Villain Lady

Shi Lu Wen giggled. From their conversation, she could infer something. Her eyes landed on Wei Liuying with deep interest. "Young Master Liu, are you a girl?"

"Yes," Wei Liuying didn't bother to hide it.

"Really? You look so cool that I can't believe it."

Shi Lu Wen circled around Wei Liuying with excitement. Wei Liuying was half a head shorter than Shi Lu Wen, so she had to look up when she wanted to talk with this young lady too. She could clearly see the clear excitement in Shi Lu Wen's eyes.

"Lu'er, who's cooler? Me or Liu Ying?"

"Liu Ying!"

There was no hesitation in Shi Lu Wen's voice to the point that Shi Yan felt he had just received the biggest blow. His sister, whom he had pampered ever since he was young, was now idolizing someone other than him.

Shi Yan crouched on the ground while holding his head.

Yang Xian shook his head when he saw the sulking Shi Yan. "You can't be a cool young man with a face that look like women, Yan."

"It's not like I wish to be born with this face!"

Now that Yang Xian mentioned it, Wei Liuying could see that both Shi Lu Wen and Shi Yan had similar face. They looked so similar to each other to the point that one might mistake them for twins if not for their difference in height and Shi Yan's slight masculine features.

"It's similar with you and your brother."

"My brother didn't have feminine face."

"That's one of the difference too."

Shi Lu Wen laughed at the two's talk while Shi Yan felt like burying his face deeper to the ground. Should he make fake moustache under his nose to make him look more masculine? Or maybe beard? He wanted to cry when he thought that his real face was too smooth for his own good.

"You all seems to be having fun here."

The voice made them all turned their head. They could see Ji Sheng walking with Princess Ji Xiaoli following behind him and Shi Mo. His imposing aura felt like suppressing the area almost immediately, but the people there were already immune to it.

"We're only talking about having Liu Ying as Lu Wen's etiquette teacher," Yang Xian said with a smile.

"And I agree," Shi Yan quickly followed. At least, it was a much better reason compared to the real one when they were all targeting Shi Yan's intelligence.

Ji Sheng nodded and looked at Shi Lu Wen. "You have grown taller again. The villagers said that you have started to do your practice?"

"Yes. I'm going to open a clinic soon," Shi Lu Wen replied cheerfully. "The governor also agreed with me without asking many questions."

"That's good."

"Yes. I'm going to start soon with ….."

As Shi Lu Wen began to blabber about herbs, Ji Sheng glanced at Shi Yan. At this time, Shi Yan had turned his head around. How could he admit that he was paying the governor a sum of money to allow Shi Lu Wen to start opening a clinic now that she had already gotten the qualification?

Besides, if Shi Lu Wen were to continue to learn, she would be able to become even better in the future.

"Alright, Lu Wen, you can go show your garden to Xiaoli and Liuying."

"Yes!"

Liuying?

Ji Xiaoli didn't pay attention to Wei Liuying's name before. Aside from the fact that she heard many called her Apprentice Strategist Liu, she didn't know Wei Liuying's full name. Now that she heard the name, her mind recalled the name of a concubine daughter in the Capital City.

Wei Liuying.

She had heard that Wei Liuying was known to be the useless lady in the capital city with not many people knew about her. In addition, she was also 'sick' lately because of her clash with Prince Ji Shu. But looking at the young girl before her, Ji Xiaoli knew very well that the rumor was completely wrong.

How could a useless lady be so smart to the point that she attracted Prince Ji Sheng's interest?

How could someone who can be so calculative fall for Ji Shu's trap and feel down because of that?

How could someone who's capable to ride horse perfectly fall sick so easily because of a single setback?

And how could a ruthless person who dared to abandon everything she had be someone who's weak?

Princess Ji Xiaoli felt that she had to keep her mind broad even more. There were so many things that she needed to know that might be outside of what she could possibly think in her entire life.

This was one of them.

"Come on, the flowers are blooming right now," Shi Lu Wen called the two of them. Her cheerful attitude attracted the two of them almost immediately.

"Do you know the name of the flowers?"

