Falling Dreams, Rising Hopes: Saving Mr. Boyfriend

And the group of four finally headed to the tournament location. Mei Qingyang was at peace after talking to her trusted aide after so long. It was pitch dark and there was not even a soul to be found on the road, giving it very spooky feeling. Somehow they reached the venue.

They came to know that their peers had checked into the hotel some two hours away from the tournament location and would be mostly traveling on the day of tournament itself. Thankfully, Yu Rong had not arrived yet.

"There are hot springs at this hotel, you can go and enjoy once you settle down," Yu Tian told Mei Qingyang. She had long dreamt of this, so she was uber excited. Unfortunately, she did not have any female friends to enjoy it with.

How she had wished that she would go to hot springs with her friends and discuss spicy gossip with them. It did not seem she had any fate with girl friends at all. Back home also, her dad never got her to train with women. He wanted her to get as strong as possible so that she could defeat males even. She had fought with her dad for one week straight because of his s.e.xist ways, but her dad had not budged.

Anyway, she just wanted to sleep for now. It was almost dawn and she had not slept at that cabin either. She went ahead and slept like a log, disregarding anything and everything around her.

Late in the morning, she heard a knock on the door.

"Qing Qing, did you sleep well? You will miss breakfast if you don't wake up," Su Lang was at her doorstep. She had not paid any attention to her room at the night.

This was again a luxurious place. Her bedroom had one full sized bed for her and a huge study table at the corner with a desktop on it. The bathroom was also attached to the room, with a Jacuzzi looking over to the mountains outside. It felt more like a honeymoon destination than a sports facility. No wonder this was owned by the three families.

Mei Qingyang suddenly had a realization, that she was indeed connected with quite some powerful friends now.

"Cousin, I will be out in ten minutes," she opened the door to let her cousin in. Yu Tian was not with him today. Su Lang had gotten ready to go out somewhere it seemed. He was smelling so fresh, that Mei Qingyang could not help but raise an eyebrow.

"Are you going on a date or something, elder brother?" she asked while grabbing her towel.

"Date? Hmm… it's a good idea, I could look for a few girls. With my looks, I should be able to score a few," Su Lang considered seriously.

"Tsk, shameless," she threw a pillow on her cousin and headed to the bathroom. Su Lang laughed from behind.

After having a sumptuous breakfast, the three guys started giving Mei Qingyang a tour around the place. It was a good idea to finish everything before the meddlesome party of Yu Rong arrived.

"It's Yu Tian and Su Lang!"

"Who is that girl with them?"

"Have they brought a girl to compete in girls' competition this time?"

"Is she a girlfriend of one of them?"

"Oh God! Yu Tian is as hot as ever!"

"That plain looking girl? Pfft"

"Her green eyes are a bit eerie, don't you think?"

"She must be a servant to one of them. Don't you know the system of their school?"

Mei Qingyang heard whispers while walking around, and somehow, she had once again become the talk of the town. Ah! She should have known better and not walk with these guys.

Yu Tian and Su Lang were listening to the same things as Mei Qingyang. They knew it would not adversely affect her because she was mentally strong. If things like these would have hurt her, she would not have lasted in the college till now.

Now that they thought, she was just a girl who was probably like sixteen or seventeen years old. Even then, she had such mental fortitude that she had still been persisting on. Did she really love herself enough or did she cry in a corner in her room after hearing all the nasty stuff from her classmates?

Suddenly, the temperature around them dropped by a few degrees. How dare these unknown entities pass comments about their Qing Qing? They would let them have a taste of their ridiculousness the next day in the matches.

Mei Qingyang sensed the change and abruptly held hands with both of them while walking in between them. She mumbled in low voice, "You guys don't need to worry about me, okay? These comments mean nothing to me."

The two guys were so touched, they both hugged her from the side. If one was not aware, they would think that these three were practicing for three-legged race. But everyone saw how close this girl was to both the guys, so everyone shut up.

Yu Rong spotted them from her car from far away.

"Wang Hao, you never told me that they are getting so chummy together. If I hadn't seen it myself, I would not have believed you. This witch has really cast some spell on these guys. I need to talk with Yu Tian," she rolled down her car's window in the distance and clicked a few pictures.

This person was one of the spies Minister Jiang had sent to keep an eye on his daughter. Now that she was playing hooky, no wonder he sent people to spy on his own daughter, the daughter whom he loved and gave all facilities including a second chance at life. She was growing a mind of her own?

When the group reached back to their hotel rooms, Mei Qingyang was greeted by several notes on her doorstep. Here too?

She had initially thought that the guys had called her to go over some strategy or they would have given her some information about her opponents or something. But they were so lax as if they knew they were going to win. That was fine, but what about her? She should have had some information. She was directly competing in a national championship.

But if she thought about it, her challengers would be as clueless about her as them. All she needed to do was to remember what martial arts she was supposed to use. If she used mixed martial arts, she would be disqualified.

Anyway, she started going through the letters one by one. She was really surprised by the power of fans to find her information so fast. Most of them were the usual 'stay away from our princes' letters.

There were two particular letters that did catch her attention though.

First one reminded her about her duties as Minister Jiang daughter. It stated that she was being very casual about her mission and that she should be working hard to stay away from the rich people. But she was too intimate with them, worrying the author of the letter if she was taking her duties seriously. There was an exquisite penmanship used to write the letter, which was what had intrigued her in the first place. She was not bothered about the contents.

With the letter, there were a few pictures of her and the two boys, laughing and chatting and enjoying food, while Yu Bufan was always in the background, aware of his surroundings.

If even assistant Yu could not sense the presence of this photographer, then this person was too good in their work. The angles the photos had been shot from were all suspicious too, a few of them made her and Yu Tian look more intimate than she had recalled.

At the end, there was a request for a reply, asking her for stating her oath to her dad and her mission once again. They had asked her to put her reply at one of the specific hotel lockers.

She laughed at the immaturity of the person. They had the audacity to threaten her and then suddenly request a congenial reply. Who did they think they were dealing with?

She connected to her desktop and hacked into the hotel's camera system. She was glad she had acquired these skills before leaving her house. And she was thankful for these cameras, they were her ultimate weapons.

Unfortunately, the sender of the letter was smart too. They had covered their face with a mask and black sunglasses. From the persons stature though, she could guess the identity of the person. That was one of the paparazzi her dad had contracted once. She did not know they had deep enough relationship for this guy to be reminding her of her own duties.

How did he know why she was here in the first place? Her dad, of course!

She closed the desktop and tossed the letter on the side table. She would reply when she had time, she was under no obligation to reply to him instantaneously.

The second letter was the one that really piqued her interest though. It stated, "Green eyes! Your eyes are so beautiful, they look like marbles and I am really curious to know. I have met only one other person with such a unique shine as in your eyes. Could you grant me a meeting at the hotel lounge tonight for dinner? I swear I am not a creep. If it puts your heart at ease, I am a girl too. Will you please meet me? Head to table 7, I will meet you at 9 pm."

Would she get to hear the secret behind her eyes from this person? Get a clue may be?

Someone once had told her that her eyes were not her own and she had always wanted to know about the owner of those beautiful eyes.

This person was a long shot, she could be someone fake too, just trying to get her attention. Green eyes were not all that rare to begin with, she had no idea what this person meant about the 'unique shine'.

On second thought, should she consult with the boys? Oh wait, when did she become so reliant on them that she needed to run all her ideas through them? No, no. She would meet this person by herself and see what the story behind this person's letter was.