“How can a day of marriage not earn a hundred days of affection? My empress, are you really going to kill me with that jade-and-glass hairpin, the spoils of war I brought you from our campaign against the Western Regions?”
“Your Majesty, how could I dare? It's just...”
“Just what!”
I stared at the shimmering hairpin in my hand, its tip less than an inch from Li Ze's forehead. My mind raced. This was bad, really bad. The emperor was neither blind nor stupid. I was done for.
“It's just... just that I adore the gift you gave me so much that I wanted to share it with you. Your Majesty is so handsome: your eyebrows, your eyes, even your skin is more delicate than mine. You'd surely be the most beautiful man in the Li dynasty if you wore this hairpin.”
“Oh? So the empress resents that I'm more beautiful than you.” Li Ze raised an eyebrow, his tone odd.
I bit down hard on my tongue, wishing I could crawl into a hole and sew my mouth shut.
“So the empress has this sort of... preference. After all this time as husband and wife, I never knew! It seems I'll have to get to know my empress more intimately.”
With that, Li Ze reached over and snatched the hairpin from my hand. He gave it a firm tug, and I stumbled onto the bed...
