"Zhen has no complaints about this. General Long shall depart alongside Fei-er and Emperor Hua tomorrow morning."
Emperor Li didn't take much time to consider because he didn't see any reason to deny this request. He was also concerned for his beloved daughter's safety. Who else was better to ensure her wellbeing than the strongest general in Li?
As for Li's defenses, there was still General Bai, and Hua Shen would be sure to defend Li in order to maintain the alliance. In fact, in order for the alliance to go through, as two militaristic kingdoms, they tacitly agreed to send over one general each along with their armies to strengthen the bond between the two kingdoms. That, among other factors such as exchanging strategies amongst generals and familiarizing themselves with the others' usual tactics and weaponry.
With that decided, the three youngsters left the throne room with different expressions on each of their faces. One was filled with gloom, another smug, and the last was thoughtful.
Even without directly clashing words with Long Zheng, Hua Shen had already resolved himself to shower the man with loads and loads of dog food later. He asked for it! Especially by joining them on the trip back to Hua!
Anyway, the two groups parted ways wordlessly with one heading to pack his luggage for Hua kingdom while the other headed towards Li Yun's Crown Prince residence.
After the morning court, Li Yun and Li Hao had headed back to his residence together to speak about the emissaries and the celebration that was to be taking place in a couple hours.
Though they weren't particularly happy, they couldn't do anything about it. Li Hao was especially bitter because his efforts to accommodate the Hua ambassadors proved to be unsatisfactory as he hadn't anticipated Hua Shen's presence.
Of course when they arrived at Li Yuns palace the two teens still maintained formalities. After all Hua Shen was still an emperor even if he was going to be their brother-in-law the next day.
Li Hao greeted by folding his hands together and only slightly inclined his head. Same with Li Yun as a prince of Li. They didn't have to act extremely servile to another kingdom's emperor, and they were testing the waters to see how their future brother-in-law would react.
Hua Shen didn't mind as they weren't improper and even if they were he still wouldn't have cared. The only people that mattered were his wife and future child. The only thing that made him frown somewhat were the good looks that the two youngsters in front of him possessed. As his wife's husband how could he not know how much his wife was enjoying her time these past few weeks she'd been there.
As the two were led into Li Yun's study to discuss future plans, Hua Shen was thinking of how he tried so hard for her only for her to be having fun behind his back. This made him bitter and he decided that he was being foolish in the beginning by trying to make things easier for her and sacrificing the time he could have spent with her instead.
In the end, it seemed that he forgot she wasn't just a pretty vase that needed others to do all the work for her.
Feeling that the man beside her had finally gained some much-needed enlightenment, Li Feifei grinned and looked up at him from the corner of her eyes before asking softly, "Understand now?"
He broke out into a huge silly and helpless smile, "En, I was wrong."
In the end he was the one who kept her waiting thinking that she would be happy that he toiled for her. But he was wrong! Li Feifei would have rather he found her first then they could focus on their missions afterwards.
She had considered searching for him, but due to her awkward position of being a well-loved princess and a girl in the ancient time period she had to indiscreetly make an opportunity for herself to leave the kingdom.
Well, she did think that if she couldn't do that much then she would have surely snuck out one way or another and risk OOC. But this action would be crossing a bridge then proceeding to burn it as her position also gave her power over Li and she could use it in the grand scheme of conquering the four kingdoms.
The only thought playing over and over in Hua Shen's head was that his wife was upset at him for not going to her soon enough. That was enough to make him smile so stupidly that when Li Hao and Li Yun both turned to look at the young couple, who had been silently talking amongst themselves, both wanted to punch him in the face.
Towards her hubby's face that was begging to be punched, Li Feifei just rolled her eyes and completely linked the fact that she wanted to be reunited with him to the sole reason of procuring the man needed for her precious baby. That was after all, what she had decided upon from the moment she'd entered this world.
