Blaring thunder striked. The land was shaking violently, snapped Chen Liqin from his dream.
'Hm??' His view was totally dark even though he had opened eyes. Besides, he could not feel the bed on his back. Instead, his face and several area of the front body felt warm and a bit stuffy. His crown head was pressed by something heavy.
When he was trying to move, he found two arms circling his head. He instantly remembered what had happened last night.
'No way! Please, anyone tell me this is dream!'
Slowly, he distanced himself ….
Chen Liqin facepalmed. He really fall asleep inside Shao Chen's embrace!
Shao Chen still sleeping in sitting posture, did not realize the emperor who was cursing himself while restraining himself to hit his head towards the wall.
'What the h*ll are you doing?! Sleeping inside her embrace!!! This crazy girl that you even did not familiar with!!' He could not believe that he was actually very cheap.
He ruffled his hair in frustration. After reprimanding himself to be more careful, Chen Liqin went out of the office stealthily. He could not be found here after "sleeping" with Shao Chen a whole night. Worst case, a very disgusting gossip would spread again and Ming Yu would be disappointed.
After tidying up his clothes and hair, he was about to went back to his private pavilion when he realized the water pouring heavily from the sky.
"Oh … it is raining. It has been a long time …," he mumbled while staring at the drizzles like needles that hit the ground before shattering into small particles.
He hated rain. He had no good memories during rainy season.
Chen Liqin sighed. The violent sound of the rain gave him negative thought.
'It is impossible to walk like this …,' he thought, screening his surrounding to get one of the guards delivering an umbrella but instead of the guard, a maidservant was running towards him without umbrella, wet from head to toe. He did not know whose maidservant was it but bad feeling gnawed his heart.
"Your Majesty, it is bad!" The maidservant stopped one step before the stairs towards imperial office. She raised her face, showing a familiar face. She was Ming Yu's maidservant that often had a red face when he visited.
His heart stopped beating.
"Your Majesty! Miss Ming Yu, she—"
Before the girl finished, Chen Liqin had run, piercing through the heavy rain curtain, towards Lotus Pearl Pavilion. Worry, anxiousness, and fear mixing together inside his heart.
'Ming Yu! Ming Yu!'
Seeing Chen Liqin's running figure, the guards immediately followed. "Your Majesty! Umbrella!"
However, Chen Liqin kept running. He was so fast that the guard almost could not catch up. The guard kept shouting but Chen Liqin could not hear anything. Only the fast beat of his heart and Ming Yu's soft voice echoing in his ears.
'Ming Yu!'
Arriving in front of Lotus Pearl Pavilion, all of the eunuch and maidservants that were stationed there to attend Ming Yu stood with pale face. They gave respect to Chen Liqin but the emperor ignored all of them.
He stormed towards the pavilion door, push it but the door won't open. "Ming Yu!" he shouted, banging at the door.
One of the maidservant, trembling in fear, went beside the emperor. "Usually, Her Highsness has woken up during this time. But, today, Her Highness did not answer at all how much we called her."
Chen Liqin became paler. "Smashed the door!"
The guards who were chasing him from the office immediately broke the door. After several attempts, the door finally opened!
"Ming Yu! Ho—" Chen Liqin's words stuck on his throat.
In front of him was the greatest nightmare he had ever had in his life. His mind blanked and he could not feel his body for a second.
Besides him, several guards and maidservants also went inside but stopped. Their blood stopped running on the view.
"KYAA!! HER HIGHNESS!!"
As if it had run into an earthquake, the room was in a mess. Every things fall on the floor, overlapping into a messy figure. Near the bed, Ming Yu leaned unconscious. He has a piece of broken glass on the right hand. Red dripping down from the sharp edge.
Red liquid burst, pouring down his left wrists liked the heavy rain outside. It pooled on the floor then flowed towards Chen Liqin's toes.
Glaring lightning followed by jarring thunder snapped Chen Liqin back. He ran towards Ming Yu, kneeled before him. His bright yellow cloth was stained in black red but he did not care. He pulled the body into his embrace. With one hand, he tried to stop the blood while shouting, "Ming Yu! Ming Yu, wake up!"
His eyes wet and red but he could not cry because of his status and position.
"CALL THE PHYSICIAN, QUICK!"
****
Long and thick eyelashes trembled before slowly opening, revealing a blurry orange iris. Shao Chen blinked in confusion.
In a flash, he thought he saw someone moving beside him but after screening the surrounding, there was no one beside him in the room.
It was not important so he did not bother to think further. He stared at the window which was wet because of the heavy rain.
"Morning already?" He could not find anything that could tell him the exact time so at last, even though it was a bit darker than the other morning he had spent in this kingdom, he believed his speculation that it was already morning was true.
He began to carefully screened the room again, finally realized that this was the imperial office. No wonder the temperature was decent. If this was the stone pavilion, the cold would be unbearable.
But …
"Why am I here?"
His brain was trying to work but his stomach rumbled and his throat was parched. He did not have any energy to start the engine.
His eyes caught a cup of hot tea and a small plate of cookie on the desk. Without thinking further, Shao Chen took the glass towards his lips but stopped before he opened his mouth.
'This is for Thief Emperor, is not it?' He did not know whether it was okay to drink it or not.
However, another thought flashed through his brain. If he drank the tea and ate all of the cookies, Chen Liqin would not happy. It could count as revenge!
'Good idea!' Proud of himself, Shao Chen gulped down the tea then stuffed the cookie inside his mouth. Big smile bloomed while thinking how the emperor would response.
At the same time, the office door was pushed opened in a bang! Incessant bark choked Shao Chen. "Cough … cough …."
Suddenly, a big white dog appeared from behind the folding wall. With his chubby legs, he strode towards Shao Chen. The white wet furs fell on the floor along his movement.
Shao Chen became pale. 'My money!' Bad memory flashed inside his brain.
He was about to place the glass back on the desk then protect his money when, Xiao Li, the dog, crashed the glass until it broke into pieces. The liquid inside stained the carpet.
Xiao Li glared at the broken pieces, growled fiercely.
It happened so fast that Shao Chen could not understand what had happened. However, before he could think about anything, his chest started to feel tight.
"Hhh … hhh …." He clutched his clothes, trying to relieve the pain by breathing harder, but on contrary, it became more difficult to breath.
His view became blurry. It was becoming hard for him to sit upright. He had to support his body with two hands on the table so that his body won't fall down on the floor.
'Wh—what … happen …?'
Shao Chen felt his world was turning upside down before everything was dark.