A full week had gone by from the power ceremony. The whole week had been filled with festivities and joy, Min Li had been surprised to find that she too was able to find some fun in the company of others during the rest of the celebrations.

Some of the servants, both female and male, had taken some time off to go celebrate the power ceremony with their families. Rose was among their ranks. She had travelled extremely far to her hometown in the West of Xilin to celebrate with her sister who had been a part of the power ceremony as she was in her sixteenth year.

With Rose being gone and Tom being the biggest snitch in the whole palace, Min Li gathered with Lily alone to talk about what had happened in the power ceremony.

Lily was absolutely ecstatic over the crown prince winning the battle but when the girl had finally finished acting absolutely besotted over Fenhua’s fighting skills, Min Li learned that there was something else that Lily was even more excited over.

The two girls were both cosied up in the Eastern palace’s warm kitchen making a snack for themselves to eat, when Lily mentioned what she wanted to put in the latest instalment ‘the crown prince and the maid’ chronicles.

“You know how I am writing my book about the crown prince and the maid.”

“Uh huh,” Min Li said carefully.

“Well… I am at the part of the crown prince saving you... I mean the maid from impending doom. And by that, I mean the evil villain, Cit. So, they are in the grand hall where the evil princess had offered the maid up for marriage in replacement of herself, and I was wondering about whether I should give all the details of the fight to the audience.”

Min Li signed in disapproval at how dramatic Lily was. She wondered who Lily could have gotten it from, there was no one around her with such a dramatic flair. What nonsense, impending doom. There was never anything of the sort.

Min Li gave the ready and waiting girl some advice.

“First of all, do you think it is smart to make the villain's name Kit? What if the real Kit takes offence?”

“Don’t worry,” Lily laughed Min Li’s worries off, “I am not going to give the evil antagonist the name Kit with a K, but Kit with a C. A totally different thing.”

Lily pressed on, “Anyway, I wanted to make the book as accurate as I possibly could, so I wondered whether you knew whether the gem at the back of the crown prince’s neck that day was ruby or amethyst?”

Lily leaned forwards blinking her eyes at Min Li as if that would help Min Li think of the answer.

Min Li nearly dropped the garlic she had yet to finish peeling into a vat of hot oil.

Min Li shook her head thinking surely it couldn’t be her own friend who had spread such rumours about the crown prince having a pink necklace around his neck that day in the grand hall.

Seeing that Min Li wasn’t too keen on answering, Lily handed Min Li another clove of garlic to peel as if trying to jog her memory.

Min Li said nothing.

Seeing her actions had beared no fruit, Lily again pressed on, “The servant girls and I were talking. And if it wasn’t a gem that glowed that day, then there was another theory flowing around the servant quarters. Some say that there could have been a mark on the crown prince’s neck. The type of mark that the chosen one from the prophecy would have.”

Min Li tried not to react.

Lily observed Min Li closely. She squinted her eyes when she saw that her audience didn’t seem all that captivated and pressed on again.

“If all this malarky about the prophecy is true, then it would make sense if the crown prince was the chosen one. He is the crown prince after all. He is also the head of security of Xilin. I trust that nothing with go wrong with him being the chosen one.”

Again, Lily stopped. Again, Min Li gave her nothing. So, again Lily started.

“That however… would be too complicated for me to include in a book,” she ended all matter of factly, “so instead I thought I would put in my book the other rumour about the thing on Fenhua’s neck being a ruby or amethyst. So, what do you think? Ruby or amethyst?”

Lily leaned in to trying to search Min Li’s face for an answer.

Min Li again kept her mouth shut. Not in defiance, or in confidentially but in deep thought.

Right on cue, Lily restarted her little speech.

Although Min Li hadn’t given Lily a reaction, she had found some of the things Lily had said extremely interesting. But she couldn’t both think about what was on Fenhua’s neck, peel garlic cloves and reply to Lily. And so, she chose to do the two more important tasks.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Min Li started thinking about the situation between herself and Fenhua.

Lily knew about that Min Li had a birthmark at the back of her neck that she felt pain near sometimes.

But Lily knew nothing about the content of Min Li’s previous nightmares meaning that the girl hadn’t made the connection between Min Li and Fenhua’s marks, something that she would have loved to include in her story.

Min Li had however made her own connections between her and Fenhua.

The chosen one. What a great title, she thought. I should really be nicer to the guy. He is a great guy. What did you ask me? NO. Not stubborn in the least. Who I? You must be wrong, I would never call that dashing man stubborn. Min Li chuckled dryly as if the crown prince was going to pop out behind her.

Min Li had convinced herself that the crown prince ticked all the criteria for the chosen one.

One: The ability to put the three worlds back together again.

TICK. The man had the strongest power in the kingdom and was at least one of the strongest in the world.

