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Chapter 1: Pain was a good motivator

In a courtyard, a fourteen -year-old girl could be seen training hard in knife throwing.

Aside from the occasional 'thud' sound, the courtyard was a quiet atmosphere, accompanied by the occasional sounds of birds tweeting or insects cricking. The sun had not risen yet, and the morning mist kept the girl from sweating too much.

This sight was truly rare in the Third Prince's residence, for this young lady was rumored to be silly, lazy, and unworthy of her high-ranked position.

The young lady with heavy labels pinned on her was the Third Prince's personal maid, who was also the one that the prince had treated as if she was his favorite concubine candidate in most people's eyes.

The kindness and everlasting patience whenever Xiao Hua made a mistake was always tolerated by the Third Prince. As a maid, she should have long been punished since her very first mistake, but their master just overlooked it and had others do things for her instead.

This treatment was even better than how the Third Prince treated his full blooded sister, who had considered him as her favourite brother!

In the end, they could only conclude that Xiao Hua was someone special to the Third Prince. Whether Xiao Hua could be something more would depend on the Third Prince.

"Xiao Hua." A sexy-looking lady with a voice that was designed to seduce, approached Xiao Hua with a cotton cloth on her hand. Her beauty mark at the corner of the mouth was rather eye-catching under the early morning light. "The sun is ris-ing."

Xiao Hua stopped her training and gave her personal assistant a tired smile. It was weird to have a personal maid under a servant. But if she thought of it in another way, it was likely that most high-ranked and snobby maids usually treated the lower rank servants under them as their minions.

"Okay." Let's hope that Duan Xi Ying has no desire to kill her as most minions do towards their seniors.

Duan Xi Ying gently wiped Xiao Hua's sweat from her face and neck before steering her towards the pavilion to rest and drink some warm tea. After checking that Xiao Hua's hands were free from cuts, Duan Xi Ying headed back to the training ground.

The pain was a good motivator for Xiao Hua to train how to summon her knives out from the bracelet in a timely and proper manner. The period of mastering the summoning was a painful one.

While drinking warm tea, a pair of wide, bright eyes followed the form of the voluptuous woman that was moving around to pick up the scattered knives. Xiao Hua sighed and refilled her cup. If one did not know, they would assume Duan Xi Ying as the master and Xiao Hua the little servant girl if only their appearance were judged.

After being fed with good food, Xiao Hua's height was now a hundred and forty-five cm tall. There was also a hint of feminine curves being developed, giving Xiao Hua mixed feelings. Soon, her aunt [1] would make its existence known and whether it would be an overly antagonist aunt or a nice aunt will depend on her new body's fate.

"The Third Prince had mentioned about taking Xiao Hua along to the palace to join the celebration." Duan Xi Ying handed the knives to Xiao Hua.

With a touch, the knives returned into her bracelets' spatial dimension. The knives that Jing Ke had made were beautiful and extremely durable. No matter how many times she had thrown them, they suffered no damage, still sharp as ever.

There was one time she had tried to pull out all the knives from her space to count them, but it seemed to be endless as the room quickly filled up with the dangerous weapons without any sign of ending.

Tomorrow would be New Year's Eve, as well as the Third Prince's seventeenth birthday. There would be a birthday feast in the palace the next morning.

"But... that would not be a good idea, would it?" Xiao Hua asked worriedly.

She could comprehend that the Empress was already displeased with her when Long Lian complained that the Empress refused to let them celebrate their birthdays together. Then the news of the Eighth Prince gifting a cow to the Third Prince's personal maid had the dark clouds gathering at the heads' of the Emperor and Empress.

When the Third Prince, Long Lian, and the Eighth Prince headed to the palace after the small birthday party for Long Lian in the Third Prince's residence, the Emperor immediately summoned the Third Prince to his study. The Third Prince only left in the early morning and no one knew what occurred inside the study, but it did not stop anyone from speculating about it.

The most famous rumour was that the Third Prince's personal maid had seduced the Eighth Prince and the 'beast' was proof of the Eighth Prince's love towards her!

There were a few versions of the same story created and spread around, romancing the Eighth Prince and the Third Prince's personal maid's relationship.

It was expected that many would be curious about the Third Prince's personal maid and wondered how beautiful she would be for successfully capturing the young Eighth Prince's heart.

Just when the romantic stories were reaching the growth rate in the market, the storyteller suddenly disappeared and the newly published books were confiscated. No one knew what happened but since then, no one dared to speak a word about the Eighth Prince and the Third Prince's personal maid.

Duan Xi Ying smiled. "Xi Ying is happy that Xiao Hua understands!"

When Duan Xi Ying did not say anything further and just smiled at her encour-agingly, something finally clicked in Xiao Hua's mind.

So I have to discourage him?!

"I... I will try my best.."

"Let's get Xiao Hua clean then~"

It felt like only a few seconds had passed for her to clean up when Xiao Hua found herself seated beside the Third Prince inside his room with breakfast spread out on the table. The stubborn frown on the Third Prince's face was similar to Long Lian's, proving that they were indeed siblings.

Xiao Hua carefully picked up a slice of smoked duck using a pair of clean silver chopsticks and placed it onto the Third Prince's bowl of porridge. It was pretty amusing that the Third Prince that disliked rice would surprisingly favour porridge for breakfast every day.

"Your Highness, this servant's presence would disturb the Emperor and Empress' mood. It would be best if I remain in the manor." She kept her voice light and cheerful, showing that she did not mind being exempted from the grand celebration.

Le Xiao Ting was not a social bee, preferring the enjoyment from reading novels instead of making friends. Being Xiao Hua did not change that. At least in her original world, she got to stick to the food corner in a party and eat to her heart's content, but in this world, she would have to pay full attention in serving the Third Prince and make sure she did not make any mistakes that would embarrass her master.

It was already tiring just from thinking about it.

"Tomorrow is this prince's birthday. They would allow me to do things that would make me happy."

Spoken just like a favourite and spoilt child!

"Master," An Jing spoke up when Xiao Hua did not seem to be able to change the Third Prince's mind. "Elder Sister Hua would need time to prepare the fried rice for you to dine. If she joins the morning celebration, Elder Sister Hua would not have enough time to finish cooking it."

She does not need to take a half day to cook fried rice. It took a long time that day because she was not used to cooking!

The other important matter was, since when did Xiao Hua agree to cook fried rice for the Third Prince?

The frown on his face finally cleared and was replaced with considering one before finally nodding in agreement. "Alright. This prince will let Xiao Hua stay to cook. I will bring back snacks for you."

The Third Prince rubbed Xiao Hua's head, seemingly misunderstanding something.

Did he think that Xiao Hua wanted to join the celebration? Or did he believe she wanted to go just to eat delicious snacks?

Xiao Hua felt that her reputation was in danger!

Chapter 2: But this is obviously a trap, isn't it?

Once again, Xiao Hua was inside the kitchen, cooking her 'specialty' fried rice. This time, it was for the Third Prince.

It was actually nerve-wracking to cook a simple dish inside a currently busy kitchen, where all the chefs that were under the Third Prince's payroll were busy cooking their master's favourite dishes.

Every servant inside the manor was running around in an orderly manner trying to complete their task, and it was actually nice to watch how they never bumped into anyone with their fast-paced movement.

To have everyone in the Third Prince's manor to be this busy was natural because today was the Third Prince's seventeenth birthday and also New Year's Eve. The cooks had separated into two factions; one for the Third Prince's party and another for the New Year.

The Third Prince, with his inner maids and shadow guards, had entered the palace early in the morning, leaving Xiao Hua at a corner inside the kitchen that was specially prepared for her.

Nearby her spot, a chef was making longevity noodles with a stressed appearance as he had to make sure the noodles were not broken and another chef was making dumplings with boiled eggs beside him.

Xiao Hua silently stared at the fried rice she managed to cook, done in one try and it took less than two hours. Is her birthday dish too simple?

The Third Prince had decided that there would be a simple celebration tonight in the manor so that Xiao Hua could celebrate his birthday. She felt a little touched he would do this for her.

"Are you done, Elder Sister Hua?" A female chef assistant with a sweat covered face asked in a friendly manner. She kept wiping her face with a napkin but the new beads of sweat appeared not long after.

"Yes, I've just finished."

"I will help you carry it to the Pearl Courtyard. Sir Da Bei is waiting outside for you."

Xiao Hua was not clear when it started, but Da Bei kept on following her every-where, acting like her loyal guard dog. It was actually weird to have an eight-year-old boy as her bodyguard.

"Thank you!" Xiao Hua left her fried rice to the female chef assistant and headed out of the kitchen quickly to avoid being an obstacle for those chef assistants that were hurrying back and forth, in order to gather ingredients for the main chefs.

Spotting Xiao Hua, Da Bei jumped down from the rooftop silently. "Lady Duan has already prepared your bath. She needs to help out somewhere."

"Got it." Everyone was busy indeed.

"Da Bei!" Da An appeared in a flash and intercepted them on their way to Xiao

Hua's room. "Uncle Xiao Liu wants to brief us about tomorrow's escort position." Xiao Liu was actually Da Liu's younger brother, making him the twins' uncle.

"Elder Sister Hua?" Da Bei questioned.

"Uncle Xiao Liu did not say..." Da An stared at Xiao Hua with a frown.

Giving the twins a reassuring smile, Xiao Hua promised, "I will just stay in my room until Da Bei returns."

"That settles it then!" Da An nodded happily but Da Bei was reluctant to leave his charge.

"Don't go anywhere." Da Bei made Xiao Hua promise before leaving with Da An.

The stinky and sweaty Xiao Hua immediately made a beeline to her room and did not stop until she reached the bathing area, where a wooden tub filled with soothing warm water was waiting for her. She soaked in the water until it turned cold before finally dragging her lazy ass out of the water.

