Bold Heart (Flesh of my Flesh... Blood of my Blood 1)

Chapter 5 - Feng Jiu - Mortal Trial Prt 1

 Donghua Dijun as Your Majesty /The Emperor

Bai Feng Jiu as Honored Lady Chen/ Pure Consort Chen/Jiu'er

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Bai Yi had enrolled Feng Jiu at the Royal University in Qing Qiu's capital and sent her to live with her grandparents after he had found out she had run off to Tai Chen Palace in secret to chase after Dijun. She needed discipline and books to vanish the foolish thoughts in her head, he had declared. 

After sixty years of studying all the proper subject her father had approve of, she had been told it was time to find a suitable Noble Lord and marry. Bai Quian, heeding her Second Brother's advice, had compiled a list of all the unmarried young Lord's in Qing Qiu for Feng Jiu to date. Feng Jiu had bowed to her father's demands, Donghua Dijun was a monk who had taken vows of celibacy. He was forbidden to her, and she still had a duty to marry.

"Lord Bingweng sends his regards and wants to date again." Bai Quian said, reading the scroll the young Lord had sent.

"Who?" Feng Jiu said, looking up from her porridge, a spoon in her hand.

"The young man you dated three days ago." Bai Quian reminded with a heavy sigh.

"Oh, yes." Feng Jiu answered distractedly and turned back to stirring her porridge.

"Do you want to see him again?" Bai Quian prompted as Bai Zhen eyed Feng Jiu from the corner of his eye.

"No." Feng Jiu said and set aside her bowl.

"Why ever not? He is the most suitable." Bai Quian insisted, feeling frustrated with trying to match Feng Jiu with a noble lord.

"He slurped his soup and spoke too much." Feng Jiu half whined. "Dijun did not do any of that."

Bai Quian rolled her eyes at her niece and pursed her lips. "Bingweng is the son of one of the most influential Lord's in your grandfather's Small Council. He is handsome and gentlemanly, in your age group and wants to see you again."

"I do not fancy him. He is short." Feng Jiu complained. "Dijun is a very tall man. I cannot wear heels around Bingweng."

"Finding men taller than you will be a challenge, lassie. It would help if you stopped growing." Bai Quian admonished and opened a scroll. "What about Lord Deming?"

"I do not like him. We went to the Junior Academy together, and he is a bully." Feng Jiu whined making her Aunt closed her eyes in annoyance. "I beat him up when we were babies."

"If you do not accept any of the young men in Qing Qiu we might have to open up to foreign Lords." Bai Zhen said and Feng Jiu felt she heard a warning in his voice.

"I do not like any of them." Feng Jiu said and crossed her arms.

"Cang'Ye Shenjun is still insisting, why not see him again?" Bai Zhen asked with frustration.

Cang'Ye ShenJun had once seen her from afar in the Mushroom Market and had sent emissaries to ask permission to court her. He was a Noble Lord from a small principality that bordered with Qing Qiu to the south. He had been the most gentlemanly of the boys she had dated, bringing her flowers, and setting up fireworks, they had dated more than five times, and he had managed to make her laugh. 

Feng Jiu had felt bad, he clearly liked her, and while he made for good distraction from her thoughts, she had not been fully engaged in her feelings. The problem was that she compared every man to Donghua Dijun and this sabotaged every date she had. It was worst now after having seen him when she had done the foolish thing of stealing the soul gathering lamp.