Goddess of Love

Hong Bao entered the palace and looked around astonished. This was even more grandiose than the scribe's palace! This goddess of love must be really important!

The woman in the pink dress closed the door behind her, leaving her alone. Hong Bao blinked. Should she just go further in herself? But before she could come to a conclusion, another woman came down the hallway. She, too, wore a pink dress, though there were some white embroidered patterns at her hems that looked like flowers.

"You must be Hong Bao?" She looked her up and down and — like the first woman — harrumphed. She's just so-so. What does the fate's scribe like about her? Her face is average and she even has that dumb expression, her figure is quite alright, but of course she doesn't have such nice curves as our lady. And those clothes … what are those? She can't really be a servant, can she?

The woman frowned, but didn't dare dally. She motioned at her, turned around and led her to the end of the hallway. There was a large door before them and two handsome young men stood at the side. At the nod of the woman they opened the door and revealed a wide hall. The woman pointed inside and the door was closed right behind Hong Bao.

Hong Bao looked back, but finally shrugged. Maybe that was just how it was done in these big palaces when one was invited? She had only ever entered them as a servant and then to visit Shun Tao in his study. She didn't know what it was really like in these palaces.

She turned toward the hall and looked around. There wasn't much to see. In fact, disregarding the heavily decorated walls, there was only a big divan at the other side. Four men in armor stood behind it and two women in pink dresses with these white embroidered sleeves stood next to it.

The most eye-catching thing was the woman sitting on the divan: She had black hair, that seemed long enough to nearly touch the ground when she walked, eyes the color of a squirrel's fur and skin, that would probably best be compared to jade though Hong Bao thought of her cookie dough before it was baked. The woman wore a white dress with wide sleeves and a similarly wide skirt. If she walked in it, she'd probably look like she was wading through clouds. Besides the dress, the woman wore some — equally white — jade accessories.

Malicious thinking people might have said that she was showing of her skin, but Hong Bao only thought that she looked good like that. Maybe a bit plain with all that white. If it had been her, she rather would have worn blue or green.

While Hong Bao looked at the woman, she herself was being evaluated, too. The woman's gaze roamed over her body and a slight frown threatened to appear between her brows, but she repressed it back just as fast, not showing any of her thoughts.

She couldn't see anything special about Hong Bao's appearance or bearing. In her eyes, she seemed less than average. Regarding her appearance … That might be a three from ten. Her face was a bit too chubby, her eyes and mouth a little too small and her nose a bit too pointed. Her eyebrows weren't in a good shape either. And this was just the face! Looking at the rest of her … What was it with these curves? Or rather the lack thereof? What was too much on her face seemed to have come from her chest area and her butt also wasn't rounded enough. As far as the woman could see, her arms also didn't have a nice shape at all.

And that dress … She examined Hong Bao's dress more closely. Was that really the dress of a servant? It seemed so. And even one of the lowest kind, made out of cheap fabric with a cut that wouldn't look good on anyone. Looking for any accessories on her was a wasted effort altogether.

And talking about her bearing … Was there even something like that? Hadn't they been in the nine heavens she would have had to assume that the woman in front of her was a simple mortal. She couldn't detect any godly aura at all!

Had the fate's scribe really taken a fancy to someone like that? Or could it be … Was all this just a ploy? Maybe he had pretended to be in a relationship with her to ward off other women?

She pondered the idea for a bit but finally decided that it couldn't be the case. The fate's scribe wasn't a man who would use such a method. He didn't mind rejecting any woman. He just wasn't that type of man.

So … as unlikely as it seemed that only left the possibility that he had somehow fallen in love with this girl.

The woman smiled. "So, you are Hong Bao. The woman at the fate's scribe's side."

Hong Bao's face lit up. "So you really called me here because you want to help me with helping Shun Tao?"

The woman smiled wryly. Shun Tao? So it seems like it's true. He really fell in love with her. Someone as uptight as that fate's scribe would never let any woman call him this intimately if they weren't together.

"Helping you with helping him?", she repeated what Hong Bao had just said. "As the goddess of love, I'd naturally love to! Please tell me more about the situation."

Hong Bao smiled gratified. I knew it! The goddess of love would of course help someone as much in love as me. Now I can save Shun Tao and we might even be able to realize our romantic love story!

She couldn't have been happier, so of course, Hong Bao started telling the whole story of how Shun Tao had written a magnificent fate but the reincarnated god hadn't been able to pass his trial until now and somehow people were blaming Shun Tao.

Though, this time, she was smart enough to leave out the word 'crown prince', lest the goddess of love became biased, too, because of his identity.