Chapter 3

Two days before, Luli was forced by her aunt, the previous empress, to visit the king,

What she saw was hard for her to bare, the king was sitting on his divan, whereas the other ladies of the harem were surrounding him,

he was holding two of them in his arms, they were all half-naked, and his hands were wrapped around their exposed waists, and touching their belly button.

They were whoring around him, seducing him,

when he saw Luli coming, he raised his hand as a command for them to leave,

They all left him, making weird sounds of dismay, glaring at Luli,

The Queen has the right to punish them, or even kill them, but in this harem, this queen is nothing but a scrap, a waste that had been dumped on the king in the name of a political marriage.

That is the main reason, why he hates her to hell, he deliberately makes things hard for her, teases her, insults her, and neglects her.

Because of his attitude toward her, all the other ladies from the harem criticize her and treats her as a scrap.

She has no one around, other than Aali, who was the maid, she grew up with,

but all the other maids didn't care about her.

When the other ladies left the king's room, she gathered her strength to plead with the King, what she was asked to.

" Your Majesty, I have been waiting for you for a year, don't you have time to visit your wife, you always go to those other wives of yours, I never resisted, but I am the queen, aren't you responsible for me?"

said Luli in a humble and shivering voice,

He groaned in anger,

" you...!! Are you here to question me? who gave you that right?"

She quivered as she hear his grunting, and kneeled before him,

"Please forgive me, your Majesty, I was just...!

we haven't consummated our marriage yet... I just want to.....!!" she unwittingly reasoned,

he let out a crooked laugh, louder enough to make her shiver in fear,

"Oh... so you are here to beg me to sleep with you? Are you that thirsty?"

she was ashamed, tears falling from her eyes showing that she never wanted to get humiliated by him, but her aunt was forcing her to do so,

The previous empress was the second queen of the former Emperor, she was not Xicheng's birth mother, after the death of the former King, she forced the new King to marry a girl from her household to make her position safe.

Xicheng was reluctant to do that, but after a lot of rejections, he finally agreed to marry a girl from her homeland, of all the paintings of beautiful girls he selected one, but the one he selected was not Luli,

He was cheated on, and they send off Luli as his bride instead of the girl he selected.

That raised a fury of the wrath in him and he resented Luli of her existence on the very first night they met.

He enjoyed making things unbearable for her,

He got up from the diwan he was sitting, roaming around her, touching her body with his flute.

She was threatened by his approach that every hair on her skin stood up, and she felt an itching sensation all over her body,

he continued,

"well I can fulfill your wish, as your legal husband, I can do that, stand up my queen"

he kept his flute under her chin and pressed it upwards, she stood up, and he added in,

"But to sleep with you, I need a reason, you are not attractive enough to seduce me, to make me touch you, how do you expect me to touch you?"

She has no words, leaving all her dignity as a queen, as a woman, she asked,

"So what do you want me to do your highness?"

He chuckled annoyingly before he came near to her, very near to her neck, and whispered in her ears,

" Remove your clothes, my queen, let me see you naked, everything, not even a single thread must be on you"

she quivered as if a current has passed through her body, she clenched her fingers holding her dress tightly, she thought for a second,

"I can't do that, I can't.... "

but the other second she remembered her aunt threatening her,

"If you return as a virgin from that hall, I will make Abu, drink the poison and give him the worse death that a tone ever had before"

Abu was her little brother, the only relative of her in this world, he was just ten years old, unable to defend himself.

She had no choice but to accept her fate for Abu.

"Yes your highness"

she started stripping her clothes, she removed her waistband, which made her outer garment lose, then opened the first layer of brocade overcoat, which revealed her inner layers,

he laughed louder and clapped, she fearfully covered herself with the overcoat,

Those ladies who were there outside came running in,

" My king...!"

"My king, did you miss us"

he raised his hand to keep quiet,

"Who asked you to stop? continue" he shouted at Luli.

She trembled staring at him with her eyes filled with tears,

"What...? Are you bothered by them? they have better bodies than you"

he commented and all the ladies around her laughed,

It was the limit of her patience, she held her clothes in her hand and ran out of his study room weeping out for the humiliation she just suffered.

A loud noise of chuckles and giggles was heard from his room.

Luli was shuttered by this humiliation, and went to her room back half stripped,

Aali came running to her with a blanket in her hands,

"My lady.... what happened? Are you fine?"

She covered her with the blanket and make her sit, while Luli was wailing with misery.

She asked Aali to fetch some water,

Aali went running to get water for her.

Luli decided to end her life and with the blanket in her hands, she hung herself to the ceiling,

When Aali came with the tumbler of water, she was shocked to see her lady hanging in front of her and the container in her hands fell on the ground, she ran to hold Luli's legs and screamed for help,

The guards on duty came to them and untied her, but she was unconscious.

Her aunt visited her with the doctor.

He said that she may not service the night,

but her luck was still alive, she crossed the given dangerous time but was unconscious for two days.

And finally, when she opened her eyes, she was not that silly queen Luli anymore, but the clever and talented Shelley.

That news that the queen tried to kill herself raged the King, he sent his doctor to treat her, as it was a political marriage, and if something happens to the queen, it might result in huge havoc between the two kingdoms.

So he has to take care of her no matter what.

"That useless thing, tried to kill herself?

just because I didn't visit her"

he heaved a big sigh in disgust,

"Ok I will visit her, she wants to sleep with me, ok I will make her pay for that wish"

he intended and went to see Luli,