11 Food Fit For a Dog

Princess Su Xueying was regretting her life choices.

Everything she did seemed to be wrong, and ever since visiting that brothel, the good luck that she relied on seemed to vanish. There was never a moment in her life where she hadn't had the luck on her side, but now, she was left worthless without the luck.

Who knew that Tutor Zhang would come back to the library where she was supposed to be studying at after conferencing with her father, the emperor? And who knew that upon learning that she ran away, he would become so angry that he coughed up blood and fainted?

Princess Xueying didn't seem to realize that if she went missing, even Tutor Zhang's life would go on the line when the emperor found out. She simply believed that a man reaching the end of his lifespan like Tutor Zhang would obviously act this way because of his age, not because of the anger he felt. In her opinion, it was definitely his fault— if he really wanted to keep her in the library, the best option he would have would be to lock her up in the room itself.

Yet— for some reason— her father decided to punish her!

Sure, Tutor Zhang was punished by stripping him of his role of being her teacher, but other than that, he was still an official on her father's court. And the guards and maids virtually received no other punishment than deducting a month of pay from their salary.

Xueying, on the other hand, was sentenced to be locked in her room until the next day, where she would be forced to attend the crown prince's birthday banquet that she originally planned to skip.

Why was she the one who was locked in a room?

This was unfair! All of it!

It was the fault of the servants for not keeping a close eye on her! It was the fault of Tutor Zhang for being such a boring teacher! It was the fault of her father for summoning Tutor Zhang in the first place! It was the fault of that annoying Liu Dayuan for delaying her return to the palace! It was the fault of the brothel for trying to get her to stay! It was the fault of her luck for leaving her at the most crucial parts of her day!

It was the fault of everyone except for Su Xueying. In her eyes, she was righteous. Perfect.

Xueying slumped against the small table she sat at in the center of her room, burrowing her face inside her sleeves. She tried the front door to the room a few moments ago, but to her disappointment and anger, it was locked soundly. After kicking at it a few times, the seemingly frail door stood strong, and she realized that no one would let her out with the emperor's permission. Xueying wasn't desperate enough to try climbing through the windows yet, but at this point, she was almost ready to.

A faint clicking sound from the locked doors to her room startled Xueying, and she sat up, looking in the direction of the opening door. Almost as if she expected there to be a guard politely opening the door and begging for her forgiveness from locking her in her own room, she pushed the stool back and stood up. Or, she would be fine with her father coming to visit her too. Xueying needed a talk with the emperor.

However, it was no guard or emperor and only her maid, Xiaosu. Xiaosu, and Xiaosu only, holding a tray with a bowl of white rice resting inside and two plates— one of green vegetables and one of pickled white radish— lying on the tray.

"Oh." Xueying wrinkled her nose, sitting back down dejectedly while continuing to speak. "It's you."

"Princess." Xiaosu placed the tray daintily on the table and proceeding to set Xueying's meal in front of her. "You should have dinner."

Glancing at the plates of food for a second, Xueying shook her head and stood up again, lightly pushing it away from herself. "Are all the chefs in the kitchen sick today? Tell whoever cooked this that I do not eat these sort of meals. Can't they include some variety at least? Perhaps eggs, if not meat?"

Xiaosu appeared a bit uncomfortable, shaking her head. "Princess, it's not that the kitchen wouldn't make you anything more. It's that they can't. The emperor himself ordered to cut down on your meal."

Xueying's lips twisted to somewhat of a sneer and sighed as she did so. "Then, I shall not have dinner. Simple enough. I will not food eat fit for dogs."

With those words, Xueying turned around and headed to the bed, not even bothering for Xiaosu to help her change out of her clothes, pulling the robes off in a messy manner. Xiaosu stared helplessly at the princess, gathering the plates of food back onto the tray.

"Where should I put your dinner then, princess?"

"Not my dinner," Xueying corrected, "since I will not be eating it. Didn't you hear what I said before? This is a meal fit for a dog. Simply feed it to those— there are plenty of them around the palace, right?"

Hesitantly, Xiaosu picked the tray up. This was simply the personality of the princess, someone who was unused to any sort of change to her luxurious habits and lifestyle. She wasn't worried, though. It would only take a few skipped meals for Princess Xueying to become hungry enough to not care about how simple the meal was. Even with willpower and determination that the princess always had, hunger and the temptation of food would always triumph, wouldn't it?

Yet for now, Xiaosu could not do anything besides following the princess's orders and hunting down a stray dog to feed the meal to.

…

The emperor of Danyan, Emperor Su, clutched the arms of his seat, lazily marking a scroll with a flick of his brush, moving the scroll aside to piles of similar ones. These were all submitted by the hundreds of power-hungry officials in his court, barely any of them being suggestions and reports good enough to require his full attention. The warm, gentle light emitted from the candles surrounding him were only more distracting, a tempting lullaby constantly reminding him that he should be sleeping this late into the night.

Emperor Su doubted that he would be able to sleep very well, nevertheless. His spoiled daughter was acting up again, and although he ignored all of her trouble in the past, she seemed to need something to reel her back this time before she went too far with her capable skill at causing commotions.

Tomorrow was the banquet for his son's birthday as well, something that again, took up so much more space on his schedule. When would he ever get a break from all this work? Leading a country was surely too difficult, but perhaps, if Emperor Su had been leading it since more than twenty years ago, he could surely lead for much longer.

While continuing with his review of the scrolls, his personal eunuch, Li Dong, who was supposed to be by his side, organizing the papers on the table, suddenly rushed into the room from outside the palace, his face oddly pale.

Without spending too much time looking up, Emperor Su grabbed another scroll, rolling it open. "What is it, Li Dong?"

"Emperor… there is someone requesting to meet with you."

"At this hour?" Emperor Su still continued marking his scrolls, briefly scanning the text and absentmindedly crossing the entire thing off. "Tell them to leave."

Li Dong continued with his uncertain voice, informing, "Emperor, the person requesting for a meeting does not seem ordinary." There is a long pause before the eunuch continues. "He carries the emblem of Yeming."

At this news, the emperor snaps his head up, placing the brush in his hand down. "Is that so?"

"Yes." Li Dong looks more nervous than Emperor Su had ever seen the eunuch act. "And judging by his appearance, the way he carries himself, and his clothes… the man is certainly not just any court official. He must be the minister— or perhaps, even… the emperor of Yeming himself."

Emperor Su lets out a snort at that, shaking his head. "Nonsense. Why would Yeming's emperor come to Danyan himself? At such a time, as well. He would just send an ambassador if he truly needed anything."

Although Emperor Su's words and tone was light, his thoughts were still heavy, and his free hand gripped the armrest of his seat tighter. Li Dong was his personal eunuch, the servant that followed him for years. With his level of experience, the eunuch was not one to easily make such assumptions unless the man really was worthy enough to be referred to as Yeming's emperor. Having those thoughts circling his mind was certainly unsettling enough, and Emperor Su leaned forward, waving his hand.

"I suppose… call the man in. I think it would be best if we did not ignore his request to meet."