Little Purple

1.001 Keep talking

In the afternoon, a young girl of age seven was waiting below the peach blossom tree. She opened her lunch box and took a whiff of the sweets inside, which she and her mother had made for her siblings.

Bundled in thick winter clothes, she sat on the wooden bench, where the air around her was cold but not unbearable. Although her maids told her to wait inside where it is warmer, she had insisted on waiting in the garden.

Sitting there, she kept her eyes closed, rarely ever opening them. Her world was always dark, nothing but emptiness residing there, so there was no real need to open them.

Due to the school's regulations, her maids retreated once they dropped her off at the school ground, where she patiently waited for her siblings' class to be dismissed. There was only literature class this morning, so they would be out soon.

Her eyes opened and landed on the sweets, staring at them blankly. Although she never complained, it didn't mean she was completely content with it at all. She was only a seven-years-old child; not knowing how her own homemade cooking looked like when everyone else did was simply painful. Moreover, there was something else that disturbed her mind...

When she closed her eyes again, hiding those beautiful violet eyes behind her snow-white lids, someone shouted, "Look! It's the Great General household's family waste!"

The disturbance came from a boy that walked out from the corridor and stopped four paces away from where she sat. Despite his youth, he carried an aura of dignity and power, his voice noble and gentle like a refined scholar. He was Qing Bo*, the heir of the left chancellor's family.

"There are no lessons for trash today. So trash, I advise you to walk out! We need to keep this place clean and unpolluted in order to focus on our studies."

"Older brother, you should refrain from being too harsh on the Hu family's young miss." The other person by his side was his younger twin sister, Qing Guang*, who had a cold and disdainful attitude. They were both in the same grade as Hu Zi's second sister, Hu Cheng Se, who was two years older than Hu Zi.

"Too harsh? I'm just stating the truth." A sneer appeared on Qing Bo's face.

The kids behind the twins laughed heartily, most of them being the rich young children of high ranking officials. Their disdain came naturally, stemming from the jealousy and envy their own fathers held for Hu Zi's father, who was well loved and praised by the commoners.

To console their own dampered pride, they liked to find faults in the Great General's family. The faulty blind miss happened to be their biggest target.

Contrary to what they were expecting, the blind young girl did not cower in the face of their mocking.

"Heh..." Hu Zi smirked, looking unbothered by their taunting; she was used to this child's play.

"Hu Third Miss, did you smirk at me just now?" Qing Bo never liked this unyielding smug face of hers.

"Qing Young Master, it may be true that there are no trash lessons today and trash should not come here, but can either be compared to giving trash proposals? That trash of an official should never come to the court!"

The children gasped at this and whispered among themselves, throwing looks at the Qing twins, who were calm on the surface but had their hearts in chaos.

The trash proposal that Hu Zi mentioned was not a secret among the circle of their society. It was known that about a month ago, there was a flood in the southwest side of the capital near Shi River, where the climate was warmer. Many people died and even more were injured or displaced. To lessen the casualties, the capital sent reinforcements, provisions, and food. It was a good idea but the official who proposed the plan overlooked a crucial point.