Chapter 13: Chapter 13: What happens when you plan perfectly but fail anyway?

From the time Min Li woke up the next morning, there was only one thing on Min Li’s mind throughout the day.  

Despite the excitement of the festivities of yesterday, the thought had was nothing much to do with the event.   

Rather, something had been plaguing Min Li’s mind since she had caught Fenhua treating her birthmark during her nightmare.   

The back of the crown prince’s neck seemed to always be sensitive to something. He was always rubbing on it and recently she had witnessed him groaning in pain because of it.   

In the spirit of forgiveness since Fenhua had helped Min Li, she had decided to be the good person she desired to be and help him in return to treat his injury if she confirmed it to be so.   

Did Min Li happen to have any medical knowledge?  

Of course not, otherwise she would have been a wise doctor travelling around the kingdom, not trudging around trying to find a power to help her to be able to travel around the world. With medicine, she could have travelled around the world regardless.   

Did Min Li have a vested interest in Fenhua’s health?  

She wasn’t mad, she knew that the crown prince probably didn’t consider her to be much of a friend. She did love his parents, but if she cared that much, she would tell his parents about his ailment and get a real doctor to visit the prince.   

So, the real reason behind Min Li’s want to help Fenhua?  

She reckoned it may have been only a little out of renewing their friendship and a little bit more out of pure, unhindered nosiness.   

Like any good nosy neighbour, Min Li had carefully planned exactly what she needed to do to see his neck and figure out what was going on.   

If one fails to plan, then they plan to fail.   

Min Li had thought that exact way until every single plan that she had made for that day to look at Fenhua’s mark had failed.   

Min Li had tried to convince Fenhua to take off his outer garments by creating a fire in her own room and hoping the heat travelled through the wall. She was planning to quickly run to his room when she was certain that he had taken off the top layer of his garment.   

Why didn’t Min Li do it without the fire and in the morning when he was getting dressed? She didn’t want to cross boundaries and Fenhua had his room locked throughout the night.   

That plan concluded with Min Li getting told off for the smoke leaving her room by the head maid of the Eastern palace, the head maid of the entire palace Betti and the Queen. Even Lily had added her two pence in.   

If one fails to plan, then they plan to fail.  

If one fails at what they planned to do?  

Then the planning wasn’t good enough. Min Li decided to plan something else.   

Min Li’s second plan had been the simplest of all her plans. She had decided to sneak behind Fenhua, move his hair and his clothes away from his neck and voila, there she would confirm that he was hurt, and she would move unto helping him.   

Fool proof.  

Well, fool proof in theory.   

That particular story didn’t end well because of a nosy friend. Going according to the plan, Min Li had crept up behind Fenhua and she was nearly about to take a peek at the nape of neck.  

Lily’s affinity for knowing when Min Li was creeping around to execute a plan that Fenhua wouldn’t like was extremely uncanny.   

Lily had popped her little head out of a bush that she was gardening and had asked Min Li exactly what she had thought she was doing. Right when she had said that Min Li’s hand had been halfway reaching towards an unsuspecting Fenhua.   

The man had given Min Li a puzzled and from there he had been extra vigilant with his surroundings throwing off the plan Min Li had created.   

Lily was just unbelievably dedicated to the muses for her storybook having enough angst before they had their fairy-tale ending.   

Min Li had to admit that the third plan that she had tried on the so far dreadful day had been trouble of her own making, her own stupidity.   

As a last resort, Min Li had climbed up a tree. She didn’t even know why she did it at first, she just thought it could help.   

But she did eventually plan because if one failed to plan, then of course they planned to fail.   

Up in the tree she decided to go through exactly what she should do.   

Luckily Min Li had picked a tree that was right near to the library Fenhua kept frequenting, so she knew that she wasn’t going to have to wait for him to walk past for very long.  

Min Li knew that she couldn’t see his neck from her angle by observing alone. She was going to need to move anything obstructing her view out from the way.  

