She stare at him and she return the bow. The emperor ask them to sit. The reception starts with food and talks. Hu Li is bored out of her mind with the endless talking. She maintain to hold her fan up. While Prince Ying Tian is staring at her. He have a lot of question for her knowing that she have a furry temper, he try not to step on her toes but months without a reply from her makes him anxiety. He wants to know what is the next step to take.
Once the talking about the counties ends, Hu Li though that it is the time to leave, she happily wanting to stand up but the emperor continue to talk. She sit down with a slump and wonder when is this going to end. She look across the room. She see that Prince Ying Tian is looking at her. He wink at her suddenly she hurry to look away, pretending she did not see. The emperor then talk about the marriage between the prince and princess. Her heart is sinking as they talk about when is the best time to get married. Finally they conclude that it is best to consult the astrology bureau when is the best day and they will meet up to discuss further. Everyone is leaving the hall when he approach her.
"Shall we meet at the old spot?"
Hu Li doesn't know where is the old spot. She look around and whisper.
"I am tied. Tomorrow. I will send my maid with the message."
He lean nearer to her and whisper softy for her to hear.
"I cannot wait for you. How about tonite i go into your boudoir?"
"WHAT?!"
At that point the maids and each who are collecting the plates and cups look up.
Prince Ying Tain wink again and he walks off before she can say anything. Once Hu Li step outside, her butterfly friends and maids return to her side and they walk back to her courtyard. Hu Li hurry to get inside the bedroom. She ask the maids to prepare her bath. They rush out and she close the door. The rats come out to greet her and see her frustrated face.
"Master, is anything wrong?"
"Yes there is! A thick skin and insolent person is wanting to come here to meet me! I mean not me but Princess Wang Ching!"
"What should you do?"
"I do what i want to do... as long as he doesn't die here."
Just then there is a knock on the door, the maids have return with water for her bath. Hu Li decided to bath and change into her sleeping wear and lay on the bed. The long night, usually she will be reading her book if she is not expecting anyone to drop in but tonite that human openly said that he will meet her in her courtyard, that means he have done this many times.
Hu Li pretend to sleep while her little friends who are waiting falls asleep under the bed. After a long silence night, she hear the door open and close. She sit up and see a figure of a tall person walk to her bed. When the light hit on his face, it is the Prince who shamelessly come inside. He smile as he walk to the bed and sit beside her. He touch Hu Li's cheeks.
"You are still so beautiful. After all these years..."
"Are you here to tell me that?"
"Of course not."
He whisper softy and take her hands.
"Even your hands are as pretty as your face."
"If you need to ..."
"I have bought the materials into the city. As we speak, my men are mixing them together. We are waiting for the bamboo to be deliver by twenty days."
"By who and where? Is it safe?"
"Kiss me and i tell you everything."
Hu Li look away and wonder if all male thinks of kissing regardless if they are human or not. However lucky this Prince Ying Tian isn't a bad looking human to start with. Still she doesn't want to kiss him to get a useless information. When Hu Li looks back, he have his eyes close and move closer to kiss her. She takes the chance at that moment to blow smoke on his face. Immediately he lay down and looks asleep. She arrange him properly on the bed and walk to the study desk. She grind the ink and wrote on the paper. Once it's dry, she roll it up and push open the window. An owl come flying and pick up the paper. She watch it fly off into the night sky. Soon a few hours time will be morning, how is this prince going to leave the palace?
It turns out that going in and out of the palace is easy as there is a tunnel under the boudoir that the courtyard is at. Thus him leave and coming in without anyone noticing is possible. For now every night, Prince Ying Tian appears in her boudoir and stay for nights. While if Prince Wang Cao appears, he will stay away. Seems like these two men cannot stand each other. Finally a day arrive when the emperor set a friendly game of CuJu. The Chinese team vs the Tian You team. The two head of the teams naturally have to be Wang Cao and Ying Tian. On that day, Hu Li looks like on the way to the stadium to watch the game with the royal family but in reality, she have morph back to Yu Bing and walk around the city especially the residences where the Tian You envoy is living at.
She meet up with Du Wei together they creep in. He is alike Yu Bing light and nimble but he is not as fast as him. They hid in various places in the residence as they try to locate the study room. Without words, they communicate with hand signs. Somehow Du Wei understand Yu Bing and they managed to creep around without a problem, Hu Li used her vision power to look far where the guards are so that they can void them as much as possible. It takes them almost thirty minutes to locate the study room. Inside, Hu Li keep a watch out while Du Wei search through the papers or other things that might carry the clue where the materials are hiding at. After forty minutes they hear voices approaching the study room. They need to hide somewhere in the room but where. Hu Li point up the beams. Du Wei understands and he climb up and Hu Li leap up nimble to hide behind the beams without breathing loudly. The door open and an old man walk in, he look around before he close the door. They continue to watch him as he stands alone staring at a statue of a goddess.