CH. 9 ~ Making Plans (1)

Upon hearing this, Lou Qi Ran's mother thought for a moment. "Hm, then how about this let's head to town first to explore if there's anything interesting. After exploring we'll decide together where we should go."

"Alright, let's do that. Now, you should hurry and go take some rest before we head out. We'll be heading out in just a few more hours, after all it is midnight about now." Lou Qi Ran answered as she looked towards her mother.

Right as she finished speaking Xiao Li came in through the door, knocking to announce her arrival before entering.

"Greetings, Your Majesty," Xiao Li said bowing to the Empress, "Young Miss, are you ready to take a bath? I already told them to prepare in advance for you." Xiao Li closed the door and came closer to where they were seated.

"Yes, I'm ready, let me help Imperial mother to her chambers before I do. We're just about to go now." Lou Qi Ran answered Xiao Li and stood up with her mother.

"Alright, I'll tell them to hurry up then." Xiao Li said then bowed.

The both of them exited, as Xiao Li came out behind them she closed the doors before walking with them towards the exit of Lou Qi Rans' courtyard. Halfway through the walk Xiao Li had departed a different way to instruct the maids of the manor to prepare Lou Qi Ran's bath. As the both of them walked together, the crescent moon hung over them shining brightly giving them light. They bypassed a mini-pond in the middle of the manor along with the many trees planted inside the manor.

Empress Lou Xia Fang held Lou Qi Ran's hand and slowly walked. There were many guards posted at each corner of the manor, and there were many lights to light up the manor to rid of the dark. But, Empress Lou Xia Fang felt as if the lights were only illuminating how dark it was around them.

{Ran'er... mother truly hopes that you can find a good husband in the future to take care of you. If only....}

Empress Xia Fang sighed as she looked at Lou Qi Ran, noticing this Lou Qi Ran was about to ask what was wrong but they had already reached her mothers' chambers.

"Ran'er we have reached, you should hurry and go back before it gets too late. It's still quite dangerous no matter if we're being protected or not so hurry and go. Mother will see you tomorrow morning." Her mother slightly pushed her towards the direction they came from.

Lou Qi Ran helplessly bid her goodbye and walked back towards her own courtyard again. When she did arrive back in her own chamber, Lou Qi Ran looked around and saw that Xiao Li hadn't come back yet. Quite exhausted, Lou Qi Ran glanced around her room to examine it. The room was very spacious, there was the bed located against the wall, with two windows, one in front of it and one behind it.

Lou Qi Ran walked towards one of the window, and opened it. It was midnight so the only things you could hear were the crickets crying in the night as the many stars spread across the night sky. Not wanting to sit around doing nothing, Lou Qi Ran searched around for her embroidery kit. She found it on top of the table located in the other part of the room.

Picking up her piece of cloth, she carefully examined what she has already sown. There were the thin brown branches already sown, she only needed to fill it up with some flowers for a more colorful image before she added the finishing touches. So, for the next couple of minutes Lou Qi Ran continued to embroider her hooped-shape cloth before Xiao Li came to get her.

Right after stitching half of her second flower Xiao Li had knocked on the door and entered her room.

"Young Miss, I've already finished preparing everything, I'm sorry for taking so long. We can go now." Xiao Li stated as she put on a big smile.

"You've already arrived so there is no rush. Now, let me put my stuff away before we head out." Lou Qi Ran told Xiao Li and gathered her embroidery kit, after organizing everything into the right place inside the kit, Lou Qi Ran left it on the table.

Standing up, Lou Qi Ran followed Xiao Li out of her chamber and waited until Xiao Li had closed the doors tightly before they headed towards the bathhouse reserved for Lou Qi Ran. As they walked towards the bathhouse, they saw plenty of guards walking by who greeted Lou Qi Ran out of respect. All of the guards inside the manor were the ones they had brought from back home. They had to be extra careful whether it was the guards, the servants or maids who were serving them.

There were some maids who were handpicked for Lou Qi Ran and her family from the Emperor of Hua Country, but most of the maids and servants had come with their entourage from back home too. They didn't bring so many because it would've looked bad so they only brought about 25. And due to the possibility of it being dangerous they couldn't let so many unknown servants serve them.

Lou Qi Ran and Xiao Li had arrived at the bathhouse, and they saw six maids who were waiting outside the door. When Lou Qi Ran got near they all bowed and greeted her.

"Greeting Princess Lou Qi Ran, we are the maids that will be serving you for your stay here. Please come inside." All the maids spoke in sync.

"You may rise, if I need anything I'll tell my maid Xiao Li to come get it. I'll head in now." Lou Qi Ran replied before walking inside the bathhouse.

•••

Lou Qi Ran had just walked inside her chambers and she felt extremely tired, unusually. Normally, no matter how late she stayed up she wouldn't feel as tired as now. Xiao Li who was standing on the side noticed that Lou Qi Ran's eyes has been dropping for awhile now.

"Young Miss, if you're tired you should go to sleep. Xiao Li, will watch over you, anyways you had endured a lot for this trip. Resting for some hours wouldn't hurt." Xiao Li who was worried about Lou Qi Ran looked over.

Lou Qi Ran pondered over this for awhile, it was true that she was tired but, if possible she wanted to stay up because it was nearly morning anyways. The colors of the sky were slowly lighting up, as the dark colors slowly disappeared and the bright ones appeared. The sun was slowly starting to set out, it was almost sunrise soon.

"I will," after thinking about it Lou Qi Ran made her decision to sleep, "I'll sleep but remember to wake me up for breakfast, and if anything were to happen." After saying so, Lou Qi Ran laid down in the bed and fell asleep faster than expected.