Dressed in nicer attire than the usual uniform that was already laid out for her on the bed, Xiao Hua called out to Da Bei but received no response. It seemed like she would need to wait for a bit longer. The sun was going down and soon the Third Prince would be back anyway, so she could stay in her room until then.

Sitting in front of her cosmetic table, she carefully combed her long wet hair. The smell of lavender was from her hair, which was thanks to one of a few varieties of hair oil that were given to her. It helped to smooth her hair and unravel the tangles that were the enemy of combs. After some time of using it, her hair turned darker and glossier from the usage, delighting Xiao Hua's inner vanity.

Just as she was pulling the top drawer of the cosmetic table open to pick a ribbon, she noticed something was out of place. The very bottom of the drawer was not closed properly. Xiao Hua tended to make sure any doors or cupboards closed properly after using them.

Le Xiao Ting was a paranoid person. The darkness in the closet conjured fear, and her imagination would run wild about how scary beings would jump out of her closet to kill her. But of course, the scary things that did jump out were either cockroaches, lizards or bugs.

Senses tingling with her guard shot high up, she slowly opened the drawer and found the royal blue pouch that she had planned to give the Third Prince was gone!

In place of it was a piece of folded paper. She did not waste any time unfolding and reading the contents. The Eighth Prince found it fun to teach Xiao Hua some Chinese words because it also meant that he could insult her whenever she made a mistake.

His mockery and teasing strangely worked well as a motivator for her to learn faster.

'If you want your pouch back, go to the Autumn Courtyard's storage room.' She only recognized 'pouch', 'go', 'autumn' and 'storage room', but she managed to get the meaning. The thief wanted her to go somewhere.

This was obviously a trap, right? But who had sent this? Whoever was it must have wanted to use her to get to the Third Prince.

If this young lady follows what you say, I must be stupid!

However, this situation was something Le Xiao Ting had never experienced before.

There was a feeling of excitement bubbling in her heart and only a small quarter of common sense managed to rein in her adventurous spirit.

With her hair remaining loose as till now, she could not master the skill in tying her new hairstyle without making it crooked, so she could only patiently wait for Da Bei or Duan Xi Ying to arrive. It was only logical to leave the letter and her hair to the expert.

But someone obviously disagreed with her choice and shot a short arrow into the room after piercing the rice paper of a window.

Luckily, Xiao Hua's eyes saw it coming and quickly jumped out of the way, but the arrow managed to graze her left cheek before hitting the pillar of her bed. Hissing sharply from the pain, she touched the wound gingerly and her fingers came back with blood. At this time, she missed Da Bei and Duan Xi Ying the most!

Spotting a tied letter on the arrow that had offended her, she ripped it off and unfolded it none too gently.

'Go to Autumn Courtyard or you will die.'

This time she was able to understand every word.

Bold and straightforward, this young lady will repay this 'generosity'!

After more or less stopping the blood on her cheek, she peeked out of her window, not from the new hole that the arrow made, despite it being rather tempting to do so, and saw an empty courtyard.

She debated whether she should change into her uniform before heading out to an unknown adventure, but the chance of getting shot by an arrow in a half-dressed state... it would be embarrassing if it happened.

Xiao Hua decided she could use this chance to get used to fighting with long sleeves, but it would be better to remove the beautiful outer robe made of thin, see-through fabric. It would be a waste to destroy this beautiful outer robe.

Rolling up her long sleeves, her fingers searched for laundry clips from a drawer and used it to keep her sleeves from hindering her movement. Leaving the second letter on the table in case she went missing, she headed towards the kitchen where there would be a lot of people.

Yet again, she managed to move her feet away just in time before an arrow could pierce through it. Xiao Hua whirled around, trying to spot the attacker but she saw no one. Even her sharp eyesight could not spot any irregularity.

Isn't she a precious hostage?!

The arrow has another letter. 'Go to Autumn Courtyard now.'

The crooked letters conveyed the writer's anger. Xiao Hua noticed a feminine perfume clinging onto the letter, betraying the gender of the attacker. She placed the letter back to the arrow that was still embedded on the floor, pushing the arrow deeper to make it harder for the attacker to pull it out if her attacker chooses to hide the evi-dence.

After doing all that, she slowly headed to the Autumn Courtyard, buying herself some time. It would be good if she encountered someone and rescued her!

She had never gone to Autumn Courtyard before as that was a restricted area for everyone. Not even Long Lian had stepped a foot into it before. Either it was a memorial place where the Third Prince wanted to preserve them, or it was a courtyard with dangerous things.

Planning to buy more time, she dragged her legs and nearly had a hole drilled into her right leg.

This shit-!

Xiao Hua was just about to throw her knives at the possible places where her attacker could have hidden, but suddenly the arrows were continuously coming and she had no choice but dodge them as best as she could.

Luckily Duan Xi Ying had trained her stamina or else she would have died looking like a porcupine.

When the arrow finally slowed down, Xiao Hua realized she had stepped into an unknown courtyard with a letter 'autumn' written on a signboard hanging above.

Chapter 3: Led around like a cow

Xiao Hua felt very annoyed and had no idea how to vent it out. She was led around like a cow to where the attacker wanted her to be!

The sound of light footsteps disturbed her self-anger moment. A tall, skinny boy wearing worn-out clothes stopped in his tracks upon noticing her, staring at her cautiously as if Xiao Hua would scold him. From his attire, she recognized that he was one of the Third Prince's lower-ranked servants, but this was the first time she saw someone wearing such a threadbare uniform.

From all those months she had stayed with the Third Prince, she never saw him treat his servants badly and made sure they had good quality products to make their life comfortable. In return, they would need to work hard for him.

Was this boy being bullied?

Xiao Hua decided to say something when the boy did not look like he would talk anytime soon. "Are you the one that called me over to this place?"

Could it be he wanted to use her to complain about being bullied right to the big boss?

The boy's eyes widened like a goldfish's and shook his head fiercely. "I did not know you would be here!"

"Then why are you here? This courtyard is forbidden for anyone to enter."

Fearing he would be slandered if he spoke a second too late, he spoke as fast as a bullet. "I was asked to collect the fireworks from the storage."

Xiao Hua found it hard to believe this boy, as it was too much of a coincidence that he was heading to the storage as well. With a friendly smile, she said, "What a coinci-dence! I'm heading for the storage room too, so let's go together!"

"..Alright." His face showed his reluctance but did not reject her because of their position difference. Everyone in the Third Prince's residence recognized their master's personal maid since An Jing had introduced her to everyone during her first day.

Xiao Hua felt that he might be the one that threatened her so she would wait until he started talking. If he was not the one, it did not matter since he could be her guide to lead her to the storage and a companion for this adventure.

The thought of getting his consent without further explanation did not cross her mind at all. His 'alright' was equivalent to 'yes' in her mind.

Xiao Hua felt as if she had met the boy before, but it was more towards having a vague feeling of remembering someone she had seen once in the past.

"What's your name? My name is Xiao Hua."

"I know your name. I'm Er Yen."

"Nice to meet you!"

Er Yen glanced at Xiao Hua from the corner of his eyes, expecting her to recognize him, but there was no hint of recognition on her face upon hearing his name. He slowly relaxed when she still had no inkling of who he was.

"Why are you walking around with your hair like that?" Er Yen awkwardly stared at her loose hair with half of it already dried from her unplanned walk. Her hair was messy from the clumsy dodging earlier but she looks sort of cute that way. Fortu-nately, her laundry clips were still firmly attached onto her sleeves.

Xiao Hua touched her loose hair and remembered that she had not tied them up.

She had not thought about her hair earlier due to the demanding arrows, but it was also due to Le Xiao Ting that was pretty much used to not tying her hair up in public during non-working hours.

"I forgot," Xiao Hua said casually as she pulled out a ribbon from her bracelet.

Thankfully she could store something inside her spatial dimension apart from the knives.

She tied her hair into a high ponytail, feeling a bit fondness for the familiarity of the swinging sensation. It might be a psychological problem, but for Le Xiao Ting, she found that the difference in hairstyle affected her productivity. Untied hair made her lazier and ladylike while the ponytail made her more alert and willing to move more.

Er Yen's confusion turned to a mixture of understanding and pity. Looks like Elder Sister Hua is a stupid person like the rumours said.

"Why are there fireworks stored in this forbidden courtyard?" Xiao Hua asked curiously.

"If the fireworks are accidentally lit and damage the other goods, it would be bad. We are here."

Although this courtyard was a forbidden area, the place showed signs of someone having the place cleaned quite often.

Er Yen removed a bunch of keys from his sleeve and unlocked the lock with chains around the handle of the storage door. With the lock and chain in his hand, he walked into the storage room with the confidence of a person that had been into this place be-fore. He headed straight to a corner where the fireworks were placed on the top shelf away from the window and other items in the room.

Xiao Hua stepped into the storage room, after seeing no one around. Perhaps the blue pouch was hidden inside? But with just a glance around the mostly unoccupied room, she could see that her pouch was not likely to be here.

"Are you looking for something?" Er Yen asked when Xiao Hua was looking and shifting things around as if searching for something. He had gotten what he needed here but if she remained in here, he could not lock up the storage.

"A blue pouch - look out!" Xiao Hua watched in horror as the firework in Er Yen's arms suddenly sparked and the rope attached to the firework lit up.

Er Yen's reaction was quick, throwing the fireworks away, but the fire was even quicker. No one noticed when the door had closed, but no matter how Xiao Hua tried to push open the door using her back and shoulder, it only trembled from her force, refusing to open.

Her ears rang from the loud bang coming from the firecrackers and the sparklers flew everywhere with some hitting Xiao Hua and Er Yen.

"We need to get out of here!" Er Yen shouted urgently. He used his sleeves to cover his head from the sparklers and dashed to the windows. He easily broke the windows apart and quickly gestured to Xiao Hua.

"Quick!"

