Chapter 4

The days flew by as Feiyan became occupied by the servants and seamstresses that streamed in and out of her new chambers. And more often than not, she escaped into an isolated garden to clear her head from the overwhelming hustle and bustle. Although someone always managed to find her and drag her back amongst the chaos – Yixing that is.

She just wished the celebration would come quicker so that she could finally rest in peace and quiet. Sure, she enjoyed being pampered but somehow, it was all for a false display and wondered if it were even likely for her in the future to marry properly, not pretending to be someone’s consort.

The Wolf King came by to see her every now and then when he gained some time to spare and would sit down to have tea with her. Feiyan was mostly overwhelmed by his presence and didn’t speak much, preferring to keep her eyes lowered to her tea cup. How am I supposed to act as if I love him? He doesn’t even seem to be acting like it either, she thought, We’re going to be found out one day.

“I brought you some sweets,” he spoke suddenly. He motioned for one of his servants to step forward and place down the gift. “One of our merchants brought this in recently from a different land.” Feiyan looked up and stared at the sweets – they were an assortment of colours in pink, yellow, red and orange, and looked like they were quite sticky.

“What are they?” She asked, curious about the food and reached out to pick one up with a skewer. She put it into and was delighted to find out that it almost melted on her tongue. “Delicious!”

“I believe they are called ‘Blossom Candy’,” He said, picking one up himself, “Made from different flower extracts, then mixed with sugar and starch to create this sticky texture.”

They ate quietly when unexpectedly, Yifan reached out to wipe away some of the flour that had stuck to the corner of . He’d been watching eat the candy happily and noticed that when she ate fast, Feiyan would be a little clumsy. She froze when his hand touched her, gently wiping away the food and she watched as he wiped his fingers on a wet cloth the servant handed to him.

“Um, thank you,” she murmured, returning to her tea. She looked over the brim and caught when he unknowingly smiled. He never smiles, Feiyan remembered, and I made him smile. A little flutter of pride swelled in her chest, even if only the corners of his lips had turned up.

He got up then, brushing out his robes and bowed his head somewhat, “That is all for today. I will see you tomorrow – be sure to be ready in time for the banquet. We are expecting the entire court to be in attendance,” he said, then promptly turned to leave. He paused just as he opened her doors and came striding back to where she sat.

Yifan knew that to convince both the court and the girl, he’d need to act too and decided on a whim to stir up the rumours; he knew that the servant with him right now was a huge gossip and would surely tell everyone she met, about the happenings between the King and his Consort. So, he strode over to Feiyan and before she could react and he could back out, he kissed her forehead.

He left without another word, leaving her stunned and blushing brightly. “What just… happened?” she asked herself, placing down the tea cup and standing. Seeing her reflection in the glass mirror, she blushed even further from her own glowing expression. The King had just shown her affection when he had never in his life done that before.

Soon after, the attendants came back to finish off their work with Yixing never far away, ordering things to be done and generally maintaining order. He noticed her standing off to the side, cheeks flushed but obeying everything the attendants said. He walked over and as he approached her, he knew something had happened. “Are you ill?”

Feiyan jumped looking like she had been caught doing a bad deed, “N-no. I’m perfectly well,” she answered. Yixing narrowed his eyes in suspicion but said nothing more about it and instead pushed her towards the centre of the work.

“Help them out instead of standing around doing nothing.” She nodded and went about immersing herself with the rest of the staff. Yixing watched on and had a feeling that something had happened during the time that the King would spend drinking tea with her. But he won’t pursue the matter; as long as it didn’t affect either of them or the workings of the Palace, it was none of his concern.

Feiyan was the only one left to ponder over why the King had done such a thing and threw herself into the work, doing her best to hide the memory and focus on everything but the King.

***

As the next day rolled around, the sun just peaking over the horizon, Feiyan was woken to the eager faces of several women. “Dear Lady, we have a busy day ahead of us. We must get you ready for the evening ahead and we do not have much time!” one of them exclaimed, helping her sit up.

They let her eat breakfast as they prepared her robes for the banquet, pulling out hair ornaments that glittered and shone in the lig