Chapter 12: Chapter 12: Eye contact can be difficult.

Min Li had never really paid attention too much attention to the hall.

She had never inspected every nook and cranny or simply even appreciated the interior as a whole.

She was so used to the grandeur that she didn’t give anything in the grand hall a second thought. But people who had never been in the hall before had the very opposite reaction.

As expected from an area used to host royals, the grand hall was simply exquisite. Everywhere looked simply heavenly. It was grander than most people's wildest dreams. It was there to flaunt, to boast, to give people a lasting impression. And that it did.

Looking around the place now, Min Li didn’t even know that it was possible, but the hall was made of more impressive stuff than the library.

What really caught Min Li’s attention when she looked around though, was not the hall. But the reason why she had been enthusiastic to journey there in the first place.

Min Li was always curious about the royal family that she had never set her eyes upon apart from through the odd painting.

Xilin’s king and queen sat at the head of the hall. Nilin’s king and queen sat as close to the other leaders as possible.

If Yilin kingdom were still in good relations with the rest of the kingdoms, Yilin royals would have been seated on the throne on the other side of the Xilin royals and opposite the Nilin royals. Their absence was shown by those very seats. An empty void that was told could be the start of ruin for the three kingdoms.

By the way they were laughing, it was obvious that the four rulers of the two kingdoms were good friends and the absence of Yilin hardly seemed to be realised. There was no real inhibition between any of the royals, they moved freely, the two women embracing each other warmly.

Where the queen of Xilin was usually always ready to make eye contact with Min Li when they were in the same room, today her eyes were set on looking at her friend.

Min Li felt a shot of warmth. It was beautiful seeing two ladies together after a long hiatus.

The queen of Nilin looked as elegant as her friend. She was dressed head to toe in a lavish white gown, embroidered with gold and green leaves.

She held her body up straight and even when she laughed, she did not negate good posture because of her amusement. Everything she did seemed to flow naturally and yet add to her image as the great wife to the reigning ruler of Nilin.

The king of Nilin was much of the same. Elegant and sleek, even with his larger than average belly span.

He matched his wife with his own white ensemble. The two were definitely the type of people who never spilled a drop of food on their clothes.

The laughing couple from Yilin kingdom had a child, the crown prince of Nilin who Min Li had heard was supposed to be present. Min Li looked around in search for the man, but he was nowhere to be found.

“Have you seen the crown prince of Nilin?” Min Li whispered to Fenhua.

“There are more important things for you,” he looked at her pointedly, “to focus on. You are meant to serve me, and you haven’t been doing so well at that.”

The crown prince held up his cup as if asking for more tea.

Min Li looked at the man as if he was mad. Then, as she remembered his good deeds as of late, she softened up and poured tea into his cup smiling.

“Call me if you want more.”

“You are supposed to fill up my cup whenever it empties.”

“If you said thank you, maybe I might.”

Min Li had forgotten her previous pledge to be nice to the hand who fed her.

Fortunately for her own sake, she remembered her new philosophy for the crown prince as soon as she said her last sentence. Min Li smiled with all her might and spoke softly through gritted teeth.

“I mean, I wish to serve your highness. I will do as you have stated.”

The man looked at her as if she had grown two heads. Min Li looked at him in triumph and thought how good it was that the crown prince seemed no longer able to control what she said by his own words.

Not soon later the heads of the South, West and East of Xilin walked into the hall with their wives and children in tow. They bowed before each set of royals before offering gifts to the Nilin royals.

From there, Min Li wasn’t the least bit interested in most of the boring chatter. She barely kept awake whilst serving the crown prince his meals and tea. Only the prince’s keen hiss in her direction when it was time for him to be served had the ability to jolt her from her daydreams.

At one point near the end of the event, Min Li looked around and saw that one of the guests of honour, the queen of Nilin, was looking around as if trying to find someone or trying to catch someone's eye.

Min Li observed the scene for longer, and so it dawned on her that the queen was probably trying to flag down a serving girl.

She looked around and found that Betti the head maid wasn’t anywhere in the hall.

There was no way that Betti would be ok with the situation that was playing out in front of her.

Min Li debated within her whether she should go help the queen or not.

Min Li had been told not to leave her post when she entered the hall, unless the crown prince told her to. But if something went wrong for the crown prince and he didn’t ascend the throne then Min Li was sure that they could always find someone to replace him as the crown prince.

If Xilin had bad relations with Nilin, the consequences would probably be two kingdoms wide.

As Min Li thought through her choices, she watched as the crown prince seemed to become completely engaged in a conversation with his father and the king of Nilin.

Taking her chances, Min Li snuck over to the other side of the hall passing through the dancers that were currently in the middle of the hall trying to entertain the many guests.

After initial surprise, the queen of Nilin shone with happiness as she saw Min Li bow before her and ask her, “Do you need anything your majesty?”

