Min Li had been annoyed when she had first woken up.
She didn’t care that she had regained her ability to move.
She didn’t care that the doctor had told her that she was able to do what she wanted for the first time in three weeks.
All she knew that she had come out of the dream when she hadn’t wanted to, when her dream self had been too dumb to ask what the voice was speaking about in time and now, she was paying the consequences.
Now, everyone was paying the consequences. £veryone that had come in to talk to her had only received a frown.
Betti had come in to talk to her.
Well, what the head maid had really done was interrogate Min Li asking her why both her and Fenhua were in the same state as each other. Apparently, not one of Min Li’s friends, not even Tom, he was finally learning, had told Betti what had happened.
When Min Li, too busy frowning, didn’t say anything, the head maid had just assumed that her advice to Min Li to stay away from the crown prince had been right and had told Min Li as much. Min Li had just frowned.
Lily had also come into Min Li’s room. She had come in gushing that Min Li finally seemed ready to ‘be a proper muse and bring content about her dealings with the crown prince instead of just laying around doing nothing’, her words not Min Li’s. Min Li had just frowned, and Lily sensing danger had quickly gone about her way.
Yet again, the most unexpected guess in Jess had turned up in Min Li’s room. She had peered around as if looking for something. She finally took notice of Min Li who was sitting on her bed and had asked Min Li whether she had seen the crown prince.
Finally, a worthy opponent whose feelings Min Li didn’t mind offending.
Unfortunately, Min Li’s legs were not yet feeling normal. It was not that they felt weak, in fact, they felt too strong for the floor. She had fell down to the floor when trying to leave her bed. But, having the great quality of perseverance, whilst Min Li had frowned, she started crawling on her elbows towards Jess who was still waiting for an answer to her question.
Jess had made an incredibly smart decision and backed away saying that she was going to try to find the crown prince herself.
Min Li had tried her very best and squeezed out a smile to the old doctor who had treated her when he went on his way to another patient. She had wanted to thank him properly, but she decided she would have to do it later.
Even when the old doctor had asked Min Li about Betti’s marital status, Min Li carried on frowning ignoring the pricking up of her ears.
Nothing could manage to turn her frown upside down.
So, Min Li was left to her own devices sitting on her bed. To pass the time she finally decided to read some of the book that Lily had left in her room.
Opening up a random page of ‘the crown prince and the maid’, not even bothering to turn to the start, Min Li started reading.
The skittish maid ran happily to the edge of the room.
“Prince, I am so glad that you have come to save me. Your love for me really knows no bounds.”
The prince looked around handsomely and said, “I would do anything for you. But what is it that you need me to save you from?”
At the mention of her fear, the maid jumped out and cried.
“Over there, can you not see it? It is too despicable for words.”
“Where? Show it to me and I will save you.”
“That,” the servant said pointing even more frantically.
The crown prince walked confidently towards the space that the maid, his one true love, had pointed. He surveyed the area and then seemed to finally find what the maid was talking about.
“Aaaahh,” the crown prince cried in a high pitch.
“I mean aaahhh,” the crown prince amended in a considerably lower pitch. “What a terrifying creature!”
The maid nodded lovingly.
The crown prince faced his own fears and walked towards the creature. “Aaaahhhh.”
The maid closed both her eyes and curled up even further in the corner worried for him.
“I have it. I have defeated your enemy.” The crown prince stated proudly.
“Wow, you are the greatest warrior in all the kingdom. Happiness found me when I met you, I knew you were brilliant. How did you manage to catch that terrifying ant?”
Min Li shut the book as quickly as she could when she got to the end of the page.
All that cooing for a prince, ridiculous. How can a servant be so happy to see a prince? Servants have code too; they are not as skittish as nobles. An ant taking her down. Ridiculous.
If Min Li had known that her image would be so smeared, she would have refused being a muse for such a useless story. Most people knew that she was Lily’s muse, she didn’t want people thinking she would cry for an ant.
The true story was more understandable.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Min Li and the crown prince had been young, of about six years of age. Min Li hadn’t been the biggest fan… was deathly afraid of rabbits. There was something about the way that the rabbit’s eyes were black and only black with no whites that freaked Min Li out.
The ant that Lily had written about was really a terrible rabbit, really shocking stuff.
The way that rabbit was chewing on grass in the corner of Min Li’s room was of course going to scare her. It looked at her from the side of one of its eyes and didn’t stop chewing as if making a threat.
Its two front legs were up tense in front of its chest holding the grass, as if at any moment it could drop the piece of grass and decide to throw a punch instead like an angry kangeroo.
No six-year-old would have been able to stay calm at the sight and Fenhua, Min Li’s best friend at the time, had been brave enough to move the rabbit out of the room for Min Li.
When Min Li had told Lily the story so many years after, she had expected Lily to really be able to appreciate the love and sincerity that Fenhua had put forth, instead of what it looked like in the book which was the author teasing the both of them.
If only if I hadn’t taken a cut of the money in the sale of the chronicles. Then I would march up to Lily and demand an explanation for how she has tarnished my image.
Min Li was pleased however, that to Lily’s credit, she didn’t seem to flatter the crown prince in her books as much as Min Li had thought she would have.
Not that her books could ever have the potential to make Min Li smile. Nothing could make her smile today, especially not a little story about a crown prince and a maid.
There was an unexpected knock on Min Li’s door. Before Min Li could answer to the knock, Fenhua walked in looking quite dapper in a garment that Min Li had never once seen Fenhua wear before.