Ignoring the painful sensation from the sparklers, Xiao Hua quickly ran towards the new escape path and with the help of Er Yen, she was able to climb out of the stor-

"Grab my hand!" Xiao Hua extended a hand for Er Yen to grab onto.

But something suddenly exploded inside the room, separating their hands. The force pushed Xiao Hua far away, but Er Yen was still inside the storage room. The fire had grown larger and fiercely ate everything it could burn. The sight terrified Xiao Hua.

Should she go in and help? The fire was spreading too fast and she might get killed too if she ran in. No one was around to help and Er Yen might have already died from that explosion. If she went in, she might have wasted her efforts-

"Xiao Hua!" The scream coming from inside the storage was filled with desper-ation. His voice was weak and hoarse from inhaling too much smoke.

But that scream successfully woke Xiao Hua up from her cowardice. With trembling limbs, she stood up and ran back towards the burning building. The window she had escaped from could no longer be used.

She ran towards the area where the fire had not spread yet, which was the locked entrance. Her eyes widened when she saw someone had placed a long, thick wood over the handles to lock them in!

Eyes turning stony, she put away the knowledge that this accident was clearly an attempted murder, and focused on the important matter. She quickly removed the thick wood and pushed open the door.

"Er Yen!" Xiao Hua called out as the smoke had gotten too thick for her to see any-thing. The fire was aggressive, generating more heat and smoke which was suffo-cating, but she pushed herself to step in to look for Er Yen.

Her instinct was telling her to run, but her heart was screaming that he needed her help!

She pulled out a knife from her spatial dimension and used it to cut a large part of her sleeves to cover her mouth and nose with it. There was no water around so this would have to do. She got down to her knees and started crawling around the floor to look for Er Yen.

"Er Yen! Answer me!" The smoke filled her lungs the more she yelled, but she must not stop.

Her hand bumped into something and much to her joy, it was Er Yen! He was unconscious and one of the heavy shelves had fallen onto his lower body.

"Er Yen... Er Yen!" Tears quickly pooled in her eyes but she forced them back in.

She must not break down. There was no time for her being weak!

Her body struggled to lift the shelf but something seemed to be holding down the shelf. Whatever it was, it was too heavy for the first rank cultivator like Xiao Hua to push away.

"Somebody, help!" Xiao Hua shouted. Despite doing her best to call for help, no one appeared. Autumn Courtyard was a restricted area where no servants were allowed to enter.

Perhaps no one would even notice the fire until it was too late.

Xiao Hua grew desperate as she felt herself growing weaker and weaker, as the fire became brighter and brighter. It was even harder to breathe now.

Was she going to die?

She felt her body growing cold as her sight slowly filled with black dots. She tried to blink the dots away, but the black dots expanded until they covered her vision completely in black. Her body started to sway, no longer able to hold herself upright.

During the last moment before the darkness overtook her, she felt someone break her fall. She wanted to open her eyes but she could not stop herself from sinking into the dark silence.

Chapter 4: My little flower would never betray me

When An Wan was just halfway finished with her emergency report, the Third Prince suddenly disappeared, leaving the carriage empty of the occupant. She turned to ask An Jing something, but the older woman was currently busy ordering everyone to hasten the speed to return to the Third Prince's residence.

"Sister An Wan, head straight to Autumn Courtyard with some trusted guards to help with the clean-up."

"Leave it to me, Sister An Jing."

Luckily, all the guards that had travelled with the Third Prince to the palace were trusted guards, allowing An Wan to easily pick a few of them, along with the unyielding Da Bei that insisted on following her.

It was only supposed to be a brief discussion with Uncle Xiao Liu about tomorrow's escort plans, but he was pulled along to escort the Third Prince from the palace back to the manor. Da An said nothing would happen to Xiao Hua inside the Third Prince manor that was filled with their own people, and that convinced Da Bei.

Now, Da Bei regrets leaving Elder Sister Hua alone.

"You are wasting time, Aunt An Wan," Da Bei said solemnly, his eyes looking as if chastising her.

An Wan gave in after that and with their cultivation, they managed to return to the Third Prince's residence in a short time.

The first thing their sharp nose could smell was smoke and the lingering scent of blood that only high cultivation guards such as them could detect. The fire was out, leaving the storage building with only a quarter safe from being blackened.

Seeing that there were no occupants around, An Wan ordered the guards to find any evidence of what happened and made sure no one approached the site.

An Wan could guess where both of her masters and the two injured individuals would be. Realizing that she had forgotten to summon a doctor for the patients, she turned to Da Bei.

"Da Bei, quickly summon a doctor!"

"No need, An Wan. The young prince had already done so."

Hearing the familiar voice inside her head, she was relieved. "No need, Da Bei..." An Wan gave the boy a glare when she noticed he had not even moved an inch after she told him to fetch a doctor.

"An Wan, come over to my room."

"Yes, mistress!" An Wan hurried towards her Mistress' chamber with Da Bei stick- ing close.

"Master, this is A Wan and Da Bei." An Wan announced their arrival before a door.

"Enter."

An Wan gently pushed the door open and ushered Da Bei in before closing the door behind them. Da Bei immediately knelt down until his forehead touched the ground.

The room was filled with the smell of medicine, smoke, and blood. An Wan spotted Xiao Hua on the bed with the Third Prince holding up her upper body as he tried to push a pill into the unresponsive girl's mouth.

"Long Zhu, you will end up choking her. Wait for the doctor to come first." A beautiful lady in her mid-twenties with bright red lips and sharp eyes chastised him. She was dressed in red, with feathers sewed at the ends of her sleeves and collar of her robe. Her hair was the colour of the red wine with half of it pinned into a loose bun, with a golden phoenix hairpin securing it.

"A Wan, when I rescued her, she was with another person. He's in the other room," the lady in red informed

"I will go and identify him." An Wan gave her master and mistress a deep bow before heading to the next room.

"Stay guard outside," the Third Prince said without looking at Da Bei. He gently placed Xiao Hua back down on the bed and his eyes never left her unresponsive form.

"Yes, master." Da Bei could not bring himself to look at Xiao Hua and silently left the room to keep guard outside.

The room was silent until the Third Prince spoke up. "Thank you, Feng Jiu."

"It's noisy and disturbed my nap so I went to take a look."

"Did you see anyone?" the Third Prince asked casually but his whole body was emitting a dangerous vibe.

"I arrived right before she fainted. I did not spot anyone but then, I was in a hurry to rescue them and put out the fire, before informing you through A Wan." Feng Jiu halted, and her beautiful eyes blinked as she received a message in her mind. "An Wan managed to identify that boy. His name is Er Yen, one of the Munzhu's hostages."

The Third Prince's body grew tense as his killing intent filled the room.

"Calm down, Long Zhu," Feng Jiu admonished. "If that boy meant her harm, do you think she would risk her life to rescue him? She was trying to push the shelf away from him."

"She is a kind person."

"You know her best, but until either of them wakes up, we cannot randomly guess."

Feng Jiu stared at the door. "The doctor is here."

An Wan stepped out of the room next door to receive the doctor, but when she saw the person that led the doctor in, she felt the urge to snap that girl's neck and tie up the loose ends.

Si Si stepped forward and curtsied. "Elder Sister An Wan, everyone is busy and I was sent to bring the doctor here."

An Wan nodded at Da Bei and he allowed the doctor into the room.

"Elder Sister An Wan," Si Si called out before An Wan returned back to the other room.

"Is there anything else?"

"I... I found something that might relate to Elder Sister Hua's injury."

"What do you mean?" An Wan asked coldly.

Si Si hurriedly held up a crumpled paper. "I picked this up when Elder Sister Hua dropped it yesterday!"

The door opened slowly with a loud creak and the Third Prince stepped out, his bright blue attire created a gentle and carefree image but his face carried nothing tranquil on it at all.

Si Si unconsciously stepped back in fear.

"Let this prince see what's in that paper that harmed my little maid."

An Wan took the paper from Si Si and handed it to the Third Prince. He unfolded it and his eyes lazily read the content. His expression remained the same till the end of the letter and he handed it to An Wan with an air of dismissal.

"Burn it."

Seeing that the Third Prince had reacted differently than she had predicted, Si Si spoke up. "Your Highness, please don't be angry with Elder Sister Hua! She's just a girl in love with Er Yen! That fire must have been set by Er Yen!"

Si Si's heart was overjoyed when he patiently waited for her to finish talking. The Third Prince was listening to her!

Originally, she had only wanted to frame Xiao Hua for having a relationship with Er Yen, but seeing such a great opportunity to get rid of her permanently, she did not hesitate to shoot an arrow with fire at the rope, lighting up the fireworks.

Much to her disappointment, Xiao Hua was tough and refused to die easily. But Si Si was already satisfied with this outcome.

Her confidence rising, she continued on, "Er Yen had never liked Guilin and his heart is always with Munzhu. I... I had tried to change Elder Sister Hua's mind to be with Er Yen but she did not heed my warnings-"

"Da Bei."

Da Bei stepped forward with a straight back, ready to do whatever his master said.

"Yes, Master."

"Break every bone in her before sending her to South Guilin Village."

Si Si stared at the Third Prince in the same way one stared at a monster. "Your Highness, why..?"

"Tian Zi."

Tian Zi stepped out from her hiding place and bowed. "Master, I found traces of a sloppy cover-up in Elder Sister Hua's room. The cover-up could not hide the signs of arrows shot into the room and along the way towards the Autumn Courtyard." The attacker was smart to choose a longer route to the Autumn Courtyard where no one would be around as everyone would use the shorter routes today.

"Have everyone questioned, including those people that are familiar with Er Yen."

"Yes, Master!"

"Why.....why don't you believe me, Your Highness?" Si Si exclaimed. "I've shown you the proof of her betraying you with Er Yen!"

The Third Prince chuckled with dark amusement. "Betray? My little flower would never betray me."

