Si Yin walked towards the pond in Qing Cang's winter retreat reluctantly, stirred forward only by her mother's demands to ensure that Prince Li Jing was safe. Still pouting over being shooed out the door with a warm cloak in her hands, she reluctantly follows the snow covered path as she attempts to listen for Li Jing.
...What did he expect, anyways? He drunkenly argued with his father; he was lucky he got away with such a small punishment.
Huffing, she pulls a hand out from under the spare cloak to fix the tie of the cloak hastily thrown over her own shoulders. It's been decades since she woke up from her coma. They've long settled into the Ghost Realm. When outsiders come, she still hides behind a trap door with her brother and niece in her mother's quarters.
Her father's cloak still smells like him, somehow.
Quickly breathing into her exposed hand to keep it warm when a harsh wind passes her, she fights the urge to hide under a fallen tree and instead continues forward.
Si Yin stops when she reaches the opening to the small, secluded pond.
Li Jing is facing the pond, his hair and shoulders are covered in snow. Feeling the faint stirrings of concern (both for him and herself), Si Yin forces herself to put aside her own past as she continues forward. He's very likely dealing with his own guilt right now, she doesn't need to add to it for the time being, despite the immediate discomfort of being sent out in the freezing cold to fetch her fiance.
"Li Jing..." Bai Qian starts, only to stop at the sound of an agitated song-bird.
It shouldn't be out here this late in the winter, but why is it in front of him?
Hearing a soft chuckle as Li Jing gently pokes the bird's side, her pink cheeks flush red from anger.
Seriously?!
"You-!"
Li Jing turns around, eyes lighting up with playfulness, "A-Yin! Look at this bird-"
"-I hope you freeze!" Stamping her foot, Si Yin throws the cloak at him before spinning around and stomping off, cursing under her breath all the while.
o~O~o~O~o
"Princess Ming Zhu..."
Yan Zhi looks up warily when a maid enters her small room within the white orchid inn while calling her by the courtesy name the Fox Empress gave her, "Does her Majesty wish to speak with me?"
The small maid offers her a polite courtesy before handing her a small silk bag and promptly leaving. As one of Bai Mei Rong's personal staff members, she is able to come and go wherever needed so long as she carried the Fox Empress's order. It's very likely that this is one of those specific instances.
Feeling the weight of the bag in her hand, Yan Zhi pulls out the copper mirror without a moment's worth of hesitation.
"Zhu'er," Bai Mei Rong's gentle voice fills the room. She finds herself fighting not to collapse into a fit of tears over the sympathy and understanding in her voice. Ever since the Demon Wars, the Fox Empress wove her way into her own family in her own way -- where she lacked a mother, Bai Mei Rong was always there to fill in the gaps, "Zhu'er..."
YOU ARE READING
In Darkness
FanfictionA blind seven tailed fox being looked after by her niece. A royal family (and their kingdom) wrongfully accused and exposed to the worst torments the Nine Heavens could conjure. A grieving brother mourning the loss of his twin. Bai Qian had always g...