She thought about using a long stick from the tree to move Fenhua’s hair and clothes to the side.  

She thought against it; a maple leaf stain could ruin the man’s entire outfit. That would be dreadful of her.   

Instead, Min Li’s plan was to jump off the tree at exactly the right time; that would be when Fenhua was under the tree. Then she would tackle Fenhua until he surrendered under her might, or till she could manage to cast an eye on his bare neck.   

How would Min Li manage to fight off a man far superior in physical strength than she? She knew not. She cared not. The moment she thought about that, she refused to let failing to plan get in the way. She decided she believed in faith rather than planning, so she thought about that little detail not.   

There was a bigger problem than that, that had ruined her plan before it had even got started.   

 The type of tree that Min Li had decided to climb was a maple tree. Min Li was now what would call an amateur gardener and the title amateur was key here.   

Anyone who knew anything about trees would know that the trunks of maple trees can grow quite wide and hold extra weight, in other words be suitable to climb.   

For whatever reason, Min Li knew not, this particular maple tree didn’t have such a wide base. Thus, the branches on this maple tree were also not that thick as she hid among the reddish-deep purple maple leaves.   

So as Min Li steadied and readied herself on her chosen tree edging closer to the branch ready to pounce like a leopard, the branch she was perched on didn’t quite understand the plan and instead of steadying started shaking.  

The branch made a clear Eek sound, Min Li was quite sure that she could hear the branch say, “you did this to me, you are coming down with me too.”  

At that point she knew that she was less like a graceful cat and more like an out of shape human. She came to terms with the fact that there was an extremely low chance that she was going to land on her feet.   

Instead of the plan going well and Min Li committing a criminal act against Fenhua punishable by death, Min Li fell out of the tree and the crown prince had in fact saved her by putting his hand out and letting her float in a water bubble in the sky rather than letting her land in a splat on the ground.   

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Min Li was sure that she had detected a little bit of amusement in Fenhua’s eyes, but she was embarrassed so she paid no mind to whether it was true or not. In lieu, she thanked the man for his help head bowed, the biggest sign of respect she had ever paid him, and briskly walked away.   

His help had, Min Li was afraid to say it out loud, made her feel slightly guilty about her evil intentions to tackle him. She promised herself that she wouldn’t make a plan that could potentially harm the crown prince again.   

Min Li decided that she had to come up with a plan that was completely faultless.   

Min Li’s plans had failed her, so she decided to rethink her philosophy. Maybe one should plan as much as they can and then wing the rest. But she felt as if she had done that already in one of her three plans.   

Maybe one should plan when they are already at the venue of their heist so they can check out things that could disrupt their plan. Again, that sounded awfully familiar.   

She needed a plan impervious to idiots and the like. Whether the idiot may be the person who made the plan, a person with a nosy spirit determined to ruin the plan for the person who planned it, or even if the two idiots were one and the same.   

This time she thought it through carefully. Where can I see Fenhua with his hair up and his inhibition down? Maybe when he is taking a bath. Boundaries be damned. Servants are allowed to help him bathe anyway.  

That was the first step of the plan. Min Li decided that she would be the servant girl that she actually happened to be and help Fenhua to bathe.   

Sadly, that was as far as Min Li got before she decided that planning was too long and stressful for her and it was more amusing to go with the flow.   

…  

Min Li didn’t know what the servants helping Fenhua with his bath usually wore and so she had decided to stay in her usual servant chic before venturing out to Fenhua’s private bathhouse.  

As she walked, she realised how late it was in the day. Earlier she had been in a whole heap of trouble for skipping out on a lot of work, even though she had helped get rid of an evidently faulty tree branch, but it was quite fun for her to work on completing a mission so she hadn’t realised just how much time had went past.  

