The Blood-Stained Empress

C1: Li Mei Xing

When the skies turn crimson and the ground below fades away, the dragons of gold will turn to dust. The kingdom enveloped in blood and tears, with only a gentle rush of wind, crumbles in the silence of night. A lone figure stands at the top, with nowhere to go and no-one to love. Such is the fate of a king.

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A stunning beauty is seated by the pond, her graceful fingers effortlessly plucking the guqin's strings to create a beautiful melody. She has silky black hair, pale skin, and enchanting irises that seem to attract everyone's attention. Surrounding her are several delicate-looking maids serving cups of huqiu tea and pastries.

The young lady's alluring peach-colored lips curve upwards as she pouts at the man before her. "Siming~ this is unfair. This type of chess game is no fun when I'm playing against you." She rests her cheek into the palm of a hand while using the other hand to carelessly move a knight one space forward.

"Come on, it's not too hard," Huang Siming replies. "Do you remember what I told you last night? You can't put the knight piece there; it can't travel directly forward like that. Why don't you put it there?"

Li Meixing dejectedly looks at the space Siming pointed towards. "Eh? I thought the knight is stronger than the pawn. Why can the pawn move one space forward and the knight can't?"

Huang Siming smiles. "There are some things that even the strong cannot do. But the knight can move like this," he takes Li Meixing's piece and moves it to where he suggested, "and the pawns cannot. Instead, the pawns get stuck in these kinds of situations," Huang Siming raises his own pawn to meet Li Meixing's pawn in the center, "and neither of these pawns can move now. They fight at a standstill unless a more powerful piece steps in to kill one of them."

Li Meixing sighs and pops a pastry into her mouth. "How tiring. Siming, let's go shopping in the Spring Square. Having attendants bring me dresses all the time is so boring."

With a wry smile, Huang Siming replies, "Okay, let's go." He stands up and orders a nearby guard to clean up the table.

"And anyways, that same pawn can checkmate the king," Li Meixing mutters underneath her breath.

Huang Siming pauses for a moment and slowly scans her expression. After a couple of moments, he finally asks, "What kind of new dress do you want?"

Li Meixing happily takes Huang Siming's hand and exclaims, "Any is fine, as long as Your Majesty thinks it's pretty!"

Li Meixing steps into her carriage and lifts the curtains of the window up to watch Huang Siming board his carriage.

His carriage, large and encrusted with gold, is something only an emperor can own. Since Li Meixing isn't of royal status, she can't sit in the carriage with him. Li Meixing smiles happily to herself. Indeed, Huang Siming is the new emperor and was just coronated a week ago. As someone who has been by Huang Siming's side for the past couple of years, she knows how hard he worked to prove himself as deserving of the position. The past week has been hard on him since he had to re-organize court positions as he saw fit and pick up after the disarray that the previous emperor, his father, left him.

Huang Siming's carriage starts to move, and a couple of moments later her own follows suit. Li Meixing releases the window curtains and fiddles with the sleeve of her dress. Soon, maybe they can... maybe they can get married.

"It's the emperor's carriage!" someone outside shouts in surprise.

"The emperor! Long live the emperor!"

"Look at the carriage behind him. It has the Li family emblem!"

"Then, is that the Li family's eldest daughter?"

From inside his carriage, Huang Siming wrinkles his brow.

"It must be. I've heard that they have been in love for years. Maybe our Qi Kingdom will have an empress soon!"

Li Meixing blushes while listening to the commoners outside talk to themselves. No doubt a crowd has already formed in the streets. This is the first time Huang Siming has stepped outside of the palace since he was coronated.

"We have arrived at the Spring Square!" the driver of her carriage announces. She exits the carriage with the help of the driver and happily approaches Huang Siming, who is waiting for her at the entrance of the capital city's most high-end boutique.

Immediately upon entering the spacious building, ten pretty attendants standing at the entrance curtsy. "Greetings to Your Majesty. Greetings to Li daxiaojie," they say in unison.

Huang Siming nods and orders, "You all may stand. Zhen am sure that you received zhen's orders already from the messenger. Go show her the dresses you selected, zhen will pay for the ones she likes the most."

Li Meixing glances at Huang Siming in surprise. "You've already contacted them? Which kind of dresses did you ask for?"

"There's a banquet tonight to celebrate my coronation, and all of the big families will be attending. The dresses I ordered for you are ones for formal occasions that you can wear tonight."

"Oh." Li Meixing's eyes stare unblinkingly at Huang Siming's, and she cocks her head to one side. "Will my parents be there?"

"En, of course. The Li family is one of the five pillars of this dynasty. Your brother will also be present. As a prominent intellectual whose rank is rapidly rising in court, I anticipate great things for him."

Li Meixing grins. "I'm excited to see dage!" Her elder brother, Li Huoxin, is often out on missions in other cities. The two of them were extremely close since young, and Li Meixing misses not being able to see him everyday.

"Li da xiaojie, please come this way," one of the attendants murmurs. Li Meixing happily follows her and gazes at the gowns that she passes by. "Here are the dresses that nubi has chosen for da xiaojie." They arrive at a large room with three dresses of different colors lying on a table at the center. Li Meixing's eyes gravitate towards the white dress, and she reaches out to stroke the material. Soft, flowy, and unrestrained.

The attendant bows her head. "Actually, His Majesty told nubi that da xiaojie looks best in red."

Li Meixing immediately glances over at the dress next to the white one and smiles. "In that case, I'll take this one." Has Huang Siming ever seen her in red before? Li Meixing muses about it inside her head before letting go of her thoughts. The only thing that matters to her at the moment is impressing him.

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Glossary:

Dage (大哥): elder brother. The term can either refer to a person's literal elder brother or a close male friend.

Daxiaojie (大小姐): the term used to refer to the eldest daughter in noble families.

Huqiu tea (虎丘茶): a unique and extremely rare flavor of tea that is considered to be one of the best.

Nubi (奴婢): the term used by female servants to refer to themselves. 

Zhen (朕): the term that emperors use to refer to themselves. It replaces the pronoun 'I.'

Also, thanks so much for checking out this story! If you find any grammatical errors or have any suggestions, feel free to comment below. I'll try my best to respond to all of your comments.