17 Mother vs. Son

"Eat this, and this and this." Zong Qiu said as he added a couple of duck meat and vegetables to the tower of food.

"Hey I'm not crippled! I can get my own food." The annoyed Mingxia said as she dumped the tower of food onto his plate.

"You need the nutrients." Zong Qiu reasoned and began piling more food onto the plate.

By now, Mingxia's anger bar has reached its maximum. Being grounded in a room and having to do nothing but sleep has already ticked her off, and now she can't even choose what she gets to eat. Mingxia was furious beyond repair.

"Look, Mr Zong Qiu, second prince or whatever they call you. I am not a women that just gave birth, I am perfectly healthy and capable of getting my own food. Now, get out. I don't need a hawk to monitor my every move and limit my freedom!" Mingxia's hand slapped the table to show her anger.

Xing sat in the corner and could only laugh at this. It's the second day of her lady being stuck in here and she could tell that she was not happy. She would even curse at Zong Qiu in her sleep, muttering things like, "Zong Qiu, I swear I will get back at you.." or "Just you wait I will make sure you shall feel ten times the..." Xing chuckled again when she remembered this. Mingxia may not know but Xing could tell that the second prince had a special place in her lady's heart. Every time he was brought up she would have a special reaction, only when he was mentioned.

'Did you notice that Lady Mingxia?'

Zong Qiu smiled and confidently looked at Mingxia in the eye.

"Am I a hawk?" He stood up and leaned forward while Mingxia leaned back.

"Or am I....." He leaned forward again and Mingxia took a step back and her leg touched the chair behind her.

"Wha-" She then realized that it was a chair and looked relieved. However she forgot that there was a pursuing hawk coming close and shortening the distance between them. She turned around to see that they were only a few centimeters away, unconsciously she sat down. Zong Qiu leaned downwards towards her. His grey eyes held a spark when it met her brown ones. Zong Qiu could not take his eyes off of hers, her warm brown eyes felt soothing and healing to look at. While Mingxia found his grey eyes mysterious and interesting. The two stared at each other for a while, both not sure what to do.

Zong Qiu decided to take the lead and leaned in further until their lips were almost touching. Mingxia must of been caught in the moment because she did not push him away or reject him of any sort. Instead she merely tilted her head up a little as if she was inviting him to do so. His fingers lifted her head up a little more and he slightly tilted his head when-

"Your highness. Your sister and mother would like to see you." An eunuch announced and bowed.

Zong Qiu previous smile melted into annoyance as he stood up straight and walked out. But before he left, he whispered into Mingxia's ears, "Let's continue this tomorrow" and stepped out the room leaving Mingxia blushing again.

Xing was staring at the two like an audience. As the prince was leaning in she was cheering inside saying "Go on! Leanforward even more!" But when he stopped and the two only stared at each other, she was squealing inside, wanting for more. However the eunuch's sudden announcement had come at the worst timing and came in right at the good part. Right now, she was outraged like what would happen when you watch a romance Korean drama and before the climax, an ad popped up, destroying the atmosphere.

She was pissed off at the eunuch, and even more so towards the people that commanded the eunuch to come.

"That eunuch! Hmph." She looked over at Mingxia to see that Mingxia has plopped down on her bed.

"Mingxia?" Xing walked to see that Mingxia was still blushing.

She can't help but laugh at how adorable Mingxia was being.

"Why are you laughing?" Mingxia sat up and asked.

"Nothing." She tried to hold back her laugh by turning around but failed to do so.

"Xing!" Mingxia jokingly cried and tackled her to the ground.

"Hey!" laughter filled the room and could be heard outside as well.

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Zong Qiu walked out of the room and made his way through his courtyard to the main room. He fixed his robes and walked in. Princess Zhu Fenghuang was seated inside with an older woman wearing purple robes. The older women had a tall, golden crown sitting on her head with jewels adorning it.

"Mother." Zong Qiu bowed, and kept his head low.

The older women is none other than the First Consort, one of the emperor's most favored wife. With the amount of wrinkles on her face you could tell that she was quite old, and yet she was still able to keep the emperor's attention on herself. Which was quite impressive.

"Son." She said.

"Qiu gege, how is Lady Wei? Is she alright?" Fenghuang asked.

"Of course dear sister. She has woken up and is as energetic as she can ever be." Zong Qiu had a warm smile on his face when he said this.

"Son, mother is here to talk about this girl." The women sat up straight and her voice became stern.

"Mother believes that it is not appropriate for her to be in your courtyard."

"And why would you think that way, mother?" Zong Qiu's eyes narrowed and his mother did not miss the deadly glint in his eyes and the exaggeration in his voice.

"She is only the daughter of a viscount. If this girl was someone from the prime ministers' family, or other noble families then I have no complaint. But no she is from the family of a viscount. To help you in your future, you should know that you need to pick someone with a good background and be part of a high status family. Someone of the likes of her does no-"

"MOTHER." Zong Qiu did not shout, but there was killing intent in his voice.

"If you are here to talk about this then I can only show you to the door."

"How dare you talk back to your mother!" The emperor's first consort slammed her hands on the table.

"You also know it yourself, now that you not are in the line for the throne you need a strong backing, a daughter of a high ranked official, like Chen Jiaming." This was her goal. Zong Qiu's mother did not know about the relationship between the Wei family and the empress but she had her eyes for the second daughter of the Chen family. The Chen family has held the position of Prime Minister for decades. Their second daughter is a well known lady. She has the looks, intelligence, manners, some even compare her to Mingxue. Zong Qiu's mother wanted her son to have someone with power beside him to help him in the future, and possibly herself.

"Guards! Show the emperor's first consort to the door." Zong Qiu ordered and he walked out without looking back.

"Zong Qiu! How dare you!"