"Thank you for keeping us here." Dongmei bowed to Xiuying, "I'll come and visit if I can." the two new-found cousins smiled at each other and clasped hands. Rong and Cheung bowed to the young heiress.
"Send a crane if you are ever in need of my assistance," Xiuying told the three of them, watching them leave from the threshold of the manor gate. At the edge of the village, Dongmei looked back even though the manor was out of sight. She smiled and looked back no more.
----------
"Well...that was a nice trip..." Dongmei joked, "Did the Lan disciples make it back to the Clan Mansion?" Cheung nodded, Dongmei relaxing slightly. "That's good..." And she fell silent, waking next to Rong, Chueng slightly ahead of the two of them. Rong kept glancing back at Dongmei as if expecting her to collapse or turn into a complete maniac.
Dongmei caught one of these glances, frowning, "What? Is there something on my face? Is my hair messy?" Rong shook his head, looking forward again. Dongmei sighed, "Rong, you do realize that just because I'm half Siwang doesn't mean that I'm evil suddenly. I'm the same person I was three days ago. It shouldn't change your thoughts on me." Rong flushed in embarrassment, nodding in agreement.
"You're right..." Rong said quietly, hating to admit it, "It's...hard not to think differently about Siwang and trusting some of them. I used to think that Siwang equaled evil and a Siwang was a Siwang." Everyone laughed softly at that.
"Life has many unexpected things. It's best to adapt to them as well and suddenly as you can." Cheung said, "Not everything you believe is to be true." Dongmei nodded.
"Book of Wisdom, Chapter 12, Paragraph 3, Line 23." she grinned, "Lan Deming, Third Lan Clan Master." Cheung smiled when Rong's face changed to an expression of disbelief. "What? All I did was memorize the entirety of the Book of Wisdom. It's only.....134 chapters long. Not that hard." Rong tripped over his feet, choking at the same time.
"'Not that hard???' Are you crazy? How long did you spend in the library?" Rong managed to get out.
Dongmei shrugged, "Ever since I got my vision back, I've been living in the library of the Lan Clan." Rong shook his head, muttering under his breath about the craziness of everyone. "Not everyone is into just war and strategy books like you. Tell me, who said 'Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak'*. Page, line, and paragraph."
Rong straightened, "Advanced Front Lines by Cheng Haoyu, First General of the Imperial Army. Chapter 2, Page 14, Paragraph 4, Line 10." Rong recited, pausing and narrowing his eyes, "Wait a minute..." Everyone burst out laughing, birds fluttering away.
*Quote taken from The Art of War by Sun Tzu.
YOU ARE READING
Blind Princess
RomanceBefore man had come to rule the nations, the gods bestowed the power of life and death to man, life favoring those who were fair and just, and death to those who knew no love. It was the folly of the gods to believe that the nations and people would...