He was the only one in this world she could trust and depend on. There would never be another person in this world that would adore her as he did. His little flower was a sensible girl albeit a bit slow in her head, but that was what he liked about her.

And this insignificant maid dared to slander his naive little flower?

With a flick of his sleeve, he sent a small dark red seed towards Si Si, easily piercing into her flesh. As soon as the seed soaked with her blood, it started to bloom and spread, seeking more blood to help it grow.

Si Si screamed and fell to the ground as the painful pressure kept spreading inside her. It felt as if something was sucking her blood dry yet at the same time, something was growing inside her!

How is this possible?! When did the Third Prince get this strong?

Si Si guessed that it was the 'Spider Lily' seed that was attacking insides, based on what she had read in a book. But it would need at least a fifth rank Plant Cultivator to use the seed! The strongest cultivator that was ever born in the Guilin Kingdom was Seventh Rank and the current Emperor was only fourth rank!

"Da Bei, make sure she remains alive after you are done."

"Why?!" Si Si screamed like a mad person with messy clothes and hair as she had rolled on the ground trying to withstand the pain. "Why her? I'm better than her!" Da Bei roughly pulled her off the ground and Si Si screamed from the pain.

"She should have died in the fire!"

"Remove her tongue."

With a small flash of silver, Si Si's tongue was cut in half and it dropped to the ground. Her whole body twisted in agony and her throat made a terrifying sound. The blood flowed like a river from her mouth, quickly forming a pool of blood around her.

"Make sure she's alive and conscious to feel the pain," the Third Prince kindly re-minded. His 'Spider Lily' would not kill her as long as he did not order it to kill its host. 

"And someone needs to clean this up before Xiao Hua notices anything."

"Yes, Master." An Wan was glad that she was moving on from her love towards her master or else her heart would break as she witnessed the Third Prince's affection towards Xiao Hua.

It was only a matter of time before Xiao Hua married the Third Prince.

Chapter 5: Who is Long Zhu?

"Xiao Ting, wake up." A familiar voice said in a demanding and annoyed tone.

Eyes fluttered for a second before the lid parted, Le Xiao Ting dazedly stared at the good looking guy sitting opposite her. "Third Prince?"

"What 'Third Prince'? Are you too amazed by my existence and imagined me to be a prince?"

That familiar sharp tongue and indifference expression. It was not her gentle and kind Third Prince.

"Boss?" Le Xiao Ting stared in confusion.

He Zhu sighed in exasperation. "I'm still amazed at how you could sleep in such a noisy place."

Le Xiao Ting blinked and finally noticed that they were in her high school cafeteria, with students lining up to buy food or chattering with friends as they ate. She and He Zhu were sitting among the crowd.

"President?"

"You're finally awake," He Zhu said dryly as he rolled his eyes. "You are just like a pig, sleeping right after you finish eating. Do you forget you're still not done with your task."

"Task?" Le Xiao Ting was confused. Was she back to her original world? But why would she go back to her high school days? Did the transmigration business go wrong?

He Zhu finally lost his patience and flicked a finger at Le Xiao Ting's forehead.

"Stop daydreaming and get going!"

He Zhu stood up and marched out of the cafeteria, not at all self-conscious at how the female students would blush and whisper among themselves as he passed by them. He was used to it.

Le Xiao Ting stood up and shook the sleepiness away before chasing after him. The unfriendly and hostile gazes focused on her were as unnerving as ever. There was one time, where the fangirls decided to be violent to threaten her to stay away from He Zhu but lucky for her, he found out and decided to have a 'talk' with the clingy girls.

Since then, his fangirls always glared at her but did not approach to scare her away from him.

Now that she thought about it, it was as if her fate was to be his underling. She met him during her high school days, with her one year younger than him. In high school, she called him 'President' and in the workplace, she called him 'Boss'.

They stepped into the student council room, which was surprisingly empty of occu-pants. Normally during break time, the student council room was always filled with council members catching up with their duties.

He Zhu stepped closer to a desk and slammed his palm down on the tall stack of papers.

"You did not finish passing out the flyers," He Zhu's voice was filled with annoy-ance, causing Le Xiao Ting's younger body to flinch involuntarily.

Sadly, that was a normal reaction for Le Xiao Ting whenever He Zhu was angry. It was only after graduating high school when she finally grew immune to it and learned to talk back.

Stepping closer so that she could identify what the flyers were, her body cringed first before her eyes finished transmitting the image to her brain.

"These are the flyers for the teacher's day event, right?" Le Xiao Ting could not forget that traumatic flyer with their terrifying female teacher's face printed on it. Her large face that could not be differentiated from her neck was framed with wild curly hair that took up most of the flyer's space. Bright red lipstick was painted on her pouting thick lips as she blew a kiss at the camera with the words 'Love Your Teacher!' printed beside it.

It was understandable why students refused to take the flyers even when they could take it first as a courtesy, and throw it aside later.

Le Xiao Ting remembered that in the end, the flyers ended up being used to keep a small campfire going. That was done behind the teacher's knowledge, of course.

"Do you think it's ugly?" He Zhu asked as he lifted a flyer up. "Like a pig's head." 

President, you are the only one that can say it out loud and escape from punishment!

That female teacher on the flyer was not one to be messed with! Her torture device

- cough- punishment method was enough to traumatize a person! Let's just say Le Xiao Ting had experienced it once, and no, that punishment was not against the rules, but from that day on, she made sure not to commit any mistakes in front of that teacher.

"Xiao Ting, even if it's against your comfort zone, you have to do it."

Le Xiao Ting had the urge to shove the flyers into his good-looking face and rub it.

V.i.o.l.e.n.t.l.y.

"Just like that time, you hesitated to save the injured dog in the middle of the road." It's a normal reaction, you hear me?! Only you are crazy enough to cross the busy road to save the wounded puppy, ignoring the oncoming cars!

"Stop being a coward," He Zhu said coldly.

"I'm not a coward!" Le Xiao Ting snapped in defense, but her fists were shaking, as snippets of blurred images flashed through her mind. She could not see the images clearly, but she felt as if she had forgotten something important.

Something that was involved with fire and an unconscious boy under a shelf.

"Really?" He Zhu stared at Le Xiao Ting mockingly and parked his ass onto the table beside the flyer. "You don't like working for me, but you did not refuse it. Isn't that an act of cowardice as well?"

Tightening her fist, Le Xiao Ting did exactly what she had done years ago when she faced the same situation. She remembered clearly how she felt that time; angry, humiliated, and pressured.

When her fist made contact with that smug grin, the tight feeling inside her chest died out.

It was the scream of a female, similar to a banshee, that woke up Xiao Hua. Her muscles were aching from her previous physical exertion and tiredness clung onto her like her personal shadow. One look around and she quickly realized she was dreaming, with the combination of an old memory.

She swallowed and immediately felt her dry throat and started to cough. She tried to stop coughing, but it refused.

"Drink slowly."

Xiao Hua blinked in confusion when something liquid flowed into her parted mouth and without checking what it was, she gulped it down to calm down her demanding throat. Someone was behind her, helping her to sit up so that she could drink the water without choking.

Once her coughing diminished, she turned her head slowly and saw a beautiful lady in red smiling down at her, with golden light shining on her from behind. The beautiful picture led Xiao Hua to assume she was her own guardian angel.

"Do you want more water?" The angel asked gently and Xiao Hua shook her head dazedly. She looked around and found herself to be in a simple room with only bare necessities. The only luxurious thing was the blanket that was draped over her.

"Who are you? Am I dead?" Xiao Hua truly believed she had died, for this lady with a red flower between her eyebrows, was truly beautiful, fitting her image of a God-dess.

Even her giggles sounded wonderful. "You are still alive. My name is Feng Jiu." Feng Jiu? The nine tail fox goddess from the 'Eternal Love' drama? But this Feng Jiu was much more beautiful than the actress Feng Jiu. Sorry An Jing and Long Lian, but Feng Jiu was now the most beautiful lady in her eyes.

The memory of fire, suffocation and the helplessness rose to the front of her mind, pulling out a panicked gasp from Xiao Hua's mouth.

"Er Yen! You are the one that saved me from fire, right? Did you save Er Yen too?"

"Calm down before you hurt yourself. The doctor is now tending to him." Feng Jiu rubbed her back and effectively calmed Xiao Hua down. "Thank..thank you for saving us."

Xiao Hua could not stop the tears gathering in her eyes. This was the first time she had experienced being trapped in a burning building. She could still remember how scared she was, and she could imagine how she was going to die.

First, the smoke will render her unconscious. Then the fire would slowly spread to her area and start burning her. She might be lucky to remain unconscious until the end or she might have woken up halfway through and suffered the burning till the end. But it would have been worse if she was rescued after having half of her body already burned. Living the rest of her life with burned flesh and pain was not something she looked forward to.

"I suppose you are lucky that I happened to be in this courtyard at that time."

Xiao Hua smiled weakly. "Then you are my lucky star."

"Lucky star?"

Xiao Hua nodded shyly as she poked her bandaged hands. "You saved me when I needed help the most. So, you are just like my lucky star."

Feng Jiu wanted to sigh, but that might cause the little girl to think she disliked being regarded as her lucky star. The cause of her yearning to sigh was due to the murderous intent coming from behind her, from a certain stalker that was hidden at the corner of the room, where the shadow was the thickest.

She had heard from Qiang Laohu that Long Zhu had treated his new servant way too well. He had not assigned tasks for her to do, and even if there were, those duties were extremely easy ones. She had thought he was exaggerating things, but now that she personally witnessed it, she no longer thinks so.

Only having the luxury to sigh, Feng Jiu decided to fix this. "Then your lucky star is actually Long Zhu."

Xiao Hua tilted her head sideways, looking adorable with her wide, round eyes that were filled with confusion. "Who is Long Zhu?"

