The Magnolia Beauty

"It seems like we have to cross this river near here to get to Yuewei." Areum aimed ahead. Suyin followed the trail and discovered that the little dirt path was the accurate way for them to follow. A bridge was made out of fresh wood as if someone a.s.sembled it not too long ago. The rope didn"t look st.u.r.dy but had a promising destination straight ahead. If the Prince made this map, presumably they made the bridge to cross to their side of their territory. The two gradually but surely marched through the rapid current from below. It appeared as if one wrong misstep and they could easily slip into the stream. Although the current didn"t look shallow, Suyin could stare through the water for so long and not see the bottom of the river.

Upon reaching to the other side, Areum and Suyin stood at the top of a hill, surveying the tall gates enclosed by concrete brick walls. Guards were fully armored, some carrying swords attached to their waist and a couple of them carrying spears. Cautiously, they proceeded down the pathway as the trees became less apparent in their eyes. An open field packed with tents and large, wooden cart with spikes facing in the front were endlessly in rows.

"Halt!" The guard demanded clearly in a deep, reasoning voice. The male held onto the scabbard on his waist, ready to strike Suyin and Areum if they did anything reckless.

The two girls flinched at the guard"s command, stopping their tracks. They grasped the idea that they could reach to the city, but of course, with Yuewei being the strongest, military force, they weren"t going to permit two women to walk into the city at a simple cost.

"What are you doing here?!" The guard examined in a harsh tone. More guards emerged near the guard who stood near the wooden spiked carts. The guard studied Areum then took a long gaze at Suyin. He noted her strange attire-- the silk, beautiful peach robe was ruined by the rip on both sides of her shoulders, but the gorgeous black and gold cloak wrapped most of the rips. The guard"s eyes were wide after remarking the cloak on her, taking out his sword.

"What are you doing with that?!" He investigated, pointing his sword at Suyin who was fl.u.s.tered at his question. All of the guards swiftly lined up in front of the main guard and faced their weapons at the two.

"What are you talking about?!" Areum questioned, puzzled at his question.

"That is the cloak of the Prince!" One of the guards shouted out, leading in front of Suyin as he held the cloak.

"The Prince"s right-handed man gave this to us!" Areum reacted, firmly defending themselves.

"The right-handed man of the Prince does not have any power to give the Prince"s cloak to anyone!" The guard exclaimed. One of the guards grabbed Suyin"s wrist, dragging her in. Suyin struggled to fight against the man"s grip, "This was given to me!" Suyin screamed.

"Silence!" The guard attempted to take the cloak off of Suyin. "You have wounded the Prince, knocked him unconscious, and used his cloak to get into the city, you spy!" The guard fought with Suyin, who grappled to fight back. Areum was held in the back, if she moved an inch further, the arrows were going to shoot at her.

Suyin clung onto the cloak, struggling free from the guard as the dragon jade fell down into the ground. The guard who fought with Suyin froze, staring down at the jade.

"T-The jade of the dragon!" He bent to the ground, shaking uncontrollably in front of Suyin. All of the guards immediately kneeled hearing the name, not daring to lift their heads up to Suyin and Areum.

"I-I apologize for the misunderstanding!" The main guard exclaimed, now kneeling towards Suyin and Areum. The guard helped Suyin stand up, pleading for mercy.

"It"s fine. It"s just a misunderstanding after all." Suyin frowned, still irritated at the nonsense story that they made up about the two. She could now understand why this city was so troublesome to get into. She bent down to pick up the jade dragon and cleaned off the dirt on it, placing it inside of her robe.

Areum ran to Suyin, mouthing an "are you okay" to Suyin as she nodded once to a.s.sure her. The guards instantly moved to the side and made a row in the center to enable them to walk into the gates of Yuewei. The wooden bridge came down, permitting Suyin and Areum to access the city. Perplexed about their actions, Suyin and Areum entered into the territory of the Qin and the city of Yuewei.

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*30 minutes ago*

Prince Fuhua and his right-hand man, Weizhe reached there from another path (different from Suyin and Areum"s path). Qin Fuhua"s aura was compelling and terrifying, his expression dark and cold as ever like the sky without a moon. His clothes that he wore earlier was now covered with a beautiful black and white silk robe, embroidered with gold threads. It made him resemble an evil villain from stories that were told back in the days.

