Xing pa.s.sed her days reading books after Shengli left with her father. But in four days she had read all the books Shengli brought her and also the books in her Uncle"s library. She got extremely bored. She still got her warm milk from the maids and had morning training with her uncle, but somehow she was low spirited. Of course she thought the air in the city was the reason and decided to get used to it. So Xing decided to put her amazingly great sense of direction into use and find Haru who was supposed to be in the city. On the fifth day she got dressed as usual in her male attire and left home alone.She wandered for hours before reaching the merchants street and still couldn"t find any clothing store. By then it was almost noon. She sat in a tea shop and ordered tea and snacks and listened to the gossips. Hmm! Interesting!
As she was listening, a bunch of well dressed girls came in bringing flowery and strong fragrance to the tea shop. Their eyes fell on the handsome youth sitting alone sipping tea like he owns the world. He was sitting by the window and with the wind and the scent of spring, it was like a painting of an immortal descended on earth. Xing didn"t disappoint them and sent her alluring smile their way which made them shriek and giggle with their face flushed. They took the seat next to her. Good Xing thought now we can get juicy gossips.
The girls first talked about who wants to court who stuff. Seems like her brother is on the top of the list even overtaking the Emperor. Apparently Huang family forbids taking concubines and their future is secure in the Huang family if they bear children.They didn"t care about anything and chatted merrily, all along sparing a sidelong glance at her with their cheeks blus.h.i.+ng . Her father was also in the top five of their list along with second Zhong young master. Seems like these girls doesn"t mind someone more than half their age if he is rich, handsome and powerful.
So their new natural enemy was the recently appeared daughter of the prime minister. She was hidden by the prime minister in the countryside. Apparently she was ugly, inelegant, stupid and a hothead with no redeeming qualities . Still she wants to be the empress by forcing her father to use his influence said one. Another said that she"s planning to marry her adopted brother while the pitiful Rijun doesn"t want to, but cannot reject either to be filial to his adopted father. Also apparently she was the one stopping her father from marrying too.
Xing almost choked on her tea, how come girls hate someone this much even when they haven"t met them once? Girls really are hard to understand. Also kudos to their imagination. Only five days and she"s already the natural enemy of all the unmarried n.o.ble girls s.n.a.t.c.hing all their beloved bachelors. Even fox spirits won"t be this talented. But why isn"t no one mentioning her prince in those eligible bachelors list? He is the most handsome of all! Xing felt sad, but got relieved knowing she has no rivals.
Just as she was pondering, the girls att.i.tude changed and they all became silent and acted all elegant. She saw the scholar in his light blue robes with his dark hair neatly bundled and held by a jade hairpin. His hazel eyes emitted a intellectual aura. His entire being was as if he was a well raised elegant gentleman. Xing saw her brother entering and was overjoyed.
"Ah! Brother Rijun! Fancy meeting you here", Xing waved her hand. Rijun saw the grinning Xing and was shook for a while. He had only seen Xing in female attires till now and he wouldn"t have recognised her if not for his above average facial recognition skills. Her entire demeanour had changed and she looked like a careless pretty boy.
As soon as he realised it was her, he immediately turned back and left the shop. " Come on, Don"t be like that", Xing shouted and immediately got up and threw a couple of gold coins at the waiter and left like the wind not before telling the shop owner that she"s paying for all those ladies. So a new heartthrob - a filthy rich, frivolous and handsome man of unknown orgins made debut in a certain teashop in the city.
Xing ran and caught up with Rijun who was walking at a fast pace. But since she was almost the same height as him, she could keep up with him.
"Big Brother, why are you running away from me? ", Xing asked
"Who is your big brother?", he clicked his tongue.
Xing laughed, " There was someone who said the exact same thing to me and later he became one of the important persons in my life".
He looked at her twinkling eyes and said, " Not happening".
" But why?", Xing faked crying. " Brother, why can"t I call you brother ?"
Rijun saw people staring at them and got embarra.s.sed, he grabbed her hand and walked faster. Xing continued to fake cry. He could not bear any longer of this torture and said, " Fine, you can call me brother. Just stop making a scene. You are dressed as a man for heavens sake. ", he gritted his teeth. Xing grinned ear to ear, " Ok, brother, since you are begging me, I"ll call you brother from now on". Rijun"s entire face twitched. Honestly no matter what, he had never wanted to kill a person in his life, but this one is too hard to ignore!
Too bothersome!
He walked faster trying to get ahead of her but she was following him closely. " Brother, where are we going?", Xing pulled his sleeve.
"I am going home", he said stressing "I".
"But brother, I think we are going in circles. Although all the shops look same, I think the shop owners would look different right. I saw the same restaurant owner in three restaurants with the same sign. I think we have pa.s.sed this place three times",Xing explained seriously. "Brother, could it be that you have to circle this shop three times before you could reach home. Is that a sentiment thing? Or, could it be that brother is directionally challenged like me?", she grinned making him want to hit her in the head.
"Who is directionally challenged? Wait... like you?", he said with his face reddened in embarra.s.sment and surprise but decided to hide his secret , " I"m merely trying to lose you. Now get lost so I could get home",he shooed.
Xing"s eyes glinted with joy. Turns out she and her brother are directionally challenged and this is a family thing. Although both are lost Xing could not help but tease her brother who is not admitting, she said with pleading eyes, " Brother, now that my secret is out, would you please help me get to Uncle Feiye"s home? I would really appreciate your help "
" I don"t have time", he said coldly.
"Then brother, take me to your home and I"ll get a servant to drop me at uncle"s place", She said hiding her laughter.
Seeing her not budging, he had no way but to take her with him. Even after pa.s.sing the same restaurant another two times he refused to ask for directions and with fervour he kept on dragging her with him.
Guess this is how brother keeps his body fit!
The more they got lost the more he got determined to find the way himself. Seriously this persistence of her brother has to be appreciated. A long time pa.s.sed and even Xing got bored when evening came. Somehow they broke the curse of the recurring restaurant and ended up in the grand road of the city. Xing could sense they were being watched by some people but they had no intention of approaching them and so she let it pa.s.s. Her brother knows nothing but holding a writing brush. All the more reason not to leave her brother alone!
Just as both their legs gave out, a nicely decorated carriage with dark blue curtains stopped before them.