158 Practicing
While being pulled by aYa, BaiYing still glanced at ChenMing who was walking very gracefully at the back with his maids, the young prince didnât seem to care about his surroundings, only walking enjoying the scenery around them.
âLook at the sun, itâs so beautiful, itâs orange!â Lanâer exclaimed, she pulled Fanâerâs hand and walked quickly to see the orange sun covered by clouds.
âLanâer donât pull me, what if I fall down?â
âAkh sister Fanâer wonât so easy to fall, letâs see up ahead, the sky is so prettyâ
And the orange sun starts the afternoon which getting colder, look how fast time they had spent almost all day in the Jade Pavilion familiarizing themselves with the Queen, who had recently become very bored due to her busy schedule.
The sky was almost dark when BaiYing arrived at his pavilion, he and ChenMing who was in the pavilion not far beside him walked together, so BaiYing invited ChenMing to his living room to help the young man check on his wound.
âDoes it still hurt?â BaiYing asked as he slowly removed the bandage that was wrapped around ChenMingâs palm, the young man stuttered, he didnât expect the concubine to invite him to treat his wound, BaiYingâs eyes widened when all the bandages had been successfully removed,
âLook at this, this is great, youâre recovering quickly, Young Master Chenâ the wound almost completely dried up.
ChenMing was about to withdraw his hand but BaiYing held it.
.....
âWow, it turns out that young master Chen has the ability to heal so fast, this is all dry, it will just take a moment to peel and your skin will return to normal, this is greatâ
ChenMing stuttered, BaiYingâs face when he said it was so cheerful and looked at him with a big smile that all his eyes disappeared with him, he was taken aback, as if it was the first time someone had seen him in that way.
âEh that..â
BaiYing let go of his grip, letting ChenMing see his palm.
âYoung master Chen, it must be very difficult huh? Walking alone from a very far place, and nobody to accompany you, heh, I thought, in this world, Yingâer is the saddest because no family left, but, Ying âer was wrong, there are still many people whose lives are much more miserable, sorry, it doesnât mean young master Chenâs life is like that, just, thinking, if Yingâer, was actually lucky enough to get to know the Crown Prince and all the very benevolent people in the palace, so, hehe, Yingâer wonât ask for much more.â
ChenMing was speechless, he raised his head to see BaiYingâs face still smiling warmly at him, the young man patted his hands.
âWell, young master just stay here a little longer, donât worry about His Highness the Crown Prince, he actually has a very kind heart, just sometimes canât show it, young master Chen donât worry about thatâ
.....
âYingYing!â LuoXiang shouted as he entered the room, canât wait to approach BaiYing who was sitting in front of his round table, that night the young man was still busy with his watercolor paintings scattered on the round table.
âEm, what is YingYing doing?â
BaiYing looked up, he tied all of his front hair together on top so as not to block his view while painting, just looking at the boyâs face LuoXiang was already very excited, heâs so cute.
âIch this kidâ
The Crown Prince caressed BaiYingâs cheek, seeing the young man who was enjoying his activities very leisurely.
âI am painting Your Majesty.â
The Crown Prince frowned looking at some papers scattered on the table with strangely shaped paintings, LuoXiang took one of them.
âOh really? Paint what?â LuoXiang asked.
âYour Majesty guess it,â asked Bai Ying.
Paintings of the same shape, slightly round, with a slight shape on top resembling ears, then two round eyes, mouth, or beak, not clear, LuoXiang tilted his head.
âErm, this is, maybe, um, a rabbit?â LuoXiang cautiously replied, not wanting to spoil BaiYingâs mood who had drawn so many similar shapes, and, frankly, still didnât know what it is.
BaiYing stopped his hand movement, bad, LuoXiang thought, did he guess it wrong? The boy raised his head, then took the paper in the Crown Princeâs hand.
âEm, does it look like a rabbit, huh?â he pursed his lips, thinking hard,
âIf not rabbits, then what?â LuoXiang asked carefully.
BaiYing looked at the Crown Prince, thrusting another painting paper back into the young manâs hand.
âTry this one, Your Majesty must be able to guess it rightâ
The Crown Prince thought hard, he had never thought so hard lately, but the question from the young man in front of him was very important, he couldnât just answer randomly, he looked closely at the painted paper that was now in his hands, there are two, round, with a little part of the ears sticking out, big eyes, maybe the bottom part is the beak, it resembles an ostrich.
âIs this an ostrich?â
BaiYing lowered the brush in his hand, finally looking at the Crown Prince with furrowed brows in annoyance, snatched the paper from the Crown Princeâs hand.
âYour Majesty must be joking, these are clearly pictures of XiaoQe and XiaoMei, why doesnât Your Majesty recognize them? Look, the head is round, round big eyes, slightly pointed ears and mouth, itâs so obvious.â
The Crown Prince thought again, who are XiaoQe and XiaoMei?
âUh, who are they?â
The Crown Princeâs question made BaiYing even more annoyed.
