The Magnolia Beauty

Jianyu crossed his arms, chuckling. He raised his right hand, ushering the guards to disperse. Suyin glimpsed around to see if the guards would appear out of nowhere.

"G.o.dness. You are asking for trouble aren"t you?" Jianyu coolly said as Yanyu swayed her head, sighing as if there was no hope for Suyin.

"So... what the Princess just said... is it true?" Suyin questioned, scooting in closer to Jianyu. He nodded and covered his mouth with his hand so Suyin would only hear.

"Just don"t try that on anyone anymore, before you really offend someone." He stated. Suyin"s eyes widened. Holy c.r.a.p! What trouble has she gone into going to the past?! There will be some rules that she definitely will have to remember! If she doesn"t recognize the red flags, she"ll surely die for pointing at people or something similar to that!

Suyin began rubbing her chin, thinking really hard as Jianyu wordlessly observed her.

"What is she doing? Does she have a beard or something for her to be rubbing her chin?" Jianyu thought in his head, curious of what this Suyin was thinking about.

"My lady." Areum carefully walked in, bowing to the Princess and Prince before kneeling in front of Suyin. Suyin turned to Areum, "Yes?" She promptly answered.

"Your father has requested you to come into his study room to discuss matters. I suggest you go and not waste time." Areum recommended. Suyin agreed. She didn"t want Areum to get in trouble due to her actions again. Suyin turned towards Yanyu and Jianyu and slightly bowed, "My apologies to the Prince and Princess, but Suyin must go now." She announced. The siblings smiled, acknowledging her dismiss as she walked off with Areum behind her.

"Brother." Jianyu looked at his sister, who watched Suyin"s back. "Do you think that Suyin"s sick?"

Jianyu turned his head back to Suyin, who spun around and waved at them before walking out of the courtyard.

"No." He lit up a grin seeing her walk off. "I think she"s finally comfortable with who she is now. I rather see her happy and confident than being restricted to who she really is."

Jianyu could recognize the huge difference between her personality, but it didn"t change a single thing because the Suyin in his memories was someone who always had a smile in her face only when she found an answer to her solutions. It seems like she found peace and satisfaction among herself finally, not being bothered about her family"s name and reputation.

Yanyu absorbed what Jianyu said about Suyin. She was quite envious of how nonchalant she was. Was that the feeling of being comfortable?

Yanyu then recalled about what Suyin said earlier to her when she handed Yanyu the plum blossom.

"I think that living a life that is meaningful to you makes more sense when you find something you like doing, you know?"

Yanyu held the plum blossom that Suyin picked carefully in the palm of her hand, staring at it as the curves of her lips lit up. "Maybe you"re right, brother." Near the siblings next to the pavilion, the bud of plum blossoms was slowly blooming.

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The door slid open, entering Suyin who carefully walked in as she lowered her head, looking around in silence. Piles of books laid on top of another on the table and the rows of bookshelves seemed endless. Suyin glanced around at the s.p.a.cious study room, often occupied by his father and the Prince and Princess.

"Suyin?" Her father sought.

"Yes?" Suyin reached to the end of the room, seeing her father stand behind the table. His arm was tucked to the back as if a scholar was thinking deeply. Suyin was unsure of what this "matter" would be. Was he going to ask her to do something for him? Was she going to teach?

"My child, you have grown from the last time that I noticed." Suyin lifted an eyebrow, unsure of where this old man is going with his statement. Her father never turned around to look at his daughter. He was staring straight out through the paper window as if his mind were somewhere else. "As a father, I want you to know that I want you to take over me someday, but it is a pity that you are a young lady." He finally turned towards Suyin, who stood in front of him and patiently attended to him. "My daughter. I think it is time for me to find someone for you." He stated. Right after stating the term, "someone" Suyin simply figured what her father was trying to do.

"Are you trying to marry me off into some n.o.ble or prosperous family?!" She questioned her father. In her gut feeling, she knew this idea wasn"t a good idea.

He flinched, startled at her response.

"Suyin. How dare you talk back to your father!" He said in an angry, but soft tone. His daughter never once talked back to him. "Ever since you stole the horse this morning, you"ve been acting so rebellious! Do you want a greater punishment than this!" Her father threatened. Suyin bit the bottom of her lips, trying hard to not talk back to her father. She was never like this in the past, but it was unfair for her father to just marry her off to some stranger that she most likely didn"t know.

Suyin turned, walking away from her father as she slammed the door open, stomping down the corridors. Areum followed right beside her as the two headed back home.

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It was a day after the incident and Suyin was wide awake. She was seated on a stone bench, watching the sunrise under a redbud tree. She couldn"t sleep because of what her father told her the day before.

"Finding someone," Suyin uttered, leaning her head on the tree bark.

