Boss Ningning: Safe and Sound, Year After Year - Chapter 1

The courtyard gate was locked, and the servants attending me had collapsed again.

I waved away the drugged smoke drifting around me, and a moment later all the strength drained out of my body and I began to keel over sideways.

A pair of hands caught me, steady.

My limbs were so weak and sore that I could only let him lay me down on the bed.

Those hands found exactly the right spot on my legs, swollen from a whole day of kneeling, and pressed there, drawing a soft moan out of me before I could stop it.

Still, I had to say it:

“Don’t come again. I’m not going to fall for you.”

The man’s voice, usually as pleasant as a mountain spring, was full of grievance now.

“Ningning, am I really no match for that madman?”

The madman he meant was, of course, the emperor.

A month ago, my parents sold me into the palace for fifty silver ingots, to scrape together traveling money for my brother’s imperial examination.

By then, the emperor had killed off most of his own harem.

When a thing is scarce, it is precious.

All at once, I became a hot commodity.

By day, the emperor summoned me again and again.

Everyone assumed I was about to rise spectacularly in the world.

No one imagined that he was summoning me purely to have me read him tedious history books until he fell asleep.

Every time I reached the part where some tyrant’s kingdom fell, I could feel a chill at the back of my neck.

By some miracle, I survived a whole month in that atmosphere of dread.

And just when I had started to breathe easy, a man began climbing into my courtyard every day.

He called himself General Lu, given name Ming.

The palace servants had been terrorized into silence by the emperor long ago. You could not get a word out of them.

So I could not be bothered to ask whether this General Lu even existed at court.

The first time he saw me, he boasted that sooner or later he would rebel against that damn emperor, then marry me and make me his empress.

The trouble was, if I spread the word I was dead, and if I kept quiet I would be dead eventually anyway.

He knew he had me trapped.

And so, day after day, he came into my courtyard and forced his affections on me.

When I did not answer, Lu Ming seemed intent on punishing me for it.

His fingers wandered up my calf, light and then firm, light and then firm.

Waves of tingling ran from my toes to my scalp, and I could not help catching lightly at his arm.

“Don’t.”

Only then did he ease off, and said carelessly:

“Why are your legs so badly swollen today?”

Just the mention of it gave me a headache.

The emperor had been in a foul mood today. I had read history to him for ages and he still would not sleep.

Every time I thought he had drifted off, the moment I set the book down his brows drew together.

Terrified, I sat back on my heels at his bedside and read on for four to six hours.

I told him all this slowly, and Lu Ming suddenly leaned in close.

His eyes were hidden behind the mask and I could not read what lay in them. I only heard what he said, cold and cruel:

“Would Ningning like to kill him? I can help you.”

He really was too close.

The uncovered lower half of his face was strikingly handsome.

My gaze kept drifting to his rosy lips. I swallowed.

“No. I don’t.”

“And why not? If Ningning kills that damn emperor, you can have this whole country. Oh—and me as well.”

He pulled one side of his robe off his shoulder with a kind of careless languor. The skin revealed was white as snow, and in the candlelight it looked like a cup of fine wine: the more you tasted, the drunker you got.

He took my hand and laid it against him.

I sucked in a sharp breath and refused, my voice shaking: “I—I don’t—”

Just then, the maid outside knocked. I had no idea when she had woken up. Each knock seemed to strike straight at my heart.

“My lady, shall I help you wash up?”

At that, one corner of Lu Ming’s mouth curved into something mocking.

Something in me snapped taut. I opened my mouth to refuse, and a softness sealed my lips.

My eyes flew wide.

Lu Ming—he was kissing me!

I was furious with shame, but the drug had not worn off, so even my shoves looked like half-hearted encouragement.

All I could do was protest with my eyes.

His mouth had barely left mine for a breath when I rushed to speak:

“No—mm—”

Before I could finish, he kissed me again.

The maid asked again from outside the door: “My lady, what did you say?”

“I said—mm—”

Lu Ming seemed to be playing with me now, letting me get one word out each time before stopping my mouth again.

The mask on his face was cool against my skin, and it made me shiver all over.

Seeing the maid about to push the door open, my heart clenched tight.

“Wait—mm—I’ll wash later!”

I shoved him off with every ounce of strength I had, and finally got enough breath to finish the sentence.

By the time the maid withdrew, I had been worked over until I was drenched in scented sweat.

And the culprit lounged on my bed, propping up his head with one hand and watching me at his leisure.

He said softly:

“Ningning, you’re angry.”

His voice was always gentle, but now I caught a faint, icy threat beneath it.

I was too tired to bother working out what lay beneath it.

After all that tension, the sudden relief left my eyelids as heavy as lead.

I yawned without meaning to and slowly turned over, putting my back to him.

“Ningning?”

Lu Ming’s displeased voice came from behind me.

Getting no answer, he patted me. “Don’t fall asleep yet.”

I was so drowsy my thoughts had gone blurry. I reached back and caught his wrist. “Don’t stop.”

“What?” He had not caught it, and leaned in.

“Don’t stop. It feels nice. It’s like when I was little and my mother patted me to sleep…”

The hand on me gave two more automatic pats, then froze in midair.

As I sank into sleep, I dimly heard a voice grinding out through clenched teeth:

“Fine. Just fine!”

I slept badly all night. In my dreams, a wild beast bit and gnawed at me.

The next day, while I was having my hair done, the maid asked, puzzled:

“My lady, what happened to your face?”

I looked in the mirror. There was a red mark on my cheek.

I rubbed at it, at a loss. “Probably… a mosquito bite.”

The maid hesitated. “It’s nearly winter and there are still mosquitoes? I’ll go and catch it later.”

I was about to say something when a commotion broke out outside.

“The barbarians are coming! The emperor has ordered the northern cities not to resist—our country is going to fall!”