While Cheng Chi* was getting scolded by the Principal, Fusheng was currently in the middle of a conversation with Lingjun in the woods beside the Martial arts training grounds.
"Miss Fusheng, how do you feel now?"
Meng Fusheng smiled and said "You do not have to be so formal with me, just call me Fusheng." She continued "I am okay now, this is not the first time that I have faced a situation like this, so I am not too affected." She paused and smiled "I actually have to thank you for helping me out there. Thank you Lingjun."
Lingjun shook his head and said shyly "You don't have to thank me. It did not feel right to just stand there and watch someone get bullied, much less if that person is you."
Fusheng smiled, while Feilong narrowed his eyes and said "Is this boy hitting on you? And with such a cheesey line? So lame "
Fusheng snapped at him "Let him be, can't you see how cute he is.."
Fusheng then asked Lingjun "Yeah that reminds me, I did not see you at all yesterday."
Lingjun chuckled softly "yeah, I am not a complete student of the academy, I am also a servant here, so I don't attend every class, and I don't come everytime. So you may not be seeing me often."
Fusheng furrowed her brows and said "You.."
Lingjun continued and smiled "You don't have to be worried, I am even fortunate to be allowed to study at the Academy, so I will just take advantage of that."
Fusheng nodded "I guess, but you don't have to worry about anything. If there is anything that you need help with, you can just come to me.. I will always help you. After all I am responsible for you."
Lingjun felt a slight twitching of his upper lip, he stared at Fusheng's bright smile and felt that despite the darkening of her face, that she was the most pretty girl that had ever seen, especially her bright eyes.
Feilong on the other hand, facepalmed and said "You are so dumb. Are you misunderstanding something? It's supposed to be the male that is responsible for the female."
Fusheng retorted and said "Most of the storybooks in the capital library had domineering females."
Feilong sneered "I knew I should never have allowed you to look through those books."
Fusheng shrugged while she continued conversing with Lingjun.
***
After all the ruckus that happened in the morning, Fusheng ended up not practicing enough martial arts that morning, soon it was time for the five arts class, which included: calligraphy, Etiquette, Music, Horse riding and Archery. This five Arts class, was a general class just like the political class. It was not held everyday, just three times a week, while political class was held four times a week.
While Fusheng arrived at the arena for the five Arts class, she noticed the attention of everyone was on her, and they were all whispering amongst themselves. Fusheng was not shy about such attention, after all, with everything she planned to do , this type of attention was just a little thing.
Fusheng walked straight among the crowd and never faltered in her steps. While she was walking, she was also conversing with Feilong, "It seems the news of your brave challenge has gone round the entire school. I can read the looks on their faces and they don't know if they should call you brave or stupid."
Fusheng rolled her eyes at him saying "you got all that from just observing their looks. So what does mine say?"
Feilong smirked and faked his voice "Oh this dragon is very mighty, so strong, so handsome, even more handsome than that Lingjun."
Fusheng shuddered "Ughh!! I don't sound like that and I definitely did not think that. Wait, you are jealous of Lingjun. No wonder you always act weird when he's around."
Feilong retorted "I am not jealous okay. How can I be jealous of a mere mortal? I just feel that there is something off about him."
Fusheng laughed "Oh this is so good. The mighty Dragon Feilong, is jealous of a mere mortal kid. You are never hearing the end of this."
While she was laughing at Feilong, she was met with a very worried Xueying. Fusheng muttered "Oh my, I totally forgot about Xueying."
Feilong stared at Xueying and asked "Who is she?"
Fusheng answered "She is my best friend."
Feilong raised his eyebrows at her "I am gone for a day and few hours and you already have a best friend. What a world!! Does things like this normally occur this fast?"
Fusheng rolled her eyes at him "Dramatic much, but it's a long story.. I'll talk later "
Fusheng put on a nervous smile and said to Xueying "Heyy, how are you?"
Xueying came closer and said "How am I? I leave you for a few hours and you are already in trouble."
Fusheng smiled nervously "I did not do it purposely, I just tried to defend myself."
Feilong laughed "Oh boy, she is trouble.. You are in trouble.."
Xueying said with concern literally written on her face "You could have just left him, we would obviously find a way to deal with him. I could deal with him myself, I could even ask grandfather or even the Emperor, you know they would help you."
