The Dragon's Flower

XH 113

Before the sunrise, Xiao Hua had already woken up and did the usual morning jogging around the manor with Duan Xi Ying.

Duan Xi Ying does not know what had fired up Xiao Hua today, to be able to finish the morning jogging before the sunrise, which she usually only able to complete after the sun was high up the sky.

The thing that fuel Xiao Hua's energy was her anger towards the Third Prince that had not ebbed since last night. Why was he not following the script? She should be the attacker, teasing the shy, inexperienced boy. Instead, she was the one being teased until she had to run away before her chastity was taken!

Duan XiYing allowed Xiao Hua to rest until the beginning light of the sunrise appears before moving on to the next agenda, which was private training with Duan XiYing.

Today Duan XiYing decided to make the training harder for Xiao Hua, hoping that it could improve the younger girl's experience. The blindfolded Xiao Hua was standing in the middle of the clearing, feeling nervous and paranoid.

The blindfold was to help Xiao Hua to sharpen her senses instead of only relying on her eyesight. Duan XiYing will throw sticks with her inner energy coated over it, letting Xiao Hua familiarize herself with how inner energy felts like as well as to practice her evasion skill.

As expected, Xiao Hua failed to dodge even one and ended up being the sticks' target pole. There was even once when she predicted the direction of the incoming stick wrongly and tripped over her own foot.

At the end of the lesson, Xiao Hua could feel her whole body stings as if she had been lightly whipped all over. It was not overly painful but it's an uncomfortable sensation. When she removed her blindfold, her eyes immediately closed again from the sudden brightness.

"Xiao Hua, take a short rest here." Duan XiYing picked up Xiao Hua, who still had her eyes tightly closed, and brought her into the pavilion to rest under the roof that could more or less block most of the blinding sunlight.

Feeling depressed at how easily Duan XiYing had carried her despite she had gained weight and taller than before, Xiao Hua nodded and waited until her eyes slowly get used to the light again.

Picking up the small towel to wipe her sweat on her face and neck, she gave Duan XiYing a grateful look when she passed her a cup of warm honey water.

"XiYing, do you know of any way for me to sense inner energy easier?" Le XiaoTing was used to being spoon-fed by her mother and teachers, with all the answers dropped onto her lap so that she could mostly answer questions or problems she faced in life, school and workplace.

But Xiao Hua was not given an answer or method when it comes to training. When she was told to throw the knives, they let her practice herself, only telling her what they expected as the final result, believing that it would be better for her to discover the way by herself. Fortunately, Eunuch Lau Liu had explained to her the mechanics in doing so.

Le XiaoTing wanted to cry. She was forced to be hardworking and have her brain think more in this world!

"Hmm, XiYing just needs to close her eyes and spread XiYing's senses to sense inner energy."

Please dumb it down for this young lady! In the first place, how do you spread your senses?

Xiao Hua wanted to ask more questions, but Duan XiYing had seen that Xiao Hua's eyes were back to normal and ushered her back to her room to take a quick bath and change into her uniform.

The Third Prince was already waiting when Xiao Hua entered his room for their usual breakfast routine.

"Good morning, Your Highness," Xiao Hua greeted with a curtsy.

Long Zhu could see Xiao Hua was still annoyed with him from how she avoided eye contact and the lack of joy when she greeted him. He felt a momentary sense of helplessness. Would she act like this whenever he wanted to be more intimate with her?

Fortunately, he had ordered the cook to prepare duck congee for breakfast today. His little flower had said she missed eating duck congee during their trip back home from Xuanwu country and Tian Chi so happened to have extra duck meat from last night's meal.

The Third Prince stood up and approached Xiao Hua slowly with a smile that screamed, 'Look I'm so pitiful so forgive me please'.

"Come, let's have breakfast."

Cautiously, he took one of Xiao Hua's hands and when she did not resist, he gently directed her to take a seat beside him.

Tian Zi and Tian Chi were inside the room as well and saw how their master made pleading, pitiful eyes at Elder Sister Hua to forgive him! Their mind itched to know what their master had done to make Xiao Hua, a pretty easy-going person, to be angry with him!

Their actions and behaviour betrayed nothing of their curiosity, but if one were to look at their eyes properly, they would immediately break out shivers at the fierce hunger plainly visible in their eyes!

Tian Zi scooped the congee into two empty bowls for the Third Prince and Xiao Hua before retreating to the corner of the room beside Tian Chi, trying their best to act invisible, but their ears and eyes were working overtime to catch any hidden message.

They do not know about their master's desire to have Xiao Hua adopted so he could marry her, as it was kept hidden from everyone except for a selected few that Long Zhu trusted with his life and he wanted it to remain that way.

Fortunately, Xiao Hua sensed that it must be kept a secret as well for she was still uncertain of the chances of her being able to marry the Third Prince after being adopted. A mother's protectiveness was scary after all!

Although the Empress and her boss' mother do not have the same face, they have the same fierce protectiveness of their son.

"I remember that you wish to eat duck congee, so I had Tian Chi to cook it. Be careful not to burn your tongue."

Xiao Hua's remaining frustration towards the Third Prince dispersed. He had remembered what she said days ago! Her smile was especially sweet and pleasing to his eyes as she nodded docilely.

The couple found the duck congee extremely delicious today.

After the delicious breakfast, the Third Prince was thinking of a reason for her to more spend time with him, other than making Xiao Hua grinding ink for him when Steward Lau Zheng requested to meet him.

"Your Highness, a missive arrived from the Eighth Prince."

Curious, Xiao Hua lingered behind to eavesdrop. The Third Prince raised a hand and the steward promptly placed the sealed letter on it. After doing so, Steward Lau Zheng requested to leave, and the Third Prince granted it.

Unsealing the cover, the Third Prince unfolded the letter and read the content. It only took him a second or two to read it before folding it back.

"Your Highness, is everything all right with the Eighth Prince?" Xiao Hua asked worriedly.

"Hmm... The eighth brother sent an invitation for you to enter the palace to visit him."

"...Eh?" Did she hear wrongly? "But he usually comes by to visit me... could it be he found something and could not bring it out?"

The Third Prince chuckled. "I doubt that's the reason." He handed the letter, allowing her to read it herself, at the same time testing her knowledge after learning some Chinese characters from Heise.

Long Zhu had wanted to teach his little flower, but his eighth brother suggested it before him and Xiao Hua had agreed. Fortunately, both of them held nothing but friendship, or else he would disagree with his 8th brother teaching Xiao Hua characters.

Xiao Hua took the letter and immediately identified that there were two people writing it! She recognized the slightly messy handwriting as Heise's, so the beautiful strokes must be Eunuch Heng's.

The letter originally started by Eunuch Heng, writing greetings and such which she skipped since most of it was still unknown characters to her. She paid attention to Heise's writing, which indicated he had sneaked in once in a while to drop his own comments on the letter.

"The Emperor and Empress forbid the Eighth Prince to visit me?" Xiao Hua asked in confusion.

The Third Prince nodded. "Yes. Mother Empress had found out something unpleasant and wishes for eighth brother to remain in the palace."

His men inside the palace had reported that the Empress had found out about the story between Xiao Hua and the Eighth Prince, thanks to a certain babbling wife of a minister. He had used his position and connection to suppress the stories but he could not suppress all of it.

"I will accompany you to the palace but you will be visiting the eighth brother alone for I need to discuss some matter with the eldest brother."

Xiao Hua nodded. "Alright." She will have to ask Heise what he did to make the Empress angry again. She could have asked the Third Prince if he knew, but she does not want to miss the chance to annoy Heise.