Life for Love

I feel so dizzy. What's going on?

I opened my eyes in a daze. Before I could focus my vision, I heard a strange woman's voice exclaiming with joy, "Your Majesty, the girl is awake!"

Your Majesty?! Have I been captured back to the royal palace again?

I shivered and tried to get up, but only found my whole body weak and feeble, like recovering from a serious illness.

"You all can leave for now."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

This male voice was like a thunderbolt, instantly exploding in my mind.

It's him! When did he become the king?!

The excessive shock left my brain blank.

"Rie, how do you feel?" the man asked.

His tone was concerned, but he didn't come closer.

"Not good." I snapped out of my shock and deliberately turned my head away, not looking at him.

I used to yearn for this face. But now, I just wanted him to be erased from my memory!

The man sighed almost inaudibly, but in the end, he walked to the side of my bed, and I immediately felt a familiar breath surrounding me.

Yes, after all, we have lived together for nearly ten years. How could we not be familiar...

"Rie, stay by my side, and I will take good care of you..." the man hesitated to say.

In this world, only one person called me like this, and that was my senior brother – Liam Ford.

Now, this man had become the king of the Northern Borderland Kingdom!

"Take care of me?" I coldly snorted and laughed, glanced at him, deliberately provoking him. "Have you asked for the opinion of King of Southern Radiant Kingdom? I am his consort."

His face changed again and again, showing pain and helplessness.

"But he has demoted you." He stood by, clenching his fists.

I retorted, "It's all thanks to you!"

If it weren't for him, my father and brother would not have died on the battlefield three years ago, my mother would not have died of excessive grief, and I would not have become an orphan of a hero and been summoned into the royal palace by King of Southern Radiant Kingdom to be his concubine. I would also not have been heartbroken because I thought that I would never see him again...

In the end, this love is just a joke!

The man did not argue and sighed slightly, saying, "Rie, let me check your situation first."

Saying that, he wanted to approach me and personally check my situation.

He not only had strong martial arts skills, but also had excellent medical skills. He had learned all the skills of our mentor and even surpassed him.

He was so powerful.

"Get away, don't touch me!" I struggled to move my weak body and hid inside.

I hated him now as much as I loved him in those years.

He extended his hand halfway and froze it in the air.

"Don't you even want to look at me?"

I could detect a hint of humility in his tone.

But after three years in the royal palace, I am no longer the naive Riley Hunter I used to be.

I sneered and replied indifferently, "Well, you'd better disappear in front of me forever."

"Impossible," he immediately refused me resolutely.

"Then we have nothing to talk about. My martial arts have all been scattered by you, and now I am very weak and need to rest. Please leave." I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep.

"Sorry, Rie, I can't rest assured without personally examining you." After saying that, he ignored my words and gently stroked my hair, just like countless times when we were young. I was about to protest, but he controlled me and I couldn't move.

Then he bent down and turned my body over. With such proximity, I was enveloped by his breath and felt his breathing and heartbeat.

"You!" I stared at him angrily. Although I had admired him before, we had never crossed any boundaries between men and women.

He checked my body without paying attention to my anger. During the diagnosis, his brows never relaxed.

After a long time, he withdrew his hand and released me.

"I'll go and prepare medicine for you. Rest well."

I snorted and turned my head away from him.

Before leaving, he gently reminded me, "Rie, my name is Liam Payne. Remember my name."

I was stunned. It turned out that Liam Ford was his alias.

But this was normal. If he used his real name, his identity would easily be exposed. In the Southern Radiant Kingdom, almost everyone knew the surname of their mortal enemy, the Northern Borderland Kingdom.

I lay on the bed, staring at the canopy above, lost in thought.

After half a month of careful recuperation, my body had been fine, and my complexion had returned to normal.

That morning, I dressed up for the first time. The handmaid who dressed me up couldn't help but stare at me in the mirror and sighed, "Miss, you are so beautiful."

I had heard such words many times in the Southern Radiant Kingdom. But this beautiful face had caused trouble for me. After my father died, someone couldn't wait to take my life. I finally made up my mind to escape from the palace of the Southern Radiant Kingdom, but I didn't expect to be captured and brought to the palace of the Northern Borderland Kingdom...

While I was in a daze, I suddenly heard a loud noise outside.

It seemed that someone wanted to "force their way" into my sleeping palace, the Phoenix Palace, and the guards at the gate tried to stop them but failed.

"What should we do, Miss? The Queen Mother... she..." My handmaid who served me panicked as she saw the Queen Mother about to come in.

"Don't worry, I'm here." I smiled and thought, perfect timing.

Soon, a chamberlain outside my sleeping palace shouted, "Hey, you inside, the Queen Mother is here. Hurry up and come out to greet her!"

I stood up and straightened my clothes, and then followed the chamberlain to meet the Queen Mother.

In the royal place, it was not easy to live cautiously, but it was very simple to court death.

I knew the rule behind it very well.

So I deliberately annoyed the Queen Mother. She said that my words and actions were improper and I was not worthy of staying by the king's side. She even ordered someone to slap me in the face.

But in the end, the Queen Mother didn't dare to go too far. She just taught me a lesson and gave me a warning before leaving.

I was slightly disappointed. She should have been more ruthless.

Liam soon learned about me being punished. He hurriedly came over.

"Rie, are you alright? Let me see." Liam didn't waste time to dismiss the palace attendants and rushed over to hold my face. His expression was serious and filled with pain.

But in my opinion, it was just a hypocritical performance.

