Circ.u.mventing Fate - Volume 2 Chapter 282 Stage Presence

Lei Xing quickly left the room and as she marched, she glanced at Xiao Ruo and asked, “Everything is ready, correct? Just the lighting, right?Have that done quickly, I’ll go get dressed.”

“Lighting?” Xiao Ruo asked, blinking at Lei Xing in confusion.

Lei Xing immediately stopped and turned to Xiao Ruo, “Lighting the pavilion, it’s ready, isn’t it?”

“Ah!” Xiao Ruo exclaimed and then tentatively went, “We were going to have it prepared during the banquet but then all that happened and you fainted…and we – I wasn’t sure -” Xiao Ruo timidly explained.

Lei Xing sighed and then said,”It’s alright, I understand.” After all, it was a crazy day for all of them, even she herself forgot. “Just go get everything ready, get more people if needed to speed things up…” Lei Xing ordered and then resumed walking but stopped again and scanned her maids, ” Where’s Ah Jin?” She asked suddenly realizing that she had not seen Ah Jin since the morning.

“She said she’s not feeling well, so she went in to rest.” Xiao Ruo explained.

“Oh…Has she seen a physician?”

Xiao Ruo knit her brows, “I wanted to send for one, but she declined it and insisted that she just needs some rest. She did not want to bother you…”

“Alright then…If she’s still not doing well in the morning, send for a physician and have a maid watch over her tonight to ensure she doesn’t get worse…” Lei Xing said and then resumed walking.

She had basically been preparing all month for this and then almost forgot. Well, she could not be blamed for that, she even forgot her own birthday sometimes…and given the situation of the day, it was perfectly understandable.

{…I am such a crappy girlfriend – or wife, whatever I am right now!… Well, at least I remembered. That’s better than most people, right?…No? ()…}

Even though everything was feeling a bit chaotic at the moment, she still wanted to give him his moment, well, her moment. She needed to see her hard work come to life.

After Lei Xing left the room, the Emperor sat down, glancing in the direction of the doors for a while, curiously waiting for her return. After a long while passed, he realized she was not returning anytime soon. He sighed, “What is she up to now?”

He glanced around the room and then decided to go over to her desk. Just as he sat down the doors opened and he perked up, expectantly with a smile causing Xiao Ruo to almost jump out of her skin when she came into view to see the Emperor smiling at her.

The Emperor immediately frowned in disappointment and Xiao Ruo quickly lowered her head and explained, “The E-empress sent me to ask if you needed anything…”

The Emperor lightly sighed and asked, “What is the Empress doing?” While he did not mind her being busy during the day, it was already the middle of the night, what could she possibly be doing right now…that was more important than him?

Xiao Ruo blinked and her eyes shifted awkwardly, she could not lie to the Emperor BUT Lei Xing would be very angry with her if she told him. Cold sweat started to form on her head as she pondered which crime was greater at the moment.

“You can leave…” The Emperor said, sparing the poor girl. Xiao Ruo quickly bowed and then sped out of the room before he could change his mind.

The Emperor sighed again and picked up a book to see it was an accounts book. He picked another to see the same thing. After going through a few options, he finally found something interesting, Lei Xing’s “drawing” book. She had shown it to him before when she had drawn the plans for her oven a few weeks ago before she commissioned. She wanted to get his opinion to check if he could make sense of her words before she went to discuss it with the builders.

He smiled as he remembered how excited she was telling about all the good food they would be able to eat with this “invention” of hers. Although she did explain that it was not really her invention. The Emperor chuckled to himself.

{…She could be so serious and unserious at the same time…really cute~…}

The Emperor leaned back and continued to flip through Lei Xing’s art book. As expected there were all sorts of other weird, but oddly interesting designs in there.

He had discovered during the last few weeks that Lei Xing was quite skilled, as long as you were not expecting her to draw a person or anything lifelike. Although he had told her that she had foundations to be good, if not highly-skilled, and he even offered to teach her but she declined.