Feng Jiu could feel the murderous intent abruptly disappear and be replaced with an extreme sense of despair.

Long Zhu, why are you acting like a heartbroken little girl whose crush was not aware of her existence? Where had that little boy that snorted with contempt towards love had gone?

But for this little girl to not know about Long Zhu... could it be that she lost her memory? Or had Long Zhu not introduced himself to her and secretly followed her everywhere like a shy maiden?

The image of a shy maiden Long Zhu was... surprisingly adorable.

Chapter 6: He is my great benefactor

Feng Jiu smiled as she asked skeptically. "Don't you know your own master's name?"

"My master... the Third Prince! I forgot," Xiao Hua said sheepishly as she lightly scratched her head. She was too used to calling him the Third Prince and with the grogginess, her brain had moved slower than usual.

However, the excessive dejection behind Feng Jiu did not ease down after hearing Xiao Hua's answer.

"Long Zhu should be your lucky star since he had generously allowed me to stay at his Autumn Courtyard, don't you think so?" Feng Jiu did not stop whitewashing Long Zhu.

"...No? You are the one that saved me, not the Third Prince." Little girl, are you doing this on purpose?

The only good thing that resulted from Feng Jiu's attempt was that depressing aura behind her had turned into irritation.

"The Third Prince... is different," Xiao Hua continued. Her head was lowered, and the gravity pulled her loose hair down until it formed a thick curtain to hide most of her face from view. But that did not prevent the onlookers from noticing her bright-colored cheeks. "He..he is my great benefactor, so he's more than a lucky star to me." Feng Jiu smiled at the adorable girl as well as the warm emotion coming from the person hiding at the corner of the room. She shook her head inwardly, surprised at how this girl could influence that dark boy's moods to such a great extent.

"Miss Feng Jiu, are you a friend of the Third Prince?" Xiao Hua asked curiously, peeking through the thick curtain of her hair.

"Just call me Feng Jiu," the beautiful lady with red hair offered. "You can say I'm a good friend of Long Zhu's."

"Good friend? Have you known the Third Prince since a long time ago?"

"It's been almost nine years now since I first met him."

"That's long ago! How did you meet him?" Xiao Hua suddenly realized how busy-body she was. "Sorry, I've asked too many questions."

Feng Jiu laughed, not at all offended by her questions. "It was destiny that wanted us to meet."

"Destiny?"

Feng Jiu picked up a bowl of medicine that was placed on a stool beside the bed. It was still warm, steam rising from the surface. "The doctor wanted you to drink this once you were awake."

Xiao Hua could smell the bitterness of the medicine and wrinkled her nose. "Where is the Third Prince? Does...does he know I'm here?"

Feng Jiu laughed softly and placed the bowl of medicine back onto the stool. "It's good that you remain on guard against strangers." She was a bit worried at how easily Xiao Hua had accepted her explanation without being more suspicious than she should.

Xiao Hua felt a bit bad. Honestly, she had asked that question because she wondered where he was and not because she distrusted Feng Jiu. But now that she was reminded of it, Xiao Hua wanted to smack herself.

Just because Feng Jiu had saved her did not mean she was safe. Xiao Hua still did not know who was the one that wanted to kill her and why.

"Teng Jiu can be trusted." Hearing that familiar voice, the worry in her heart immediately dissolved.

"Third Prince!" Xiao Hua called out cheerfully and Feng Jiu tittered silently as she removed herself from the bed after making sure Xiao Hua could remain sitting upright without her assistance.

"Now that your master is here, I will leave the two of you to catch up." After Feng Jiu left, Xiao Hua turned uncomfortable. But she must do one thing first.

"I'm sorry for heading into danger without telling anyone. But I left the arrow and the blackmail letter in the room in case I went miss-"

She abruptly stopped talking when the smell of the forest and mandarin orange filled her nose before noticing that her head was pressed onto a warm, muscular chest. A pair of large hands were rubbing her back to comfort her, but it also reassured Long Zhu that his little flower was still alive.

"What happened?" the Third Prince asked gently, and she could feel his chest move as he spoke since her face was still pressed onto his chest. That question had gotten Xiao Hua to start crying.

The Third Prince did not shy away from her tears or having an intention to leave her to cry alone. Instead, he continued to rub her back soothingly, allowing her to rub her tears onto his clothes and soaking it. Her narration of the event was a hard task for the listener to understand but he patiently listened to what she said and did not stop her.

When she was more or less able to stop her crying, she finally asked the important question of the day. "I wonder who it was that wanted to kill me."

"It's the previous maid that I've assigned to serve you."

"You mean Si Si?" Xiao Hua did not doubt his words at all. There was no reason for him to lie and it was not difficult to accept and understand why Si Si would want to kill her, even if it was quite extreme.

Le Xiao Ting had read a lot of Chinese novels with part-time villains being extremely unreasonable. It would not be a surprise if this world has unreasonable people too. In her original world, there was always news reporting illogical things that humans were caught doing that she could never understand or relate to.

"What will happen to Si Si?" Xiao Hua asked, feeling strangely indifferent to the matter. Where was the anger that she should feel towards her attempted murderer?

"She will be sent to South Guilin Village." Long Zhu decided not to tell her that Si Si would be sent there after Da Bei had finished breaking all her bones.

He had heard from An Jing how his little maid had broken down after witnessing a servant being killed right in front of her.

"What is South Guilin Village?" Xiao Hua could still remember the two traitorous maids becoming terrified after knowing they will be sent there. "And why are the cloths tied around their mouths red and not white?"

That thing had bugged her for quite a while... Ack, why was she asking about that irrelevant stuff?

The Third Prince's body had turned stiff from the moment she asked about the village and Xiao Hua who was still wrapped inside his arms could feel it. "Someone told you about South Guilin Village?"

"It's a secret?" Xiao Hua asked in alarm. Will she be killed for knowing too much?

But those people were the ones at fault for speaking about it out loud!

Long Zhu did not let go of Xiao Hua who was struggling to escape from his arms.

"Just don't tell it to Liu Chu Chu and Long Shan."

It honestly took her two seconds to recall who Long Shan was.

"I doubt I would get to talk to them anyway. But I won't tell them anything. They are our enemy!"

Long Zhu's smile was wider than he would normally be spotted with but unfortu-nately, it was not seen by Xiao Hua. "Building South Guilin Village was my idea and I purposely disguised it as the Crown Prince's idea. Father Emperor allowed it to be built three years ago."

The Third Prince changed their position, directing her to lean her back on the front of his chest. His arms were wrapped around her waist loosely, yet she was rather conscious of their weight.

..This lady does not think her tofu [2] was eaten! Really!

She could hardly resist drooling when she first touched his abs when she accidentally tripped over the door divider and he caught her, breaking her fall. There was too much opportunity for her to eat the Third Prince's delicious tofu when that guy likes to hug her or act as her personal carriage.

Le Xiao Ting had never thought she would be such a sinful woman for eating an innocent guy's tofu. But she could not stop touching that piece of art! As long as he does not resist, she will continue eating the Third Prince's tofu!

And so, Xiao Hua's path to being a sinful person started just like that.

The Third Prince picked up the bowl of medicine and held it up in front of Xiao Hua. "Be good and drink your medicine."

Xiao Hua turned to look at the Third Prince with a pleading gaze. "Can't I eat a pill instead?"

At least with a pill, she could use honey water to help her swallow it, escaping the horrid lingering taste. Le Xiao Ting had drunk Chinese medicine before, and its bitter taste stayed inside her mouth for quite a long time.

She was not given a choice when the Third Prince shifted until she was seated horizontally on his lap, allowing the Third Prince to monitor her drinking the medicine.

Isn't this too much? This young lady is not happy with this attention!

"If you don't drink, I won't tell you more about South Guilin Village." Blackmailing again? Humph, did he think she doesn't know how to ask around?

"Without my permission, no one can tell you about it."

This young lady didn't believe there's no one that does not dare to disobey you! Heise will tell me!

"The eighth brother does not know about it, and Eunuch Heng obeys my word."

... Are you reading my mind?!

"No, but I could guess what you are thinking from your face." The Third Prince smiled in such a refreshing way Xiao Hua could not seriously get angry with him.

Darn him and his smile! 

Chapter 7: I have better things to do than being an Emperor

The Third Prince knew his little maid was currently scolding him in her mind. Her adorable face was too easy to read. He was actually happy that Xiao Hua had opened up to him to this large degree. She had proven that she was not as weak-minded and feeble as he thought. Even if her mind was a bit slow, she was fast in trading insults with the Heise.

Long Zhu also found out there was an interesting mind behind her harmless ap-pearance. Once in a while she would disagree with his opinion but quickly explained her reasoning to avoid angering him.

Her cute actions reminded him of a small little puppy that had followed him around during his three-year journey. That puppy often bit him to ask for food when it was hungry and then quickly licked the bite wound to appease his anger.

Smiling fondly at the passing memory, he poked Xiao Hua's nose with a finger and chuckled in amusement when her reaction was the same as that little puppy. Both of them would try to look at the offending finger that poked their nose before wrinkling it.

"Drink it. I will erase the taste from your mouth after that."

Xiao Hua stared at him doubtfully for a moment before slowly taking the bowl of medicine from his hand. With a grimace, she held her breath and drank the medicine as fast as she could with large mouthfuls.

When she finally finished drinking every drop of the bitter medicine, she quickly placed the bowl aside and turned to look at the Third Prince, demanding candy with her large, pleading eyes.

What kind of candy will he give her?

"Good girl."

When something soft, warm and slightly moist touched her lips, Xiao Hua was stunned and her brain stopped moving. That warm, soft thing keeps pressing and rubbing over her frozen lips. It feels weird as there was no sensual intention behind it.

When Xiao Hua continued to stay frozen like a doll, the Third Prince pulled back and commanded, "Open your mouth."

Xiao Hua's mouth parted in disbelief at his command. The Third Prince used that chance to press his lips onto hers and blew air into her mouth.