When they finally arrived at Li Yun's study, they each sat themselves and there was a moment of tense silence mainly because the two brothers were still semi-hostile towards the man who wanted their sister's hand in marriage.
Li Feifei and Hua Shen acted as if the entire situation had nothing to do with themselves and didn't seem as if they had any plans to be the first to speak.
But they couldn't just sit there forever, so Li Yun pushed down his slight discontent and began speaking.
"Why?" Li Yun suddenly asked for both himself and Li Hao. The question was referring to why their younger sister wanted to marry Hua Shen, and more importantly why she wanted to so obviously unite their two kingdoms as a result even though they already had a small conjecture...
They wouldn't just believe that the two were marrying out of love. There were too many political gains for the brothers to ignore and because Emperor Li hadn't really specified both of their opinions on the matter the brothers wanted to know of their intent.
Li Hao wasn't as miffed as his older brother but he was still concerned for Li Feifei because he wanted to make up for all the times he'd misunderstood her in the past.
Knowing that the two would only misunderstand him if Hua Shen spoke up, Li Feifei took the initiative.
"I want all of the four kingdoms to coexist in peace," as they were the only ones in the room, she didn't bother with honorifics and directly used "I."
The brothers weren't foolish. They knew what Li Feifei was implying with her seemingly pacifying words and that just because their people were currently living just fine, the other kingdoms would have some ambitious people eventually. It would be better to strike first than to have to be the one who fell victim first. If they wanted the least number of casualties, then taking the initiative to unite the four kingdoms would be the way to go.
There was the option of strengthening the bonds between the kingdoms, but who could say for sure that they would stick to their promises?
And, seeing that it was Li Feifei who had spoken they knew they wouldn't be able to change her mind about the marriage or her future plans. Especially Li Yun who was aware of her strength that he never knew she had as well as her deep thoughts. He just never questioned them because he knew that she was still the sister who valued her people as a princess over her own personal gains.
The conversation they had today was proof of her conviction.
Without needing to hear anymore, Li Yun had already sighed helplessly, "Then, if there is anything we can do in the future, don't hesitate to come to us, okay, Fei-er?"
Both Li Yun and Li Hao in the name of the entire Li kingdom agreed to help her in any way they could and turned to Hua Shen. They knew he was the first person she reached out to instead of them and it made them sad, but they could understand. After all, she was confident that they would unconditionally help her without her having to ask, but as another kingdom's emperor she really did have to put in more effort to collude with him.
If only they knew that she didn't have to do anything at all they wouldn't have known whether to laugh or cry.
Anyway, after the small talk, Hua Shen and Li Feifei were chased out by Li Yun because she was the star of the celebration as the one who was leaving. She had to go get ready as they spoke for a little over an hour and it would take an hour or two for her to while the celebration was less than three hours away.
By the time they returned to her residence in the palace, Hua Shen already had his people bring in everything they needed to get ready.
Li Feifei sat down by the mirror and was immediately surrounded by her four maids as they showed her the attire. Apart from Liu Yi, there was a slightly more mature one who had a voluptuous figure, a tall and slim girl, as well as a slightly short and chubby one. The voluptuous maid was named Liu Ya, the skinny one was Liu Ye, and the chubby one was Liu Yu.
It wasn't the first time she had interacted with the other three, but their presence were simply lacking compared to Liu Yi's in Li Feifei's opinion. After all, of the four, she was the liveliest.
The maidservants excitedly groped the neatly folded garments on the bed. From her spot by the mirror, Li Feifei could only see that the entire outfit was red like the wedding gown she was expected to wear the following morning. But, she knew from its simplistic design that it wasn't the dress she was to wear for her procession.
In fact, while the dress seemed simple from afar, she could tell it was intricately designed with the sheer embroidery that laced the entire surface area of the dress, and that wasn't even including the hems of the wide sleeves and the lapels that had an additional golden thread instead of the sheer red that was used to embroider the rest of the dress.
