119 PARTIAL

"A proof," President Yuchi crossed his leg on the other. "Seeing is believing!"

The director quickly arranged the cameras. As soon as the microphone was lifted, Xueyan got into character.

Acting as Ruqin, she was at the front followed by few of the men as they headed to the opening near the kitchen meant for eating.

At the door Ruqin bumped into the arrogant woman, she was big in size and standing right at the door, there was no way for Ruqin to go in. "Make way,"

The woman opened her mouth to talk, "..."

"Make way?" Every eyes available turned to Fangxi. And they all stopped everything else they were doing. "That's a very wrong choice of word... Did you choose that? Or did the director choose it?"

Fangxi strained her neck to be able to catch the look on the president's face, but the man refused to turn. She pressed her lips together. "Right President?" Deng Yue immediately pinched her. "I mean, Yan Ruqin as a character is a noble lady, she should talk more like a noble lady. A lady with manner..." She paused allowing her statement to settle.

"Hmph," President Yuchi straightened in his chair. "Miss Ru is right,"

And it made Fangxi smile brightly. She could make Xueyan have a hard day. That was her plan.

Director Ye and Producer Fang's mouth fell open. Did he come to ruin it all? What is wrong with this old man? He knew nothing about acting! Or producing talk more of writing a single statement!

"Who's the screen writer?" President Yuchi asked, and a man about forty years came forward.

"Sir, i wrote it..."

"You? What do you know?" President Yuchi interrupted.

The man wanted to say he wrote it alongside Du Xiujun, but the president didn't give him chance to explain.

"Sir, Yan Ruqin is a noble lady, but she isn't one of the sweet meek noble ladies. She lost her mother at a tender age so she spent mostly all her time with her father. He's a man, he doesn't know much about how a woman should be trained so he easily taught her how to use the sword instead of how to handle needles for embroidery or even stitching. With time, she started acting like a man... More like a proud man than a quiet a noble lady. So you see, why the arrogance..."

"Oh!" President Yuchi arched a brow. "You might be correct,"

"Sure he is," the chairman supported.

Fangxi smiling face vanished. She looked around and saw Xueyan smiling. She was always smiling! But why? Why? What made her so happy? Her hands balled into fists. She isn't worried about the impression President Yuchi will have about her... What is wrong with that slut?

As if Xueyan heard her, she turned to glare at her. Fangxi thought she was going to be roasted alive by that deathly glare thrown at her by Xueyan. She tried to glare back but Xueyan looked away.

Xueyan on the other hand was having a good time. Mei Han was a talkative, always making everyone laugh with her silly jokes. She remembered the first time they met, at the supermarket, she was at the counter asking if she was newly married. Xueyan laughed remembering how shocked she herself was.

"Xue dear, I can't wait for this shoot to be over so you can rest all the time. You don't look good when stressed. Look, you're having eye bags."

With instinct, Xueyan immediately felt around her face and under her eyes, "Mei Han don't make such jokes." She warned and they laughed.

Just now that when she saw the angry look on Fangxi's face, she wanted to laugh... Fangxi coming here with the so called president was to give her a hard day. Well, this was the beginning of her own bad day. Because she would make sure she doesn't react much to anything Fangxi says or does. She doesn't want to be affected in anyway.

This would be the third time the cameras are set up for one scene today, not that she did bad but because people were interfering.

"Continue the shoot," President Yuchi said, and rested his chin on his hand for support.

Director Ye replayed the scene, it would make more sense to restart than continue from a mistake. He thought.

"Now, now Milady, what do I owe this honour?" The woman asked. For a woman her age, she was way too tall. Staring down at Ruqin, Ruqin wanted to do nothing more than smack her across the face.

Ruqin looked away. Arrogant! The woman wished she could scream down at Ruqin. But she couldn't. She was only here to serve in the kitchen, not talk rudely to the soldiers. But she just couldn't resist the urge of talking down on this little noble but arrogant lady.

"Hunger, I guess. Your stomach is growling and you come running to me... But it's not that easy though."

Ruqin rolled her eyes. "Get yourself busy by serving me my breakfast! In my village, I ate earlier than this! I love my stomach and don't want any harm to come to it, so serve me the finest meat, fish and a warm meal. Mustn't be saucy!"

Pang of laughter ran round in the big opening. The little girl was very good at making jokes. They thought.

The woman was left with a contorted face. Where did they bring this cocky slut from? "I will be sure to do that!" She said then turned and went back into the kitchen.

Now it was time for the director to move his own camera, into the open space. From a back door, Zeng helped his injured friend into the space, he looked around for an empty table. But it was all taken. "Why did we increase so much today?" He asked with annoyance. His dear injured friend was resting all his weight on him. He sprained his neck but acting as if his whole body was run over a thousand times by a horse. He couldn't even stand on his own. And refused to open his eyes.

"I think the little girl took your table," one of the men said and they laughed.

Zeng inspected the tables again. It was true. She was sitting with her legs crossed and whistling. Where in the world did she come from? So courageous...

He dragged his friend to the table. "You will do much better at standing guard than sitting here," he said with a sarcastic tone.

Ruqin stopped whistling. "You want to end up like your blind friend?" She asked. And the injured young man immediately opened his eyes.

"I'm not blind, you moron!"

"Oh! I thought you were," she flashed him a grin.

"Weidong!" Zeng angrily called.

"I'm sorry!" Weidong apologized. "I didn't know how to face all of you. The looks that would be directed at me for loosing to a mere woman... I didn't want to experience it!"

"Dumb!" Ruqin commented.

"Well, I am not!" Weidong retaliated.

"Without mentioning names, a dog knows he's a dog." She started whistling again.

How she was able to talk down on everyone, they didn't know. Weidong was their second in command after Zeng. But she easily made him a laughing stock.

Weidong didn't know what to say again as he angrily sat down and looked away.

"You owe me a thanks! Your friend deceived you into thinking he was blind,"

" I never said I was blind!" Weidong fired.

"You pretended to be," Ruqin said. She had fun teasing this men. They claimed to be soldiers that have gone to war and won, she wondered how they were able to do it! They couldn't even swallow her statements...

The woman came out carrying a full tray. With a big smile on her face, she dropped the tray in front of Ruqin. "Here it is Milady, just like you ordered."

Weidong eyes shook. "Hey, Tan! You're being partial!" He screamed. "How does she get the best treatment over us? We've been here with you almost like forever!"

Zeng smiled. "It's okay, let her enjoy it while the offer lasts."

"Zeng understands me more than y'all. I'm just welcoming her," Tan said, still smiling.

Zeng was smart enough to see through her plans.

Ruqin eyed the woman, and slowly picked her wooden chopsticks. She inspected it making sure the chopsticks were clean. And then dug into the food. Meanwhile, Tan didn't move, she stood there waiting for the food to enter Ruqin's mouth.

Ruqin felt something was fishy by the way, the woman kept looking at her. "You can now go back into the kitchen."

"Oh!" Tan exclaimed. "Sure, Milady." She turned and headed for the kitchen.

"Ahhhh!" Ruqin screamed! All eyes turned to her. "My mouth is on fire...hmmm...mmm..." She started spitting. She used her eyes to scan the tables in search of water. When she saw a jar, she ran to take it. She should have percived the content before pouring it into her mouth. Whatever she drank didn't completely quench the fire in her mouth but it helped a bit.