One thing that Betti did like was a lively audience. She loved the interaction, she took it as confirmation that she was in the right.

Min Li was going to give the woman what she wanted. Betti loved complaining about Min Li and now for the first time in a long time, Min Li was in with the chance to use it to her own benefit.

Min Li wouldn’t even feel guilty about it, if Betti wanted to launch an attack on Min Li she should at least help Min Li gain some information in the process.

At the point that Betti had whined, ’I KNEW THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH HER’, it had come to Min Li exactly what she should say.

Min Li sighed as if she was sympathising with the woman. “Aah, I was the same way when I was a teenager.”

Betti, now slightly calmer that someone seemed to be understanding her replied, “Yes. Yes. Exactly the same.”

“And, when I was a child, I guess I acted much the same.”

“Exactly. Never a peaceful day with you. Drama was what my life was subjected to as soon as you entered it. Poor me.”

“Yes. Poor you. I couldn’t imagine raising a child for her to go absolutely haywire.”

“Of course, you couldn't imagine it. It was my own burden to bear.” Betti sighed in self-pity.

Min Li pressed on the topic she wanted to zone in on again. “I must have had so many problems as a child.”

“Yes, even as a baby you couldn’t stop being weird. So many problems for one little baby.”

The woman didn’t stop there. She was now on a roll ranting about her problems with a mere baby Min Li. “We knew that I was going to have to take you far away, but it seemed that you knew it too. Such a long journey and you didn’t make a peep of sound. I knew there was something wrong about you for sure.”

Not noticing that Betti had found a way to call her weird again, Min Li focused in on another point. Who was the ‘we’ to which Betti was referring?

There was obviously someone else involved in the finding of Min Li by Betti when she was a baby.

Betti not realising that she was letting out so much information that she had never spoke about before, carried on.

“Of course, I knew that was going to be the case, but there was so much different about you that even I was shocked.”

“Why did you think that was the case?” Min Li hoped that she wasn’t pushing her luck.

It seemed as if Betti hadn’t heard Min Li, she carried on speaking about her own thoughts.

“If your mother had known...” Betti tailed off. She quickly opened her eyes and sat up.

But Min Li was like a dog with a bone.

“Which mother? My mother? My biological mother? If she had known what?”

“No.. I was talking about the queen. If she had known that you had come from somewhere far away maybe she wouldn’t accept you.”

Betti was fidgeting. Betti didn’t fidget. Betti did things loud and proud.

So, forgive Min Li for thinking that she herself wasn’t the one who was strange and weird, but that Betti was the strange one for holding something back.

Betti looked at Min Li in such a sheepish manner that Min Li wasn’t sure that the person in front of her was the woman that she had always knew. It was so uncharacteristic for her.

Min Li wasn’t about to let the case go. The woman was just about to sing like a canary. She clearly knew more about Min Li’s origins than she had let on.

“Tell me. Tell me. One thing. Just one and I won’t ask again. Do you know who my biological mother is?”

Betti hesitated. Then she looked at Min Li in a shrewd manner like she too wanted something out of the deal.

Betti squinted her eyes. “If I tell you just that one thing, you won’t go looking for anything that you don’t want to know?”

Wow. What a way to scare me.

Min Li wondered why on earth she would not want to know something about her family. Were they crazy? Were they even worse, poor? This servant maid thing really isn’t for mei. Even worse were her family both crazy and poor?

They were from Yilin, weren’t they? Min Li felt sorry for herself at the thought.

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Sucking up her horror at the thought, Min Li forced herself to look sombre, serious and trustworthy. She sucked her cheeks in.

Betti gave her a weird look.

Min Li let her cheeks back out.

“I won’t look for anything I don’t want to know.” Min Li gave the oath that Betti wanted from her.

It wasn’t a lie. Min Li didn’t not want to know; she did want to know, so she could look to her heart’s content.

Betti gave in.

“Don’t worry. As long as you don’t go looking for your family lineage, nothing will go wrong. You are already part of the top family in Xilin, you don’t need much more.”

“Okaayy.” Min Li stretched out her words, hoping it would encourage Betti to say what she was keeping in.

“I heard when I first picked you up that your mother was a noble.”

Aah so she hadn’t just found me in between some reeds somewhere. There had been more to it.

Min Li nodded happily to herself. It was a nod that said that she had always known she had noble blood running through her veins. Never would I have ever thought that I was an elitist. Even Betti the head maid looked at Min Li in disbelief. Then Betti herself nodded as if had extra proof confirming that Min Li was weird.

It had been one minute since Betti had revealed information about Min Li’s birth mother.

Betti and Min Li were staring at each other like they knew that someone was going to break the oath that they had made.