Similarly, the inner robe was not neglected. As it was exposed between the lapels of the outer robe, the inner robe's chest area was generously embellished by the same sheer and silky red as the outer robe was.
The sleeves of both pieces were very long and Li Feifei could tell even without unfolding the dress that they would surely drag along the floor as she walked. In fact, the same could be said about the skirt.
The sash was also heavily decorated with golden thread and there were two tails that would most likely drag along the floor with the rest of the drapery.
Despite the luxurious appearance of the outfit, the only thought that popped up into Li Feifei's mind was that she would probably trip and fall if she wasn't held steady by her devil.
Hua Shen also needed to get himself dressed for the celebration as the groom. But he chose to stay in Li Feifei's room and chased out the four maidservants. They were skeptical, but Hua Shen was confident and reassured them that he could handle it.
Actually, Li Feifei didn't see this coming so she was also skeptical but when she took the time to think of how many worlds he'd gone through she shut her mouth and stood up and obediently began undressing wordlessly.
Obviously he'd undressed many women in the past so it wouldn't be weird at all if he figured out how to put the clothes back on in the process ah!
She didn't know that while he'd indeed disrobed many, Hua Shen had never once lowered himself to personally dress another woman before in his thousand years of life.
Seeing their master's compliant behavior as well as the emperor of Hua already prepared to serve his wife for the party with her clothes in hand, the four maids also acquiesced and reluctantly left the room...
Hua Shen stood by the side watching Li Feifei slowly disrobe. First, she had untied her sash, then slid her outer garment down onto the ground, followed by her skirt. She didn't even glance at the man who was so intently leering at her movement. Her inner garment was also not spared as it lasciviously exposed her jade white shoulders as well as the soft and snug dudou beneath it as it dropped onto the floor over her outer robe.
It was only when she reached for the strings on her dudou that she remembered that she might not have to get rid of it since she was only going to wear ceremonial robes.
So she stopped and finally directed her gaze to the devil to confirm if she should continue her strip tease or not.
In response, the shameless devil reached for the bed and under the fancy robes, pulling up another matching red dudou that was obviously a set with the ceremonial robes he'd prepared for her.
Rolling her eyes, Li Feifei speechlessly pulled the string to her undergarments, loosening it and letting it go to fall on top of the rest of her garments around her small feet.
Then, she tilted her chin upwards and spread her arms apart, waiting for Hua Shen to walk over and dress her up in her naked glory.
Smirking with his eyes full of love and indulgence, Hua Shen stood behind his cute wife and wound the new dudou around her developing body, then gently bundled her hair to one side away from her back. He deftly tied the strings around her neck and the crevice of her smooth white back, not forgetting to lightly graze his warm fingers across her silky and slightly cold skin as he did so, causing Li Feifei to unconsciously tremble a little at the sudden contrast in temperature.
After he finished tying on the dudou, Hua Shen walked back over to the bed and unfolded her inner robe. Returning back to his place behind her, he then proceeded to slide her slim arms into the luxurious and wide sleeves.
He then walked back to the bed and grabbed the rest of the garments and, aside from the skirt that was to be adorned by Li Feifei next, hung them over his long and muscular arms.
The skirt was the type that had to be wound around the waist and then tied by a string that was attached at the very end. So, Hua Shen kept the skirt from falling by placing his large palm against the skirt and her waist as he leisurely wrapped it around her slim figure.
When Li Feifei observed his serious face from above, she couldn't help but appreciate his current body's peerless appearance. His thick sword brows arched perfectly over his slightly narrowed and focused blood-red Phoenix eyes. Thin lips pursed into a tight line due to his concentration, his long straight nose was perfectly aligned in the middle of his handsome face and was neither too big or too small. From her position over him as Hua Shen large figure had to slightly bend over to comfortably reach her waist, Li Feifei really wanted to brush her fingers over the long black lashes that fanned over those seductive eyes of his.
