Chapter 19: Plan to dr** the General
Li Yu didn’t dare delay any longer. She didn’t want to infuriate her mother, so she walked over quickly. Xiu Ying gestured for her to sit down between her legs, like she always did when her mother wanted to brush her hair. She sat down on the plush cushion on the ground. She felt her mother’s fingers running through her hair as she parted it.
Xiu Ying pinned her hair away and picked up a brush. As she brushed through Li Yu’s hair, she asked, "What have you been busy with today?" Li Yu was especially nervous. That’s because she suspected her mother would truly urge her to marry.
She bit her lip slightly before saying, "I went shopping with my friends, and I even brought you something. I just left it in my room. Oh, and we also had tea and pastries. It was fun."
Xiu Ying smiled. At her daughter’s age, she wasn’t thinking about hanging out with friends. She was busy climbing the ranks courtesy of the system. At her age, she was standing in the imperial court as an assistant to an official. She gave her daughter a life she only ever dreamed of living and now it was time for Li Yu to make meaningful contributions for the sake of their future.
After finishing brushing her hair, she began to braid it into two sections. She cut Li Yu off and said, "Have you thought about getting married. At this age, you should have someone in mind already."
Li Yu turned around to meet her gaze and said, "Mother, I... If I am going to marry anyone, it will be General Yu. I won’t marry anyone else."
She met her daughter’s pleading gaze for a second before turning her to face front again. As she continued braiding, she asked, "How far have you gone with him?"
Li Yu’s silence was the exact answer she expected. She continued saying, "Mother will help you but you aren’t allowed to ask questions. Just do as told."
Li Yu had been worried that her mother would insist she find another person, so when she heard her mother was going to help her be with Yu Wen, she was excited. She didn’t care what method her mother would use as long as Yu Wen could belong to her alone. That was all that mattered.
True to her word, Xiu Ying invited the General to the imperial palace under the guise of discussing the issue with the recent Chronos bust. Yu Wen didn’t suspect anything. He came to the imperial palace ahead of time.
Li Yu wanted to immediately rush out and meet him but her mother said she would seem too desperate. She was impatient but she restrained herself and listened to her mother’s advice.
Yu Wen waited for half an hour in the imperial study. Just when he thought the Imperial Queen wouldn’t show up, she entered the study with her usual smile. After all the formalities, she didn’t waste any time and began to discuss important matters.
They discussed measures to find all the illegal channels used to smuggle Chronos into the imperial capital and the other planets. With an appreciative look on her face, she entrusted the task to him and Yu Wen didn’t refuse the job.
He felt like it was his responsibility to protect the people of Aurelia, so of course, he accepted the mission. Besides, Xiu Ying cared about the people, unlike that mad king, Li Mingze. She was the type of leader he wouldn’t mind working with to build a prosperous Aurelia.
An hour passed like this. Yu Wen was about to excuse himself and leave the palace as it was getting late, but Xiu Ying kindly invited him to dinner. He wanted to refuse but it was hard to refuse a kind face. He nodded and Xiu Ying was pleased. Finally, something was going right for her today.
Li Yu soon got her wish. She finally got to see Yu Wen. She was so excited that she wanted to run towards him but when she saw her mother’s disapproving gaze, she restrained herself and greeted him as politely as possible.
The three of them sat down and had dinner together but mid-meal, Xiu Ying excused herself, saying she had something to attend to. She was giving the two of them some time alone.
Yu Wen didn’t think anything of it. After dinner, he even stayed a little longer watching the city lights on the balcony. Li Yu had gone to pour some drinks for them. He had told her he would go get them but she insisted she was the host, so she should do it. Yu Wen didn’t feel like doing this back and forth, so he let her do as she pleased.
Li Yu stood at the decanter and glanced back, checking if he was looking. But Yu Wen remained completely oblivious, standing with his back towards her. She smiled as she took out the vial. She opened it and poured out a drop into the glass. The brown potion mixed in well with the amber liquor.
She twirled the glass, mixing it even more but she suddenly thought, how could one drop suffice? She added another, then another. She thought like medicine, if one dose didn’t work, doctors would up the dose. There was only a little left anyway, so why not use all of it? She poured the rest of it in and swirled it around before walking towards the balcony.
Yu Wen was standing ramrod straight, his eyes fixed on the city below. A breeze blew by, and his intoxicating scent swept past Li Yu. She felt a tingle spread to every part of her body. Just his sent alone had made her nether regions prickly. She shyly lowered her head, the blush spreading from her cheeks to her neck. She said, "Here."
He glanced at her and replied, "Thanks," while taking the glass from her. Their fingers touched and she felt like she had been set alight. From her reaction, you would think she had taken the aphrodisiac herself. Yu Wen, on the other hand, felt nothing. He just took a sip. The taste was unusual, so he asked, "Which one is this?"
Li Yu was a little nervous, but she still managed to calm herself down and say, "Its century old Mayfair, you don’t like it?"
Yu Wen rarely drank, so he wouldn’t know what a bottle of Mayfair aged for a hundred years would taste like, so he said, "No, it’s just... different." He took another sip and Li Yu smiled as she took a sip of her own drink.