Fusheng sighed "I know, I might have acted rashly, You, grandfather Li, or even his Majesty could have helped me. But you know that will not solve the problem, it will temporarily hold the wagging tongues, but later they will resume and it will even get worse. Before you even say that I do not need to prove anything to anybody, but I have to defend my grandfather and mother's name, that's all I have. And that trash, insulted my mom and grandfather, I needed to be the one to deal with him."
Xueying did not know what else to say and only added weakly "I am just worried that the bad people might manipulate things and make things extremely difficult for you."
Fusheng laughed out loud "I might even be the person with a surprise on that day." When she saw Xueying's serious face, she stopped laughing and said "I am sorry for making you worry, trust me I don't want that. Just trust me on this."
Xueying did not look convinced but added "I hope you really know what you're doing, but if I even get the slightest feeling that the competition is being manipulated, I don't care about a Martial artist's words or anything, I am making my grandfather call off the competition."
Fusheng smiled and said "Yes Mum. You know you worry just like a mother hen."
Xueying rolled her eyes "You are something else."
While they were happily talking, they were interrupted…
"Older sister here you are, I have been looking all over for you." Meilan said sounding so self-righteous and loud, drawing everyone's attention to Fusheng and Xueying.
Fusheng rolled eyes in exasperation and wondered if Meilan doesn't get tired. She ignored her and continued talking to Xueying.
Meilan did not mind that Fusheng ignored her and ran over "Older sister, how could you just challenge Cheng Chi gege to a Martial arts competition? That is not right, no matter what, there are civil ways to settle issues, it does not have to be one of blood shed." She finished self-righteously, maintaining her image of a goddess.
Many girls in the audience agreed with Meilan's point of view, Fusheng noticed all this and sneered. Feilong added "This step sister of yours, sure knows how to stoke the fire."
Xueying was about to reply to Meilan, but Fusheng held her back and turned to face Meilan. Fusheng was naturally tall, and due to the good etiquette training given to her when she was younger, she grew up standing straight. So as Meilan stared at Fusheng, she had to strain her neck a little, and Fusheng had to look down on her to speak to her.
Fusheng asked "Are you misunderstanding something again?"
Meilan was stumped and could only stutter.
Fusheng continued "Do you even know what your Cheng Chi gege did? Well Miss self-righteous, Your Cheng Chi gege insulted your grandfather and your mother. So you tell me was I wrong?"
Meilan was confused, she forgot herself for a moment and said "He did not insult my mother it's.."
Fusheng interrupted her"Of course I wasn't talking about your concubine mother, I am talking about my own mother. Don't you always claim to be a member of the Meng Household, then you should know that the members of the Meng Household always defends it's members."
Meilan gritted her teeth with hatred as she stared at Fusheng, Fusheng just opened up the scar that she had kept hidden throughout the years. Fusheng just revealed her mother's status to everyone, reminding everyone that she Fusheng was the Di daughter, while she Meilan was only a concubine's daughter.
Meilan said through gritted teeth, "Even though, Older sister, you may not know about this, but as ladies we have a way of handling misunderstandings and it does not require violence."
Fusheng looked surprised and said "What is this? You always take advantage of my grandfather's name and reputation, but now that it's defending that same name, you're suddenly sounding civil and making me a barbarian."
Meilan insisted "No that is not what I meant, older sister you're misunderstanding me. I just don't want you to loose too badly, after all everyone knows that Cheng Chi gege is one of the most strong students in the martial arts school and you… well. If you loose, won't it make grandfather's reputation ruined the more."
Many people agreed with Meilan's point, because after all Fusheng was a waste and Cheng Chi was very powerful, if she lost the competition, not to talk about the loss of martial arts, it would indeed ruin General Meng's reputation.
Fusheng had to give Meilan a hand, because she was finally using that brain of hers to fight with her. She laughed softly
Feilong nodded "To be honest, this is exactly what it looks like from the perspective of people that do not know about your situation. So in a way your annoying sister is right."
Just as Fusheng was about to say something, a lazy voice interrupted...
"You talk too much for someone that is worried about their family's reputation. And as for her defeating her opponent nothing is impossible, isn't? There is no need to let it worry you, or I have a better suggestion, since you are worried about your family's reputation, why don't you take her place in the competition, after all you are a talent in the capital."
