The Emperor's attention was split.
The human heart is partial, so his attention naturally favored Jiang Xian. It was roughly an 80/20 split—Jiang Xian held eighty percent of his focus, Chen Daying twenty. And even that twenty percent was only captured because of Chen Daying's wretched state.
Palace women placed the utmost importance on their deportment. Even when crying, they would keep their lovely eyes wide as two streams of clear tears trickled down. But not Chen Daying. Her face crumpled, tears streamed down like a waterfall, and she bit her lower lip hard, struggling not to sob aloud, terrified of committing a breach of etiquette in his presence.
It hurt. It hurt so much.