Her body jumped at the unexpected action before the taste of mint overpowered the bitterness in her mouth. Nearly choking from the suddenly strong cooling taste flowing into her mouth, she struggled to push him away, but his arms around her waist were like an unbreakable shackle.

He held her gaze as his eyes demanded her to stay still as the mint taste continued filling every inch of her mouth.

Xiao Hua's first kiss in this world was... rather disappointing!

Kissing her with the intention of helping her to get rid of the bitterness in her mouth was just unacceptable! Does he not know the meaning of kissing between a male and a female?!

Viewing this as an opportunity to eat the Third Prince's tofu, she snaked her tongue out of her mouth and entered his parted mouth to search for his tongue. But just as she lightly brushed her tongue against his, he quickly broke the contact with a dumbfounded expression.

Xiao Hua stared at him innocently but her eyes were full of expectation for him to give her what she wanted.

Sadly, he did not understand what her stare meant.

"The taste is gone?" the Third Prince asked indifferently as if what they had done was not worth being shocked at all.

Xiao Hua nodded, pushing away her disappointment. It was rather embarrassing that she was the only one that wanted the kiss to be more than just helping her to get rid of the bitter taste in her mouth with a rather weird skill of his.

His behaviour towards her that made her heart race yet it was totally innocent on his part. This part of his was just the same as how her boss had treated her.

"What's that mint taste?" Xiao Hua licked her lips. "Are you eating candy?"

"No, it's a plant."

Plant? Did he mean there was a plant inside his mouth?

The Third Prince shifted her until her back was leaning on his chest again, no longer continuing on with the topic. With a gentle yet captivating tone, he began telling her the history of South Guilin Village.

"South Guilin Village, to the public's knowledge, was built for the purpose of protecting the border between the Guilin Kingdom and Tang Guan Country. Tang Guan often tried to attack the Guilin Kingdom and we learned to be wary of them."

The long and slender fingers played with Xiao Hua's hair and she noticed that someone had cleaned her up, donning her in a clean outfit. The length of her hair was shorter than before and she guessed that her hair must have caught onto the fire.

"I built the South Guilin Village for the purpose of training elite soldiers to protect Guilin and to let refugees from other countries stay and work for our kingdom."

"Aren't you afraid that the refugees would betray you?" Xiao Hua asked worriedly.

There were reasons why they were refugees and not all had chosen that path for good reasons.

"They undergo intensive questioning before they are allowed to stay."

Xiao Hua nodded, accepting the answer. "Why would you send the two maids that betrayed Long Lian to South Guilin Village? You want to interrogate them for information to see if there's someone behind them?"

The Third Prince's inquisitive fingers that were tangled around Xiao Hua's hair stilled for a moment before resuming its adventure.

"Xiao Ting seems to know quite a lot."

Xiao Hua's heart danced upon hearing her real name. She shook her head. "That's just a possibility anyone could think of."

"They were sent to that village for my men to find out any important news from them....and dispose of them afterward."

Xiao Hua shuddered in fear. "Is that why the cloth is red?"

"How did you find out about it?"

"I didn't. People in TV dramas usually used a white cloth to stuff people's mouths and red cloth is quite a rare color."

"Tee-vee?"

"It's a tool in my world, acting as a form of storytelling where we can watch people

acting out a play or receive news."

"Your world is interesting."

"I suppose..."

The Third Prince removed his fingers from her hair and went back to its previous position, which was around Xiao Hua's waist. "Red is for getting information and to kill them afterward. White is for protection and hiding. Blue is to try bringing that person to our side."

When she heard such a detailed explanation from the Third Prince, she wondered if it was possible that she had known too much. When he suddenly sighed tiredly and pressed his face on top of her head, triggering the fear in her. Did he feel regret that he had spilled this much to her?

"South Guilin Village's creation was nothing but my plan to counter Long Shan's army."

The hero, Long Shan, was famous for his great achievement in the military, winning numerous wars and conquering lands to broaden Guilin's control. His increasing reputation helped him in gathering numerous soldiers that willingly followed him for their brighter future.

"Long Shan was not allowed to be involved in South Guilin Village by my

command. It was that command that led him to send out many of his men to inves-tigate, but we made sure they could only see what the public was allowed to see. If his soldiers want to join in guarding the border, we will not stop them."

After all, the Third Prince would be stupid in refusing strong soldiers that Long Shan had personally trained. It was easy to join the ranks in South Guilin Village, but it was tough to leave it.

It took a while for Xiao Hua to think properly about how to reply. "You had built South Guilin Village to fight against the Second Prince's army, but you have also eased Guilin's worry about Tang Guan invading our land."

She worried her lips as her hand hesitated above the Third Prince's hands around her waist. Closing her eyes, she forced her hand to continue and grabbed onto his hands, trying to support him.

"You are the greatest prince that Guilin could ask for."

Xiao Hua could only imagine how he felt, to be killed by whom he had believed as his brother for his whole life and to be given a second chance to re-start again with his life. She would have totally understood and supported him if he chased after the Second Prince and killed him. The option of leaving the Second Prince alone was too risky.

The hero had long occupied his mind with plans to eradicate the Long royalty members. His mother, Concubine He, always acted like a white lotus [3), giving off a depressing aura of a heartbroken woman. Her attempt on putting a pitiful strong front was too laughable because she faked it to put on a good show for everyone, including her own son, to pity her.

Being a good son, he would, of course, avenge her injustice. His belief and love for his mother had blinded him of any understanding and consideration for another party. But of course, he also wanted to be an Emperor to protect his mother, but Le Xiao Ting disagreed.

Protecting his mother was his excuse that he had given to everyone. When he became Guilin's Emperor in the novel, he planned to conquer other countries. If that was not greed, Le Xiao Ting did not know what that was.

His hands returned her grip and her heart skipped a beat just as she could feel her face getting warmer. Wanting to avoid the Third Prince becoming aware of her current emotion, she quickly continued talking. "But why don't you want to be the next Emperor?"

Xiao Hua was unable to understand why, when the majority of his siblings wanted that throne so much that they would kill each other just to get it.

The Third Prince rubbed the top of her head with his cheek affectionately. "I have better things to do than being an Emperor."

If only this young lady had her mobile phone, she would record his words and use it to slap the hero and the Crown Prince in the face!

Chapter 8: Stop spoiling me

"Who is Feng Jiu?" Xiao Hua finally found her courage to ask. Her heart felt uncomfortable not knowing who that beautiful lady was. Even if Feng Jiu had introduced herself as the Third Prince's good friend, she found it hard to believe they were just friends.

They had known each other for eight years and the Third Prince had to be gay if he felt nothing towards Feng Jiu! How can a normal guy resist that beautiful and classy woman?!

She was actually glad she was not facing him, allowing her to hide her face from being seen. She was pretty sure that whatever she was feeling would be shown clearly on her face.

"Feng Jiu is a good friend of mine."

...Nope. I'm not jealous at all!

"She is An Wan's master."

"Huh?" It took her a moment to process his words but perhaps it was her ear that

was faulty for hearing something shocking. "Feng Jiu is Sister An Wan's friend?"

"Feng Jiu is the true master of A Wan," the Third Prince corrected. "An Wan was sent here to protect me."

Looks like her ears worked just fine. Maybe the problem lay on her brain. But why would her brain process the Third Prince's words into a story of a strong maiden saving the damsel in distress gentlemen?

"Why would Feng Jiu send A Wan to protect you?" Xiao Hua decided to humour her brain.

"When An Wan was sent to me, I was still weak."

Xiao Hua sighed inwardly. So her brain was normal. The problem was the Third

Prince himself!

It was not that Xiao Hua refused to believe the Third Prince's words, but she would need some time to accept it. That was because An Wan showed nothing but unwavering loyalty and never hid her adoration towards the Third Prince. She called him master without reluctance and would willingly sacrifice herself for him.

Such a perfect role model of an inner maid of the Third Prince, and now the man himself just told her that An Wan was not his maid, to begin with?

This young lady wants to flip a table! The life of a servant is too challenging!

"Your Highness... is Feng Jiu your betrothed?" Xiao Hua asked calmly, but her heart felt as if tiny needles were stabbed on it. She barely breathed while she waited for his answer.

No matter what he answered, Xiao Hua knew that she had no right to feel jealous or possessive. How ironic, the second man she had fallen in love with had shared the same face with the first man she had fallen for.

Even if a miracle happened where the Third Prince had the same feeling towards her, the chance of them getting together was slim to none. The Empress would not allow her beloved son to marry a maid. The only leeway was allowing Xiao Hua to be his low ranking concubine.

Truthfully, Xiao Hua was troubled about this matter since she had accepted the fact that she had stupidly fallen in love with the Third Prince. She listed out the positive points of being a concubine and slowly accepted that being a concubine or his servant was better than being nothing in his life.

But the dream earlier had snapped her out of the poisonous acceptance. Her boss had called her a coward, and much to her dismay, he was telling the truth.

He Zhu was a person with high self-confidence. He was smart and had already planned his future during his school days. He demanded nothing but perfection to achieve his goals. He was Le Xiao Ting's first one-sided love and she admitted guiltily that she had dated her ex-boyfriend just to forget about her first love. But it did not work and she decided to end the relationship before her ex-boyfriend got hurt even further by her selfishness.

No matter how much she tamed her heart to be acceptable, Le Xiao Ting still found it hard to swallow to share her husband with other women. She was an educated person and grew up to believe that a husband should only have one wife. It was wrong for a husband to cheat on his wife no matter what his excuse was.

But Le Xiao Ting's soul had transmigrated into Xiao Hua's body, taking over her life and was forced to bow and obey the culture of this world. She wanted to fight and scream at that chauvinist culture, but what can an ordinary girl with low cultivation and no remarkable background do?

The uncertainty of the future without freedom of choice was terrifying.