His layered hair was, as always, loose and draped over his back and shoulders carelessly; giving him a wild look. Yet, with his current actions of attending to her he seemed contrastingly tame.
She didn't even realize when he'd already finished tying her new sash, completing the job of dressing her.
Only after his low, sexy voice entered her ear accompanied by his hot breath did she finally snap out of her daze, "Please sit, my princess."
Hua Shen brought his hands up to her shoulders and lightly pressed her down to sit in front of her mirror.
Although he acted nonchalant, inside Hua Shen felt as if he was flying because it seemed like his baby was finally becoming more and more entranced by him. It was a good idea to pamper her in this way after all ah!
Feeling proud, he sat behind Li Feifei, who sat on her knees in an elegant manner so as to not wrinkle her new robe, with his legs spread out at her sides like a barrier.
With a tender smile that Li Feifei couldn't see as his face was hidden behind her even through the mirror, Hua Shen removed the simple, white jade pin with a crystal, blue amaryllis flower embedded with small light blue gems from her hair. As a result, her long tresses of soft black hair cascaded down onto the ground like a waterfall, and a relaxing scent of roses wafted through the air.
Hua Shen held a lock of her hair in one hand as he gently brushed it with the other. This continued on for what seemed like half a day in comfortable silence since Li Feifei didn't have anything to say and Hua Shen himself was wholly focused on tending to his wife.
When her hair had finally smoothened out, Hua Shen definitely did not know how to put it up in anything overly fancy, so he settled with braiding a singular fishtail flower with a portion of her hair and letting the rest flow freely.
Then, as a finishing touch, he took out a golden hairpin from his sleeve. Like the dress, it had a simple design, but was definitely worth much more than it seemed on the surface with its pearls, priceless red and white gems, as well as the level of craftsmanship required to carve the intricate designs on the golden charms with attached red crystals that swayed at the head of the pin.
He stuck it in and admired his work for a short while, then proceeded with her makeup though she didn't really need much.
All the little emperor ended up doing was applying some basic toner, applying a deep seductive shade of Rouge onto her plush lips, highlighting the corners of her eyes with black eyeliner, and brushing a thin layer of golden eye shadow over her eyelids.
Li Feifei had naturally rosy cheeks, so blush wasn't necessary.
Feeling no more movement from her man, Li Feifei finally opened her eyes that had been closed.
Throughout the entire exchange, she could feel the warm puffs of his breath as well as his body heat brushing up against her face and body. But of course, with her experiences with him in her previous worlds those could not possibly faze her. It was just that the thought of that devil's usually careless face donning on a serious and focused expression caused her to feel especially reverent towards this man. After all, even she never took the initiative to work so hard on herself.
For one, she didn't need to as she was already beautiful.
She also didn't have any reason to doll up.
So, when her eyes opened to meet with the ever-solemn gaze of the man in front of her she had unconsciously let out a small smile as her usually distant eyes softened ever so slightly, catching him off guard as he stiffened before his red eyes darkened considerably.
But, instead of pouncing on her as always due to his reluctance to ruin all the hard work he'd just done, Hua Shen resolutely turned her around by the shoulders to face the mirror.
Even Li Feifei eyes opened wide in bewilderment at the godly skills of her husband. He'd turned her even more into a goddess of beauty than she already was ah!
"Hubby, good job!" she gave him a toothy grin and a thumbs up through the mirror in genuine appreciation. If she knew that he was capable to this extent, she would have asked him to do this earlier!
Hearing himself be referred to as "hubby," happiness was clearly reflected in his pair of red orbs and Hua Shen felt his heart melting into a warm puddle as he bent forward, pecking Li Feifei with his lips on her smooth cheek before rising up to finally tend to himself.
Of course, even though his own attire was equally as dignified as Li Feifei's, it didn't even take half as long to finish. By the time he was ready, it was already time for them to head out to the venue that the celebration was to be held at.