Novels2Search

CHAPTER THREE

The magnificent Celestial Empire palace was built in three section courtyard, on the code line stood the central entrance, symmetrically arranged corridor rooms on the two side of the central axle, four-pointed pavilion, a mountain-shaped front hall along with artificial mountains and ponds. There were other eight-pointed pavilions on the eastern side along with the retiring quarters. The huge firm aesthetic palace elevated in the epicentre of the Celestial Empire and could be viewed from all four directions of the kingdom, it was heavily guarded from the frontal entrance to depths of the palace grounds, trespassing was a forbidden crime, only the thick-skinned Bai Heng would dare do so, If he were to be caught then beheading would definitely be most anticipated the punishment for him. It was another calm full moon-brightened night , Bai Heng made his way directly into the palace backyard as he was directed by his best friend so he could meet this extraordinary beauty Huang Hui told him about, he had made up his mind he’ll make his move on her on their first meeting. Though Huang Hui told him clearly this girl was no easy target but Bai Heng had his head placed in clouds, he believed Huang Hui was just bluffing after being rejected himself, he set his mind to lure this beauty today for two main reasons, one was to get rid of his lonely single life and second he wanted to show off his seducing skills to prove Huang Hui’s wrong opinion, he was sure this was just a child-play for him. The backyard palace garden was large having an attractive, evergreen tropical view, fully bloomed plum trees made it more glamorous, as soft muffled night-calling insect sounds surfaced within it, a fine floral aromatic scent engulfed the garden’s surrounding along with the shiny moonlight this dewy yard gave out a more exotic feeling, Bai Heng thought to himself, ‘with this kind of romantic environment, it’s not bad for first encounter with my to-be beloved’. Since the backyard was quite huge it took time before Bai Heng spotted the person he was looking for, with her back facing him, Bai Heng could already guess that this was a real deal of a beauty, she wore a long pink colour dress with sleeves covering her arms fully to the wrist, she stood upright facing the sky her hair falling straight on her back down to her slim waist. As if sensed that someone walking towards her, the girl slowly turned to discover the person approaching, the moment her eyes landed on Bai Heng, the latter stopped his steps immediately like he was struck with a lightning, he stood there astonished gaze while the girl just stared at him with a befuddled look, “You!” the girl called out with rage, “Why are you here? And how did you enter this place?” she asked only receive Bai Heng’s silence and a dazed gape. Today, Bai Heng, the god of enchanting looks had finally met his match. No, not just a match but he was now facing a true goddess of all prepossessing beauties in the whole Empire, never had he seen such a striking, on fleek pretty lady in all of his lifetime encounters. This lady was not only beautiful but she also seemed to be beguiling aura on her, from the moment she spotted Bai Heng, nothing about her behaviour seemed to be affected after facing him instead there was only a look of indifference on her, “I asked you a question…” she spoke again with displeased attitude, This time Bai Heng snapped out of his confused state, “oooh! I...I…” he tried to say something, wait! Did his voice just crack? He really couldn’t talk properly because he felt nervous? No, that can’t be, he can’t be wavered. ‘Get your senses together Bai Heng’ he said to himself , ‘It’s not the first beauty you met, what’s there to be nervous about?’, he thought and composed himself, he can’t let his good-looks go in vain and embarrass himself. “I got lost trying to find my way out”, he lied, ‘Did she buy it?’ he questioned himself internally, “And you think am going to buy that idiotic lie?”, she asked in a pissed off tone, ‘Of course she didn’t buy it’, Bai Heng thought to himself but this didn’t stop him from making his second attempt to seduce her, “It’s your choice to believe it not, I won’t try convince you further”, he carelessly explained shrugging his shoulders with a smirk on his face and advanced his tracks closer to the girl but the girl stood right where she was, neither moving an inch nor showing any signs of hesitation or coyness. By studying the maiden’s reaction towards his presence, Bai Heng at this point proved that his friend’s words weren’t fake, this girl wasn’t an easy case. Suddenly some foot-steps were heard striding toward the backyard premises, without awareness, Bai Heng was abruptly pulled by the girl, and both