Yunxiang covered her cherry-red lips and laughed. "I'll remember that!"
Wang Decai shot Hu Xiaotian a vicious glare. Why did this bastard have so much nonsense to spout?
As Hu Xiaotian spoke, he kept glancing around. Qiqi still had not arrived, and he began to suspect something was wrong. He had plainly told Shi Xuedong to find her as quickly as possible, and he had deliberately wasted quite a bit of time on the way to Xinning Palace with Zhao Jinxi. Shi Xuedong should have arrived long ago. Had the fellow failed to find Qiqi?
At this point, he could only steel himself and go to see Empress Jian.
He followed Wang Decai into Xinning Palace. The chambers were lavishly furnished, but Hu Xiaotian had no heart to admire them. With his head hanging low, he stole glances from side to side, his heart uneasy.
A curtain of golden beads screened off the chamber ahead, with a figure dimly visible behind it. Wang Decai told him to wait where he was, then walked slowly up to the curtain and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, Hu Xiaotian of the Palace Gardens Bureau has arrived."
A cool reply came from behind the curtain. "Mm."
Hu Xiaotian hurriedly knelt on the floor and called out, "Hu Xiaotian bows before Your Majesty. May you live a thousand years, a thousand years, a thousand times a thousand years!"
"Hu Xiaotian! How long have you been in the palace?"
Hu Xiaotian answered respectfully, "Your Majesty, altogether, it has been a little over two months."
"I hear Liu Yuzhang has handed all the authority of the Palace Gardens Bureau over to you, and that you now wield the most power there. To have the wind filling your sails at the bureau after just two months-you certainly have some