Everyone turned in the direction of the voice, and a chill passed through the entire arena, standing at the entrance of the Arena were the Crown Prince and the First Prince. The First Prince who was the person that had clearly spoken stood there watching the two Meng sisters, his expression unknown through his mask.
After a split second, it felt like the spell binding everyone was broken and they all recovered themselves to greet the two Princes.
"Greetings to the Crown Prince "
"Greetings to the First Prince "
The Crown Prince nodded to accept their greetings, while the First Prince just chuckled, He glanced at Meilan "Hmm, what do you have to say?"
Meilan felt flustered that the First Prince was directly speaking to her, she stuttered "I Your highness, I Meilan doesn't understand."
He stepped forward and said "I thought as much, since you don't understand then I suggest you quit talking about it and save your braincells." He sounded like he was tired of having to speak to her.
He bypassed her and walked to Fusheng, "You never seem to stop getting into trouble. Are you a magnet for attracting trouble?"
Fusheng gritted her teeth in frustration and wondered how she somehow managed to get entangled with this person again.
She kept her eyes to the ground refusing to look at him or speak to him, she chanted to herself "Out of Sight, Out of mind"
The First Prince seemingly understanding what she meant, did not know whether to cry or to laugh, finding her ostrich behavior cute. He took out something from his sleeve and put in her hand and walked away. The Crown Prince walked by as well and gave Xueying a meaningful look, but she avoided his look and stared at the ground as well. The Crown Prince smiled to himself and thought "Birds of a feather, really flock together."
As the two Princes left, the icy silence over the arena left as well. Everyone was thinking of their impressive presence and even forgot all about Meng Fusheng and Meilan. Nobody noticed the little interaction between the First Prince and Fusheng, but Meilan and Xueying did. Meilan was utterly humiliated and jealous, that she even forgot that the Crown Prince was just there. She was angry that yet again, Fusheng managed to get people to support her. Meilan did not understand what people saw in Fusheng, after all she was currently better than the present Fusheng. She was beautiful, more beautiful than that Fusheng, she possess great talent, she had good moral and etiquette, she also had the Meng family name behind her, but it seems like without even trying Fusheng was still better than her. She clenched her fists, drawing blood from her palm. Nobody knew what she had gone through to make it to this place and yet this waste Fusheng thinks she can just ruin it all for her. How she wished she could kill Fusheng and feed her to the dogs... Meilan gave Fusheng a death glare and walked away quietly.
Unfortunately for Meilan, Fusheng did not even notice the death glare or that she was gone, she was engrossed in her own thoughts. It turned out that the First Prince had given her a small pouch, she was confused and asked Feilong
"What do you think is in this?"
Feilong shrugged "I don't know, but we won't get to find out if we don't open the pouch. Just stating the obvious."
"You don't have to be so sarcastic" Fusheng rolled her eyes, "Maybe it's money, remember it has not been long since I asked the Crown Prince for money, maybe the Crown Prince found me pitiful and told the First Prince and they decided to help my life. Hihihihihi, I am about to be rich again."
"You.. you're something else" Feilong was stumped "Like I said, we won't get to know what's inside without opening the pouch, so stop with the assumptions, you're making me sick."
"Fine, fine I get it." Fusheng finally opened the pouch and instead of the golden coins she expected, it was filled with osmanthus candies...
Fusheng was speechless "You've got to be kidding me. Feilong if I am not mistaken, the First Prince just gave me a pouch filled with Osmanthus candies not coins."
Feilong did not immediately reply as he was staring at those osmanthus candies with a confused expression. His mind went back to the events of the previous day, he stared at the direction that First Prince went and could not help but ponder.
Xueying turned to Fusheng "What did the First Prince give to you just now?"
Fusheng showed her the pouch with a ridiculous expression "Can you believe that person did not give coins or any other thing, but candies, the very same one he gave me yesterday when I almost passed out. Now tell me, if this is not blatant trouble making, what is?" She angrily punched the air and still unwrapped one of the candies and put it into her mouth and muttered to herself "well if you think about it, the candy is actually pretty sweet."
Xueying shrugged and was relieved that the First Prince is at least not annoyed with Fusheng, right?