Tianshi Xue suddenly felt irked about how she was reacting around Prince Qui. Who was he anyway? She was ONLY her husband. She should not feel embarrassed. She scrambled upwards rather unladylike and flicked her skirt back in its position.
She hovered above the prince's form on the bench. "Could you tell me the way back to the palace?"
Prince Qui opened an eye and closed it again. "You've lived here since you were five. How could you not know the way back to the palace?"
Tianshi Xue pointed to her head. "I got into an accident in case you forgot. Something is wrong with my memory."
"Then you should walk around, maybe that would help your memory refresh itself. You should try it."
Tianshi Xue pulled a taut smile on her lips. "I've heard that there would be a party tonight and I still have to get ready. Do you want your wife to look like she had just gotten out of a pigsty?"
"Well, I don't really care much about how people would see you. You're still the daughter-in-law of the emperor. They wouldn't say a thing."
Tianshi Xue kicked a leg of the bench and the prince opened both eyes. This time there was a frown on his beautiful features. "Did you just kick the bench?!"
"That's right," she said, crossing her arms over her chest, daring him to scold her.
But the prince smiled much to her annoyance. "I know that you have somewhat of a temper but I didn't think that you could get violent."
"So are you going to point me in the right way or…"
"Or what?" the prince's eyebrow twitched.
Tianshi Xue's lips clamped shut. She didn't have anything on the prince. "I am asking you nicely. The least you can do is tell me."
"I want to see you ask when you're mad. Maybe that would convince me better."
Tianshi Xue smiled wider that her cheeks hurt. "I hope that you burn in hell." Then she turned her back to him, but even then, she heard what he muttered under his breath.
"Oh, I know I will."
**
Tianshi Xue had been able to find the right way back to the palace after another hour or so—no, wait, that was wrong. She did NOT find the way back to the palace. Most of the servants and the guards were already on high alert because the princess was lost. A guard had found her wondering around the exit of one of the labyrinth and stayed three feet behind her as he directed her back to her chambers.
"Thank you," she said as the guard bowed and slunk away.
She had never thought that she would be pleased to be back in the bedroom that she shared with Prince Qui.
"Oh, Princess, I thought something had happened to you!" said Howin who looked like she was about to cry upon the sight of her. "I lost you in the garden. I didn't know what to do."
Tianshi Xue smiled at the thought of someone panicking because they couldn't see her. It boosted so much of her ego. People loved to see her. They could not help but look for her when she was gone. That was the power of her beauty.
Ah, she sighed in her mind, the curse of being beautiful.
"Why?" she asked Howin as she started pulling the ties of the dress. She was going to take a bath before she went to the party. She managed to smell like sweat and the sun while trying to get back here. "Did you think that someone abducted me?"
"Your Highness, it's not something impossible. The main reason why you're in the palace because you have to be protected. We never know… someone might be putting a mark on your life."
Tianshi Xue laughed without smiling at that. That took her back to the task that she had to accomplish. She had to know who had wanted her dead—the person who threw her off the freaking yacht.
She had been getting sidetracked with everything. Nine days already passed and all she managed to do were: fail at killing herself, get taken outside the wall, and get married.
She had to find out who was trying to kill her. Then, she had to know why the princess got into an accident in the first place.
She closed the door on Howin's face, thinking who would dare harm the most precious princess of the land?