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“Sorry dear, thank you for coming over. I would have got it myself but there doesn’t seem to be any left. Do you happen to know where any of the napkins are?”

The term of endearment warmed Min Li’s belly and she suddenly felt that she knew exactly why her foster mother was such good friends with the queen of Nilin. Flattery could get one anywhere, especially with the queen of Xilin.

Not only was the queen of Nilin’s elegance to be beheld, but her tongue seemed to be made of golden honey. She spoke melodically and as if she held everybody she spoke to in high esteem.

This being said and Min Li now genuinely caring about the queen of Nilin’s opinion of her, Min Li was disappointed that she did not know where the napkins were.

Min Li looked to the left and she looked to right. In a last-ditch attempt, Min Li looked towards her own station in the hall. Through the flurry of dancers, she could vaguely see the crown prince grab something white from a new tray that the kitchen servers had placed out in front of him.

She sprinted between the mob of dancers and plucked the napkin from the crown prince’s hand before he happened to dab his mouth with it.

The prince looked beweildered as Min Li ran back from where she came from. It was almost certain that the prince did not know that Min Li had left her allotted position in the first place.

For the second time today, Min Li was out of breath as she handed the napkin to a confused yet cherry queen of Nilin.

With the completion of the task, Min Li turned to slowly walk back to her station where she was sure she was in for an earful. She wondered if it would be better for her to make a completely clean escape through a side door instead.

Before she could completely move away, a bold deep voice rang out from the same direction of the queen of Nilin.

“Wait.”

Min Li immediately rotated back to the queen of Nilin and was surprised to see that the king of Nilin, now seated back at his table again, was the man who had spoken to her.

“What’s your name?” The man bellowed towards Min Li and some of the people besides him stopped their own conversations and looked to see what was going on.

The question was weird. Well, it was a normal question, but it was weird. The question would have come across normal if Min Li wasn’t a servant, or if every servant had been asked the same thing, or even if his wife had asked it, but because none of these things happened to be true, the question was weird.

Maybe he wanted to reward her for the nice treatment of his wife. Something in Min Li peaked up at the thought. She wondered whether a nice dress would do, or whether he would be receptive if she asked him for something nicer.

At that thought she replied straight away with a bow, “Min Li, your majesty”

“You served my wife well, how old are you?”

He was really taking an interest in her. Min Li decided in that moment that she liked the man. Min Li also decided that a nice white dress with tasteful gold embroidery and jewellery to match, that seemed to be Xilin’s speciality in clothes, was what she was deserved for the great deed she did.

“I am about to enter my twenty second year, your majesty”

“What’s your surname?”

“....Umm.”

Min Li debated on whether to tell them that her surname was Xilin which would have been complicated to explain or whether to settle for saying that she was an orphan.

Before she could determine what to say, the king of Nilin passed the baton on to his wife.

“Do you happen to like your job?”

Before Min Li could recount all the injustices that she had faced by the hands of the crown prince, the man himself turned up for the show.

He bowed down at the royals and said, “Sorry for the disturbance, but I need to borrow my maidservant for a very important task.”

Speaking to her, he now said, “Stop loitering around. I told you my cup should be refilled straight after it has been emptied.”

Min Li’s thanks that Fenhua had removed the king and queen’s attention from her, nearly completely dissipated with his words. She added to her list something she would complain about if someone ever asked her whether she liked her job again.

Not privy to the conversation going on in Min Li’s head, the crown prince carried on with his own conversation half to himself, half to Min Li.

“Never have I ever seen you act so respectful in your life.”

Min Li blinked at him trying to convey how disrespected she felt. Well, she would have been able to convey it if she wasn’t over his shoulder looking at his back as he carried her away. Well, she wasn’t over his shoulder looking at his back, but that was practically what she felt he had done to her as she was dragged away by him.

She looked around to see if any was witnessing this atrocity and obvious misuse of power.

If anybody did see it, she was going to have to appeal to them so she could have her day in court with a witness.

With any money won from a settlement she was sure she could buy her own white dress with tasteful gold embroidery and jewellery to match dress.

Min Li tried to make eye contact with someone, anyone. Seeing how people were averting their eyes even now at the time of her greatest distress, Min Li gave up on the idea of having her day in court.

The people in the grand hall were the greatest of nobles, the most affluent of men and the most powerful of soldiers and yet they all preferred to look at their shoes in shame then look Min Li in the eye.

Avoiding treason was on their minds and Min Li was starting to think that the same thing should be on her mind. Before she got to collect her white dress with gold embroidery and of course not forgetting the jewellery to match, she may find herself among the bushes with the way these patriots were acting.

There was only one person who made eye contact with her and smiled at her. Unfortunately, it was the crown prince’s best friend Joe, and she knew as much as he liked to annoy Fenhua, he wouldn’t testify in court against his friend.   

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