The Dragon's Flower

XH 71

In a courtyard, a fourteen years old girl could be seen training hard in knife throwing in 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 Long Zhu'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 a.k.a the maid that the Third Prince had treated in a way one does to their favorite pet in most people's eyes. But to the inner maids and shadow guards of the Third Prince, they viewed the treatment differently because they knew better.

The kindness and everlasting patience whenever Xiao Hua made a mistake was totally different from how one would usually treat their own pets! Normally, the owner would teach their pet to learn from their mistakes or punish them if they had continued on with their mistake.

The inner maids and the shadow guards knew about their master's contracted beast and had witnessed their interaction. From it, they easily concluded their master was not treating Xiao Hua as a pet!

The Third Prince did not treat Xiao Hua as a sister, for he had not treated Long Lian that well despite the Third Prince being the princess' favorite brother. He managed to get that title for he was the one that treated her best compared to her other brothers. The inner maids and shadow guards had not seen their master personally clean his sister's face or acting like her personal carriage!

In the end, they could only conclude that Xiao Hua was someone special to the Third Prince. Whether Xiao Hua could be something more and permanent 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 rising."

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 then if she thinks 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 XiYing has no desire to kill her as most minion does towards their seniors. 

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

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 does not know, they would assume Duan XiYing as the master and Xiao Hua the little servant girl.

After being fed with good food, Xiao Hua's height was now a 145 cm tall. There was also a hint of feminine curves being developed, giving Xiao Hua mixed feelings. Soon, her aunt would make its existence known and whether it would be an overly painful 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 XiYing handed the knives to Xiao Hua.

With a touch, the knives returned into her bracelets' spatial dimension. The knives that Jing Ke had made was 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.

Tomorrow will be the New Year's Eve, as well as the Third Prince's seventeen birthday. There will be a birthday celebration in the palace tomorrow morning.

"But...that would not be a good idea, isn't 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 birthday together. Then the news of the Eighth Prince gifting an unknown beast to the Third Prince's personal maid had the dark clouds gathered 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 it.

The most famous version was the Third Prince's personal maid had seduced the Eighth Prince and the unknown beast was the proof of the Eighth Prince's love towards her! There were a few versions of the same story created and spreading 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 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 XiYing smiled. "XiYing is happy that Xiao Hua understands!"

When Duan XiYing did not say anything further and just smiled at her encouragingly, something finally clicked in Xiao Hua's mind.

Xiao Hua: '...' 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 alike 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 with the sole purpose of picking up dishes and placed it onto the Third Prince's bowl of porridge. It was pretty amusing that the Third Prince that disliked rice would surprisingly favor 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.

Honestly, Le XiaoTing was not a social bee, preferring the enjoyment from reading novels instead of being social. Being Xiao Hua did not change that. At least in her original world, she gets to stick to the food corner in a party, but in this world, she would have to pay full attention in serving the Third Prince and made 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."

Xiao Hua: '...' Spoken just like a favorite and spoilt child!

"Master," An Jing speaks up when Xiao Hua does 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."

Xiao Hua: '...' I do not need to take a half day to cook fried rice. It took a long time that day because I'm not used to cooking!

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

The frown on his face finally cleared and 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!