My Little Shifu

The Festival - 2

Rising from their seats, the table of young men stood in awe as Qing Qius Queen was led to her table, though if Bai Qian seemed confused about the seating, she did not show it.  Instead her smile remained bright and her eyes sparkling as each of the young men introduced themselves, while Bai Zhen left her to quickly make his way to his own table which, according to his rank, was placed at a table next to Zhe Yans.

Only he didn't notice the boy because his eyes were on Mo Yuan who was hovering between sitting and storming towards her.  The mans face was a mask of fury and not even the small whimper from the Princess beside him, or the way she gently took his arm to force him to sit down, could have done anything to prevent what happened next.

Also watching him from the corner of her eye, Bai Qians smile froze when Mo Yuan almost threw the poor girl to the floor to storm towards her.  The young men had already pulled her seat out for her and though she wanted to stop him or at least order another chair be brought forward, she did not want to make a scene even though she could feel one brewing.

Also noticing Mo Yuan suddenly lurching out from behind the table, Queen Wang Jiu immediately dove for the edge of the table to snatch at his arm before sharply turning him back towards her.

"Mo Yuan, you cannot sit among the youth, it is forbidden.  Sit down before you embarrass us all." she whispered angrily at him and hating the fact that his eyes were obviously on that other Queen while also hating that she had been set among the youth, when she herself was  actually younger than Bai Qian.  In fact, she felt heavily insulted, but unlike Mo Yuan, she was not going to give that woman the pleasure of seeing it.  Instead she held onto Mo Yuans arm who had briefly turned to look down at her.

Sanity instantly overcame him, as his eyes slowly moved away from hers to rake the faces at his own table.  It was clearly obvious to them all, that the War God and Qing Qius Queen knew each other but like her, the thought of him making a scene in front of the children was not appropriate and a sigh of relief was released the moment he turned back.  Though rather than return to his own seat, he ordered oce of the Leaders to move so he would have a good view of the second podium and her while completely missing the heated looks from the Princess, not to mention the King who was seated next to a woman who had also taken his fancy.

Though a little shuffling about by the rest, soon had his woman beside her King and the Princess back beside Mo Yuan until finally everyone settled down to eat.  Everyone except Mo Yuan whose eyes never once left the second podium, while Queen Wang Jiu tried to hardest to engage him conversation only to end up talking to thin air.

At the table beside them, Haode, Di Jun and Zhe Yan scowled and sighed their disappointment having thought Mo Yuan would actually try to drag Bai Qian back to his own table, but with the whole night ahead of them, they too were soon eating and enjoying themselves.  Especially the over abundance of facial expressions coming from a normally hard faced War God who look so close to exploding, that Haode immediately had the sword dancers enter the stage in the hope that they would draw his attention off the youths who were all feeling his heated looks, yet kept their backs to him so as not to meet his glare.

Almost shaking her head in disbelief, Bai Qian tried her best to ignore him.  So far, he was failing his test miserably, because not once since her arrival had he given any of the young women at his table a second of his time, instead he looked as if he might actually kill them if they so much as talked to him, that for a moment, she considered leaving her table to quietly talk to him.  Only she didn't because the young men at her own table were so taken with her, that leaving would have been the height of rudeness.

In fact, most of the young men had completely forgotten that she was actually twice their ages because like her mother and fourth brother, her appearance was that of a far younger woman and of  course, being so beautiful, the competition to gain her attention, soon began to heat up as they all regaled her with questions, stories they had heard of Qing Qiu as well as her father and even gossip surrounding her brother.