13 Chapter 12 | Coming of age Banquet. (1/2)

Two days passed and the banquet was here. The palace halls were decorated beautifully because this was the year that Princess An Choeng turned sixteen and all the nobles and royals who turn sixteen would also be having their coming of age ceremony with her.

***

The banquet started three gongs after Shen period.

The nobles and royals living in palaces across the empire arrived. Parents escorted their sons and daughters.

Yue Mian was with Crown Prince An Cheng and Yu Sheng in his Palace. The Crown Prince was not having a good day. He knew that today would be the day his wife would be selected and Yue Mian was not her.

He wanted her to not attend the banquet, but his sister An Choeng begged the emperor to make Yue Mian attend. With the emperor's word - she had to attend.

Yue Mian knew what An Cheng was thinking, but did not care on the inside. She and Yu Sheng tried comforting him but he just grew more and more restless.

***

Soon the palace maids came in and Yue Mian had to leave because she couldn't watch the Crown Prince get dressed. Yu Sheng accompanied the Crown Prince while Yue Mian went on her way towards the palace hall where the banquet was being held.

On her way, through the palace, she saw the nobles and royals who ignored her existence as she passed by them. This was something she is used to, being ignored by the silver spoons was normal.

She looked at the inside of the hall and paused. Standing there and watching as the silver spoons walked past her looking all happy and excited for tonight. She sighed and turned around.

[I change my mind], she walked towards Crown Prince An Cheng's palace and got onto her horse and rode out through the south palace entrance.

[If I return to the palace, who knows what that An Choeng will do?]

In the past, An Choeng and An Chong would always play horrible pranks on her and try getting her in trouble. General Ye would always berate her and what made it worse was that even though she refused to go to the Imperial Palace, they forced her.

Crown Prince An Cheng stopped his sisters from bullying her but that didn't stop them from getting the commoners to do them as well.

Managing her anger was already tough to deal with and having these little pranks fuel it was even worse.

***

Three hours have passed since the banquet has started and Yue Mian still did not show up. Princess An Choeng was upset and couldn't enjoy herself because Yue Mian hadn't shown up and ruined all her plans.

The beauties of the empire were all called up one by one and introduced themselves to the Crown Prince. At first, he disliked it, but from the corner of his eye, he could see this one beautiful girl that attracted his attention.

She was nervous and kept delaying her turn to go up and introduce herself to him. He smiled inside at her silliness and for some reason he wanted to meet her too. Tolerating all the girls who came before her it was finally her turn.

Bowing before him she kept her head down, ”Rise,” said the Crown Prince. She straightened her legs and looked at him, but looked between his brows avoiding eye contact with him.

”What is your name?” he asked her seeing that she didn't speak. Her hands were folded in front of her and she was fiddling with her fingers.

”M-m-my name is Qing Hǎi kuí, y-your highness, I am General Feng's goddaughter,” she said with a slight hesitation.

”Hǎi kuí, why are you so nervous?” he asked. General Feng's goddaughter's body froze, she looked him in the eyes then looked at the Crown Prince again, he was smiling at her. He had a dreamy smile that he barely shows to others and yet now, he was smiling at her.

Yu Sheng on the side saw An Cheng's smile and felt confused. He couldn't understand why the Crown Prince was interacting with this girl when he ignored all the other girls.

The Emperor saw this too and he was slightly happy but disappointed too. His son was interested in this girl and what about his love for Yue Mian?

Her time was up and it was time for someone else to introduce herself to the Crown Prince. An Cheng stopped smiling and told one of the servants that they should invite Qing Hǎi kuí to sit at the head table later on during dinner time.

During dinner Yu Sheng decided that he had had enough, he was also worried about Yue Mian. He wanted to find her but did not know where to go in order to find her.

As he exited the toilet on the far end of the palace, he decided to take a detour and head to the gardens. When he arrived there he saw Yue Mian's horse and walked over, but he couldn't find her.

After ten minutes of waiting, Yue Mian finally arrived, but Yu Sheng was not aware of this. She slowly walked up from behind him and called his name, ”Yu Sheng!”

He caught such a fright and ended up on the ground. Yue Mian's horse neighed and trotted over to the other side while shaking its head.

Yue Mian looked down at Yu Sheng who was on the grass, looking up at her while holding his hand over his heart and breathing heavily.

The oil lamps lit across the garden lit the space up just enough to make out someone's features, especially where they were now, a bit further away from the entrance.

”Ye Yue Mian!!! Why did you come out of nowhere? Are you trying to kill me?” he yelled with a hushed tone as he asked her.

She scoffed and began walking away while saying, ”Sheng, if I wanted you dead, you'd be dead ages ago.”

He got up from the ground and dusted himself off, jogging to Yue Mian's side and stopping to walk at her pace. His face grew serious as he thought of the Crown Prince and said, ”The Crown Prince is interested in someone, General Feng's goddaughter.”