"What it is lace with?"
"It is lace with aphrodisiacs in the incense. However they use very little of it so that we will not go mad. I was able to stay focus and mind clear. I went into the palace this morning with Wang MoMo because ... it was made with my mother's order."
"So you went to the palace to ..."
"I went there to tell my mother to stop whatever she is trying to du. I told her to give us some space. Also, i told her my problem."
"Is she..."
"Heart broken to find out her son is... Anyway she cry non stop. My mother is blaming it on herself. I just left after consoling her. I told her i will seek medical help. Tomorrow, the imperial physician will come by through the back door. My mother doesn't want too many people to know about this."
Li Cheng look unhappy as he look up the moon is half is hidden by the clouds. Banou understands this is the pride of the man that is standing before her. They stand in the garden for awhile before they retire back to their room.
The next few days, the imperial physician comes and goes with his treatments. He did acupuncture on the prince. Each time Banou knows must be difficult as he perspire even a cool day. Wang MoMo supervise the mansion in the absent of the masters. The servants are not allow to go near their boudoir thus they gossip among themselves what is going on. Soon the inside gossip have spread to outside of the streets. It says that Li Cheng have fallen for the charms of his wife and constantly making love inside the boudoir. They each spread rumours that the wife is seducing the prince and he have forgotten to go do his work as a general. Some are amused while others are cursing him. Some scholars who comes to know on this issue is protesting that a prince should put his country first then to eager to fall into the arms of a woman. Soon it becomes a debate to talk about in tea establishments and amoung court officials. This spread to the ears of the Emperor and the empress. The imperial palace remain quiet regarding to this. It's better to say that Li Cheng is overindulgent in sexual activity than to say he is erectile.
The secret treatment takes about more than a month to complete. After that, he is given tonic to drink on daily. While he is so energetic that he exercise more frequently compare to the past. Thus the servants keep hearing him groaning in the boudoir. This enhance the gossip. Some ladies hang around the mansion hopping to have a glance of him. If Li Jun is that good looking, his brother will not be too far. The ideal of being a second wife to a muscular prince brings romance and fantasy to those young girls. They know that they can't get to Li Xing thus Li Cheng is now the new target. Some of them send their servants to the prince mansion with gifts and their portraits. Hopping the prince might take a chance and look at them. However this have been stop by Banou. This cause the young ladies displeasure on it. However this appearance on a beautiful lady cause a stir on young men in the city. They begin to praise her figure which is curvy and a heavy top, this is the opposite of what a fashionable Chinese woman in the Tang Dynasty should be. Along with her little pouty lips, the ladies in Tang have to find some cosmetics to create the same effect. While matchmakers suddenly have request of women with curvy figure or slightly plump is wanted as a wife. Those ladies who had flatten their chest all the while suddenly realised that they shouldn't be a shame of this. Thus there is quite a lot of woman whether marry or not they are flaunting their figures. Dress are now wore with lower cut to show off the cleavage they have. While those who are flat chested, look for alternatives to make them look like they have a full top. Some of them gather two balls of fabric to be sew in the Hezi. While hairstyles are always comb upwards and fill with wigs, flowers and hair accessories. Now, it is simplify with hair down tie to the side or at the back. However the number accessories are still that much on the hair to symbolise wealth in the family. Overnight, artist who painted the fashion catalogue of Tang Dynasty in the capital have to redo all the collection for this year. They observe and paint. The mini catalogues are send out and sold to ladies living in the county who wants to know the latest fashion. Those books are sold out once it is on display, it become a hot demand that all books stores try to keep up with.
Two months into the treatment, Li Cheng is bored. Together with Banou they take the carriage to ride out to the imperial summer house. It is the same house that Li Cheng got drunk that night and seen Banou naked back in the moonlight. They spend their time in nature. Banou who did not want to pressure Li Cheng about having children. However due to the medicine he have been taking, he have been feeling the strange urge that he never feel before. The more he look at his wife, the more he feels the urge. However as a gentlemen, he feels that he shouldn't take advantage of his wife in the broad daylight. While walking in the forrest, Banou pick up the flowers she see during the walks. Thus she bend down to pick up the flowers when she look up, she see her husband standing in front of her with an strange expression on his face.