Long Zhu could feel his little maid's fear and depression clinging tightly around her immobile form. His grip around her waist tightened unknowingly as his heart started to feel out of sorts. "Feng Jiu is not my betrothed and would never be."

"Why not? She's beautiful and kind." Just like an angel.

Long Zhu did not know why, but he disliked it when Xiao Hua asked that question despite the fact that he had gotten them frequently from his friends. He could not shake the impression that his little flower would leave him when she saw a chance to escape.

Xiao Hua let out a pained whimper when the arms circled around her waist tightened until it hurt. "Your- Your Highness?" She glanced back over her shoulder to look at him as she rubbed his arms, hoping they would slacken their grip.

The gentle touch returned his sanity momentarily before it was swallowed up by the waves of possessiveness. "You will not leave me." He sounded like a real dragon from the growl he made. His eyes that normally held gentleness and warmth were ab-sent, replaced with anxiety and harshness.

That overly familiar demanding tone triggered a familiar response in her, provoking a spontaneous response. "Don't you dare threaten me!"

The wild waves inside him slowly turned calm when he heard the unexpected words coming from his docile little flower. The dark look in his eyes was replaced with confusion and the beginning of amusement as he turned Xiao Hua around so that he could look at her face.

Those sunny emotions displayed on his face quickly reminded Le Xiao Ting that she had scolded the wrong person. That demanding tone and possessiveness she heard earlier were too much like her boss!

Yes, Le Xiao Ting had frequently retaliated against her boss when he pushed her buttons way too much. That arrogant guy always treated her like his personal maid!

..She just realized the irony of that sentence. The only consolation she has was that the Third Prince was a good master.

"I...I. I." Xiao Hua's voice slowly grows into high pitch due to her panic. "I don't really mean.....that?"

The Third Prince tilted his head to a side in confusion and his action had made some of his long hair spill to the front and onto Xiao Hua's lap. It landed so close to Xiao Hua's hand, and had it happened at other times, she would immediately take that chance to touch his soft, beautiful hair.

But right now, she must think up an excuse to save her little life! A scandalous idea streaked past her mind, but her desperate side clung onto it without thinking it twice, violently beating away her rational side for the sake of survival.

Throwing herself onto the Third Prince's chest and wrapped her arms around his neck, she momentarily thought that it felt nice, before continuing on with her plan.

"When I'm trapped in that fire, the only thing I thought is 'where are you?'. I waited and waited for you to come to save me, even if it's impossible to happen. I mean, you... you are not around! So ..... so that's stupid of you to think I will leave you!"

.. Did I just call him stupid? Shit! Time for more distraction!

"I only feel safe when I'm with you! Leaving you is scary!"

Please, swallow down my words! Open your eyes and acknowledge what a loyal maid I am!

The reason why Xiao Hua could utter those embarrassing words without experiencing stage fright was due to hiding her face in his chest. It was also because of her position that she noticed the Third Prince's heartbeat seems to be faster than before.

Xiao Hua squealed inwardly in happiness. The Third Prince must have believed her and was moved by her words!

Long Zhu had long lost his calm facade. Luckily his little maid had hidden her face, allowing him to hide the embarrassing expression on his face. His face was twisted in an awkward way, considering whether to show his happiness or to wear his calm mask.

His arms tightened around her again, pressing her closer to him as the smell that only belonged to Xiao Hua filled his senses. The innocent Long Zhu that had not embraced another woman that was not his mother or sister did not know what was wrong with him.

He was not aware how adorably silly he looked with the wide grin on his face, or how he had literally pressed his nose onto Xiao Hua's hair to greedily inhale her sweet smell that made him so happy. But he was aware of what that foreign joy did to his wounded heart. It slowly patched up the old wounds that made him distance himself from people with the warm, addicting feeling and he wanted more of it.

"Happy birthday, Your Highness!" Xiao Hua wished when she finally composed herself and stopped hiding her face. "Your present...I'm sorry. I lost it. Si Si has hidden it somewhere."

With a calm expression, he said, "An Jing will find it for you."

"I hope she's able to find it." Xiao Hua suddenly winced. "I'm not able to sew a dragon as you want."

"There's no need to push yourself too hard."

She pouted as the Third Prince rubbed her head, treating her like a child. Lowering her head, she softly whispered to herself, "Stop spoiling me."

She did not want him to hear her, but he easily caught her words with his sharp ears. But he just smiled and remained ignorant.

Chapter 9: You are the perfect match for me

Afour-seater carriage surrounded by four armed guards at each corner was heading down on a secluded path straight to the South Guilin Village. In just less than an hour, the carriage would reach the village.

After the carriage passed by a certain path, a soldier dressed in a different uniform darted out of his hiding place and quickly went back to the base to report. The soldier stopped before a tall, bulky man dressed in impressive armour and saluted.

"General! A carriage with the Third Prince's crest had just passed by! There are four soldiers and one horse rider in sight!"

General Tang Jiang nodded solemnly. "Return to your post and continue watching."

"Yes, General!"

General Tang swiftly marched towards a small white tent that was roughly set up in the middle of a thick forest, only just this morning. He did not enter and stood out-side. With a cupped fist, he informed the person inside of his arrival.

"Your Highness, Tang Jiang is here to report!"

After a moment, a voice from the tent said, "Speak."

"There's a sighting of a carriage with the Third Prince's crest heading to South Guilin Village."

A handsome man dressed in white armour was seated inside the tent, facing a Go board. One of his hands that was holding onto a white chess piece halted momentarily, before continuing its path, and placed it on the Go board.

Seated on the opposite side of the board was a beautiful woman dressed in red that smiled when she saw where her fiancé had placed his next move. Her red, juicy lips were extremely eye-catching on her small and fair-skinned face.

"Find out who's inside the carriage without being noticed."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

For years, the South Guilin Village that was suggested by Long Qian, was a thorn to the Second Prince's plans. The thorn grew when some of his men that he had personally picked and trained chose to defect to join South Guilin Village to guard the border.

He had sent some of his men in as spies but they never reported back. They would either lose contact or choose to loyally guard the border. Threatening them with their family members' lives did not work as the soldiers were allowed to bring their family members to live in the village.

The Second Prince had tried many ways but he never succeeded in unearthing the true purpose of the South Guilin Village's existence.

It was two days ago when one of the spies he had sent to infiltrate South Guilin Village sent back a letter. He was suspicious of the information's authenticity, but this was a rare chance to finally figure out what was going on inside the village.

The attractive woman stretched out her slender fingers with nails painted in bright red and picked up a black chess piece from the wooden bowl. With one move, it stopped the white pieces from spreading its territory.

"What would you do?" Liu Chu Chu lazily stretched out her body, seizing the handsome man's heated eyes onto her seductive body. She had such an innocent face yet possessed a body that could easily seduce any hot-blooded man, and Long Shan was no exception.

But as a man that loves control, he could still resist his fiancée's womanly appeal when necessary.

"Do what?" the Second Prince asked and swiftly surrounded two black chess pieces in a single move.

Liu Chu Chu's fox eyes narrowed as her brightly painted red lips formed a distracting pout. She placed a black piece on the board to divert Long Shan's attention before replying. "Will you take this chance to kill your brother?"

Long Shan easily saw through her distraction and countered it with a move.

"There's no need to kill him yet."

Liu Chu Chu raised an eyebrow and sat up straight. "So your word of declaration to eliminate the royal bloodline was just a lie?"

Long Shan frowned. "Long Zhu is still useful. It will be a waste to kill him early when being alive would let the old Long feel safe with his throne."

"Is that the same excuse when you let Long Lian live as well?" Liu Chu Chu asked with a mocking tone.

Long Shan's eyes turned cold. "You don't believe me?"

Liu Chu Chu sighed dramatically and returned a move before standing up from her seat and placed herself on her fiancé's lap. "I believe you, but I also believe your heart will influence your decision."

Long Shan wrapped his arms around his fiancée's waist. "I never let my feelings for you influence the game."

Liu Chu Chu frowned and it took her a moment to understand what he meant. She looked at the chessboard and found that Long Shan had finished his move and from the big picture, she was losing.

After letting out an amused chuckle, she laid her head onto his chest and listened to his steady heartbeat, no longer interested in playing Go. "You are the perfect match for me."

The Second Prince did not smile from her admission but his eyes were softer. "You are perfect for me as well."

"Your Highness!" General Tang interrupted their sweet moment, and a hint of frustration flashed past the Second Prince's eyes.

The Second Prince's voice was a touch cooler when he asked, "What did you find out?"

"It's a maid of the Third Prince's inside the carriage!"

"Oh? Is that the same maid that your spy reported?" Liu Chu Chu asked.

The Second Prince had not hidden anything from her, even letting her help him. He loved seeing his fiancée in action and actively helping him.

The Second Prince did not attend the Third Prince's birthday banquet and chose to investigate the South Guilin Village instead. It was only a few hours ago when one of his spies reported that a female servant had tried to kill the Third Prince's personal maid.

Heavy footsteps approached their tent before coming to a halt. Due to the near distance, the golden couple could hear what the soldier said to General Tang

"General! A man with a special name plate asks for an audience!" Long Shan stood up after removing Liu Chu Chu from his lap.

"I'm interested in this matter," Liu Chu Chu explained when the Second Prince raised an eyebrow when she followed him.

Long Shan smiled and entwined his and her fingers together. It was one of the few things his little fox had done to show her affection and he grew to like it.

"Your Highness!" General Tang and the soldier saluted when the golden couple stepped out of the tent.

"That person is being held captive?"

"Yes, Prince! This is the name plate." The soldier held up a simple silver plate in his hands.

Long Shan picked up the plate to examine it. "This is genuine."

He had given his spies a special plate with the letter 'luck' on it to prove their identity but to those that had not seen the plate before, they would assume that it was just an ordinary plate.