of them hid behind a small flowery bush nearby, and just in time the guards reached the yard and scanned the area, “Am sure I heard some voices here”, one of the two guards urged but his partner just sighed in exhaustion, “Maybe you heard it wrong, no one would dare trespass in the backyard, its forbidden, unless they are tired of living”, he explained but noticed the unconvinced look on his fellow, “Perhaps it was just a small animal passing by the yard don’t be so vexed and waste your energy, our shift is over anyway lets go”, he successfully managed to pull his stubborn suspicious colleague out of the yard. Behind the bush the girl silently breathed and tried to make no sound listening to the conversation between the two guards, as for Bai Heng he closely stared at the beauty beside him as his heartbeats were speeding up, today he wasn’t looking from a distance but a goddess right beside him plus this beauty was not like any other he had met before. When they stepped out of the small bush the girl turned to face Bai Heng and met his stare that she felt goose bumps crawling all over under her skin, ‘What’s wrong with this creepy guy?’, she thought, “Hey! Get yourself together and leave immediately, am not going to help you again”, she said with annoyance, “What an Idiot!”, she muttered. Bai Heng chuckled a little, “I never expected to meet a fairy with a devil’s conscience”, he said ironically. “Anyway, I had a mission but it can’t be accomplished today I guess, so I will leave as you say but only after answering my two questions first”, he bargained, the girl glanced at him indifferently before replying, “Am listening but I won’t promise to comply with your weird expectations”, she replied. Bai Heng got closer to her and cleared his throat, “Ahem! First, how is it possible that such a beautiful fairy like you still single toiling in the palace? Is the emperor really that blind or is he too incompetent?”, he spoke in flirty manner, “You!”, the maiden reacted furiously with a glare, “ How could you talk about the emperor disrespectfully?”, she asked shooting daggers at him but as expected she wasn’t a pushover she immediately ridiculed Bai Heng using his own words, “Aren’t you good-looking yourself in your opinion? Is Young master that incompetent that no lady pique interest in him?” , she got closer to his ear and breathed out a playful whisper, “Or is there another disability we should be informed about that keeps you single?”, with a scornful look she stepped back and looked at Bai Heng as if challenging him, Sure Bai Heng was losing this battle this maiden was too vulgar to deal with unlike the ones he met in the past. Bai Heng cried internally, he was no match to this lady’s aggressive nature today, he will have to add some effort, “Okay, you got me on that, next question”, The young lady nodded her head, “Am all at ears...”, she replied plainly hurting Bai Heng’s pride, “What’s the name of this elite lady I luckily met today? I would love to know”, he asked, at least he should get her name and take things slowly to win her over, he thought but things weren’t getting any easier his opponent wasn’t planning to let him off easily today, “I actually tell my name to competent men only, those who deserve mention it”, with a sneer she replied, Boom! Another failure to his attempts this maiden was a little devil truly and he underestimated Huang Hui’s words. ‘One more attempt, just one if I fail I will leave’ he said to himself, he tried again, “How does this Elite fairy know if am really incompetent? And I just want to know your name it’s not a big favour to ask, in exchange I will also tell you mine so we could be familiar to each other”, Bai Heng tried his chances. The girl walked past him heading back into the palace after a few steps she stopped and gave him an on shoulder glance, “Young Master, we agreed I would only reply two of your questions anyway I will assume the last statement isn’t a question, as for my name my conditions are still similar”, she calmly clarified with a partially bowed head and she said, “Good night, Young master Bai”, she then proceeded and entered the place. Bai Heng stood there dumbstrucked, did she just address him with his household name? So she knew who he was all along but decided to play him the cat-mouse game? ‘Uurrrgghhh! This embarrassment’ he screamed internally, today he was not only was he turned down by a palace beautiful maiden but also foolishly played. He made a portal and landed directly into his room, feeling gloomy he didn’t want to think further but to only fall asleep. Guang Liu and Da Chao got off their classes and headed out for lunch, they had different majors but shared classes for some courses, Guang Liu majored in Finance and Accounting