"Of course. Would you like to hear them all, Princess?"

"Sure."

Wei Liuying followed from behind and watched as Shi Lu Wen continued to cheerfully explain everything. The garden was quite big, so it was clear that Shi Yan must have asked the governor to give him some additional benefit.

Well, he was quite rich too.

Princess Ji Xiaoli's expression began to warm up a bit. Facing such a cheerful girl, it was hard for her to not smile too. After all, Shi Lu Wen continued to smile so happily while explaining whatever Princess Ji Xiaoli wanted to know.

In the end, Wei Liuying excused herself first to sit down and watched the sunset.

"You're not going to continue walking with Lu Wen?"

"Princess Ji Xiaoli is uncomfortable with my existence," Wei Liuying said unhurriedly. "It'll be better to let her alone with Shi Lu Wen so that she would be able to fully relax and talked about what interest them."

Yang Xian nodded and pulled a chair to sit with Wei Liuying. "Everyone have their own role in a play, so do they in real life. Sometimes, you can switch with others but there are many who can only be played by certain people."

"You're smart, Strategist Yang."

"I'm only stating my opinion," Yang Xian said with a hearty laugh. "Don't be so hard to yourself. You should also learn how to relax and enjoy your time. Life is only once, Liuying."

Wei Liuying merely smiled lightly but there was no mirth within her eyes. If she was not hard to herself, how can she possibly survive until this long? It was impossible for her to relax as she understood that she needed to do everything within her control to let her be able to survive.

At this time, Shi Lu Wen began to cook with Princess Ji Xiaoli helping her. From how awkward Princess Ji Xiaoli held the knife, it was clear that she had never gone to the kitchen to cook before.

"Be careful with the knife, Princess."

"Yes, I know."

"Would you like to join in and help, Yan Ge?" Shi Lu Wen turned her head to look at her brother, who had just finished talking with Ji Sheng.

Shi Yan shook his head. "I'll leave you to have fun with Princess Ji Xiaoli. I'm going to play chess with His Highness."

"Alright."

They walked inside the house and Shi Yan took out a chess board. Yang Xian rubbed his cheek and looked at Wei Liuying. "Who do you think will win?"

"Prince Ji Sheng."

"There's no hesitation?"

"Nope," Wei Liuying replied right away. She had seen Shi Yan's skill before and his deception skill along with his ability to analyze the entire board suck. It would be better to trust Prince Ji Sheng rather than him.

Yang Xian nodded. "You have good judgement."

"I'm not that bad!"

Shi Yan was annoyed and began to play. But it didn't even take half an incense time for him to lose miserably in Prince Ji Sheng's hand. From the way it looked like, he was unable to stop Prince Ji Sheng's advance and ended up sacrificing all of his pieces for a bitter end.

"You're still 10 years too early to challenge Prince Ji Sheng," Yang Xian commented with a laugh.

"Mo, let's play!"

"Are you sure?" Shi Mo, who was originally only watching from a distance asked in hesitation.

"Yes! Don't hold back."

"Ok."

And the result was…

Shi Yan lost again.

When Shi Lu Wen came to bring the food along with Princess Ji Xiaoli, they were greeted with the scene of Shi Yan banging his head on the table. She arched her eyebrows. "Yan Ge, are you playing chess again?"

"Lu Wen, help me defeat Mo."

"Eat first."

"Fine…"

"Why did you even start playing against Cousin Mo when you already know that you're so bad?" Shi Lu Wen muttered in confusion. 

The others could hear her voice, but they chose to pretend that they didn't hear anything. Shi Yan already got the heaviest blow with his little sister already knew his poor abilities when it came to play chess. Only Shi Mo was unable to hide his expression as he began to laugh slightly.

"Mo, let's spar."

"Yan, you know that I'm a soldier, right?" Shi Mo reminded.

Shi Yan's face turned sour. Be it in the battle of mind and body, he could win neither. He wished to bury his head on the ground even more now.

Listening to this, Princess Ji Xiaoli smiled lightly. She never knew that the people around her third brother was actually so much fun. There were also a lot of benefit from having low identity.