The moon was already shining in the night’s sky and little stars had gathered around to greet the moon. All the birds of the night were out evident by the owl hoots she heard in the distance. Not only the owls, she was sure all nocturnal creatures were up now meaning it was due past her bedtime.   

Min Li woke up so early these days that she had made sure to prioritise sleeping as early as possible. She slept a lot more calmly believing some sort of angel was guarding over her, even if it was just a little crown prince.  

But off she was to bother him right now. Nothing could get in her way. As she walked, she ticked off anything she needed to remember or lookout for from her mental checklist.    

Since it was night, Lily was away with the fairies, in other words Lily was deep asleep. First problem averted.   

There was no one at the door stopping Min Li from entering the bathhouse. She was going to comment about how careless servants were now days. But since she too was in the league of careless servants according to the earlier opinions of everyone she had been scolded by earlier, she decided that people should keep such opinions to themselves. The second problem was averted.  

. The door to the bathhouse was not locked. Careless servants. Min Li rebuked herself and took her sly comment back remembering that she too was a proud careless servant for the greater good.  

Min Li opened the door and was proud of herself to find that the door did not even make one little creek or any little noise at all.  

The bathhouse, like the rest of the buildings in the palace, was stunning. The bath was massive, and the floors were a beautiful marble, heated and suited to a king.  

Min Li tiptoed to the partition blocking her view of the other side of the bathhouse where Fenhua was bathing and peeped around it.   

 Min Li was happy to find that there was no one else there except from her and Fenhua. Not Fenhua’s assistant Feng or any conniving servants or friends there to stop her from fulfilling her good deed. Third problem averted.   

“Add more of the petals, please.”   

Min Li jumped as Fenhua’s voice rang out and echoed around the walls of the bathhouse.   

She looked around. But she had already established she was the only one there. So, he must have been talking to her.   

She walked in front of the partition and looked for the petals the man was speaking of. Luckily, Fenhua was facing the other way and making fish made of water of his own creation do tricks jumping out of the water and disappearing completely as they dived back in.  

She stopped for a second and marvelled at the sight, forgetting both her original task and the task that Fenhua had set out for her.  

“The petals please,” Fenhua said again.  

Peeling her eyes of the sight, Min Li searched around again but the ever-evasive petals did not show up.   

Min Li knew that her best bet was to say something about it, or Fenhua would look around to her and she would be kicked out without regard.  

Deepening her voice and making sure she spoke in a different pace than normal, Min Li spoke, “Your majesty.”   

Min Li was pleased with the way she greeted him with respect. That was very quick of her, usually she didn’t address him by his title at all.  

“The petals have run out. They happen to be finished. Finito. Gone. Nada.”   

After she had stated the problem, Min Li was dissatisfied with the way she had said it. No one who had even a modicum of respect for Fenhua’s title would ever speak to him in such a manner.   

She ran swiftly and silently to hide behind the partition again in case Fenhua zoned in on her mistake.  

Luckily Fenhua wasn’t too focused on that issue. Min Li rejoiced at her luck.   

Min Li didn’t rejoice for long. Fenhua rather focused on a different issue.  

“Did you not leave to bring in petals to add to my bath?”  

Min Li decided that if she was going to get kicked out soon, she should take her chances now to look at the back of his neck.   

She snuck out from behind the partition again saying, “Yes, the petals. They have run out of petals everywhere I have looked.”  

Again, Min Li seemed to forget that she was an amateur gardener. If she had remembered her job, she would have remembered that petals came from trees. Then she would have remembered that she could have picked them and washed them and then handed them to the crown prince.    

But Min Li rather focused on another problem that she had encountered.   

Fenhua was leaning against the back of the bath leaving his hair trapped behind him. There was no way she could move his hair to the side to check what was underneath without him noticing.   

It seemed as if for every problem that Min Li had thought about averting, another problem popped up. She sighed.   

“How can a place with rather extensive gardens run out of petals?” The crown prince executed his own sigh, “As a gardener you really should know better.” 

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