and Da Chao was in the Marketing major. They first walked to the lower lecture halls to get Ying-er. The three were well acquainted so they spent most of their free time together. Though Guang Liu was always the one who took care of both Da Chao and Wang Xiu Ying, the eldest was Da Chao, 27 years old, Guang Liu was 23 years old and Ying-er was 20 almost 21 years old as her birthday was approaching. After waiting for a while Ying-er stepped out of the class with a droopy appearance on her face, she looked like all her energy was drained from her tiny body and Da Chao couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of her making the latter feel dejected, “Cha-ge, does it make you happy seeing me in this state?”, she asked with a gloomy voice, “My soul is almost leaving my body and you are laughing your ass off”, she added with disappointment. Da Chao didn’t feel remorseful at her words so he just kept giggling, “Little girl, I wasn’t the one who advised you to study business major, so don’t feel ant resentment towards me, hahaha!” , he laughed out harder, Guang Liu was silently observing the two, realizing that Da Chao was making fun of his junior, Guang Liu gave Da Chao slight smack at the back of his head, “Stop being rude to her”, he said with a calm tone. Da Chao glared at his best friend, “Xiao Liu, can you stop bullying your Da-ge just because you are stronger?”, he scoffed , Guang Liu threw him a cold gaze with a plainspoken tone he replied, “ First don’t use that ‘ Xiao’ word when talking to me and lastly I don’t remember having any older brother as I grew up”. Da Chao wanted to hit him but he didn’t dare to, “Rude bastard!” he silently muttered, “I can clearly hear what you said, you know that right?”, Guang Liu spoke out loud as he walked ahead of them, Ying-er sniggered at her seniors bickering she loved how Guang Liu always stepped in to save her from Da Chao’s bullying, “What are you giggling about?”, Da Chao tried to vent his anger on Ying-er but the girl cutely stuck her tongue out at him and ran towards Guang Liu for safety. Just as Da Chao was still cursing his best friend in mind he suddenly bumped into someone, “Damn! Can’t you watch where…?”, he was raging with anger when he just realized the person he had just yelled at, ‘Holy Crap! Not again’ he thought, these were his fellow seniors but not those friendly seniors to be precise ‘a gang of college bullies’. Ever since he joined college these guys have been giving him a hard time, he didn’t know why but they just always found ways to bring troubles to him, he hated them to bones and being a stubborn person he is, Da Chao never accepted to be their dog instead he always challenged them too which was just adding fuel to fire. He could have been dead by now if it wasn’t for Guang Liu who always came to his rescue always except for that Guang Liu never fought them instead settled things with words and to his surprise the guys always listened to his best friend’s diplomacy no wonder he is called the college-idol, he didn’t hate Guang Liu for that but he hated the fact that these pricks kept bugging him whenever his best friend wasn’t around and called him, Guang Liu’s lackey they even went further saying that they doubt if Guang Liu was strong enough to battle them, He just sneered to their words thought to himself, ‘Why don’t you try him out and see if you can ever open your big bucket of bolt?’ but never dared to speak aloud because he knew Guang Liu hates fights and he were to fight them, they won’t be able to graduate for being bedridden. Yes, Guang Liu fighting strength was no joke that’s why he avoided fighting at all costs and Da Chao was well aware of this. “Yoo! Look who is barking, if it isn’t the so called college-Idol lackey”, the gang leader, Guo Chen spoke ironically and the whole gang burst out into a loud laughter, “So where is your boss, I would love to hear him pleading in exchange for your peaceful freedom”, another laughter came out from them, “I bet he is on a date and let him have a free day, right?”, another gang member complimented, “Ooh your right, I think we just met them on the stairs cuddling, but to be honest your master has a terrible taste don’t you think? For a so called college-idol that chick is too bland for him”, Gao Chen slandered, “I can tell just by looking at her she tastes awful”, he added and they all laughed again. No, this was enough Da Chao told himself ‘I can’t let this keep going’, he clenched his fist with anger when he was about to throw a punch, A hand held his shoulder and stopped him, Though Guang Liu had long left with Ying-er to the college canteen leaving Da Chao far behind them sulking childishly at his friends, as they walked down the stairs, Guang Liu noticed Gao Chen’s