Si Ning could feel his face heating up because of Xiu Zhicheng that had been staring at him and wasn’t even trying to hide it, this made Si Ning unable to look at him and to avoid meeting Xiu Zhicheng’s eyes, he stared at the kettle instead like it was an interesting piece of item that he was almost counting the flower patterns imprinted on it.For Xiao Pei to bring tea instead of Ah Dai was something Si Ning expected because Ah Dai does act timid and was self-conscious about his arm even though Si Ning never cared about that because Ah Dai had been doing his job perfectly after promising not to strain his prosthetic arm and not bringing tea must have been his way of preventing being an eyesore to Xiu Zhicheng but looking at Xiu Zhicheng, Si Ning doesn’t think the Emperor would mind about something like that, after all Ah Dai losing an arm doesn’t make him less human. Si Ning also planed to take Ah Dai along with him when he moves to the palace because

Si Ning stood in front of the mirror checking his face and hair, he nodded as he slightly touched his hairpin, satisfied with how perfect his face and hair was but that wasn’t the reason he was standing in front of the mirror, the problem was with his attire and his indecisive mind so he started turning over and over, checking his robes from his neck down to his feet then suddenly he felt ridiculous as he removed his outer robe and almost run-up to the wardrobe immediately yanking the door opened and quickly threw the outer robe in like he couldn’t wait to get rid of it before closing the door with a satisfied expression and nodded, his hand akimbo before walking back to the table to take his seat.After some time of staring into space, it dawned on him what he just did then he looked down at his robes and he felt like what he was wearing was not presentable enough and Xiu Zhicheng mustn’t see him like that so he stood up to stand in front of the mirror to c

'Let's meet.' Si Ning turned over the letter to see there was nothing written on the other side of the paper. Even though he knew that was there to it yet he wondered if the real meaning of the two words might be in code because it could be Qiu Bai's way to avoid any attention to be directed at them since he might be aware of their last meeting being exposed to Xiu Zhicheng. Si Ning decided to look deep into each letter after touching the paper and discovered it was just an ordinary paper yet he still tried to look carefully maybe there might be hidden words in the letters as he drew the letter closer to the candle and bent his head for a closer look but after reading it and considering each letter trying to form what code it might mean to form a meaningful sentence and cracking his brain thinking only to end up with nothing. What sort of letter was this containing only two words, no location not even a time to meet.  Without hesitation, Si Ning

Si Ning raised his hands to allow Ah Dai to tie his belt. He had woken up since dawn but didn't make any move to get out of bed only for him to finally stood up when Ah Dai came in to wake him up for him to get ready to attend the court assembly, even though he doesn't have enough time to soak for long in the bathtub yet he made sure to wash up and even completed his face routine then he allowed Ah Dai to dress him nicely even though his uniform was the same with the rest of the Officials and Generals yet he wanted to stand out and look nice because he would be seeing Xiu Zhicheng, he was still annoyed that Xiu Zhicheng left him to have dinner with his Concubines yet he still wants to dress nicely because he would see him and he hated that part of him that wants him to dress nice only for that purpose.Ah Dai led Si Ning to take his seat and he started brushing his hair out before he started to style it into a half ponytail after adding oil to the edges then he took a gol

The meeting wasn't tense and was going smoothly that Si Ning was glad about the pleasant atmosphere but the problem was he felt eyes on him, even though Xiu Zhicheng was sitting quite a far distance from him with a bored expression while replying and giving orders to the Minister reading their report yet Si Ning could tell Xiu Zhicheng was watching him. Si Ning does not understand why he was being stared at so much, even Shao Lang kept glancing at him with the corner of his eyes. Si Ning knew he looked beautiful but he had always been a beauty so he doesn't understand the stares directed at him and some of the Ministers too kept glancing at him then he concluded that it had to be because Xiu Zhicheng just announced that he would be the Empress in a month time because he doesn't feel any hostility coming from them so he doesn't think he was being stared at because he was yet to give the reply about whether he would sign over half of his army to the Imperial famil