âYour Majesty, that, the two alpacas that Your Majesty brought from DuAn, their names are XiaoQe and XiaoMeiâ
LuoXiang tried to remember, he indeed had not seen the two animals since BeiYauâs men brought him from DuAn, but, as he recalled they were not like this, LuoXiang He tried to hold back his laughter, but in the end, he couldnât, he burst out laughing at the thought of BaiYingâs very cute painting.
âHahahaha yeah thatâs themâ
BaiYing puffed out his mouth in annoyance, the Crown Prince was clearly laughing at him.
âYour Majestyâ
And LuoXiangâs laughter was truly unstoppable, cute, and amused in one, how could he not laugh.
âHahahaha theyâre so cute YingYing, YingYingâs paintings are really similarâ
BaiYing grumbled.
âWhatâs the resemblance, that you donât recognize them, Your Majesty is making fun of me, huh? This person is so annoyingâ
âHahahahaâ
......
The next morning in the Peony field, BaiYing was seen standing in the middle of the field practicing with aYa who seemed to be teaching him how to properly hold the hilt of a sword.
âWow, this is very heavy, do you really use a sword this heavy to beat the enemy?â BaiYing exclaimed as aYa lent her white sword for BaiYing to use.
AYa nodded, she fixed BaiYingâs grip on the hilt of the sword.
âYes, what else? Hold the grip like this, two thumbs up, if you hold it with one hand, your thumb must be facing straight towards the handle, itâs flexible to movesâ
BaiYing let AYa stand behind him to help him hold the sword, this is a bit ridiculous, the young man thought, he just asked how can he use his sword to fight, not that he wants to use it, how can he use it? itâs so heavy.
While in front of the pavilion, looking at the shady front porch where the table and chairs to rest after tired of practicing were located, ChenMing who had been sitting on his chair raised his teacup, since his hands were still sore he could have an excuse for not attending the morning sporting event, as BaiYing said to ease the boredom, the young man glanced left and right, before putting the cup back on the saucer and reaching out from under the folds of his waist, a dark black pill, which when no one was looking he dropped the pill into BaiYingâs teacup, which was right beside him, in an instant, the small round pill melted with water, it was pitch black, ChenMingâs eyes were wide open if it was black how could people not know if the tea had been mixed with something, but, slowly, deep black color in the water disappeared, without a trace, as nothing had happened in the tea water that turned back to its original color.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
ChenMing was so focused on looking at the tea that he didnât notice someone was standing in front of him.
âAhem!â
Surprised, ChenMing almost jumped in surprise when he saw that person already in front of him, looking at him with his big round eyes.
âEh C-concubine Fuâ
FuLan glanced at ChenMing, then glanced at the opened teacup that the young man was staring at.
âWhat do you see? Itâs something weird with the tea?â FuLan lifted the teacup and looked at it, put her nose close to smell it, it made ChenMing a bit nervous because that person might find strangeness in the tea they drink every day.
âEm, nothing strange, why did you look at it like that?â The curious FuLan was about to take a sip of the tea but ChenMingâs hand stopped him quickly.
âEh s-concubine Fu, sorry but this is Concubine Huaâs, yours is over thereâ
The youth immediately grabbed the teacup and put it back in its place, Lanâer frowned.
âSo what? Yingâer hasnât drink it either, itâs the same, isnât it, itâs weirdâ without much argument Lanâer headed to her seat, kept looking at ChenMing with a strange look, she felt that the young man was hiding something from her, donât know what made that person look suspicious, but, it was probably just in her mind.
âWeirdâ
While in the middle of the field,
BaiYing had difficulty lifting the sword which was quite heavy, for him it was quite heavy, so following AYaâs instructions to lift it and rotate it in front of his body to just show the correct position, AYa backed away while BaiYing lifted the sword above his head and spinning forward,
Shett!
Whoosh.
The wind was blowing quite hard, but nothing happened, because BaiYing just carelessly pointed it at the trees in front of them.
âWow, this is a good sword aYaâ BaiYingâs eyes widened, of course, itâs a good sword, thought aYa, the weapon is made with first-class materials from Kili which is known as the best weapon producer so far, even the hilt is made of a mixture of sky stone and fused with primeval animal bones, high quality materials that were only given to the royal family if it werenât for aYa so fond of BaiYing he wouldnât have let just anyone hold her beloved sword.
âYingâer, donât stay there too long, come over here, big sister has brought food from the pavilion!â Lanâer exclaimed.
Hearing the word of food, BaiYing immediately returned AYaâs beloved sword to her.
âAYa, take this, we will practice another time.â
AYa still stuttered because suddenly the young man ended his training, she was about to turn around to follow BaiYing who was rushing towards the pavilion when she heard the sound of cracking at trees and branches not far in front of her.
âKretek kretek krekkkâ until several branches and tall trees suddenly fell as if they were cut in half in the middle.
Brukk,
AYaâs eyes are wide open, those trees, Yingâer just pointed his sword towards there, what, itâs just a coincidence that the trees are old and can fall by themselves, aYa glanced at the sword already in her hand, this is indeed very strange.
.....
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