Keeping one hand between their lips, which he was prying away, finger by finger, she gave up on her torn robe and felt blindly across the table.
The water jug!
She grabbed the jug and poured the entire contents over Bai Li’s head, with a good proportion of it splashing her in the process, given he was still pressing his face to her own.
As the cold water spilled all over him, Bai Li shook his head like he was awakening from a dream.
"Ap... aphrodisiac," he choked out. "I’m so sorry, ili."
Was that the first ti he had called her na?
"Soone will be coming. Get into bed."
She had no idea what he ant. What was this ’Affaffrowdizziac’? Why must she get into bed? Who was coming and why did it matter?
He picked her up and carried her to her bed, quickly tucking her in right up to her chin so just her eyes were peeping out.
Bai Li dried his face off with the edge of her blanket. As he stumbled outside, he noticed a small hole in the gauze of her window. That was probably the entry point for the drug, he thought, unless it was in the tea?
He closed the sliding doors closed behind him and sat down heavily on the step next to the sleeping dog, checking if Tricky was still breathing. Thank goodness he was!
It wouldn’t serve the culprit’s purpose for the dog to be dead; that would be too coincidental and would expose the plot in which he and i ili were ant to be caught ’in flagrante delicto’ in her room.
He wasn’t a mont too soon.
Into the courtyard strode the Second Prince, Princess Lingling and Noble Consort Ling.
The Second Prince had been wondering when Bai Li would show up. It hadn’t taken him long; he thought with annoyance.
"How’s Miss i?" the prince asked him irritably.
"Good, good," Bai Li coughed uncomfortably. "I just visited with her and took tea. She’s retired back to her bed."
"She shouldn’t have been out of bed at all," snapped the prince. "The doctor said complete bedrest. Don’t visit if you’re not helping her recover."
"Second Brother," said the princess mildly, placing a soft hand on his forearm. "I know you’re protective of Miss i, but Commander Bai’s visit surely won’t have hard her health."
"If you’ve just left her, surely she’s up for a visit from us," drawled Noble Consort Ling. "After all, the three of us have co all this way."
"She’s not I’m afraid, Noble Consort," Bai Li stood up and bowed in her direction.
"I left her half an hour ago, and she’s no doubt asleep by now."
Ling Lui knew there was no way Bai Li could have left that room half-an-hour ago, but she continued to play charades with the man.
"Is that so, Commander Bai? I’m sure the girl is sick and tired of resting alone in her room, shall we see if she’s awake?"
She gracefully clip clopped towards i ili’s room in her teetering horse-hoof shoes.
Before Bai Li could protest any further, she called out "Miss i, are you awake? It’s Noble Consort Ling here, you have so eminent visitors co to see you."
ili had heard the voices in her courtyard and quickly pulled on another robe over her torn white sleeping gown. Now she leapt up and flew over to the table and chairs, roughly swiping her sleeping blanket across the spilled water and running back to push the wet blanket under her bed.
She jumped back into bed, but then realised how strange it would look, lying there without a bedcover.
"I... Yes, Noble Consort, I’m awake. Please give a mont to make myself presentable," she called.
ili grabbed another blanket from the cupboard and threw it over her bed, quickly checking her hair in the mirror. It was loose, damp and ssy, so she dragged a comb through it before quickly climbing back under the fresh blanket.
"I’m ready to greet you," she called.
Her four visitors entered the tiny room. Noble Consort Ling looked around with disdain.
It made her feel better to see the conditions in which the girl was living. The Emperor couldn’t care too much for her to house her in an ordinary room like this, not to ntion to allow soone to push her into the lake.
She knew full well who was behind the attempt on the girl’s life.
She was pleased she hadn’t had to do the job herself; a borrowed knife was always safer.
Though clearly not as foolproof as handling the job oneself, she thought with annoyance about the fact the plan had failed.
Li Fengfeng had asked her to visit Miss i at this exact ti and place. She knew the Pri Minister’s daughter was using her, but they both desired the sa end, so she was happy enough to be the ans...
If the woman achieved her aims, it both got rid of Miss i, as well as kept Miss Li out of the inner palace. She was much better off in Gu with the Second Prince, where she seed to want to be.
It looked like whatever the Li girl had planned for Commander Bai and Miss i today had also failed. She really wasn’t very good at this ga. She should get out of the kitchen and leave it to the professionals, if she didn’t know what she was doing.
Ling Lui looked around the room with her eagle eye, noticing the slight ss of liquid on the floor under the dining table. She also took in the hole in the window gauze, and she wondered if Li Fengfeng had tried to drug the pair. That would explain the damp hair she had detected on both Miss i and the young Commander.
"It seems you have many eminent single male visitors, Miss i," said Ling Lui. "I’m not sure that’s entirely appropriate for a young unmarried woman now, is it? Were you all alone here with the Commander?"
"We took tea outside to avoid any impropriety, Noble Consort," said Bai Li stiffly. "I am close friends with Miss i’s brothers, so of course I must drop by to see her after such a serious event."
"You and the Second Prince are both most concerned about our Miss i, it seems. I wonder when your parents will find you a match, Miss i? You are seventeen, starting to get over-the-hill for a marriage. Do you plan to stay in the palace forever?"
"No! Only for so long as the Emperor requires ," said ili anxiously. She couldn’t possibly be trapped here forever! "He has ntioned he might find a husband for and even exempt from the concubine selections."
"Has he?" each of the Prince, the Commander and the Noble Consort spoke at the sa ti. They all wondered if that comnt ant that the Emperor intended to beco that ’husband’ himself.
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