His Rui

A few minutes later, Li Rui jumped inside her room from the window.

Fortunately, her room was on the ground floor and that made her secret escape easier.

As she stepped inside the room with silent steps, she glanced towards the door of the room and sighed in relief to find them still closed just like she had left them.

After that, she hurriedly took out a new pair of clothes from the almirah and changed into them.

The dress she was wearing was now stained with mud so it could make the maid doubt her.

A martial artist…that's what Imperial Physician Xu had said about the maid.

Fortunately, she knew now and she can avoid many things in order to escape from the maid's sharp eyes.

After changing the dress and setting her hair right, Li Rui finally opened the door of her room.

"My Lady"

She saw An Ju as soon as she opened the door. The maid bowed her head and greeted her like any other normal maid.

"I wish to go back to the banquet."

She said calmly as she turned to close the door of the room.

An Ju was happy when she heard her words. So she said immediately

"Yes, My Lady."

She helped Li Rui in closing the door and then followed her to the banquet hall.

-------

The banquet hall had now returned to its usual liveliness.

After the messenger from the north set down on his seat, no one paid attention to him. Soon a group of dancers presented a very beautiful dance and everyone started to enjoy the lively dance.

The dance was very beautiful and the dancers used ribbons. Many people were reminded of the dance presented by Li Na when they watched the ongoing performance.

The maidens who had been jealous of Li Na at that time ridiculed her while whispering to each other something.

"She was looking so arrogant yesterday. Hmph…in the end, her legs were too much out of control."

Snickers followed these words and the maidens covered their mouths to hide their smile.

The one who said these words was currently being scolded by her mother for using such vulgar words.

"Mother, what wrong did I say? Yesterday, when I went to ask her about her dance teacher, she humiliated me by saying that not everyone can learn ribbon dance…especially ugly girls like me. She called me ugly She deserves everything she is getting today."

Said Lu Xiaotong to her mother with a put on her lips.

However, the next moment she was hit on her head by someone.

"Big Brother.."

Lu Xiatong pouted as she looked at her elder brother who was looking down at her with a frown.

"Tongtong…it is not good to talk about someone like that. Miss Li is already in very bad condition. At least, you as a lady should try to understand what she is going through at this moment."

Lu Jianye admonished his sister with a very serious expression on his face.

But Lu Xiaotong rolled her eyes at her brother's words and said

"Elder Brother, you are saying this because you don't know her. Yesterday, you only came when I was shouting at her and she trapped you with her sweet mouth …but believe me she is not a good woman. You should already understand when everyone had understood. Yesterday, she used you to suppress me when I spoke against her and you foolishly scolded me in front of everyone. Today also, you are doing the same. Xiaotong is very disappointed, Elder Brother."

Lu Xiaotong looked very sad as she wiped her eyes with her handkerchief and stood up from her seat to go to her father.

Lu Jianye knew that she was going to complain to their father about him but he didn't stop her.

However, he still said to his sister.

"Tongtong, Miss Li said that she didn't know how she reached inside that room. You are still young so you don't know much about these matters. Don't talk about anyone so open-mouthedly."

Lu Xiaotong shook her head in helplessness as she thought that her brother had really been completely entranced by that evil bitch Li Na. She didn't want to argue anymore with her brother so she left from there.

While Lu Jianye continued to stand at the same place with his mind full of thoughts of Li Na.

Since the moment, he had seen Li Na dancing on the stage with the ribbon, his heart had been caught by that girl. Only Lu Jianye knew just how happy he was when Li Na had talked to him yesterday.

He was even going to talk to his mother about Li Na but he had never imagined that things would turn like this.

However, he still believed that Li Na was framed.

Why would such a beautiful and capable girl engage herself with a Eunuch?

He just needed to wait for the right time and then he would look for Li Na again. Even though his Lu family is a noble family, it is nowhere near the powerful Li Clan.

At least now it should be easy for him to have Li Na by his side.

With this thought, Lu Jianye went back to his seat and watched the dancing girls on the stage with a smile on his lips as if he was imagining one of them to be Li Na.

The dance finished and the Emperor praised the dancers for their beautiful dance.

"Your Majesty, the dancers were called from the western villages by Princess Wenling especially."

Empress Qin Wenya told the Emperor with a joyful smile.

Zhao Wang Lei smiled and nodded his head while looking towards the seat where Princess Wenling should be seated, however, he frowned when he didn't see the Princess there.

"My Empress, where is Wenwen?"

The Empress' smile disappeared when she heard the Emperor's question and said

"Your Majesty, Princess has been making arrangements of the banquet for a week. This one saw that Princess looked really exhausted so asked her to take a rest for a few hours. Hope your Majesty won't mind Princess absence."

The Emperor's frown only went deeper with the Empress' words and he said

"How is Princess now? Is she ill? Has the Imperial Physician checked the Princess? Why didn't anyone inform us about this?"

The Emperor looked at Eunuch Wang who bowed his head with an apologetic face.

Everyone was hearing the talk between Emperor and Empress and all of them couldn't help but praise Princess for her hard work.

Seeing this new drama, Xi Ying looked very bored as he thought of leaving the banquet hall and seeing his wife. However the next moment, he suddenly remembered that he had told Li Rui that he would not come to meet her unless she would want him to.

Xi Ying cursed himself for saying such words.

Just at this moment, Princess Wenling with a pale face stepped inside the banquet hall.