By the determination in the head maid’s eyes, Min Li knew that she wouldn’t gain anything else from the line of questioning about her mother.

“Just one more question,” Min Li said batting her eyelashes planning on changing tactics.

“NO.”

“YES.”

“NO.”

“I promise you it is not even about family or my origins.”

Min Li carried on before Betti could open her mouth to say her certain, ’NO’.

“Why don’t I have powers?”

The expression on Betti’s face looked like she was already contorting her tongue to say ‘NO’ but at hearing Min Li’s question she tilted her head to the side looking genuinely confused.

Betti replied slowly, “I don’t know... All I know is that you were always different and sometimes different isn’t supposed to have normal things. Even common, simple things like powers.”

At that the conversation ended.

Min Li went back to scrubbing Betti’s feet, but they both didn’t say a word from then on.

…..

People like Betti don’t turn a new leaf so quickly Min Li was not so happy to announce.

And because people like Betti don’t turn leaves quickly, people like Min Li had to be on their guard.

Betti had taken a high and mighty stance on the issue with Min Li making the crown prince’s food, even though she herself had just been caught out for lying about Min Li’s origins.

Min Li had thought that the reprimand would be finished with just words, but for Betti that would be too easy for Min Li.

Min Li had decided that from now on she wasn’t going to carry on being a playful person. She was going to think about the repercussions of her actions and think things through before she committed to them.

Min Li encouraging Betti to complain about her did not go without its consequences. Yes, Betti had told Min Li a lot more information about herself but at what cost? Betti seemed to have remembered every little thing that Min Li had done throughout the years to annoy her.

Betti had punished Min Li for what she had done for the crown prince, but Min Li was sure that in the back of Betti’s mind she was also remembering Min Li’s deeds of old.

There were simple punishments that Betti liked to use against her servant girls. She did things like giving servant girls pay cuts, making them work for longer or giving them a more difficult job.

But this time, Min Li hadn’t been so lucky. In Min Li’s opinion, Betti went too far.

The cost of the information Min Li had received, a big great whipping.

Min Li’s butt was on fire.

She couldn’t walk properly. She couldn’t go to the toilet properly. And she definitely couldn’t sit down properly.

She had to be propped on her bed, tummy down, butt in the air, with some bedding underneath her hips.

Min Li wasn’t able to garden. Scratch that, she wasn’t able to do any work in the slightest.

She was put on bed rest by the nice, old and unfortunately funny doctor that had visited her. Min Li hated to say it but the doctor wasn’t professional in the least. He made her all the ‘butt’ of his jokes.

He was the old doctor who had treated her and the crown prince since they were young and he was awfully, awfully comfortable around the two. As if Min Li couldn‘t just say ‘off with his head’,

The audacity of the doctor when Min Li was on bedrest was unbearable. Min Li had seen him treating other people and had thought he was funny when they had groaned. But now she was on the other end of such treatment, she really thought it was all too much to bear.

Unfortunately, the old doctor was a distant relative of a whole bunch of people like Joe the crown prince’s best friend and apparently there was some connection between him and her majesty. Terrible.

It meant that one of Min Li’s favourite lines ‘off with his head’, wouldn't work. Not that it ever had, apparently Min Li didn’t have that much pull in the palace.

Min Li was proud to say that she had matured, she hadn’t said one word of a rebuke towards the man and had simply sworn under her breath.

Despite all that, Min Li was putting every single second of her time with her butt in the air to good use.

Min Li had a lot to think about.

Min Li had come to the conclusion that unfortunately she wasn’t from Xilin or the king would have been able to get her power out of her. Min Li was finally accepting that there could be some truth in the head maid’s words, and she could be different.

Min Li had asked Lily for verification of how long Betti had been a maid at Xilin palace when Lily had come to visit her while she was recovering. Lily had said that Betti had been a maid at Xilin for an awfully long time over thirty years. That gave Min Li even more to think about, she wondered how the head maid had come to find her when she was always so focused on her work in the palace.

She also wondered why Betti had implied that she shouldn’t care for powers. If Min Li was a noble then no matter from what kingdom she was from, she thought that she should have powers.

Min Li wondered if Betti was lying about Min Li’s mother being a noble to protect Min Li’s feelings. She couldn’t ask the head maid to have the chance to confirm, Betti’s mouth was securely closed after the last bits of detailed that she had accidentally let out.

So, all in all, all that Min Li talking to Betti had done was complicate matters further. Now she wasn’t sure about anything.

Her biological mother had sent her away. Why? Was it because Min Li was different? Or maybe her elite family mum was a rather promiscuous woman and so to protect the image of her family, her mother sent Min Li away lying that it was because Min Li was different.

At that point, Min Li realised that she had thought too far.