Lady Meilin is seduced by her green tea brother-in-law everyday-Chapter 298: Was there love?

Mei Mei could tell from the change in Zhenzhen’s body language that something was about to change. It was finally time to discuss what it was that truly brought Zhenzhen to her house.

The young woman was nervous, playing with the spoon and what remained of the cheesecake on the table in front of her.

Zhenzhen meanwhile was wondering if talking to Mei Mei was the best idea. While she was not romantically involved with Junjie, it was a fact that he had proposed to her twice. It was never done out in the open but the rumor that she was once the object of his deepest affection would never fade.

Asking her for advise on how to win the emperor’s heart was bound to be an uncomfortable conversation for the both of them.

Zhenzhen tucked back her hair which was held together by four conjoined silver pins. She straightened out her black dress which was embroidered with silver flowers mid-flight.

She took one long nervous deep breath.

Mei Mei could not take it anymore and she decided to begin the conversation. "So, you are Junjie’s next empress, the mother of the nation. The lucky one among millions."

Zhenzhen blinked. "I am not sure if I am lucky...." she laughed. "I mean I am lucky." She leaned forward with wide eyes and reassured Mei Mei like she was afraid these words would be taken back to the Emperor or the Empress Mother. "I mean, I don’t honestly know why I was chosen." She was so nervous that she was just blurting out everything on her mind.

"I do." Mei Mei answered with confidence. "You are a young beautiful woman from a powerful loyal noble family first of all.

Secondly, you are well educated, carry yourself with grace, well versed in etiquette. You are patient, caring, nurturing and have all the other traits that make a good mother. You won’t just be the wife of the Emperor, you will be the mother of the Crown prince. It is important for her to be a virtuous woman.

Thirdly, you are a famous content creator whose only content is promoting the traditions of our empire through history. I have watched your channel and I was fascinated with the all natural lipstick you made from scratch following a lost ancient recipe used by royal women in the past.

The honeycombs which you used had so much honey and the color was such a deep shade of gold that I almost licked my screen. It looked so yummy that I went out the next day and spent six hundred yuan on Suyi farm’s natural organic honey.

Mei Mei recalled the taste. If fell a little short of her mother’s own natural honey which was rare. But Suyi farm’s honey was still tasty.

Zhenzhen opened her bag and brought out a brand new tube of her natural lipstick. "Sister, if you don’t mind, I can give you one."

Mei Mei snatched it quickly. "Thank you. Oh, I just thought of another reason as to why you are the lucky chosen one. The Empress Dowager has a hanfu business which she passed to the Empress Mother and the Empress Mother plans to pass it on to the Empress. Unfortunately, the deceased Miss Hui was not talented in anything hanfu related so it was not handed over."

She looked at Zhenzhen’s dress and recalled the few videos she had seen of the young woman hand stitching handkerchiefs, embroidering hanfu’s and other clothes. "You on the other hand are very talented in this area. You will be able to carry on this legacy and pass it on to the next Empress."

She picked up her cup and leaned back in the chair. "You have the qualities of an Empress and that is why you were chosen." Looking curiously at Zhenzhen, Mei Mei asked her, "What does your heart say?"

Zhenzhen laughed. "That I should pack a bag and run for the mountains before the press starts picking my life apart."

Mei Mei laughed as well, a sound like happy bells in warm sunlight. "It comes with the territory but you should not be nervous as long as you don’t have a past history of acts like bullying, murder, theft....."

"No, no no, no, no...." Zhenzhen waved her hands rapidly, "I have never done anything of that sort. All they will find are pictures of some questionable hair color choices as a twelve year old. Hopefully they won’t find the one of the noodle eating contest I participated in at sixteen."

Mei Mei laughed while Zhenzhen covered her eyes to hide the naked embarrassment that was bursting to the top.

"Ooh, if I had know that I would be the future Empress I never would have participated in that." Zhenzhen moaned.

Mei Mei laughed louder, without restraint. Kang Zhenzhen was cute, honest and a little silly. She would be able to crack Junjie’s heart open with time.

"Will he think me silly?" Zhenzhen asked Mei Mei. "You are his closest friend--or so I have heard. You knew him before he was emperor, before he had to learn to speak in riddles and hide his smiles." 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Mei Mei waved Zhenzhen’s worried away. "Junjie is very simple at heart. He longs for freedom, craves attention and he likes being spoiled. Not in a bad way, just an affectionate one."

The answers she gave made Zhenzhen wonder and she blurted out a question that she had not included in the ninety nine she wanted to ask Mei Mei. "Did you love him?"

Mei Mei frowned.

Zhenzhen sighed. She figured that she should just go all the way through. "You have known each other for so long. It is not uncommon for friends to become lovers. There is an entire section of romance novels, series and movies basing on that trope alone."

Mei Mei sipped her tea. "I loved Junjie the way one loves a cat which is grumpy all the time, loves to scratch and yet it has the softest fur and cutest meows so you just want to pet it all the time. In other words, it is unpredictable and best loved from a distance but you can give it momentary affection."

Zhenzhen scratched her hand gently, with a frown on her face. She did not understand Mei Mei. A yes or no answer would have been more satisfactory. This sounded more like a philosophical kind of answer.

Mei Mei sighed. "I mean that I loved him just enough to be in his life but not enough to build a life with him as his wife, endure the burden he carries as Emperor or block the knives pointed at him by judgemental public and royal relatives. We were friends.....still are and that is all we will ever be. Anybody says otherwise is simply interested in clicks and likes."

Zhenzhen picked up the cup of tea to finish what was left. "Thank you for your honesty."

"You have met Junjie. What do you think of him?" Mei Mei asked her. "I don’t want the thoughts of a love-struck woman like you seem to be. I want to hear the thoughts of a potential future Empress."