Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 134: Have You Thought About Me?

Chapter 134: Have You Thought About Me?

[Suggested song for this Chapter – Cornfield Chase - Piano-Cello Version]

The new Crown Prince’s run of good luck seemingly continued when he arrived at his Emperor Father’s study to find that the man was taking a stroll in the gardens and Mei Meili was all alone in the study.

He watched her for a moment from the doorway, as she prepared the memorials for the Emperor’s afternoon reading session.

Her long hair fell across her face as she laid the scrolls into piles with delightfully serious movements.

She scraped her hair across her shoulder, exposing her beautiful face to him, knocking the breath from him for a moment.

Her graceful actions mesmerised him. She was such a pure and kind soul. He had never expected to feel this way about anyone in this lifetime. But there it was...

He refused to see his need for her as anything other than fated. Even reading the Analects seemed to suggest his desire for her was right; ’Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good’.

If Mei Meili wasn’t good, he didn’t know who in this world was good.

Meili suddenly felt as though she was being watched, and she looked around the room, letting out a little gasp of surprise when she saw the Second Prince in the doorway, watching her.

His lips curled into a smile when she saw him, and he strode across the room to her.

"Mei Meili," he greeted her politely.

"S...Second Prince," she curtsied.

She hadn’t seen him since that fateful day on the bridge when he had forcefully kissed her.

"Not any more. I came to tell you in person, Mei Meili. I have been appointed as the Crown Prince today. My elder brother is imprisoned for good in his palace."

She didn’t know whether to congratulate him or commiserate with him, for his brother’s misfortune.

"Congratulations, Crown Prince," she said respectfully. "I know you will make an excellent Crown Prince and heir for your Emperor Father."

He was certainly not the dandy and playboy that she had seen the former Crown Prince to be. And she knew he took his duties to the People as seriously as his Father did.

He was pleased with her compliment. He knew Mei Meili was not one for empty flattery.

She looked into the man’s eyes and thought she detected a look she had seen there before when he had overstepped with her. It was a certain heated intensity that she had prior experience with.

She started to shuffle away from the desk so that she wouldn’t be trapped in the study alone with him.

The Prince sensed her intent immediately, and he stepped into her path to intercept her before she could escape.

He walked towards her until he stood too close, and she took a step backwards, but every step she took backwards he followed with another step into her space, until she had been backed against a column, and she came to an unwanted stop.

Now that he had her trapped, he placed a hand on each side of her head and leant in, so his face was inches from hers.

"Little Fox, Little Fox, where do you think you’re going?"

Actually, she thought, he was the fox, and she was a rabbit. The prey he was stalking...

"Crown Prince, this is not appropriate," she tried to appeal to him using his new title. "We are alone in this room. If someone should look in, they will think we have an inappropriate relationship."

In fact, Li Fengfeng’s maidservant chose this moment to peep around the doorframe. Her eyes widened and she slipped away to tell her mistress what she had seen.

"That’s perfect, because you know that’s what I seek from you. And now at last, I can offer you a status worthy of you, Mei Meili. You no longer need be a concubine. You would be joining the Crown Prince’s harem, and I promise you that after I ascend the Dragon Throne, I will make you into a very powerful woman. Any position you desire will be yours, Mei Meili," he said sincerely.

"Crown Prince, I don’t desire power. I seek a simple life, married to a good man and raising a family together. I have never wanted to be part of the Emperor’s harem. And I definitely don’t wish to vie for power with your wife, Li Fengfeng."

"Mei Meili, it’s not like you to be selfish. Have you thought about me at all in this daydream? I have confessed to you. You know how much I need you. You would turn down the future Emperor of this realm, who is telling you that he needs you and that you would ease his days as the ruler. You could serve the People, and they would certainly love and look up to you. Yet you turn your back on this duty? On me?"

She closed her eyes against his intense gaze.

When she re-opened them, his forehead was touching hers, and he pressed his face to hers, trying to kiss her.

She twisted her head violently aside so that his lips brushed her cheek.

She pushed at his waist, seeking to put some distance between them, but he increased the pressure, pushing his hips against her, pinning her to the column.

She turned back to face him, and he saw that her eyes were filled with sadness.

"I’m sorry, Crown Prince..."

"Call me Yicai," he interrupted her, his forehead still resting against hers.

"Absolutely not, you are the Crown Prince of this realm. Only your Father and wife and consorts can call you anything other than Crown Prince."

He pulled back a few inches and scowled at her.

"I’ve already told you, Crown Prince, that I don’t have romantic feelings for you. I like you as a friend."

"Don’t worry about those things, Mei Meili, they come with time in a marriage. You are a very young woman with no experience of the world. It’s only right that you haven’t formed a romantic attachment with a man."

Should she tell him that she had, but that that man was not him?

He could read her face like a book, and he narrowed his eyes at her.

"What does that look mean?" he asked her. "Don’t tell me that you think you have formed a romantic attachment with another man?" he growled, his voice low and dangerous.

She couldn’t lie. Not to him, and not about something so important, though his voice forewarned her of his reaction.

She looked back at him, her eyes both sorrowful and he also detected sympathy, or was it pity!

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