Fenhua was also unsmiling, and Min Li was sure that he already knew that she was not in the best mood. Even with that knowledge Fenhua didn’t seem as if he was going to tiptoe around her.
Min Li reached out to pick up the book that Lily had left her and quickly placed it behind her back.
Fenhua looked at her and raised an eyebrow at her actions but did nothing to further question what she was hiding.
“Are you feeling better?”
At his question, Min Li couldn’t stop herself she smiled.
She was amazed at her own actions. She thought, I must really like him. A mere question asking her how she was that all other people that had visited her that day bar Jess had also asked, had broken her frown and turned it upside down.
Terrible. What does this mean for how I feel about Fenhua? And if I with a slightly hardened heart am able to be moved so easily this doesn’t bode well for other women out there walking around meeting men without such protection.
Looking at Min Li’s smile and feeling her happy emotions through their bond made Fenhua also break out in a grin.
They both continued smiling at each other, time passing by so quickly. It was amazing just how much time could pass when one was having fun.
Min Li was a true testament to this, while before she had struggled with even the passing of one minute, now she wished that time could pass even slower so that she could further enjoy looking into Fenhua’s eyes.
Even if time had totally stopped and they were stuck there looking at each other forever Min Li would be content. In the back of her head something was telling Min Li off for being so corny, but the rest of her brain was in agreeance to silence that part of her brain completely and continue on revelling in the love that she felt in her heart.
As if not by her own will, just like had happened with the incident at the power tree, Min Li stood up ready to move to Fenhua and embrace him.
But maybe it was not meant to be or maybe all the deeds that Min Li had come back to bite. As she moved towards Fenhua, the cover that she had been using went with her and with that her pillow and the things resting on her pillow with it.
To Min Li’s horror, the book fell out into the sight making a considerable amount of noise for how small it looked.
Min Li had forgotten about the book when she had been staring into Fenhua’s eyes. She had forgotten that she had a more serious mission than to gaze at the man, she should have been busy hiding the book from the man.
Min Li blushed, but Fenhua wasn’t looking at Min Li to care.
Fenhua’s eyes were down scanning the mess that Min Li had left in her wake.
His eyes were now looking at the book and Min Li was sure that he was now reading the title of the book.
He looked up to Min Li, but Min Li couldn’t really read his expression.
Maybe he was upset. Maybe, angry. Bewildered, it could have been. Slightly amused, could also be the right fit for the situation, she was embarrassed so it may not have been too far off.
Min Li tried to see whether she could understand what he was feeling through their bond, but because she was panicked and she was not yet as good as garnering information through their bond as Fenhua seemed to be, she still couldn’t tell what he was feeling.
One thing for certain, the loud noise when the book had dropped seemed to shock him out of the bubble that they were both previously in.
Unfortunately for Min Li, she was still in the bubble. She still wanted to look at him and him her and just smile.
But Fenhua seemed to no longer be playing ball.
“I actually came here today to inform you of something.”
“That would make sense, you may continue”
Fenhua again raised an eyebrow. And he was right to. Even Min Li didn’t know where her audacity had come from to be talking to the future king in such a manner. She wondered if maybe she was so embarrassed that she was overcompensating for it by how she was talking to him.
“I gather you are feeling fine. Good news. The queen has said that we should both attend a family dinner she is pulling together tonight in celebration that we both feel better.”
“Could you not have sent someone else to tell me this?”
Oh no. There it was again. Min Li’s brain was still on defence mode. Even though she was smiling and she did feel joy at the presence of Fenhua, she was still cringing from her latest mistake.
“The queen told me to inform you myself. The queen happens to be the most powerful person in the kingdom as well as my mother, so I decided to do as she said.”
“Yes. That makes total sense. You should definitely do as your mother and the queen, or rather who is also the queen, said.”
Nothing was coming out right. Min Li felt more awkward than she had ever felt before in her life and usually she felt the most comfortable with Fenhua no matter whether they were pretending to be friends or foes.
“Right.” Fenhua looked at Min Li in an emotion Min Li could definitely recognise. Confusion was all over his face. He obviously didn’t know why she was acting so differently than she normally did.
It was all becoming very apparent to Min Li what was happening. She had realised that she really liked him and her crush on him was fully back and it was completely bugging out her system.
It felt different to the crush that she had on him when she was young. Crushes as teenagers didn’t count because everyone knew that they could do nothing about it. A crush as an adult was different and Min Li’s body was slowly making that plain.
Fenhua smiled at Min Li in confusion and started moving towards the door.
Before he left, Min Li realised that they did have things to talk about that were a bit more important than her crush on him.
“Why do we both have marks on the nape of our necks?”
The crown prince stopped walking but didn’t look back at Min Li.
Fenhua sighed heavily still not looking back.
“Don’t worry about it. This is not your fight. I won’t let it be.”
With that he continued walking out of the room not even saying goodbye.
“FENHUA,” Min Li called out of her door which was slowly swinging shut, “I AM HAPPY THAT YOU ARE BETTER NOW TOO.”
What am I even saying? Min Li had spoken before she had thought and as a result what had come out of her mouth didn’t seem like the right thing to say in the situation.
It annoyed Min Li that even though Fenhua wouldn’t answer her questions, she still felt happy even at the look of his back. If truth be told, him not answering her questions made her feel strangely protected.
Solemnly, Min Li picked up the pillow and the blanket that had fallen on the floor. She curled up in a ball on her bed and covered herself not wanting to talk to anyone else for at least the next six hours.
The book she left on the floor as she thought it deserved.