Volume 3 Chapter 7

Liu Rongrong lowered her head to glance at her exquisite attire. Zhao Huangpu's eyes rested on her, yet his mind seemed to have drifted past her to somewhere else. She pressed her lips together and simply stood stiffly, neither offering a greeting nor saying a word, until Zhao Huangpu came back to himself and rose to approach her.

Zhao Huangpu clasped the back of Liu Rongrong's neck and gently drew her into his embrace, his chest rising and falling softly. "You've finally entered the palace as you wished, yet why aren't you happy at all, Rongrong? Who is that sulky face for? Hmm?" By the end, displeasure had crept into his voice.

Liu Rongrong lifted her face, smooth as cream and white as snow, her eyes filled with the reflection of Zhao Huangpu's faintly annoyed expression. She lightly bit her lower lip. Unafraid of angering him, she remained silent.

"Wasn't this day precisely what you wanted when you tried so hard to get close to me? Now that I've fulfilled your wish, Rongrong, can't I even earn a smile from my beauty?" He tilted her chin up, exposing her exquisitely applied makeup to his gaze. "For your sake, Rongrong, I've even gravely offended Prime Minister Father. Surely you aren't sulking because you know Little Jing is also in the Inner Palace, and I haven't arranged for you to meet?"

"Did Your Majesty offend the Lord Prime Minister for Rongrong's sake?"

The words that slipped from her softly parted crimson lips made him frown slightly. "Who else did you think I disregarded the state of the court and defied Prime Minister Father for, Rongrong?"

"Of course Rongrong thought Your Majesty did it for me, but Prime Minister Li doesn't think so." Liu Rongrong lifted her face and looked straight into his