…. …. ….

Feelings were mutual between the two women, breaths mingled and bodies quivered in pleasure. Sounds of skin sloppily rubbing on skin and the m.u.f.fled cries of pleasure chimed with the beats of their hearts. Su Xin fondled and touched Qu Feiqing at places which pushed her b.u.t.tons. In response, Qu Feiqing made strangled noises at the back of her throat and bit with more force on Su Xin's already red lips.

The wind became stronger, even the thick branches swayed restlessly, shaking helplessly.

Su Xin's body has come of age. What should have been done at Ta Yan's brothel has been postponed, until now.

The lakes in the palace were also stirred up by the callous wind. Fish swam fervently in the water's bottom, sinking to its warmth.

The night progressed into a wild symphony between the strong winds, the leaves shaking in the branches, and the two women in pursuit for ecstasy.

After everything was still, Su Xin sat up, put on her clothes and fixed her hair to the best of her ability.

Sweat and alcohol were sprinkled on her body—she felt sticky and uncomfortable. Sore and tired, she yearned to go back to the confines of her cozy bedchamber.

Just as she was about to stand up and leave, Qu Feiqing opened her eyes. This time, she looked sober.

“How did you manage to find me?” Qu Feiqing deeply looked into Su Xin's eyes and asked.

"I just wandered around."  Su Xin answered the same question with the same answer.

"Deep in the night?" Su Xin nodded, uncaring of how it her reason sounded ridiculous.

"It felt good."

"Many thanks for the compliment, Your Highness."

Your Highness—Qu Feiqing almost forgot what she was and how different they were to each other.  

Qu Feiqing looked at her up and down. She didn't how to properly react at the aftermath of their exchanged pa.s.sion. Su Xin seemed to be in discomfort and she longed to soothe her but for some reason, she found herself unyielding.

Each cold palace has its own story. Masters and concubines of many generations spent their lives within these chilly enclosures, generations after generations, alternating.

Qu Feiqing had spent half of her youth here.

Her mother, the only good thing in her past, had raised her here by herself.

She was an imperial concubine, a woman of wit and dignity but was degraded to be recognized just as a mere property of the emperor, Qu Feiqing's father.

She lost the favor of the emperor upon giving birth to a daughter. Not only that, other scheming concubines pushed her to her downfall; she was thrown to reclusion, forced to live in this cold place suffering complete ruination and neglect with Qu Feiqing still in her infancy.

Qu Feiqing's present achievements were not hers alone, she dedicated it all to her mother. Raising her on rough conditions was the greatest achievement which Qu Feiqing desired to be given recognition of. She was the living proof of her mother's courage and through her, people would stand in amazement at how a simple, forgotten concubine raised a powerful female emperor.

She believed that her mother didn't die of illness, but of serious neglect from the emperor. He didn't pay attention to her condition and couldn't even bother to visit her on her deathbed.

Qu Feiqing despised him, a father who never existed, with all her being.

She could only watch as her only family left her in this cold palace. Now that her mother wasn't around anymore, the place was reduced further to dismal emptiness and dreary coldness.

After she became emperor, she comes here once in a while. Just a lonely girl sitting on the floor drinking and thinking about her mother.

Only this time, someone decided to join her. Qu Feiqing initially suspected that Su Xin had followed her here deliberately. But then she thought, she came to the cold palace at an irregular time, Su Xin would never have guessed that she'll be here this late.

What she didn't also know, that when Su Xin came, she would be aroused.

Yet she still doesn't believe Su Xin's reason for wandering around. It's a lame excuse.