Dancing Lotus Flower [2]

LADY WEI LI LIAN

PRINCESS LE-ANNE

THE PALACE

Silence.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, the audience erupted in praise. This went on for a while before Le-anne saw the Grand Dowager Empress raise her hand to silence the crowd. She had a sweet smile plastered on her face.

"These beautiful flowers deserve to be rewarded, have a banquet thrown for them in the Eating Halls," she said, her voice weary of age.

"Her Royal Highness is benevolent." They lowered their heads.

One of the royal women below the Dowager Empress stood up.

"You danced so wonderfully." She intently stared at Le-anne. "Your Highness would it be a problem if that lady stayed here and danced for my birthday?"

She had a honeyed voice but more than that her unique features stood out. She had vulcanite black hair with melon lilac lips while her eyes were beautifully round on her symmetrical face. Vibrant clothes hugged her shapely figure but something about how she took herself didn't indicate that she was royalty, it was like she was a low born.

"May her Highness, Grand Consort Shu forgive me, but with all due respect that woman is a Lady of the Wei clan. According to our culture, it's an insult to have a noble lady serve in the palace." An official from the South Wing stood up. He had a deer imprinted on his red robes which represented his wing. "If her Highness insists to have her dance for you, why doesn't the Grand Dowager Empress take her in as the emperor's concubine instead?"

As planned, the South Wing was already bringing the plan to have her enter the palace into motion.

"Outrageous! How can she be taken in just because she must dance for a birthday?" An official from the North Wing stood up to oppose the request as he raged like a bulldog. "How outrageous!"

"Besides, the Grand Dowager Empress recently took in a concubine for our emperor a few moons ago, if the Grand Dowager Empress really wants to honor our Grand Consort's request then strip that lady from her title and have her serve the palace. Doesn't the world belong to our emperor, after all?" The North Wing was not going to easily let a concubine from another wing enter the harem so easily, not when the emperor's heart was still open and not yet entranced by anyone. A lady who could dance so beautifully could bring any man to his knees with lust and this would not favor their Consort Wang.

"Insulting!" The South Wing official raved back. "How can a Lady of Wei be turned into a slave? Does the North Wing look down on the South Wing that much?"

The Grand Dowager Empress tiredly raised her hand again, like earlier and with much respect, the officials settled down.

"Young Lady what would you like? Don't let these power-hungry frogs decide your future." The Grand Dowager Empress tiredly looked down at Le-anne.

Princess Le-anne did not waste time thinking. The answer was so easy.

"This servant is pleased to honor Grand Consort's request by having her title stripped."

An uproar broke out inside the large hall.

"Stupid!"

"How ungrateful."

"Wretched child!"

They thought she was insane but to her it was simply a game of xiangqi(chess) . Only General Feng nodded his head in understanding while the princess man blankly stared at him, unaware of anything else but him.

In situations like these, stepping back when victory is not assured was appropriate for Le-anne's uprising.

If she became a concubine she would just become a number, one of the women who used her feminine skills to become an emperor's unmarried woman. She would then spend another year flaunting around her beauty but never having met the emperor, while being bullied by higher ranking concubines and that vexed Consort Wang.

Her refusal, on the other side would cast a different spotlight.

'The dancing flower who refused the emperor', would be something to talk about in that haven of gossip that they called the palace. Obviously this was bound to reach the emperor's ears in no time. Rejection doesn't work well with men and that was enough to be her weapon.

S.V