Sharing a Pavilion With You
Chapter 180: How Had She Wheedled it Out of Him?

Chapter 180: How Had She Wheedled it Out of Him?

Lord Mei entered the throne room, studying the ruined walls with interest.

"Your highness," he bowed deeply to the Crown Prince.

"Lord Mei. Thank you for coming to the palace so late in the day."

"Of course, your highness. I’m always at your disposal. I see the walls are already being repaired," he gestured at the hundreds of servants working on the missing walls.

"Yes. It wouldn’t be seemly for the seat of power of our nation to be crumbling for too long. Though I do thank you for your excellent strategy. It was textbook perfect and although we had the numerical advantage, I couldn’t afford to wait while my brother had himself crowned as the Emperor. That would have added a most unwanted layer of complication to toppling him."

"It would have indeed, your highness. Your approach was the right one."

"Hm. Though his death was not my aim."

"It was his decision, highness. There was nothing you could have done to prevent it," Lord Mei spoke kindly.

"I should have been alert to him. I misjudged him. A mistake I’ll carry with me to the end of my days."

"You didn’t kill him, highness. He killed himself," Lord Mei reminded him.

"So everyone keeps telling me, but it was with my sword as he lay at my feet, so I must wear at least some of the culpability for his death."

Lord Mei thought that the royal eldest son’s death was a blessing in disguise, though of course he wouldn’t say that to the Crown Prince.

"If he wanted to die, he would always have found a way to do it, your highness."

Prince Haroan was selfish and narcissistic right to the very end, Lord Mei thought. Hurting his younger brother as much as possible while also making a grand exit from the world...

Zhu Yicai inclined his head non-committally.

"I have two matters to discuss with you, Lord Mei. The first is to formally thank you for your winning strategy. It ended the Rebellion before it had really begun, so I thank you for your services to the nation and our People. What reward would you like?"

"Why don’t you tell me what the other matter you want to discuss is, your highness? It may well influence what I request," Lord Mei smiled benignly.

Yicai didn’t like the sound of that. It was almost like the man was pre-empting what he was about to ask of him.

The Crown Prince leant forward in the dragon throne. "As you wish. Lord Mei," he began, his voice was steady, but those who knew him well would easily have picked the undercurrent of emotion.

"As you know, tomorrow, I will ascend the throne as Emperor. It’s my dearest wish to also announce your daughter as my Empress, and for our wedding to take place immediately after the enthronement ceremony."

He searched Lord Mei’s face for any indication of what he was thinking, but the man was inscrutable.

"Your daughter has long been in my heart, Lord Mei. I promise to treat her like the rare treasure she is," he spoke sincerely, the smallest hint of desperation creeping in to his voice as her father remained silent. "I intend to marry your daughter and make her my Empress, Lord Mei," Yicai rallied and masked his anxiety with a layer of arrogance. "I would prefer to do so with your blessing," he spoke coolly.

Lord Mei took his time in replying to the Crown Prince, not wanting to offend the future Emperor, carefully considering his choice of words.

"Your desire to marry Mei Meili is a great honour to her, and to the Mei clan," he replied at last. "But just as I was passing through Dacheng Gate on my way to see you, Commander Bai showed me an order from your Emperor Father. It was drafted on his death day, and it’s a marriage grant between Commander Bai and my daughter, your highness."

Yicai blanched, his eyes tightening with pain as the implications of the document were immediately evident to him.

"The Commander was on his way to share it with you, along with the message formalising your position as the heir to the throne. I asked if I could jump ahead of him because you had summoned me. I’m sorry, Crown Prince," Lord Mei spoke gently.

"My wife and I have known for a while that you care for our daughter. My younger brother was the first to notice it. Her mother and I have tried to allow Meili, as much as possible, to choose a husband for love. We were a love match and we’ve had a very long and happy marriage, you see. Similar to your father and your own mother, who was the love of his life. Commander Bai tells me that he and Meili care for one another. And I have to think that’s right, because the Emperor must have made that grant on the request of one of them."

Yicai knew, because of the timing of the grant, that it must have been Meili who had requested it. Though he’d seen this coming, he had thought he could head it off at the pass.

It hurt much more than he expected, that it was Meili who had somehow secured the only possible obstacle that could prevent him from making her his...

He felt blindsided. He had absolutely not seen this coming. His Father had been preoccupied by the war in the North with no time for trivial matters.

How had she wheedled it out of Him, the little minx!

She must have used Bai Li’s win against Arughtai to extract the grant as a reward for Bai Li... His Father had probably made a promise to Bai Li to give him Meili if he beat the Mongol leader.

Damn! Damn! Damnation and hell! He should have foreseen this and gone to see his Father as soon as news of Bai Li’s victory arrived. He had underestimated Meili. And here was further proof she would make a great Empress!

He wracked his brains thinking of whether there was any way around the imperial order, but nothing came to mind.

Lord Mei watched the expressions chasing across the Crown Prince’s face. First shock, then hurt, now anger. It was like he was experiencing the five stages of grief all in a few seconds. Unfortunately the missing emotion, was acceptance.

Lord Mei knew this was a man who really didn’t like to lose...

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