Weizhe, on the other hand, was unaffected by Qin Fuhua"s presence. It was respect and admiration that Weizhe would risk his life for Qin Fuhua, which was the reason why he still rode on his favorite, white beautiful horse while he mounted on the black horse that he had discovered back in the forest. Qin Fuhua wouldn"t approve Weizhe to ride on the black horse for some odd reason, but he didn"t dare to ask the question, why.

The guards recognized the two from afar, immediately standing on guard and stood in a line on both sides, creating a pathway in the center.

"Your Highness!" They all addressed in a synchronized tone. Not daring to look up at the Prince of misfortune, some shivered in fear.

Qin Fuhua and Weizhe"s horses nonchalantly walked down the path, until Qin Fuhua halted his horse. The guards, fearful that they did something wrong, dropped their heads even lower. If they could hide under their armor, they could definitely do so at that exact moment. The general guard, who took care of who came in and who came out of the gates was right next to Qin Fuhua. Qin Fuhua didn"t glance at the general guard, staring straight ahead.

"If someone comes in with my jade of dragon, you let them in without any question. If I hear that something happens to the person with the dragon jade, they shall be executed by me." Qin Fuhua commanded.

"Yes!" The general guard quickly responded, obeying his command in his head. "Your Highness! What has happened? Where is your royal cloak?!" The general guard questioned in a respective manner.

"Someone had injured me back in the forest. I will be heading to the doctor to check it out." Qin Fuhua"s horse slowly strolled ahead of the general guard. "My royal cloak was taken away." He commented before he moved on with Weizhe.

Qin Fuhua didn"t tell them that he gave Suyin the cloak, challenging her to see if she deserved to enter the city or not. For sure, if they see the jade of the dragon, they wouldn"t dare to do anything to her in the end anyway.

They planned on going to the City of Qin, but it was too much of a trip to take and he was already exhausted from everything that had happened previously. Qin Fuhua intended to take a trip to see a doctor who was working hard to become the next imperial doctor so that it wouldn"t be too much of a trouble if he could a.s.sist him.

Qin Fuhua, the Prince of Qin and Weizhe entered the city, not paying attention to much of the townspeople crowding up. They were either frightened or interested about the presence of the Prince of Qin.

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*30 minutes later on*

The guards scattered after acknowledging the person who had the jade of the dragon(which is obviously Suyin). One of the guards ran up to the general guard, glancing at two figures that entered the palace.

"Sir." He commented, "That person... is actually a woman, who had the dragon jade!"

The general guard admitted that too. It was unusual for the Prince of Qin to recognize someone and give them the jade of the dragon. The stone was handed down by the previous King, but only those that hold the jade of the dragon had the ability to surpa.s.s any objection or rules.

It was rumored that due to the current King"s ruthless actions, the previous King personally gifted it to the Prince for his protection in case anything unfortunate occurs. It was surprising that the beauty had the jade in her possession.

It was nearly impossible to steal or take the jade without the Prince"s consent. People who strived to seize the dragon jade were often met with an unfortunate fate when they have it in their possession. It was said that there was a curse that the previous King put, but seeing how the woman was perfectly fine besides her strange attire, the Prince may have given it to her.

Suyin and Areum cruised down the road together, holding their belongings. Unlike the Kingdom of Long, the Qin city was bustling with people everywhere. Shops were set up in the road while a crowd of people bundled up to stalls that sold inexpensive items. Some people gave Suyin a bizarre expression because of her attire but paid no attention to her after awhile after being so intrigued by the shopkeepers.

"Young miss! Come here and take a look at these beautiful hairpins!" One called out to Suyin. She grinned, refusing the offer as the two strolled down the lane.

"My lady, what are we going to do now?" Areum spoke, barely audible with the crowd of people grubbing and speaking by the shops.

"We need to find a place to stay in. Let"s go look for an inn."

Areum nodded. Eventually, after a couple of hits and misses with some shops being an escort shop, Suyin and Areum found a decent inn that allowed them to stay in for a couple of days. The two sat in their room for a while, catching their breath with all of the voyages that they had to do.

"My lady, I"m going to go to find some new clothes for us." Areum excused herself.

