“So, who is going to clean the far end of the garden? One of you will have to.”

The head maid of Eastern palace was pacing in front of the line of servants who were shifting nervously in front of her.

“Not I.”

“Not me.”

“I don’t think I am the person you are looking for.”

“I just got this new servant’s dress.” That remark was made by Min Li.

At the chorus of rejection, the head maid ceased her walking and instead stared at all the garden servants in front of her in turn.

“You have all refused to do your jobs. You have all refused to clean around the fabric of our powers, the power tree. I cannot believe the brazenness, the utter cheek of you people. Be warned, I will be telling the head maid of the entire palace.”

Go ahead. My butt-cheeks still hurt from my last encounter with Betti. I am sure she cannot do anymore damage than what she has already done.

“But as well as that, one of you still will be cleaning around the power tree. Instead, I am just going to have to pick one of you.”

Now that still presents a problem. Betti being mad at me, no issue. Fenhua being mad at me, big issue.

Min Li avoided eye contact with the maid. She was loyal to her man, now that she was set to be the queen.

Unfortunately, everyone else was also avoiding eye contact, putting Min Li on the same page as them.

The head maid carried on trying to pick a victim out.

“Lily...It's not you.”

What a cruel, cruel woman, Min Li thought. Playing games with our emotions, is she? Min Li had already been rejoicing when she had heard the woman say Lily’s name.

There was only 3 of them left Min Li had no idea who the woman was going to have to choose.

“Min Li.”

Min Li held her nerve as she engaged in a tense eye to eye battle with the woman.

“It’s not you,” the head maid finally said allowing Min Li to breathe out a sign of relief.

“Tom... it will be you.”

Min Li had already been checking out her nails not caring about the rest of the conversation now that she was safe, when she heard her name being thrown out into the mix.

“But-but-but, it’s Min Li’s job to do that. Really, I mean the words I say. She,” Tom pointed at Min Li. Min Li pointed at herself and bit back a gasp, “has been swapping jobs with everyone for the past week to avoid it.”

Min Li’s heart hurt. She couldn’t believe that she had been thrown under the boss by a man that she would have previously called a friend. And he had done it with no hesitation at all minus the little bit of stuttering at the start of his sentence, which was probably not even out of regret of what he was about to say, but rather fear at the thought of his own predicament. Had he not seen how she had been injured, at the brink of death, Min Li would go as far as to say dead, when she had interacted with the tree?

What hurt even more was that she was sure that she had done it to herself. She had put the fear of the tree into the boy when she had tried to check out the shields on multiple occasions. And now it was all coming back to bite.

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“Is that true?”

Min Li wondered whether word had gotten round to the Eastern palace’s head maid that Min Li was a potential candidate for the head concubine title.

She was sure that everyone was gossiping about her time on top of Fenhua from the moment that she had stepped off the field where she had been sword training. If Min Li was lucky, the rumours would have made its way to the woman standing in front of her and then the woman would be too scared to send Min Li to the tree and rather beg at Min Li’s feet for even considering her as a mere gardener.

“I asked is that true?”

“Yes,” snake two said.

“Uh-huh,” snake three followed.

“It happened just as a said,” the lead snake stated his position once again.

“If that is the case then I have no choice than to say that you Min Li have to clean up the end of the garden. You have to clean it up today and you have to clean it up fast.”

“Ugh,” Min Li bit out.

There was no way that she could do it. Fenhua wouldn’t be happy with her and now that she was going to be the future queen, she didn’t want that. In fact, she had put all thoughts of powers and the like to the side. Being the queen was decidedly better than being able to shoot a weak flow of water out of a palm. When Min Li had seen the lack of things that her friends could do besides the power tree last time, she had no idea why she had made any of the fuss she had previously at all.

Min Li was sure that the crown prince would not allow her to if she told him what mere peasants were making her do. But as the kind, gentle, patient future queen she was, Min Li decided to take pity on the Eastern palace head maid in front of her, and just do what the woman had told her to.

….

On her way to the end of the garden, Min Li had been going through a change of heart.

It was clearly meant to be. She was meant to find out the exact reason that the crown prince didn’t want her going near to the power tree again. Otherwise, she would not have been sent. Especially not after the task evading her at first.

“Oopsie daisy. Little old me just can’t help it this time,” Min Li sang to herself making sure to pout sadly in resignation and victimhood just in case the crown prince caught her in the act of moving to the end of the garden.

The power tree had changed a little bit. Nothing noticeable but it had changed none the less. It seemed to be sparkling and shining even more as if it had been delivered the greatest fertiliser in all the three kingdoms.

Not only had the power tree appeared to have undergone magnificent changes, even the grass around the power tree looked vibrant and healthy, but the air around the power tree seemed to be more clean, free from pollutants.

Looking down at her own hands, Min Li realised that the skin of her hands appeared to be silky smooth and glowing. The result of a good skincare routine? She didn’t think so. Since she had become a servant, it made it even worse that she was a gardener, she had discovered that no one cared for the quality of her skin. They just wanted her to get her work done.

Min Li realised that everything connected to her senses, which was absolutely everything, seemed heightened.

Now she definitely hadn’t been given the greatest nutrients for such a change to occur. She had discovered that servants were subjected to only eating in a one-hour interval during the working day. It was absolutely preposterous. Min Li was aggrieved for all her fellow servants, and she had decided that one day she would take a stand against said unfair treatment. A shame, she had thought. When I become queen, I will... make sure that I don’t have to eat confined to such rules.

No matter the reason that Min Li was feeling the way that she was, her body moved towards the power tree.

Min Li hmphed as she discovered that there were no fallen leaves in that part of the garden. There was nothing around for Min Li to clean. The head maid of Eastern palace had made Min Li travel there using false pretences.

Though there was nothing left to clear up, something deep inside her told her to carry on walking. She winced fearing a sting from the power tree’s shield. Fortunately for her, no sting came, and she was free to move even closer towards the tree.

“We meet again. Just you and me my old pal,” Min Li tried to coax the tree into divulging any interesting information it knew to her. How it would? It was a tree, an inanimate object. Min Li had no idea. But she figured that she might as well try. Trees also don’t glue a person to themselves. But this tree had proven that it didn’t like to submit to stereotypes.

Remembering the problems that the power tree put her through last time, when Min Li got close enough to the perpetrator, she started to her plans of revenge low enough that if anyone was watching they would not hear.

“Let's see if you can defeat me again. That; I highly doubt. I will ruin you; I will pick your leaves. Let’s see how you do against an axe.”

Min Li rose her voice to a whisper shout to make sure that the tree’s attention was on all on her.

“I WILL PUT YOU IN YOUR PLACE. I WILL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH.”

To make sure her threat was coming across as lethal as she intended it to be, Min Li raised her fist planning on striking the tree into repentance.

What happened then was comically absurd. Surreal at best. Frighteningly freaky at worst.