"Didn't you say you would take care of me? Look at me, do you have the ability?" I deliberately raised my face for him to see clearly and made sarcastic remarks.

With family feuds and national hatred in front of us, I didn't need to be polite to him.

"Rie... you did it on purpose." His hands holding my face were trembling, and his face showed a painful and helpless expression.

I have never seen him like this before, but I can't be soft-hearted. This person is good at pretending. Have I been deceived by him for more than ten years not enough?

While enduring the pain in my heart, I continued to provoke him with words. Regardless of whether his pain was real or not, as long as I saw him in pain, my guilt towards my father, brother, and mother would decrease a little.

"I did it on purpose, what can you do about it?" I stared at him straight in the eye and smiled.

Liam pursed his lips, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in his eyes. I was shocked in my heart, and then he released the hands holding my face, turned his head to look at the kneeling palace maids behind him, and said, "If such a thing happens again, all of you will be punished with caning."

"You! Shameless!" I was greatly shocked. He knew exactly how to manipulate me. He knew that I was softhearted and I always couldn't bear to punish the people around me.

Most importantly, he meant what he said.

"Rie, be good, let me apply the medicine to you first." Liam instructed the palace maids to bring the ointment and then pulled me to sit on a soft cushion. "Don't move."

I didn't have as much strength as him, and I had lost all my martial arts skills. I could only let him manipulate me.

I knew this was the ointment he personally prepared. Contrary to his tough attitude just now, his actions of applying the medicine to me were very gentle, which reminded me of our life in Cloud Valley. When I was injured from practicing martial arts, he applied the medicine for me.

The ointment applied to my face was cool and refreshing, and the burning pain immediately disappeared.

"Don't worry, the swelling will go down soon," he said as he finished applying the medicine. He held my face in his hands again, examining it closely while comforting me.

His touch made my heart tremble slightly. I turned my head away in a bit of panic and escaped from his warm palm. "You only care because you're afraid my face will be ruined," I said.

The king of Southern Radiant Kingdom was once fascinated by my face, and several times couldn't help but want to possess me, but I rejected him with various reasons.

"Of course not, what I'm concerned about is that you don't know how to take care of your own body."

"If you hadn't ruined my martial arts, I would have been in good health." In other words, my current condition was caused by him.

"I... " Liam hesitated to speak, but in the end, he didn't say anything.

That was because he couldn't refute me.

I sneered, but more than that, it was heartache.

In the days that followed, none of the Queen Mother and other concubines of the king came to my sleeping palace to pick on me again.

It seemed that Liam not only gave an order in my palace, but also gave orders in the palaces of the Queen Mother and all the concubines.

I thought, the women in the Northern Borderland Palace are not as skilled as those women in the Southern Radiant Kingdom.

No matter how cautious I was in the Southern Radiant Palace, I was eventually framed, and someone even tried to poison me in the food.

Fortunately, my medical skills were excellent, and I noticed that there was something wrong with the food, otherwise I would have died in the palace without knowing why.

It was precisely because someone in the Southern Radiant Palace didn't want me to continue living that I used my martial arts to escape from that place of trouble.

But now I had lost all my martial arts, and it was impossible to escape from this palace using the same method. I originally planned to rely on these women in the palace to achieve this goal, but now it seemed probably useless.

I had to think of another way.

What other way can I use? Looking at my peerless beauty in the mirror, I thought of a scheme--the honey trap!

In the few months, I secretly prepared some powder, and when the time was right, it could be put to use.

Another month had passed. This day was my twentieth birthday, and I knew Liam would come to celebrate for me.

Sure enough, after the day's work, he came to my palace.

He didn't come to his concubines' sleeping palaces often, but almost every time he came, he headed straight to me.

His actions caused dissatisfaction among the concubines and criticism from the officers, but he didn't care and continued to go his own way.

I was happy to see his concubines in turmoil and did not discourage him from coming.

He was very happy because I didn't drive him away and my attitude towards him improved a little bit.

"Rie, look at what I brought you." As usual, when he came, he dismissed everyone and only left the two of us in the room to talk. Although he always came happily and left disappointedly, he was never tired of it.

"I don't want this." I didn't even look at the gift he carefully prepared for me.

"Today is your birthday. Since you don't like this thing, you can tell me what you want, and I will try my best to do it," he said.

"I do have a wish." I was in a good mood when I saw that he took the bait.

"But if you want to leave me, I can't promise you." After thinking for a moment, Liam said so.

I smiled at him for the first time. I walked gracefully to him and acted very soft and seductive.

I first touched his chest with my hands, then wrapped my arms around his neck. "Don't worry, you can definitely fulfill this wish for me. It's not difficult. If you agree, I will even reward you."

Because of my sudden approach, Liam's breathing stopped, and his body involuntarily stiffened.

"You say." After a while, he finally squeezed out these words.

He was still the same as before, both close to me and keeping a distance.

I knew he was restraining himself..

He knew that if he used force, I would fight to the death, so he dared not.

"I have been in the Northern Borderland Kingdom for more than half a year. I want to go out of the palace for a while, just half a day." I tightened my hands around his neck and pressed my body closer to him. I could clearly feel his breath starting to become chaotic. So I smirked and continued, "If you are not at ease, you can accompany me. We will go together and come back together."

If it were before, when he was my senior brother, I would never dare to make such an excessive move, even if I admired him.

But now, in order to achieve my goal, I would use any means, even seducing him.

I tiptoed and brought my red lips close to his ear, with a hint of ambiguity. "If you agree, you can do anything to me."