The King did not react to her joke.
Instead, he took one slow step forward, the sound of his boots scraping lightly against the stone path.
"Then answer honestly," he said, gaze sharp as a blade.
"Why were you outside the cold palace ?"
Shumin's smile froze.
Her brain immediately started flipping through excuses like a panicked library clerk searching for the right book.
Think think think
"Oh! That!" she said, snapping her fingers like she remembered something trivial.
"I… went to buy air...."
Li Zhan stared.
Even the lotus leaves stilled, as if embarrassed for her.
Shumin coughed awkwardly.
"No..!!I mean...fresh air! Fresh! My room was getting stuffy, so, um… I stepped out."
Li Zhan's jaw tightened.
"Stepped out? Disguised as a man? Into the market?"
Shumin blinked.
Oh. He found THAT out too?
Great. Fantastic. Perfect. Wonderful.
She was doomed.
She forced a laugh.
"Your Majesty, if you know everything already, why ask me?"
He raised one eyebrow.
"Because I want you to explain yourself."
Her hands started sweating.
She mentally kicked herself
why didn't she pick lying as a talent in this life?
"I… was bored?" Shumin said sheepishly.
Li Zhan inhaled deeply, visibly fighting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.
"For a concubine under house arrest," he said, voice cold,
"being 'bored' is not a valid reason."
Shumin opened her mouth to argue, but he continued:
"And you didn't only 'step out'. You interfered with a dangerous conflict. Why?"
Shumin's heart thumped.
This one she at least had a noble answer for.
She straightened, eyes softening slightly.
"Because people were getting hurt. Someone had to help."
Li Zhan's gaze shifted
not softer, but less sharp.
For a moment, Shumin thought he might say thank you.
Then
"What were you doing with this?"
He lifted something from his sleeve.
Shumin's eyes widened.
THE HALF-MOON STONE.
Her jaw dropped.
"WHAT??HOW??WHERE??WHEN?? WHY...???"
Li Zhan raised the stone with two fingers.
"That's not important " he said.
"Explain."
Shumin's mind exploded.
She had lost it …
'But how did the this man have it?
Unless…he..!!!'
'No... No way...!'
Her voice dropped into a whisper,
"...Are you following me?"
The King's eyes narrowed. "Repeat that."
Shumin flailed her hands.
"Umm..Nothing! NOTHING! Totally nothing!"
Li Zhan stepped closer, and she could see every line of authority etched in his face.
"Concubine Wen," he said slowly,
"you appear in the market, disguised and reckless.
You interfere in fights that do not concern you.
And you carry strange objects with unknown origins."
He paused, letting the silence stretch painfully.
"Tell me.
Just what exactly… are you planning?"
Shumin's brain screamed:
'THE HAPPY ENDING FOR YOU AND YOUR WIFE, YOU BLOCK OF ICE!'
But she could not say that.
So she forced the brightest smile she could muster.
"Your Majesty," she said, lifting her hand.
She raised it in the proper oath gesture --
three fingers straight (index, middle, ring), held tightly together,
while her thumb bent inward touching the little finger.
"Your Majesty, I swear… I am planning absolutely… positively… nothing."
Li Zhan's eyes fixed on her hand gesture. "What is this?" he asked, voice flat.
"It's an oath sign," Shumin answered softly. "A promise."
He didn't let her off so easily. "cut the crap!!!just explain ....
about this stone. Why did you have it? And why did you leave the Cold Palace when you know that's punishable?"
The question hit her like a cold wave. Fear crawled up her spine; she knew palace punishment was never light.
She dropped to her knees at once, forehead almost touching the ground. "Your Majesty," she trembled,
"I'm really stupid.
Please, please forgive me this time.
I'll die of boredom before I go outside again. I'll never dress as a boy, I promise ... never!"
Her hands stayed in that pleading oath pose as she babbled.
"And the stone! ... please keep it if you like it. Believe me, it was for you. I wanted the Queen to give it to you."
Li Zhan's eyebrow rose. He bent down and sat in front of her; she closed her eyes at the sudden closeness.
"Why?" he asked, voice low. "Is this a game to harm me? Are you plotting something?"
She opened one eye and saw the King's face inches from hers. "No, no... it's just for your love life!"
Her hands were still folded in the begging gesture. His jaw clenched.
"Why are you doing that? What do you gain? Do you think I ever wanted her? What love? Love isn't for me."
Suddenly his fingers closed on her arm , holding it tightly.
"Ahh! I really… ahhh! You're hurting me!"
For a flicker of a second something passed through his eyes ... gone before she could name it
and he let go as if he'd burned his palm.
"Get lost," he said coldly.
"Don't ever show yourself before me like this again. One more rule broken and I won't bother to warn you...your head will disappear from your shoulders."
Shumin scrambled to her feet and started to back away, heart pounding.
Li Zhan's voice cut through the air, colder than before. She froze.
"Concubine Wen Qian," he said slowly, each word deliberate,
"do not try to involve yourself in my personal space, my love life, or whatever nonsense you're imagining. Just...stop...Now leave."
She stood there, rooted, the breath knocked out of her, and then, trembling, she obeyed.
------
@Li Zhan....:-
Anger.
He should have only felt anger.
That girl
Concubine Wen qian
standing there with her ridiculous oath gesture, babbling about "love life" and "happy endings"…
nonsense.
Absolute nonsense.
She spoke of emotions he long buried, emotions he rejected long before he became king.
Yet…
When he looked into her eyes, something inside him refused to believe she was plotting harm.
He wanted to believe it.
He wanted to treat her like every other scheming concubine.
He wanted to punish her by the rules
cold, strict, unforgiving because a concubine breaking house arrest deserved consequences of the highest order.
But her eyes…
Clear... Terrified... Silly...Honest...
Not the eyes of someone plotting against him.
And that irritated him even more.
That stone..she insisted it was for him.
That disguise...she insisted she meant no harm.
That foolish self-sacrifice...she insisted she only wanted peace between him and the Queen.
Love?
She dared say that word.
His jaw clenched again remembering it.
Love wasn't for him.
Love was a fantasy for poets, not rulers.
Not for a king who learned the cost of attachment too early.
He should've punished her.
He should've commanded her straight to the dungeons.
But instead… he forgave her. He told her to leave. To stay away. To stay out of his sight.
And yet he didn't move from the
Place ,even after she walked away.
He exhaled sharply, trying to steady himself and then his gaze dropped to his hand, remembering the exact moment when he grabbed her arm too tightly.
Her face ....shocked, frightened.
Her voice...pained.
Her arm....warm, trembling.
And her fingers .....
He noticed them then. The tips were swollen, dotted with tiny puncture marks. Bloody, raw.
That image lingered.
He shouldn't have paid attention.
He didn't even mean to.
But the moment he saw those needle wounds,
something inside him tightened.
The scarf flashed into his mind
that messy, uneven piece of cloth she wrapped around him yesterday when he was still in disguise.
He had wanted to ask why she went through such trouble…
but he couldn't.
He didn't want her to realize the masked man was him.
He had turned away then, pretending it didn't matter.
The memory twisted something deep in his chest.
He wasn't supposed to feel that.
A king shouldn't regret holding a concubine too tightly.
A king shouldn't feel… guilt.
But he did.
For the first time in years,
a trace of raw emotion passed through him
sharp, unwanted, confusing.
He exhaled slowly, staring at the empty path she disappeared into.
Why…
Why does this foolish, reckless girl make his heart waver?
He didn't have the answer.
And that
more than anything else...infuriated him.