Suyin took off the cloak, placing it flat on a chair. She didn"t want to dirty the cloak because it was, after all, the Prince"s cloak. She didn"t realize how sophisticated the cloak appeared. The cloak had a hood with brown wool at the top, a beautiful crane was st.i.tched in gold at the right chest of the cloak and its st.i.tching was exquisitely designed around the edges. The symbol of orange blossom was crafted on the bottom right and left of the cloak.

Although the color was covered in black, the color of the gold design had left it being a sophisticated appearance to it, opposite of Suyin. Her shoulders were still showing and the ripped silk robe had been dirtied. Thankfully, Areum had brought very few pairs of clothing. Suyin wanted to wear something more common than silk, but could only find silk clothing thanks to her family"s reputation that had their family name on the clothing. They were so engrossed in their reputation and name, the Han family had a st.i.tching expert sew their surnames onto their silk clothes.

Suyin concluded that it was best to take one of Areum"s outfit since she didn"t have any outfit that would stand out like hers. "I should burn these soon," Suyin commented, tossing her bag of clothes to the side. Suyin wore a simple white and blue outfit, wearing a wooded, b.u.t.terfly hairpin and walked out of the room after writing a note to Areum that she was heading out to grab some fresh air and explore around.

Suyin never really got a chance to go out on her own back in her hometown because her parents were worried about losing face if Suyin does something wrong in public, but now, she felt free. The chains in her heart and mind were loose, which meant she could do whatever she"d like without fretting about her parent"s selfish reputation and name.

This meant that she would be able to read books about medicinal herbs and learn how to help others in this world! Inspired, she sought for shops that provided medicine or anything that was similar. Suyin stumbled upon a couple of shops, asking if there were any way for her to learn about the herbs. Many escorted her to leave.

"Women aren"t supposed to learn how to treat others!" the medical shopkeeper exclaimed, shoving her out.

"How dare you think that medicine is something you can practice!" another person raged.

Hopeless, Suyin decided to roam down another pathway. There weren"t many shops or stalls lingering around where she was at, but she really needed another way to learn medicine. Pondering, an imaginary lightbulb lit up her head, as she pointed up.

"The library!" She said outspoken. She covered her mouth, learning about medicine in this era was harder than she expected.

It made sense to Suyin since women back in the days were deemed to linger home and be a housewife. Something like that wasn"t going to stop her from doing what she loves, and she will do something to change the idea that women should also have a role in playing prominent positions in the past.

Suyin casually tapped a man"s shoulder, who turned around to see Suyin smiling brightly at her.

"Yes?" He kindly answered, responding back with a small smile to himself.

"Do you, by chance, know where there is a place to possibly read about medicine?" Suyin looked up, trying to make up something, "My lordship had asked me to run an errand to pick up some medical books." In her head, she was begging for the G.o.ds to help her learn some medicine during this time.

At least so she would have some acknowledgment in herbs during this time. Most of the herbs didn"t exist anymore in her world. Guessing that a random plant can help heal others was too hazardous for Suyin to do.

"Ahh... There is a shop down the alleyway. You just go down there and make a right. It"s a little shop near a plum blossom tree." The male replied, turning around to watch the shopkeepers talk about their product. Suyin hurried off towards the alleyway, hoping what the male said was correct.

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A couple of minutes later, a group of men showed up at the little house near the plum blossom tree. They booted the door, hunting for Suyin who appeared to not be there anymore.

"Where is that lady?" One of the men questioned.

The male that Suyin asked earlier, grinned. "It seems like she isn"t here."

Another man came running down the alleyway. "Sir!" He clasped his hands together and kneeled in front of the man. "Master has ordered us to retreat back!"

The male then smirked, "You won"t be away for so long!" The male exclaimed. The man that Suyin had accidentally b.u.mped into was a man named, Huang Liwei. He was ordered from a person back in the Long Clan to find any beauty and capture them- an obsessive request, yet the money that the old man was willing to pay was high.

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Suyin hid quietly waiting to hear the footsteps to disperse and the noise to die down before she popped out of an empty pot in the old house. She had already seen the holes in his words right after he stated, "alleyway."

Was there no chance that she would be able to find a way to learn about medicine during this time?

"You can come out now." Another voice called in a demanding tone, alarming Suyin.

"c.r.a.p! I thought they all left already?!" Suyin reflected, her palms beginning to sweat as her heart began to beat faster. Ever since she came to this world, all she ever confronted with was trouble!