Moonlight Over Pear Blossoms - Chapter 3

I said nothing. I put the world on mute and listened to my heart crack.

Gu Qiyuan’s lips moved, but he pressed them together again and merely waved me away.

As I headed out, I caught him rubbing his lower back out of the corner of my eye. Holy crap. Had I nearly broken him when I landed on him? So that was why he’d opened his mouth just now—to sentence me for it…

I stopped walking and broke into a run instead. At a hundred and eighty kilometers an hour, I flew back to my chambers without incident.

Hupo came to meet me. “Your Highness, hot water is ready…”

I shook my head so hard it was nearly a rattle. “What a day. I’m more tired than if I’d gone three hundred rounds in battle. I’ve changed, Hupo. From now on, call me Her Ladyship the Terminally Sleep-Deprived!”

Sleep was my creed. I was out the moment I touched the bed.

I had been away from the uneven bars for two years. After revisiting them today, of course I dreamed of them. My six years as an athlete flashed before my eyes.

At fourteen, Sister Wenyi had spotted me and brought me onto the national team. She trained me, flew with me to competitions all over the country, and helped me fight my way to a clean sweep of titles. She was closer to me than a real sister.

Sister Wenyi always said that although I saw her as an older sister, she saw me as a daughter. I teased her: how could a mother and daughter be only ten years apart?

She insisted she even had a son two years younger than me. I protested. Why couldn’t she imagine having a daughter instead? The Qing dynasty was long gone; why favor sons as if she had a throne to pass down?

Sister Wenyi only smiled.

I followed her gaze—and Gu Qiyuan appeared in a dragon robe. Waving a little leather whip, he chased me relentlessly, lashing out as he said in an icy voice, “Swing. Keep swinging for me!”

“…”

Terrifying. It scared me awake.

It was broad daylight, and there was a racket outside. Someone drew back the bed curtains.

“Your Highness, you’re awake?” Cuihe came forward with a copper basin.

I looked around, but Hupo was nowhere to be seen. Just as I was about to ask what was happening outside, the noise abruptly fell silent. Hupo pushed the door open and came in.

When she saw me awake, she looked displeased. “The moment they heard His Majesty had summoned you to his bed, they all came running to pay their respects. They disturbed your lovely sleep for nothing! But don’t worry, Your Highness. I’ve sent them all away.”

She handed me a cup of tea. I lowered my head to drink. “That was impressive. How did you send them away?”

Hupo looked perfectly earnest. “I told them the truth. I said you and His Majesty went three hundred rounds last night, so you’re exhausted and can’t get out of bed yet.”

Pfft!

I sprayed tea everywhere. Who taught her to twist my words like that? It was absurd!

My voice trembled. “And they believed you?”

Hupo tilted her head. “Why wouldn’t they? His Majesty was holding his back when he went to morning court. The whole harem knows about it.”

Me: “?”

What did him clutching his back have to do with me?

Well. I had *something* to do with it… but not in the way they thought!

I stared up at the sky in exasperation. My thoroughly uneventful love life had somehow become the subject of the most scandalous rumors.