Chapter 28 - A 'Gift' from Qin Empire.

"Ah..."

"I am deeply sorry that I brought you to that place and exposed you to such potential danger, and I felt so bad that you had to witness that awful sight... I am a bit too ignorant and inconsiderate in this matter..." Ben apologized, in a remorseful tone.

"It's alright, after all, I am the one that was curious about that place," said Rei.

"Hah... Apparently, that girl was forcibly fed by her own mother some sort of deadly 'Gu worm' eggs in order to totally took control of the girl's life. But it seems like her mother didn't control the portion well enough thus causing that awful consequence. Her stomach and intestines had been burst open by the overcrowded worms," said Ben, trying not to go too deep into the details.

Rei nodded without any intention to dig in deeper.

"Anyway, I shall be heading to the King's palace to give His Majesty a proper body check-up to make sure he is in good condition to meet those guests later. Aside from that, I need to help him with the preparation for the meeting later," said Ben as he stood up and started packing all of his tools.

However, before Ben could finish packing everything, he felt a really bad lightheadedness which caused him to sit back on the chair.

"Dr Ben! Are you alright?" Rei exclaimed, rather concerned.

"Yeah... I'm alright. It seems like my blood sugar is running low again... Damn it... I should have eaten something for my breakfast this morning," said Ben, who sounds a bit weak.

"Uhm... Dr Ben, An Er is preparing my lunches in the kitchen right now if you don't mind, please have your lunch here before you leave." said Rei, despite not very understanding the meaning of 'blood sugar' but she can almost confirm that Ben need to eat something before continuing with his job.

Despite a bit hesitating, Ben nodded and accepted Rei's offer to have lunch at her place.

"But since the lunch will still need a bit more time to be ready, you can have some of these candied fruits before that," said Rei as she passed Ben a jar of candied fruit along with a small bamboo fork.

Ben laughed out a bit seeing that jar of candied fruit, he found that it was a bit funny as he was the one that gave her that jar of candied fruit in the beginning...

And so, with that small twist of event, Ben had his lunch with Rei for the first time, despite the meals prepared being quite simple, it is well-balanced with a plate of lightly salted fried minced meat with shitake mushrooms, a bowl of mixed vegetable soup and some noodles.

After that simple yet comforting lunch with Rei, Ben took his leave and continued with his daily busy work.

***

After Ben left, Rei stared at the empty table as she wondered about something.

"My Lady, is there anything bothering you?" An Er asked as she served Rei a cup of tea.

"Mmm... Dr Ben said that they will be having some important guests later, I am a bit curious about that," said Rei.

"Hmm... I wondered about that as well. Maybe we could ask Sister Jade after this, she should know something about it." said An Er.

"Pardon me, Lady Rei, I don't know too much about that. The only thing I know is that they are some noblemen from Qin Empire," said Jade as she overheard the conversation between Rei and An Er as she walked in with some fresh fruits.

"What? Noblemen from Qin Empire?" Rei exclaimed, who was kind of shocked.

"Yes, My Lady. But that's all I know," said Jade as she put down the fresh fruits and bowed to Rei before leaving the room.

"I wondered who are the noblemen that came? Did Lord Shao come as well?" said An Er in a surprisingly excited tone despite how troubled her lady is.

This is the first time An Er mentioned Rei's fiancé, Commandery Prince Shao, in front of Rei after they got exiled from Qin Empire...

***

That evening, the door of the guest reception hall in the castle was wide open, the King can be seen sitting by a long table side by side with a nobleman from Qin Empire. That nobleman is the older brother of the Qin Emperor, Prince Ya. The King is wearing a half mask to cover the upper part of his face.

After some plain perfunctory talks with each other, Prince Ya said that he prepared a gift for the King and would like to present it to everyone in the hall. Despite being a bit reluctant about that, the King has no reason to reject him and so, he accepted Prince Ya's offer.

Then, with a hand-clapping signal, eight strong men walked into the hall with a two meters width drum in their hands, on the drum, was a young beautiful lady in her early teenage, probably not more than fourteen. The young beautiful lady was gracefully sitting on the drum as a group of musicians and dancers walked into the hall. With the music started, the dancers started to do some slightly boring dance as the young beautiful lady steadily stood up and performed an alluringly beautiful and graceful dance on the drum.

Along with the rhythm of the music, her soft and dainty body gracefully swayed as that light and nearly translucent tulle fluttered like a pair of wings around her. With the slightly exposing outfit, her waistline can faintly be seen with every shaking movement of her waist. With her alluring yet graceful dance along with her slightly seductive eyes, she gave everyone in the hall the illusion that she was a fairy and walked out from the woods...

***

Although not knowing the motive of that old man from Qin Empire, the King indeed enjoyed that beautiful dance from the young lady, he was rather impressed by her dancing skill. As the dance continued, Prince Ya started to introduce the young lady to the King. According to Prince Ya, that beautiful young lady is Commandery Princess En Yu, his youngest daughter that is birthed by one of his concubine's maids.

Hearing the introduction from Prince Ya, the King had pretty much guessed his motive, that old man from Qin Empire was trying to forcibly stuff his daughter into the King's palace, just like everyone else. After knowing that ugly intention of that old man towards his own daughter, the King was slightly disgusted, and stopped all the unnecessary perfunctory conversation with the nobleman, he chose to watch the dance in peace...