The Perfect Gentleman

WEI LI LIAN

PRINCESS LE-ANNE

THE DUNGEON

Funny? Tick.

Attractive? Tick.

Gentleman? Tick.

Nice? Considerate? Kind? Sensitive? Not so much…

How could she sit down to think about a man who didn't qualify on half of her checklist? Le-anne liked how the Grand General looked at her, he was entranced by her. She liked how he consistently pursued her. She also liked how he invaded her space like he was a magnet only made for her. It exhilarated her how when she was with him, nothing was for certain.

Danger always lurked around them, because his other name was trouble.

He made her laugh. He knew how to make her angry. He made her blush. He brought out many different sides of her that she did not know existed.

"Grand General, you beast," Le-anne cursed in the quiet enclosement of her dungeon cell. The only man Le-anne had anything close to sharing feelings with was Hu-go though she would not classify whatever it was as love. For that reason she did not know how to handle or maintain a relationship.

The happenings of the previous night confused her. He had begged to have her in his bed, asked that she seal his promise with a kiss but when she did just that, he had walked out on her. He didn't pull her back to him for more. He hadn't attempted to be closer to her like the depraved animal he was. He just left without comment. It didn't make sense.

Maybe it was because she was inexperienced.

Did she bite him too hard? Or maybe it was disgusting, as it was too wet of a kiss. He said she smelt, maybe that was the problem too.

She sighed. Mistress Han would know what it was that she did wrong but here she was still locked up in the dungeon to go ask.

'Focus Le-anne. What then if he did like you? You are here to be an empress not be some General's wife.' A voice whispered from the other side of her brain.

'But what if he is there to rescue her from her torturous life. What if he is the one person there to set things right?' Another defended.

She agreed with the first one. She was here to be empress and this was her time to strategise. Her father would hear the news soon that she had been locked up which is why when she came out, progress had to be made. She needed to yield results to keep her father from discarding her.

"Li Lian!" Someone shouted her name from the passageway and Le-anne scrambled up.

'It is my time to leave,' she thought as she rushed over to the cell gate.

"Li Lian, the cause of all my problems," the Head of the Dungeon jabbered, eyes wide open to intimidate her. "Lost my job for protecting you, what a shame?"

Was it not General Feng protecting her?

"But guess what? Today, on my last day here I got a parting gift," he grinned exposing a gap between his teeth. "Another set of orders have come commanding me to punish you heavily."

"Shénme?(what) From who?"

"Who cares? I just get to punish you. Mo come and take your parcel." He ordered and gave her the widest mocking smile his face could allow. The passageway started to thud with heavy footsteps before exposing her worst nightmare.

Mo, the punisher was back in her life.

He was bigger than the last time she saw him at the Punishment Bureau. His legs were still wide and his body still did not have much clothing. That was alright, but not the fact that he still owned the wide canning stick.

Mo versus Le-anne, she knew she could knock him out, but when she saw that he was not alone she thought again. Another punisher the size of Mo was following suit behind him. Le-anne couldn't escape this one. She was doomed.

And she wasn't wrong about that because that night they dragged her to the Punishment Bureau and grilled her like they would treat meat. They kicked, punched and pounded her and by the time Grand Consort Shu got there, she was mashed potatoes.

S.V