leave now." The concubines got up and bowed as they excused themselves and left in order of the ranks.

When the empress got to his palace, he immediately went to bed. He was so tired. Because of his pregnancy, he has been feeling so tired lately. All the time he wanted to sleep. He slept till the afternoon and skipped dinner.

When he woke up Li Dani reported to him that the emperor had dinner with the kids. He said that it was super awkward with Ruan'er and Hu'er because he wasn't there. The empress chuckled imagining their sour little faces.

The empress was still sleepy even after sleeping through the whole afternoon He just wanted to lay back down and sleep again, but he knew that this body was no longer his body alone, so he had to take extra care of it.

"Li Dani, prepare me some bird's nest soup please," The empress instructed, as he struggled to get off the bed.

"Just stay on the bed Quiao'er, do you really think you can get up right now?" Li Dani said he stared at him with a 'really?' face.

"Are you calling me fat?!" The empress screamed as tears quickly formed in his eyes. Li Dani knew once again he messed up. He was just trying to tell him the obvious but he forgot that the empress was currently pregnant.

"No, Quiao'er I'm just worried about you that's all, but I get it, you don't want that," Li Dani responded with tears in his eyes. Seeing his best friend burst into tears like this made the empress feel bad so immediately tried to calm Li Dani down.

"It was my bad Li Dani, I knew you would never do that," The empress said as he immediately stopped crying. 

"Okay, next time I'll make sure to word my sentences better okay?" And just like that Li Dani stooped a potential two-hour long mood swing. 

Since being with the empress for such a long time,  Li Dani became more used to the empress' mood swings. He wasn't the one who came up with this tactic, it was the crown prince. The crown prince decided to fight fire with fire if the empress were to cry, and if the empress were to get angry then he would have to play weak. Seeing how well these worked on the empress Li Dani also decided to handle the empress like this.

After the empress drank the bird's nest soup he immediately went to sleep. Because the empress has been having nightmares the imperial physician has prescribed him some lavender incense and tea to the empress, and so far it had been helpful. The empress rarely has nightmares now and slept peacefully. Seeing the empress' peaceful sleeping face and hearing his even breathing, Li Dani quietly made his way out of the empress's chambers.

The next morning, Tao'er excited voice woke up the empress.

"Mommy! Time to wake up!" Tao'er said as he climbed up the bed.

"Baby, why are you up so early?" The empress questioned in a groggy voice, as he hugged Tao'er

"Mommy itz not earlwy mommy, itz alwreaty the Si hour (Between 9 am- 11 am) dawddy iz awlmosd here," Tao'er said in a muffled voice, as he tried to break away from the hug.

"Go without mommy today, mommy is very tired okay? Tell Hu'er and Shuan'er to go with Li Dani if they want." The empress coaxed and instructed as he slowly turned away to sleep some more.

"Okay! Have a nwice sleep mommy!" Tao'er said as he pulled the blanket on the empress. He wasn't sad at all, he knew his mommy had his little siblings in his belly, therefore, was tired sometimes.

"Aww thank you baby, have a nice breakfast!" The empress said lovingly as he planted a gentle kiss on Tao'er's forehead.  After the kiss, Tao'er made his way onto the hall for breakfast with his dad.

Question Of The Day.

What is your sign?