Chapter 8: Books and rumors
They went into the library and QiuLan looked around the room. The library was huge. There were a lot of shelves of books. Probably even more than a thousand books.
QiuLan walked around while Ming'er sat down on a seat. There were so many books on every subject. QiuLan took cultivation, zither, war, martial arts, and medical books. She started reading the zither book. QiuLan really wanted to learn how to play the zither when she was young but her family told her to focus on studying.
Ming'er fell asleep while QiuLan was reading. Ming'er woke up and opened the door. It was sunset. "Miss. We should head back to eat lunch now," said Ming'er. "Are you hungry?" QiuLan asked. "I am not hungry," said Ming'er. Ming'er's belly started growling. Ming'er turned red and QiuLan smiled.
QiuLan took the books and went out of the library with them. She put the books into her bedroom and went out. She went out of her bedroom and she walked to the hall.
QiuLan sat down on a seat and started eating.
"This is good. You should try it," said QiuLan. "I can't eat these," said Ming'er. QiuLan raised an eyebrow and said, "then find something to eat. You have to eat something or you would starve." Ming'er nodded and walked away. QiuLan started eating again. She was very quiet and no one paid attention to QiuLan.
"Your majesty, crowned prince, second prince, fourth prince, and seventh prince arrives!" said a eunuch. Everybody stopped what they were doing and looked at the door. The king, crowned prince, and the second prince walked in and everybody bowed. QiuLan didn't know how to bow to the king so she just followed what the others did.
"You may rise," said the king. Everybody stood up and the king walked to her father. "Li Wei. Here are some gifts for your marriage," said the king. "Thank you, your majesty," responded Li Wei.
While they were talking, all of the young girls other than QiuLan crowded around the crowned prince, second prince, and fourth prince. No one crowded with the seventh prince since the seventh prince had a very bad temper and everybody was afraid of him.
The seventh prince saw someone he knew and walked up to her. That girl was no one other than QiuLan. "Hey," said the seventh prince. QiuLan ignored him since she was eating and didn't know who he was talking to. The seventh prince got ignored so he got mad. He poked her. QiuLan turned around and saw the seventh prince.
Do they know each other? Yes, they know each other. He was the guy that got called narcissistic by QiuLan. "Who are you," asked QiuLan. "Did you forget about me? I am the one on the horse in the forest. The one you called narcissistically," he said.
QiuLan looked back at her memories and remembered who he was. "Oh, it's you," she said. "Did you follow us to get in here?" he asked. "Can you stop asking those stupid questions? I didn't follow you," she said. "Then how did you get in here then?" asked the seventh prince. "I live here." "You are a maid?" "What does that got to do with you?" "You are probably a maid. You should feel happy that a prince is talking to you," said the seventh prince. "Well, I don't feel happy. You may be a prince but it doesn't seem that any girl likes you anyway," said QiuLan.
The second prince and the fourth prince overheard that and they started laughing. The girls glared at QiuLan. So QiuLan turned around to continue her food. The seventh prince turned red. {...Why are these girls glaring at me? Why do people like to turn red as a tomato? Do they have a disease?...}
"So you like one of my older brother's?" asked the seventh prince. The second prince and the fourth prince immediately stopped laughing. "No," QiuLan said. Both princes gave her thumbs up. The seventh prince glared at them and both princes started laughing.
The crowned prince walked over to see what was happening and then he saw QiuLan. He showed a disgusted face. The other princes saw the face and looked at both of them. They exchanged glances and nodded to each other. {...What a weird way to communicate with each other. They have some problems...}
Huang Shu came by and saw the fourth prince. She grabbed the fourth prince and hugged him. "Fourth prince. There you are," she said. The fourth prince turned very pale and froze. QiuLan turned around to watch the show. QiuLan wanted to laugh so hard. "Let go," the fourth prince said. The other princes sat next to QiuLan to watch the show. The princes also wanted to laugh so badly.
"Did you miss me? I missed you," said Huang Shu. "I didn't miss you and let go of me," said the fourth prince. "Oh come on. I won't let you go!" said Huang Shu. "Noo!" The princes started laughing at the fourth prince.
The fourth prince started pointing at the YaHui. The second prince began to hide. YaHui looked at them and saw the second prince. YaHui ran to the second prince.
"Second prince. You're here! Why didn't you try to go find me?" said YaHui. YaHui glanced at the people around the second prince and saw QiuLan. Yahui pushed QiuLan aside, and she sat at QiuLan's seat.
"Stay away from him! Don't try to get his attention. He is mine!," said YaHui. QiuLan sighed and sat next to YaHui. "What's wrong with you? Why do you dislike her?" asked the second prince. "She is my stupid, arrogant sister," said YaHui. The second prince glanced at QiuLan and saw her roll her eyes. "She's your sister? I thought she was some maid," said the seventh prince. "She looks and acts like a maid," said YaHui. "Don't be rude," said the second prince.
"She does act like a maid. I also hate her," said the crowned prince. The second prince, fourth prince, and the seventh prince were shocked and at the same time said, "Why?" "She's arrogant and she's mean. She tried to hurt my future wife," said the crowned prince. "Woah. I never knew that she was that mean. She doesn't look like she would do that though," said the second prince. "Why are you saying nice things about her!? Even my father dislikes her. She likes the crown prince and envy's the future crown princess," said YaHui.
QiuLan kept on eating and didn't spare a glance at them. "Yeah. Last time she tried to cling to the 6th prince. She literally wanted to be with us and get close to him," said the seventh prince.
QiuLan could hold it no longer and slammed her chopsticks on the table. They looked at her in shock. QiuLan turned around and said, "Why do you guys hate me so much? I didn't do anything wrong. And for the last time, I didn't try to follow you or the sixth prince! I didn't hurt his future wife! I do not like the crown prince or the sixth prince. I never did and I never will!" She glared at them and sat back down. They looked very shocked.
The emperor heard QiuLan, and the emperor looked very shocked, but he smiled. Li Wei (the father) saw the emperor's face and was very shocked. The emperor actually smiled at QiuLan!
"Who is she?" asked the emperor. "She is my daughter, QiuYing." "QiuYing? Isn't she known as the arrogant, but weak, young girl? She is very brave. I thought she would smash a table on them and run away crying. But it looks like she just yelled at them, and she didn't run away," said the emperor. "After the trip, she started to change somehow. But I don't know how she changed. She even asked me if she could go to the library. She can't even read!," said Li Wei. "What if she was hiding her true talents? We are going to have a banquet in the imperial place for scholars in three days. You should bring her there. We should test her abilities," said the emperor. "Thank you," said Li Wei.
QiuLan was done eating so she went back to her room.
Then they started talking about her. "How dare she yells at us!? Does she have no respect for us?" asked the seventh prince. "Shut up. You guys didn't show any respect to her so she showed no respect to us," said the second prince. YaHui got mad.
"Why are you being so nice to her? That's not fair!," said YaHui. "She didn't do anything wrong. Did she actually ask you that she wanted to follow you and the sixth prince?" asked the second prince. "Well, no," said the seventh prince. "Then you probably misunderstood her. And for you. Did you actually see her push your future wife into the pond?" asked the second prince. "I didn't see her push QiuRong but the maids and QiuRong said that QiuLan pushed her into the pond," said the crowned prince. "Then how are you sure that the maids didn't get bribed? And how are you sure that QiuRong didn't lie to you?" said the second prince. The crowned prince didn't answer the questions. YaHui got madder and bit her lips.
{...Why is the second prince saying nice things about her? That slut!...}
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