Chapter 40 - The Beauty Of The West

The following morning, I woke earlier than usual to practice and train at the estate’s kwoon and because I was nervous to meet Bai Fan after almost four years. She should be 20 if I’m not mistaken.

The last I knew from her letters was that she was happily writing a series of romance novels. I had suggested we work together, and we were in the process of working out the details. To her, my ideas were incredibly unique, while in 2020 it had been the most common. Well, at least the plot was interesting.

However, it had been a few months since our last letter, and I was really looking forward to working with her in person.

By the time the household was awake, I had already finished my bath and was eagerly awaiting Fa Ning so that we could get going.

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(From Bai Fan’s Point of View)

I had been feeling restless for the past week, probably because the son of Lord Shang kept visiting the manor trying to curry my favor. I had hoped to make it absolutely clear that I wasn’t interested in him or his title, but it seems I still hadn’t gotten the idea through his thick skull.

Ah! How I’ve cursed my beauty these past few years.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being beautiful, but then there are people whom my beauty has enthralled and just will not leave me be.

I haven’t been able to finish the latest chapter in my romance series! I imagine Mu is going to be quite cross with me when he finds out that I haven’t done anything about the tale we’re supposed to be doing together!

Ah, the anxiety!

I sighed and looked at my reflection on the polished bronze surface used as a mirror.

I had really no desire to get on with my day, recently I was just going through the motions.

“Miss!” my faithful maid Xiao Yu entered the room with a bright smile “you have visitors!”

I wanted to cry.

“Who is it now?” I didn’t really want to know, but I felt like I had to ask. “Is it Lord Shang again?”

“Lord Shang sent word again he will be visiting today, but Master Fa Ning and another I haven’t met before are currently speaking with your father.”

I frowned and flicked her forehead in annoyance. “Why didn’t you stay to find out who the other person was?” The Fa’s were a very respected family in our province, especially Fa He Long, who was considered a national treasure. She knew her father kept a courteous relationship with them, but their coming to the house was a first in many years.

Yu rubbed her forehead pouting “Master Bai sent me to fetch you. I couldn’t have stayed even if I wanted to.”

I sighed. “Very well, let’s go see my father and his visitors… Hopefully it won’t be another suitor.”

I went in front of Xiao Yu even if I didn’t want to see anyone.

Once we were outside my father’s study, I took a moment to hear the voices to try to identify them, but to no avail. I had never met the Fa’s and at the moment only my father was speaking.

I sighed and motioned Yu to open the door.

Walking carefully inside, I looked and smiled only at my father, hoping against all hope that he wasn’t about to introduce me to another suitor.

“You called, father?”

“Yes, Fan’er. Come here, there’s someone I would like you to greet.” His smile was wide… not a good omen for me.

With a fake smile plastered on my face, I turned to his guests and my breath hitched.

There were two men, as Xian Yu had said.

The first one was an old man around my father’s age. He was stoic but I could see the interest in his eyes.

The other man…

Oh gods.

He is handsome but in a unique way.

His eyes were of a very light brown and bright, his features were delicate but not womanly. Even meters away, I knew he was more fit than anybody else I had ever met before. And I lived surrounded by soldiers.

But what made my breath hitch was his smile.

It was a teasing smile full of happiness that gave me goosebumps.

Who was this man and why had father not introduced us already?

The gorgeous man inclined his head toward me, not losing his smile. “Greetings, Miss Bai.”

Gods! His voice should be declared as sin and cast out of the land… or given to me for safekeeping. It was exactly the way I had imagined the lover of my main character’s voice to be, better even.

I bowed back and couldn’t help the colors that rose to my cheeks when I answered “Greetings… um.”

I dared to look at my father, who was grinning from ear to ear.

I felt lost.

Why hasn't my father introduced this god to me yet?

Had we met before?

Impossible, I would have never forgotten a face or voice like that… or had I?

The man that had me in such a state chuckled, and my eyes went immediately back to him.

“Oh dear, it seems that the Lady has already forgotten about me.” I couldn’t detect any malice in his tone, on the contrary, he seemed rather amused.

“Certainly not, your majesty!” my father interjected, almost in a panic.

He was a Prince? I had met the royal family during one of my father’s visits to the palace, but this man… This man wasn’t one of the princes I had seen.

The man’s gaze turned to my father and I wished there was something I could do to make it look back at me. I mean, I am the most beautiful creature in the room and still, he doesn’t seem even a bit affected!

I was at a loss.

“General Bai, would it be too much of me to ask to visit the gardens with you lovely daughter? Perhaps speaking with this Prince will freshen her memory.”

Forward, isn’t he?

I wanted to frown but managed to hold back the urge. Instead, I turned to see my father nod of all things! He even asked his main servant to set a table for us to take tea in the garden!

