Chance Encounters-An Eternal Love of Dreams Fan Fiction

Chapter Three - The Third Meeting

A few weeks later, Donghua was sitting on a divan under a willow tree reading his tome when he espied Xiao Jiu again, this time, with a group of other fairy maids as they were picking vegetables in the outside gardens. He could see her speaking but couldn't hear what she was saying but it appeared that she was telling a funny story as everyone around her was smiling. As she continued talking, he could see her companions laughing uproariously at certain parts of the story. He's never heard this kind of joyful laughter in the Palace before and wondered what she was talking about to incite such reactions from everyone around her. Chonglin, his head steward, who was standing across from him also heard the sounds of laughter and looked up alarmed knowing that the loud voices were most likely disturbing his Master who hated cacophonous voices and preferred everything to be silent and serene. Chonglin did not even have to turn around to see who was spearheading this loud gathering as this had been a frequent occurrence in the past few months, the only thing different was that Dijun had been away and was not witness to it like he was now. As he was trying to think of a way that he could signal her to keep quiet so that she would not be booted out of the Palace, he saw Dijun shift a bit closer to get a better view of the Pavilion, his eyes alert and curious.

"Dijun, please excuse me for a moment. I will just tell them to quiet down a little. They probably don't know that you are out here reading." Chonglin said hurriedly as he bowed to him. However, before he could leave, Dijun raised his hand to stay his action.

"Do you know who that fairy is in the middle? The one doing all the talking? Are you familiar with her?" Donghua asked. He seemed to be bumping into her everywhere and she was getting more and more interesting to him. Chonglin closed his eyes briefly knowing that he was too late, he could not warn her anymore for Dijun had seen who the ringleader was.

"That's Xiao Jiu. She's new here Dijun and I'm sure she doesn't know yet that she should maintain silence as much as possible. It's just that her nature is very cheery, I'm sure she'll tamp it down once she knows you're here." Chonglin said defending her quickly, although Donghua had not said anything worth defending against. Donghua narrowed his eyes a little staring at Chonglin and his unusual protectiveness towards the fairy. Normally, if he felt that someone could be disturbing Dijun, Chonglin would be the first to throw that person out of his vicinity. But now he was actually protecting this fairy?

"Are you saying that I squeeze out the happiness of everyone around me?" Donghua asked blandly, his eyes boring into Chonglin's. He was a little peeved at his steward now. Was he interested in her? Why is he being protective of her? How well do they know each other? Who is she to him?  Donghua didn't know why he was even thinking these questions and why he really wanted to know the answers to them even as he knew he should never ask them out loud.  This strange feeling he's been having for the fairy was not sitting well with him.

"Chonglin apologizes to Dijun for my incorrect wording. I only meant to ask you to excuse the fairy maid for she might not know all the rules as she is very new here." Chonglin said castigating himself for saying too much. He met Xiao Jiu a few months ago when she started working in the Palace. She would greet him and ask him how his day was whenever they would bump into each other. At first, he had been a little wary of her thinking that she was just like the other fairies who were nice to him only so that they could get near Dijun. However, it had only taken a few weeks for him to realize when observing her with everyone else that there was no hidden agenda with her, that she was caring and friendly to everyone around her simply because she was a genuinely, nice person.  She had only been there for a few months but it seems she was already friends with everyone in the Palace.  She's never even ask him anything about Dijun even as she had mentioned to him in passing once that she was there to pay a life debt to him. He never asked her to elaborate either because he knew that their friendship was not based on that. Now, he considered her a very good friend of his as they frequently shared a laugh or two whenever they chance upon each other, they would also sometimes share a meal cooked by Xiao Jiu when they were free at the same time.   She was even helping him woo Xiao Lei, the fairy maid he had been interested in for a few years now but never had the courage to ask out, until Xiao Jiu found out about it at one of their shared meals and engineered a way for them to get together.