Two: The scroll needed to have at least one member of each royal family to access it or something along those lines.

MORE EVIDENCE. TICK. If only members of the royal family could open the missing scroll, then of course, the chosen one had to be a member of the royal family. That just made sense.

Three: The prophecy said that the chosen one had a loyal best friend with the ability to take the pain away from the chosen one.

She had dismissed Fenhua’s best friend, Joe as a possibility.

But still she gave that box a TICK.

Such a role needed someone mature and complete. Someone humble enough to not make a claim to fame or want to possess the most beautiful things in the world.

Such a role required someone remarkably righteous. Not lacking in anything with a strong sense of responsibility, right and wrong and moral obligation. So, who better, Min Li thought, than my own self.

I am a rather loyal girl. I guess I could be the faithful friend they speak of. Although he may have betrayed me and send me like a lamb to the slaughterhouse, I, being the good friend that I am, have never betrayed him.

It was to be pointed out that Lily was still speaking. She was currently making a list of advantages and disadvantages of the gemstone for the crown prince in her book being a ruby gemstone.

Min Li was such a good pick for the chosen one’s chosen friend that she even knew how to be diligent. She was diligently ignoring her babbling friend hardly even fading in and out of the conversation anymore. A very good example of Min Li’s ability to prioritise.

Min Li gave herself a pat on her back congratulating herself that she was such a good friend that even the prophecy had foreseen it.

There was only one reservation that Min Li had. She didn’t like the whole take the pain away from the chosen one part of the prophecy. That didn’t sound fun. It sounded like a lot of trouble with none of the glory. She decided that she would rather find her own abilities and do her own thing than be the chosen one’s pincushion.

…..

That same day Betti the head maid had paid Min Li a visit.

Min Li had wondered whether Tom had listened in on her conversation with Lily and had told Betti that the two girls were speaking about what shouldn’t be spoken about.

But that theory was thrown out of the window when the head maid had suspiciously greeted a shivering Min Li with a hug. It was the type of thing that the head maid did when she was consoling someone not when she was planning to tell them off.

Min Li wondered what sort of words were going to come out of the head maid.

“I am happy to see you cooking. How wonderful! You should really do it more. Be a great example for all the other servant girls and boys.”

Ah yes, from Betti’s statement Min Li knew that she was correct. Betti was definitely going to be delivering bad news. She was just going to do it using the sandwich method to dampen Min Li’s pain.

Min Li winced as she got ready to listen to Betti’s words.

“Itinkushldstywayfromdaprins.”

“Pardon me. What did you say?”

Betti who had up to this point being looking down sheepishly, looked into Min Li’s eyes as if she was trying to psych herself up.

“You should stay away from the crown prince.”

Min Li paused her eating completely.

Why would Betti would say such of thing?

Although Min Li had already decided that she was going to avoid the crown prince as she didn’t want to get mixed up in the prophecy, she didn’t like that someone else was commanding her to.

The head maid took one deep breath. “As I have told you I don’t know much about your powers or lack thereof… But I believe that you are better off without the influence of anything of the sort.”

Min li was now gaping at Betti. “What are you talking about?”

“As I said I always knew you were born different. And the goal for someone different like you… is to have a normal life.”

Min Li blinked at the head maid.

“I know you don’t want to listen. But this is very important. I already know what you are thinking. I know you more than you know yourself.”

Betti looked at Min Li right in the eye, Min Li held eye contact in challenge, how well can she really know me?

Betti took up the challenge directly.

“You are already thinking that the whole thing with the crown prince and his pink glow may be connected to you.”

Oh. It seemed that Betti knew Min Li rather well. The head maid also knew that Min Li had previously had problems with the birth mark on her own neck, which was probably why she was making such a fuss.

Not knowing that Min Li was befuddled, the head maid carried on speaking.

“But that is not the case. Things about powers, chosen ones and all those sorts of things are probably NOT for you.”

Min Li didn’t really care too much that Betti the head maid was telling her what to do. Rather she wanted to know more about what Betti knew about what was on the back of Fenhua’s neck.

Min Li pushed her bowl of food to the side. She looked up at Betti making her eyes wide and big. Min Li blinked up at Betti hoping that Betti would fold under pressure.

In the sweetest voice she could muster, Min Li asked Betti what knew about Fenhua and whether Fenhua had a similar birthmark to her own at the back of her neck.

But Betti remained tight lipped. The head maid was clever; she had really learned to adapt whilst raising Min Li through the latter part of her adolescence.

She had ‘fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me’ mindset. She wasn’t about to fold. That was an awful shame; being the head maid of the palace came with its benefits. The woman was spoon fed information by the flies on the wall about affairs all around the palace. If only she learned to divulge what she heard to Min Li. Only then the world would be a better place.

Two bad conversations in a row; what a day!