I almost felt cheated.

Almost.

Because, truth be told, I really wanted to know how I had managed to forget a man like him!

The said Prince stood up and offered me his arm to take… it sparked something in my memory, but I still couldn’t place it.

We walked in silence for a few moments before his voice interrupted my train of thought.

“I am hurt, miss Bai. You truly don’t remember me.” He didn’t sound hurt at all, and his smile was still in full bloom.

“I- err.” I took a deep breath to calm the nerves I had never felt before “I am most sorry, your highness. There is no excuse for this servant to forget the name of a Prince.”

I expected anything but for him to laugh.

“No matter, I shall enjoy giving you hints until you remember.”

I bit my lip. Happy that I wasn’t in trouble and that I would be spending time with him, but I couldn’t help but fear what would happen if I were unable to remember.

Royalty was, by rule, the vainest member of society. And when you added to that the fact that they could order the death of any subject in any circumstance just by looking at them wrong… I feared for my life.

We arrived at the pavilion in the garden, and I was almost dreading him asking me about life on the border or such trivialities, but instead, he began asking about the inspiration behind a poem I had written ages ago during one of the Imperial Spring Competitions.

“The topic of the competition had been ‘life’, and I remember struggling with it at first, but then a friend of mine came over and disrupted the event by seating beside me and taking the paper out of my hands.” I shook my head remembering, while a smile crept to my face.

Those were simpler times.

“This friend of yours sounds like a true troublemaker.”

I laughed. “Mu a troublemaker? Oh, his majesty can bet he is.” I shook my head.

His eyes sparkled and I lost my train of thought.

“On a first name basis is it? This person must really be special to you.”

Oh dear.

I had grown accustomed to saying his name in my mind that I completely forgot how improper it was to call others not related by blood or marriage by their given names.

I blushed up to my ears wishing the earth would swallow me whole, but no such luck.

Suddenly, his hand fell on top of my shoulder and I looked up at him. His semblance was apologetic.

Why would he feel sorry when the one that made a social faux-pas was me?

However, whatever he was going to say next was interrupted by a loud shout coming from the garden:

“Take your filthy hands off my fiancee!”

We both turned to find the bane of my days (last name Shang) staring furiously at us as if we had been kissing or worse.

The Prince turned to me, raising an eyebrow and I shook my head ‘no’.

Shang, the brute, went so far as to slap away the hand that was touching my shoulder.

Or well… tried to.

Tried and failed.

I imagine that hitting the prince had been like hitting a rock, by the face his aggressor made.

The Prince glared at the man and, instead of simply putting his hand on my shoulder, he went as far as passing his arm over my shoulders.

“You will apologize now” the man glared at Shang, who visibly recoiled from the authoritative tone. The prince then put forward a small lion-head pin I had completely overlooked until now. It was the emblem of the royal family. “Do you not see this?”

Shang went so pale that I thought he might just faint on the spot.

True to form, the man kowtowed to the prince. “F-fo-forgive me your majesty!” he sobbed.

The prince nodded and then smiled at me.

“Now apologize to Fan’er for telling such a ridiculous lie. To think that she would lower herself to accept a proposition of someone like yourself is nothing short of blasphemy!” His eyes turned to me again and I saw them light in mischief, completely betraying his tone.

He spoke my name with such familiarity… and in that smile, I discovered what he had been hinting at all this time: This was the only man in the empire that knew what I wanted out of life… and he may also be the only one who could give it to me.

I pouted and hugged myself closer to his frame.

“Mu’er, this man has been pestering me for months! Can you do something about it?”

As always, he took my change in stride, while he turned to the now trembling man.

“Should I have him flogged, then?”

Shang whimpered.

“Only? He also lied about the engagement…”

“So, we cut out his tongue. He won’t be able to lie anymore…”

And just like that, the man who had been making my life difficult pissed his pants, bowing to leave and never return to bother us again if we let him keep his tongue.

Clearly as unamused as I was to be in the presence of such a pitiful creature, Mu ordered one of my father’s guards to take him away to receive his punishment: a flogging and public humiliation.

I found it immensely curious that the soldier didn’t even blink at being ordered by Mu and went on to fulfill the duty he had been given.

Once we were alone again, he began to let go of me, but I grabbed his hand before he could take it off my shoulders.

I put my head on his chest and inhaled his scent.

The boy that I had met when he was thirteen had transformed into what I needed the most and, like he had done many years ago during that poetry competition, he had saved me.

“Thank you” I wanted to convey all the gratitude I felt with my words, but even I found them lacking.

“What are friends for?”

Oh, dearest Mu, if you only knew that I no longer wanted to be just friends…