Did her parents really love and care for her? Suyin recollected memories of her father"s continuous commands to do this or that his way. Her mother was never around Suyin. She would often be out "praying" at a temple, but would actually go around town purchasing worthless items which she would bring home. Suyin in the past did not argue or complain once during those times. Suyin always found interest in medicine, but she couldn"t remember the reason why. Her father and mother would make a huge deal and scene whenever Suyin always mentioned about learning medicine or even the thought of touching any herbs. She was never able to do anything she enjoyed to do in her life.

Although Suyin had a life filled with hardships in the house, there were little happy moments of Suyin. She would reminiscence that included the Princess and the Prince, but they were only moments. Suyin could feel the heaviness in herself. Her heart was bottled up and buried deep into her heart. She couldn"t do what she wanted to do and followed her parent"s wishes throughout her life since childhood.

"I will do what I feel is right and happy." Suyin laid her hand on her chest, closing her eyes.

"Help! I need someone to help me, please!" A voice echoed from afar. It sounded like a little girl, crying out for help. Suyin"s feet flew up and she began searching around her surroundings. It couldn"t be in her courtyard or home, otherwise, Areum would have told her already. It sounded like someone outside of the house not too far from here. It was early in the morning and her parents and Areum were still asleep. Suyin slipped on her shoes and lifted her skirt, climbing on the tree to hop onto the roof.

"Anyone, please help!" The voice was still calling for help. In Suyin"s mind, the people hearing this child is a coward, too busy to hear, or were such deep sleepers! She jumped down from the roof, planting her feet on the ground and dashed toward the voice.

There was a dirt path on the road not too far from Suyin"s home. A wooden cart was toppled over with layers of what it looked like yellow flowers to Suyin. A young girl was crying, rubbing her eyes. "Are you okay?" Suyin inspected the child, who had minor scratches from the pebbles and rocks from the dirt and made sure that she was in a good condition.

"Help me! My father is hurt!" The girl pointed towards the cart.

Suyin didn"t notice that someone was under the layers of flowers toppled over him. She rushed to the scene of the incident and brushed all of the flowers aside. The elderly man was knocked unconscious, presumably from the fall. Suyin rolled the man over so she could see his current physical state. Scanning from the bottom to the top, it looked as if there were no problems, but she noticed a faint smell of iron. She looked at her right hand over and saw a smear of blood. The man"s right arm was torn, bleeding from the impact of the fall. It wasn"t gushing out blood-often a dramatic effect from what you would see in movies-but it was running down his sleeves and soaked the ground with it.

Suyin wanted to wrap it, but she had no bandages or antibiotics to help stop the bleeding. Suyin rummaged around for a cloth or something to stop the bleeding, touching the "flowers" that was toppled over. "Wait!" Suyin grabbed one of the petals, touching its texture and smelt it. It wasn"t just a regular flower that was lying here! These were known as Hamamelis mollis, or to better call it in her times, witch hazel. Suyin specialized in Chinese traditional herbs to better understand her roots and good thing it was helping her now! These flowers can be grounded to help stop bleeding if she wraps it around his arm. Suyin decided to use the roots to wrap it around his arm temporarily since there wasn"t any bandage for her to use.

The little girl sat right next to her father and Suyin, kneeling with her eyes on her father. "Is my dad going to be okay?" She questioned, looking at Suyin. Suyin nodded, lighting up a small smile in midst of this chaos to a.s.sure her.

"Yeah. Your father is going to be okay."

...

Suyin was able to find bystanders help her carry the man to his home. It turns out that the elderly man and child lived near Suyin"s home. Before Suyin left, the little girl thanked her, asking if she would come back again. Suyin didn"t give her an answer because she didn"t know who they were but she rea.s.sured her that maybe they will one day.

After, Suyin headed back home with a struggle to jump over the wall to her courtyard again. After that incident, three days pa.s.sed. Suyin was always bored at home, wanting to find ways to keep her busy but her parents kept an eye on her. They often directed her to do things for them such as sending gifts to other families to make their reputation look good, but Suyin didn"t like how they loved the fame and reputation of their name. In order for Suyin to get used to this world and its resources, Suyin secretly ordered Areum to bring her medical books so that she would be familiar with Chinese herbs and plants, in case she would need to use it in the future. Areum didn"t like the idea, which Suyin didn"t know why, but did it for her anyways.

....

"Suyin!" Areum paced through the corridors, calling out her name. Suyin was resting in her seat, reading her book about mixing Chinese medicine. Areum dashed in, catching her breath before speaking.

"What did you need?" Suyin casually asked, skimming through the book with her eyes.

"S-Someone came. They told your father that you saved them." Suyin placed her book down and looked at Areum in the eyes. "I saved them?" She hurried to the main hall, seeing the elderly man she saved talk to her father.