"Tang Jiang, you will be in charge of questioning him."

"I obey!" General Tang bowed before marching to where the spy was held.

The spy was sitting inside a metal cage specially made for prisoners, sealing their cultivation and usage of any fourth rank artifact and lower.

General Tang dismissed everyone from the vicinity and approached the cage himself.

The spy raised his head upon sensing his presence and his whole demeanor bright-ened. "General!"

General Tang Jiang nodded in greeting. He recognized the spy, who was one of the most loyal soldiers of the Second Prince. "Why did we lose contact with you for a year?" General Tang asked, straight to the point.

"The security was too tight, and I couldn't find an opportunity to send out a mes-sage. But you need to hurry! Just a few hours ago, I heard the news that the Third Prince had sent a maid that betrayed him to the South Guilin Village to be inter-rogated."

"Your letter from two days ago suggested that we send some men to pretend to be the Third Prince's guards and enter the village. The inspection is tight and it will be easy for the guards to discover our men." General Tang's eyes narrowed. "Are you here to lure us into a trap?"

The spy shook his head fiercely. "No, General! I swear I'm helping His Highness! I found out that the guards at the gate will not be able to identify the Third Prince guards by their face as they are the new recruits sent to the village to guard the bor-der!"

General Tang narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. This was indeed a good opportunity to send some of their men into the village. The gate guards have no records of the newcomers and all they had to do was to send their own men whose identity was not known to any party.

"Please, believe me, General Tang! I would never harm the Second Prince. He had saved me from hell and gave me a new life. I'm not an ungrateful bastard!" The spy's earnest and fierce eyes made up General Tang's mind.

"I will inform His Highness."

Chapter 10: Our General is not old!

It took a moment for General Tang to summarize what he had gotten from the spy and report it to the Second Prince and Liu Chu Chu. They did not return to their tent and chose to oversee the soldier's task instead.

"Your Highness, the letter is genuine," General Tang said after he finished with his report. "Please give an order!"

"Choose four of our men to disguise themselves. Tang Jiang, you will lead the oper-ation. I will wait for good news." The Second Prince, with an arm around his fiancée's shoulder, walked back towards his personal white tent.

"I will not fail you." General Tang saluted respectfully. He knew that the Second Prince was very interested in the South Guilin Village.

Although Tang Jiang was more brawn than brains, he had felt the Second Prince's dissatisfaction towards him. Since the time Tang Jiang had not acknowledged his summon during the second day of his marriage, the Second Prince's behaviour was noticeably colder towards him. He only knew that the Second Prince had called for him on the third day of his wedding when his wife finally let him escape from their bed to visit his home to pay respects. Tang Jiang had wanted to run to the Second Prince's residence as soon as he knew about the summoning but Ping Shui stopped him.

That was their first fight... and they ended up arriving very late to the Tang residence.

With a mocking smile that was aimed towards him, Ping Shui tossed a question to Tang Jiang. "Does he expect you to choose between your family and him?"

"You are not my family."

"I am your wife. That means I'm your family now. One day, when that master of

yours orders you to kill every Ping family, would you do it?"

"His Highness will not ask me to do that if the Ping family behave themselves."

His wife laughed humourlessly. "Don't forget, the moment you were married to me, you became a member of the Ping family, husband dearest."

A punishing kiss from his wife stopped the conversation and he was only able to make it to the Second Prince's side on his fourth-day of marriage. That conversation kept on replaying in his mind, leading to the growing fear, at the same time, unable to stop his heart from surrendering to the beautiful cage known as love.

Tang Jiang sighed and quickly went to complete his task. He had fully expected the Second Prince to personally hijack the carriage but now he pushed every responsibility to Tang Jiang.

General Tang felt that the Second Prince was planning something, but intelligence was not his strong suit. He picked four hidden soldiers and they quickly caught up with the Third Prince's carriage.

Hiding behind the thick trees, he noticed how young and inexperienced the guards escorting the carriage were. One even fidgeted and looked around nervously with his hand holding tightly onto his sword tied to his belt.

"Geng, take down the horse driver," General Tang commanded. Geng, one of the Second Prince's fastest elite soldiers, dashed out of his hiding place. With an impressive long-distance jump, he landed right beside the horse driver.

Geng quickly covered the horse driver's mouth and sliced his neck with his short sword that was half an arm's length. He kicked the corpse away and two soldiers ap-peared, quickly hauled the corpse behind the bushes to be disposed of.

Ang, another Second Prince's elite soldier, quickly joined Geng at the driver's seat and grabbed the horse's rein, taking over the control of the carriage.

The four guards of the Third Prince, finally aware that they were under attack, quickly went to attack Geng and his comrade. A fast and forceful arrow coming from the trees stabbed through one of the guard's throat, who immediately died without even knowing what happened.

Another fast arrow headed straight to another guard but the shortest among the escort guards suddenly stepped in front of his comrade and blocked the arrow with a swing of his thin sword.

"He stopped the General's arrow?" Geng exclaimed in disbelief and quickly hopped on top of the carriage to attack the short guard.

General Tang Jiang's arrow was not easy to stop or avoid. The strength that General Tang Jiang used to pull the bow was strong enough to pierce through a large boulder and the speed was not something to scoff at.

Geng's only warning was the sound of wood cracking under his feet. His body instinctively jumped away, but his reaction was not fast enough. The roof of the carriage exploded upward and a white horse hair whip struck across Geng's face.

Geng hissed in pain from the stinging pain at the right side of his face and his eyes closed in reflexes. Knowing it was dangerous to close his eyes right in the middle of the battle, he quickly gathered his inner energy around his legs and jumped far away.

Fortunately, his right eye had escaped from the attack or else he might have lost his vi-sion.

"Geng!" Ang called out worriedly but he had no time to worry for his friend when it was his turn to jump off from the carriage when the walls of the carriage were blown apart from inside, the four walls of the carriage flew across the clearing following with a large wave of dust.

When the dust cleared, only the bottom of the carriage and the four wheels re-mained, with a man dressed in a eunuch uniform standing on it. There was a tied up maid lying on the carriage floor beside him. The white horsehair whip was draped over the eunuch's arm, remaining clean despite it being the same weapon that had injured Geng's face and made him bleed.

The two brown horses were surprisingly undaunted from the violence and were busy chewing grass that was fed by one of the escorting guards. The guard that was protected behind the shortest guard collapsed onto the ground, his shaking legs could no longer hold him up.

"Xiao Liu, stop coddling the horses. The new recruit needs some consoling."

Xiao Liu glared at Eunuch Lau Liu as he patted the horses. "You hurt Tofu and Red Bean."

Eunuch Lau Liu had long chosen to be deaf on Xiao Liu's naming sense. His distant relative may be a humble and hardworking young adult, but he had a loose screw when it came to horses. To Xiao Liu, horses were magnificent beasts and best friends.

Eunuch Lau Liu bet that one day Xiao Liu would insist on marrying a horse beast with the ability to take on a human form. Da Liu, the older brother of Xiao Liu, immediately cut off his interaction with horses, but the young lad often snuck out to visit the horses.

Alas, no one could separate the obsessive lad from his horses.

"I controlled my strength to avoid hitting your horses. They are not injured."

"Even if there isn't any physical injury, you frightened them," Xiao Liu accused.

Eunuch Lau Liu did not even bother replying to that accusation. Xiao Liu loved horses greatly and any harm towards them would bring out his fierce protectiveness that was borderline insane.

The short guard yanked up a scarf that was tied around his neck and used it to hide the lower half of his face. While playing a charade, he was not allowed to hide his face because the face cloth was one of his trademarks. He squatted down and patted the terrified newbie guard on the ground with a poor attempt of consoling. "You must not be scared."

The soldiers' trembling became fiercer and he shook his head violently. "No! No! I can't do it, Sir Da Bei!"

"Xiao Liu, bring the new recruit to the village." Eunuch Lau Liu ordered before Da Bei could say anything more that would do nothing to help the new recruit's mental state.

Xiao Liu stopped petting his horses. "Wouldn't Da Bei bringing the new recruit be the better choice?"

Despite Da Bei's talent, he was still an eight-year-old kid. He could handle a few of the attackers at the same time, but they did not know how many men the Second Prince had brought along.

"I want to stay," Da Bei said firmly.

Xiao Liu sighed. "Okay, I will bring the new recruit to the village. Don't take unnecessary risks, Da Bei."

"I know, Uncle Xiao Liu."

With the matter settled, Eunuch Lau Liu gave the man that he had injured earlier a warm smile. "Thank you for waiting. We can now resume our fight." Geng and Ang: '' Thanking us for waiting? Do you think we want to wait for you?!

We were ordered to, okay?!

General Tang had signalled them to stop when he recognized Eunuch Lau Liu. Attacking the Third Prince's personal eunuch was not in their plan. The Second Prince had not made a move towards the Third Prince, and if General Tang harmed Eunuch Lau Liu, it would bring the Third Prince's wrath towards the Second Prince.

But he did not want to sacrifice Ang and Geng, who were the elite soldiers that he had personally recruited and trained for years.

"Why don't you step out from the bushes, General Tang Jiang?" Eunuch Lau Liu suggested. "Surely it's not a comfortable place to be."

Geng and Ang tensed when the Eunuch revealed General Tang's presence.

With a troubled sigh, General Tang's armour clanked as he walked out from his hiding place and passed his bow to Ang. He cupped his fist towards Eunuch Lau Liu.

"This general was unaware Eunuch Lau Liu would be inside the carriage. It seems that I've wrongly assumed your carriage to be a bandit in disguise. Please forgive this general's mistake."

Eunuch Lau Liu smiled and the crow's feet around his eyes became more obvious.

"Of course, I understand very well. General Tang's eyesight that deteriorates as you age is the same illness I've suffered."

Geng and Ang: '...' Our General is not old! You are the one that's blind, you blind old bat!