His Rui

"What kind of question is that?"

General Li looked at Xi Ying with an incredulous face.

"One is my wife and another is my daughter."

General Li continued as he turned around.

His back now faced Xi Ying as an exasperated sigh left his lips. However, Xi Ying was not moved by General Li's conflicted face at all.     

"You have already chosen General Li. Fourteen years ago, when you choose your daughter to shield your wife … you have already proved that you will choose your wife if you had to choose one of them one day. Your wife doesn't know even a single thing but you choose to tell your seven-year-old daughter everything….no, not everything. You told her the story in such a way that she would naturally start to blame herself for being a reason for the destruction of Li Clan."

"…so that no one will ever raise their finger on your wife so that if Li Clan really gets destroyed one day she will not blame herself."

Xi Ying said each and every word without any hesitation. 

When General Li turned around again and looked at Xi Ying this time, his eyes held the deadly warning as he said

"Don't drag my wife in this mess, Prime Minister Xi. This General will not tolerate a single word against my wife."

"How does it even matter if I drag your wife in this mess, General Li? Your wife is already dragged very deep in this filthy game of power, politics, and selfishness and you know this General Li. In fact when she is the reason for whatever you are doing and whatever is happening to Li and Yi Clan…then how can you even think that you can keep away from this matter?"

As Xi Ying looked straight into General Li's eyes, the scene of that day flashed inside his mind.

The day when he had got back his body…the picture of just a few moments before that was still very clear in his mind.       

He was shocked that day and now he only felt his heart full of disgust towards the man with whom he had plotted so many schemes. 

Never in his life, he had expected that there was any such reason behind the Emperor's hatred for Li Clan.

--------

After Xi Ying felt himself being pulled out of Plum Courtyard leaving a crying Li Rui alone, he was feeling very angry and guilty.

He had not wanted to leave Li Rui alone and at the same time, he was afraid to hear those silent sobs again.

The woman whom he had always seen so strong and calm for those few months, he couldn't bear to see her so weak and helpless.

At that moment, Xi Ying suddenly realized where he was really being pulled to.

It was Imperial Palace.

The next moment, he had found himself in the Imperial Chambers.   

Before he could even think anything, the scene in front of his eyes had made his mind blank.

He was beyond shocked.

A very beautiful portrait of a woman was hung on the wall. Xi Ying found the woman quite familiar and soon he found out who she was

"Yi Jie…"

A whisper fell in his ear and Xi Ying remembered that Li Rui's mother had the same name. From his memory, he soon recognized that the woman in the portrait was none other than Li Rui's mother.

It was very difficult to recognize the woman in the portrait for Xi Ying because she looked completely different from how he had seen her four years ago.

The woman in the portrait wore red clothes and a crown on her head. The clothing…Xi Ying recognized that it was actually just how an Empress of an Empire dressed herself.   

"Yi Jie…You will soon belong to Zhen completely."

Xi Ying's eyes widened at these words that were said by none other than the Emperor, Zhao Wang Lei.

From where he was standing, he could clearly see Zhao Wang Lei's eyes filled with passion, possessiveness, and obsession. 

Disgust rose inside Xi Ying as he saw Zhao Wang Lei raising his hand and touching the lips of the woman in the portrait.

He traced those lifeless lips with his finger as he whispered

"We did so much to get out and you will finally belong to us, Yi Jie. Even that Li Heng will not be able to stop us from getting you this time. We had warned him …many times, but he chose to go against us."

Zhao Wang Lei moved his eyes away from the portrait and looked in the direction where Xi Ying was standing.

For a moment, Xi Ying froze but when he didn't see anything on Zhao Wang Lei's face he was assured that he was still invisible.

Standing in front of the painting, Zhao Wang Lei looked out of the window of his chambers at the night sky as he whispered

"It is his choice and we shall make him regret it. He snatched you away from us. Now we will not even kill him. He will be alive and we will tell him every day how you belong to us only."

Looking back at the woman in the painting, Zhao Wang Lei whispered again. 

"You belong to only Zhen, Yi Jie."         

That night, Xi Ying stayed inside those Imperial Chambers for quite a long time. T least this time was enough to make him know those things that he would perhaps never get to know from anyone else but the Emperor himself. 

He saw Zhao Wang Lei painting another portrait of Li Rui's mother. As he drew it he whispered many things as if he was taking the portrait as a real woman.

He stated how he planned everything.

In this plan, he didn't even leave his son and daughter.

He knew that Zhao Zhuang Chen was planning to abduct General Li. So he sneakily supported him and even helped him to hide the place. 

As if worrying that the lifeless portrait would blame him for his ruthlessness he even defended himself.

"They are not our children. The one that you will birth…Zhen will only give them our fatherly love."

Xi Ying could not now even look at Zhao Wang Lei without any disgust in his black eyes.

He found Zhao Wang Lei sick after these words of his.

He confessed how even keeping him (Xi Ying) alive can become a danger to him because Xi Ying was too intelligent to keep alive … so he had to send his people to kill him. 

The painting was finished and he saw Zhao Wang Lei called Eunuch Wang. The old Eunuch just glanced at the painting and then moved forward to remove one of the paintings inside the chambers wordlessly.

The painting was hung there in place of the previous one and then to cover that painting the previous one was again hung on it.

Zhao Wang Lei immediately became the normal and Xi Ying's was again pulled out of the Imperial chambers.

The next moment, when he opened his eyes he had found himself in Lian Courtyard.