gang going up, and he felt uneasy as he knew how much this gang stirred problems to Da Chao and provoked him into fights knowing well he could never win against them, they treated him like a punching bag whenever they felt like it, this started since they were in freshmen’s year. Guang Liu told Ying-er to head on to the canteen first and waited for Da Chao on the stair-case praying that Da Chao never collides with these stubborn brats, some minutes went by but there were no signs of Da Chao showing up so Guang Liu knew right away his best friend was facing Gao Chen’s gang alone at this moment, he can’t let this happen. He rushed up the staircase as he made up his mind, this was enough he had to set real scores with these pea-brained punks, so they would stop bothering his best friend, he had been holding back all this time because he hates violence but these guys were a headache to deal with them. Just the moment he arrived, he noticed his friend trembling in anger and saw him clenching his fist ready to punch someone, ‘This brat doesn’t realize he’ll get trouble fighting on campus’, he thought to himself as he stretched his hand and held his shoulder to stop him from acting recklessly, “Don’t do something that will make you regret”, he said to Da Chao in a calm demeanour looking at him with a serious attitude, Da Chao was still shaking with anger and looked back at his friend, “But they keep crossing the lines, are you gonna keep foolishly negotiating with them?”, Da Chao’s eyes were intensely reddened and his facial veins were bulging out vividly, Guang Liu held his best friend’s clenched fist and whispered to him, “ Calm down, anger won’t solve a thing now, they are deliberately provoking you to start a fight so you could get into trouble”, hearing what his best friend said to him Da Chao felt that it made sense, he unclenched his fist and calmed down only to hear Guang Liu’s final words, “And who told you am going to negotiate this time? These punks have long poked my raw nerve its time I show them whose boss here”, he smirked at Da Chao whose jaw dropped down to earth hearing his best friend’s final statement. “Gao Chen, long time no see!”, Guang Liu spoke out loud as he approached the gang leader, “ Did my friend cause any trouble this time?”, he asked with a pretentious smile on his face. Gao Chen smiled back at him, “ You know your friend pretty well, he can never have guts to mess with me”, Gao Chen replied, Guang Liu got closer to Gao Chen and his smile froze immediately and he gave out steady cold look to the latter, “Ooh! So why do you keep bothering this defenceless friend of mine?”, this time he spoke with a deep stern low voice, Gao Chen sensed something different today, ‘This guy never speaks this way, what is his problem?’ he thought silently, as he was still fazed, Guang Liu closer into Gao Chen’s eyes and smirked ironically, “Am well aware of your intentions to test my bone-breaking skills, I was going to keep playing the ‘Mr. Nice guy’ but I also just got curious of yours too”, he challenged him, “So let’s set our scores straight after the finals and this curiosity, am afraid you may be unable to graduate if this spectacular performance comes before the exams”, he added. Gao Cheng scoffed at Guang Liu’s words, “Okay, challenge accepted!”, he proudly replies, “What are the odds?” , Gao Cheng asked, Guang Liu shrugged his shoulders lazily and said with a serious straightforward expression, “Just simple, if you lose never bother anything that lingers around me, even a fly”. Gao Chen laughed out loud hearing the condition then mocked the latter, “Or what Idol-boy?”, With a grim-like, stone faced attitude Guang Liu replied, “Or I give you hell, am sure you wouldn’t want that would you?”, Gao Chen stiffened a little feeling the scary aura coming from his opponent but put a pretentious brave appearance to challenge Guang Liu, “If you lose both you and your coward friend become my lackeys for life”, he complied, there was silence for a while finally Guang Liu turned his back on the gang waving his hand, “We’ll see if it happens in our next life, young master Gao”, he reached his hands on Da Chao’s shoulder, “Let’s go, his highness prince Chao, your knight just saved the day” , he teased him and his friend knew well that he was being-made fun of but he was still thankful he is the one that saved him. Da Chao rolled his eyes with disdain, ‘This guy, what’s there to be so happy about’ he thought, deep inside Da Chao anticipated what the fight would be like on that day, only two weeks remained to the finals, will his friend really win or will they fall into unfortunate abyss. ‘And wasn’t he too confident just now?’ Da Chao thought but still trusted his friend would win when that day comes.