"Father." Suyin bowed, then bowed to the elderly man.

"She"s the one who saved you, is that correct?" Suyin"s father asked as the elderly man smiled, nodding his head. "Yes. I faintly remembered her face before I was knocked unconscious. My daughter can also confirm that she was the woman who saved me." The man glanced at Suyin, then turned back to look at her father.

Suyin was sweating cold bullets at this time because she knew that she would get into big, big trouble. The two continue to converse with Suyin present there, sitting down on a chair across from the man and her father. She didn"t really listen to their conversation because she was trying to think of worse case scenarios in her mind but after hearing the word, "marriage" coming from her father"s mouth, she came back to reality.

"Huh?" Suyin"s attention perked. "What did you say, father?"

"I said, this was the man I wanted you to marry." He smiled generously to Suyin. She felt her stomach drop down as if the bad feeling came back again. This old man?! It was worse than she expected!

"Ah, yes. I do finally get to meet her. Your father told me many things about you. I would like to sincerely thank you that you saved me, Miss. It must have been fate that we met." The man had a delighted look on his face, causing Suyin to feel uncomfortable. She didn"t come back in time here to get married to an old geezer! She had a sullen expression, glaring at her father who didn"t bother to stare at his daughter.

"So then, we will talk about a good time for the marriage next time, perhaps?" Suyin"s father commented. The elderly man agreed.

"It"s getting late now and I must be heading home. Again, thank you for your daughter for saving me and taking good care of me. Whatever medicine she had, saved my life."

The elderly man bid his farewell to the quiet father and apprehensive Suyin, watching him leave the front doors as it closed. Immediately, his father turned to Suyin, slapping her in the face.

"What the h.e.l.l did you do?!" Her father shouted at her. The servants lowered their head, terrified to interfere between them. "Didn"t I tell you to never touch anything that relates to medicine? Why are you acting high and mighty by helping others?!"

Suyin bit her lips, not wanting to talk back as he continued to slammer her with crude words. "I always emphasized back then in the past for you to avoid anything with medicine and focus on education!" Her father continued to lecture, "Do you even hear me?! Are you deaf?" Suyin shot up a scowl through her father which surprised him.

Suyin had no memories of her parents ever telling her anything about learning medicine. She did remember back when she was a child that she shouldn"t touch medicine because it was supposedly a family taboo, but there was nothing more she could recognize beyond that. Maybe some of the memories of the original owner of this body blocked out some memories due to her stress and depression.

"I"m not going to marry that old man." Suyin declared, squeezing her hands into a fist. Her parents have controlled her throughout her life, so it wasn"t fair that they get to choose who she will marry. She"s had enough with her parents.

"Wha...what did you say?! You need to know that because of your mother"s spending on useless things, we barely have any money now-" The father grew more furious, his face now turning red. "Honey, what"s all the ruckus.." Suyin"s mother casually walked in, as if the current situation wasn"t a big thing.

"Mom." Hopefully, Suyin could get to her mother if not her father. She was a woman so she might understand. "Father wants me to marry this old man." Suyin"s eyes pleaded with help in her eyes to her mother. Her face turned ugly, unconcerned.

"I thought that the marriage was finalized already. Suyin! You should know that we need someone to pay it off. This is the only way now." Her mother ushered, brushing aside her statement.

"M-Mother. You are going to sell me to someone?!" Suyin responded. Suyin"s mother grimaced at her, ready to hit her for talking back. Her hand swung towards Suyin, but Areum dashed in between the two to take the hit in her face.

"H-How dare you to interfere with this, you servant!"

"STOP IT NOW!" Her father yelled in a harsh and cold tone. "You all better stop it now before I throw you all out." He gazed at Suyin. "It is a family taboo to work or touch any medicine. You should have known better not to do anything that involves medicine." He grew quiet for a second, putting his hands to his back. "We are going to finalize the marriage and begin as soon as possible. Suyin, you are on house arrest." He stared at Areum and the other servants who stood afar, observing the scene the whole time. "No one allows Suyin to go out or interact with anyone at all until the marriage. She is under my punishment. This includes Areum also." The man coldly stated before dragging his wife back into the corridors to go to sleep.

The night grew cold and Suyin stood in the middle of the main courtyard, hurt and shocked at what was going on.

"Suyin. Let"s go." Areum tenderly tugged Suyin"s sleeves, trying to drag her to her courtyard. "Did my parents.... sell me out to an old man??" She felt betrayed by her parents. She never got any freedom, happiness, or say in anything. If she went against it, they always controlled her and punished her. Suyin allowed Areum to drag her to her courtyard. Throughout the night, even the wind didn"t dare to whisper its tale to the trees.