MDZS: Still Lament Prologue

Side Story 3: Young determination

After he had finished having dinner with his family and the special guests from Lanling Jin, Wei Ying went back to his room and sat in his small study area that had a separate wall to his bed. When he was adopted into the Jiang family, Fengmian had told the youngster that he would make Wei Ying the eldest disciple in Yunmeng and encouraged the young boy to study the proper ethics of being a cultivator. Although he probably needed to study the basic important ethics of a cultivator, Wei Ying found himself staring at the nine petal lotus crest that was on the separate wooden wall beside him. He had remembered creating the kites with Little Zhuqin and Jiang Cheng that afternoon...not finishing them of course. He was told that Little Zhuqin would be leaving tomorrow to return to Lanling Jin and with the kites unfinished...or at least, with HER kite unfinished, Wei Ying had thought that he was going to break his promise.

Not to mention, how happy would she be if the kite was finished by tonight and ready to fly tomorrow morning before she left?

With that being said, he quickly jumped up from his seat (leaving his study books opened), blew out his bedroom candlelight and left his room to the extra dining hall where the kites were set to dry that afternoon. A single lotus patterned lantern in one hand, Wei Ying placed it on the floor and began to work on not just one, but all three of the kites for Little Zhuqin as well as Jiang Cheng. The next step after painting color on the kites was to rub Tung or Chinawood oil onto them to ensure their lightweight stiffness so the kites will still be able to glide across the sky. He spread the oil onto Jiang Cheng's and his kite, making sure the process was messy free as well as smooth. While he waited for their kites to dry with the Tung oil, Wei Ying creatively hand painted detailed peonies around the red lotus in the center of the kite. He used a silky white colored paint and made sure that even the white peonies themselves were as vibrant as Little Zhuqin.

Unknown to little Wei Ying, Fengmian was on patrol duty for the night (lucky that it was not Yu Ziyuan) and happened to silently come across the hard working boy.

"A Ying?" Fengmian thought to himself while holding the same lotus shaped pattern lantern in his right hand.

The father observed his adopted son's craftsmanship and gently smiled, knowing that his adopted son was totally putting in the effort of satisfying the happiness of Little Zhuqin. For a moment, he was suddenly reminded of Ziyuan's game from earlier that late afternoon...

"Should we bet on something?"

"...Since you are so fond of Wei Ying, why don't we bet the outcome of who A Ling will choose before she leaves Yunmeng tomorrow?"

At first, the Jiang leader seemed hesitant in accepting the challenge that his wife had proposed...but now, Fengmian was confident that Little Zhuqin was going to choose Wei Ying...going to choose Wei Ying...

Fengmian paused in his train of thoughts...

"Huh? Just what...is she going to choose him for?" He had asked himself.

He was still hesitant, but since it was his respective wife who came up with the idea, perhaps even Fengmian wanted to secretly play along. Of course, he made his decision then. Little Zhuqin is going to choose Wei Ying tomorrow before leaving back to Lanling Jin...but how will she choose him? Ziyuan did not say anything about the parents themselves helping the children, therefore, Fengmian only had the same right as Ziyuan; Fengmian was going to help Wei Ying gain the friendly favor of Little Zhuqin.

Again, Fengmian tenderly smiled at the thought of Wei Ying putting in such efforts and without disturbing or getting noticed by the boy, he quietly left him.

After having the thick silk white peonies dry on Little Zhuqin's kite, he spread Tung oil onto it repeating the same process of being careful and neat. While her kite getting air dried, he framed Jiang Cheng and his kite, added the bridle strings to help make the kite fly, then with two separate kite reel, he made sure the bridle string was strongly attached to the kite reel so the strings did not run out when flying. The process itself took him quite a bit of time since he was working on two to three kites at the same time. However, though he was working on them alone, he found the craft to be quite easy since he always watched his adopted father craft their kites for them.