Date I

"Your Majesty, an heir is needed for the Empire. The people will be assured once an heir is borned." the prime minister, Zhu said.

The Emperor looked at Prime Minister Zhu and said: "You have time to worry about the heir but do you visit your daughter, she's a maid for Empress Dowager."

"My daughter is not as important as you, my Emperor, you come first then my family." Prime Minister Zhu replied.

"Let's talk about this another day. Dismissed." the Emperor said as he waved his hand.

The Prime Ministers exited the room and General Wang said: "The Empressis at the garden if you want to see her you can-"

"We have better problems to worry about at the moment. Is there any news from the Xi Empire?" the Emperor asked.

"Yes, sources from the Xi Empire said, it's….."

Meanwhile at the garden,

"Princess no I mean Empress, what are you doing staring into space?" Lan'er asked.

There was no response from Chen Xi as she continued to stare into space.

"Empress? Empress?" Lan'er continued to ask before shaking Chen Xi.

"Huh? What did you just say?" Chen Xi asked as she turned to Lan'er.

"Is something wrong? Shouldn't you be happy because you spent the night with the Emperor?"

"That's what weird, he wasn't there when I woke up but I'm pretty sure he wasn't there the whole night."

"Shhh, lower your voice Empress. If you say that the maids will gossip, the rumors had stopped, you don't want it to start again right?"

"I could care less. Also, the letter hasn't arrived yet, is there something wrong back home?" Chen Xi asked Lan'er.

"Sometimes no news is the best news, you should wait patiently and news may come sooner than you think." Lan'er said.

Chen Xi nodded her head slowly and said: "Okay…"

"Empress." a voice behind her said.

Chen Xi turned around and saw the Emperor. He looked different from before as he was wearing plain white clothing instead of the gold clothes from the palace.

"Are you going outside?" Chen Xi asked.

The Emperor nodded his head and said: "Will you come with me?"

Chen Xi smiled and agreed.

"Empress, you should -" Lan'er said before being cut off by General Wang.

"The Emperor wants to spend time alone with the Empress, you shouldn't interfere." General Wang said as he stopped Lan'er.

"Enjoy your time, Your Majesties." General Wang continued as he dragged Lan'er away.

Chen Xi watched as she saw General Wang dragged Lan'er away.

"She will be okay right?" Chen Xi asked the Emperor.

"Don't worry, General Wang is my most trusted guard, he will protect her with his life. I promise you." the Emperor replied.

Chen Xi smiled and they walked past the palace gates.

"Let me bring you somewhere." the Emperor said as he took Chen Xi's hands and started to run.

"Hey! Wait!" Chen Xi shouted.

"Aren't you from the grasslands? Running like this should be easy." the Emperor said as he turned around, smiled, then looked ahead.

Chen Xi's face turned into a smile and her heart began to beat faster.

"Something is wrong with me." Chen Xi thought to herself.

After running, they stopped outside a shop. The Emperor walked into the shop but turned around and saw Chen Xi reading the shop's name.

"What are you doing out there? Hurry and come in?" the Emperor shouted at Chen Xi.

Chen Xi looked at the shop's name, then the Emperor, smiled at the Emperor and walked into the shop.

"What were you doing outside?" the Emperor asked as he led Chen Xi to a row of seats.

"The name of the shop, the characters are different from the Xi Empire so I had a difficult time reading it."

"Do you want to know what it says?" the Emperor asked Chen Xi.

"What does it say?"

"Play."

"Play? What is a play?" Chen Xi asked.

"You'll see." the Emperor said as he smiled.

At the cue of the Emperor's words, the lights dimmed and the play has started.