She agreed with his analysis of her skills, but then explained that she lacked the natural aptitude for it and most importantly, she lacked the patience for art. Then she cutely said she would leave all the complicated drawings to him with a sweet smile.

Thus, he had unofficially been dubbed her personal artist, although she had yet to commission his services for a job. He would honestly prefer to draw her over anything else, but she also lacked the patience to be a proper model.

{…She really needs a lot of care…}

“What does this all really mean?” The Emperor said with a sigh as he put the book down, speaking both on the odd forms in Lei Xing’s collection and the oddities that had taken place today.

While he told Lei Xing to forget the unanswerable, he was truly curious as well. But rather than waste his energy on questioning the state of things, he would rather use the energy to device how best to use the situation to their advantage.

If he played his hand correctly, he could take complete control of the country’s politics simply by monopolizing heaven’s will. Heaven’s mandate was after all even above the Emperor’s. Therefore, if one controlled heaven’s will, they controlled the people.

His first move tomorrow would be to make the role of the seers obsolete, their words were given way too much weight now and he did not like it. How dare they tell him who is to marry?

{…Useless…}

The doors finally opened again, pulling the Emperor out of his thoughts. Having learned from last time, he controlled his expression and simply glanced in the door’s general direction. Xiao Ruo reappeared again and bowed to the Emperor and happily said, “Your majesty, the Empress asked me for you to come over…please follow me.”

The Emperor raised an eyebrow, Lei Xing had said she would come herself but he said nothing and simply rose, “Lead the way…”

He honestly was not sure to expect but he as he walked along, he began to anticipate seeing her more and more. It was clear she had organized something special for them and that thought alone was enough to make him ecstatic.

They walked through the corridors of the Empress’s palace and arrived at the back doors, which were then opened to reveal a beautifully decorated blue scene that was not there the night before.

While the rest of the palace and city was decorated with the red lanterns celebrating the ceremony today, the back of the Empress palace was decorated with blue, seemingly silk flower-patterned lanterns, strung out around and above the garden.

From where he stood, there were several wooden beams put in place, wrapped and connected at the top with blue silk linens. There were then columns of the flower-patterned lanterns hanging from the beams. There were also blue lotus lanterns floating in the pond, further brightening the serene, festive scene.

It was all reminiscent of a brightened ocean.

In the center of this beautiful serene scene, Lei Xing stood there looking at him with a welcoming smile. She was wearing a simple light, almost netty blue silk strapless wrap dress of various layers with a vined silver chest band and on her neck, rested the Emperor’s wolf teeth pearl necklace.

Her hair was put up in an elaborate array of braids with several silver circlets and jewelry pieces placed in them with a little crystal resting on the center of her forehead, it all presented like a silver crown.

There were two silver circlets up one on her arms which had long strips of lighter blue silk which billowed in the wind, like open sleeves as she slowly walked over to him. She was glowing radiantly and seemed otherworldly…It all, well, she looked like a dream, a beautiful dream.

A slow smile formed on the Emperor’s face as his eyes fixed on her neck, it always brought a smile to his face whenever he saw it on her neck. Staying true his request she always kept it on, like she did the bracelet and ring.

Lei Xing stopped in front of him with a bashful smile, up close he could see her ears were completely crimson. She met his eyes and then quickly averted her gaze, she was suddenly feeling embarrassed now under his scrutiny with her heart doing cartwheels on the inside.

{…You really shouldn’t look at someone like that, you’re gonna give me a heart attack! (/T//T/)…Okay, buck up! This is MY stage!…}

Lei Xing lightly cleared her throat and then looked – well, more like glared up at him as she announced, “Happy birthday!” loudly and so rigidly, like a soldier reporting for duty with a “sweet” smile…which combined with the glare presented as a menacing look that was simply incredible to behold.

{…What the hell did I shout it for? ()…}

The Emperor blinked at her and then snorted, and snorted again and just burst out laughing.

Lei Xing’s “smile” immediately fell and she frowned at him.

{…What the hell is funny?! Huh? What?… Tell me, so I can laugh too or kill you, whichever one comes first. (_ )…}