Chapter 14: Chapter 14: Quit while you are only a little far behind.

 Min Li rushed to face Fenhua surprised.    

“You knew it was me?” She whispered.  

“Of course,” he whispered back.  

“How?”  

“Where to start? Firstly, if you came in wanting to pretend to be a maid, you should have properly greeted me. Secondly, I sent the only people who should be in here out for the petals, and you had no idea about. Thirdly, who else would be silly enough and bold enough to talk to me the way you did. Lastly, you know that I can create a mirror of water, I knew you were in here nearly as soon as you-”  

“Why are you whispering?” Min Li interrupted the crown prince trying to distract him and herself from all the many reasons why she was feeling embarrassed right now.  

“You started whispering so I decided to match what you were doing. Talk normally. There is nothing to worry about anyway, there is nobody in here but you and me”  

Min Li wasn’t worried about that before, in fact some of her plan thrived on that being a certainty. But now, she was in front of the bathing Fenhua and could take him into her sight, something had changed. The only thing she was certain about was that she reckoned Fenhua should work on having better, more conservative bathing attire.   

He should definitely place boundaries on what servants could see.   

“I have a question for you.” The crown prince looked directly into Min Li’s eyes. Min Li’s heart fluttered. “Why are you here insisting on bothering me?”   

Min Li’s heart stopped fluttering.  

Min Li commended her heart for making smart decisions.   

Someone walked past outside.   

In a panic, Min Li ran to hide. But instead of making any real moves, she was running on the spot. Running on the spot was what it looked like. What she was actually doing was slipping, sliding and making a big fool of herself on the spot. Water had collected itself in the space around the bath. She was sure this was due to the crown prince’s play animals.  

She looked at the crown prince wishfully, he had the power to collect the water up so she would stop running. But he seemed to be too busy… laughing.   

The person outside seemed to stop walking. They rapped on the door and called out for all the world to hear, “Are you alright in there, your majesty?”  

“Yes, I am perfectly fine, having the time of my life actually. Carry on don’t worry about me,” the crown prince said in amusement slightly out of breath from laughing so hard.   

The man outside gasped slightly and appeared to leave in a hurry.   

Was this what the cruel man called perfectly fine? Min Li thought still slipping and sliding on the spot.   

To show her exasperation at the utter blatant disrespect, Min Li stopped running, planning to put her hand on her hips and stare at him until his conscience forced him to help her.   

Before Min Li had made the decision to stop, she was putting in a constant amount of energy to keep herself up. With the removal of the energy by Min Li stopping, Min Li quickly found herself sliding, this time on her butt, into the prince’s pool. Min Li only came to a stop without knocking all her teeth out, by colliding with the crown prince.   

Min Li was pushed back slightly by the crown prince, she didn’t know that she would get this close to him. That he would look so... different in his bathing attire. If she had thought about that then earlier on, she wouldn’t have said boundaries be damned. In fact, she would have said that boundaries are a necessity that should be kept in all circumstances especially between a servant and her master.   

But she still wasn’t about to waste this chance she had been given.   

Almost automatically Min Li looked up at Fenhua, fluttered her eyes and giggled.  

In return, Fenhua looked at Min Li like she was a turd.   

She leaned forwards as if she was going to give Fenhua a hug. He was up against the back of the bath but now he looked in no mood to look away.  

She moved closer and tried peering over his chest to see his neck.  

“Do you know that you are unbelievably close to me right now?”  

“Yeah, I realised,” she said leaning even further forwards, “If you could just stay still, I could accomplish what I am trying to do”  

“Oh, I am-”  

Suddenly the man stopped talking, he stopped looking at Min Li with puppy dog eyes, and he started squinting instead.   

“What exactly is it that you are trying to accomplish?” He drawled.   

“Uh-” Min Li said dumbfounded by her own stupidity. Let someone else take you down not your own self. No one wants me to win, even I battle I.    

“Don’t touch me.” The crown prince now said. He seemed to have now gone back to his usual ‘stay away from me, only approach if you don’t fear death’ philosophy.   

Min Li wanted to defend herself and point out that although she was near him, she wasn’t touching him.   

Once again, there was a knock on the door. Both Min Li and Fenhua startled.   

The rapping on the door continued.   

“Your majesty, can I enter?”  

Min Li had been wrong that the third problem was averted earlier. The third problem was not averted.  

She had forgotten to take into consideration that whilst there may not have been any unwanted party at the bathhouse at the start, there was always the possibility that someone would turn up after she had arrived. Just like what was occurring now.   

She thrashed around the water wanting to get out before someone could see her in a compromising position.  

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The intruder had opened the door and was luckily currently behind the partition.  

The door must be well oiled. There is nothing special about opening a door without one little creek or any noise at all.   

“Stop moving,” the crown prince whispered, this time he was whispering for very good reason.  

Min Li listened to reason and stopped making noise.   

The intruding party had the audacity to go on with his speaking. “I have brought the additional petals you have asked for; may I approach?”   

Min Li was sad to say that the man was already approaching. Min Li yelped, the crown prince yelled “no”, and luckily the man stopped halfway in his tracks.   

The man was so close that if he moved one cm to the right Min Li was sure that he would squeal in surprise for he would have discovered an extra person where there need be not.    

The crown prince, who seemed to also realise that took action right away.   

He was trying to kill Min Li. He was obviously someone who has no regard for the weak. Someone who had no regard for life. A murderer.   

Fenhua was holding Min Li under the water and showing no remorse as he did so, not allowing her to come up for air.   

I shouldn’t have confronted him in a pool full of his own tools of choice. All this water around him, he would obviously use to crush a poor, innocent, defenceless servant like me.   

Funnily enough, Min Li could feel ease and relief flooding through her body, stemming from the top of her body.   

Maybe the reason that Min Li felt no panic was that in reality, Fenhua was just holding her under the water lightly, and the reason, so no one saw her and accused her of being unladylike or rather, forced him to make her his concubine.  

 Min Li shivered at the thought, but she didn’t know whether in revulsion or the very opposite.  

Where Fenhua had gone wrong was due to Min Li’s trashing, she hadn’t been able to take a deep breath before she had been pushed into the water by Fenhua.  

 Why could Fenhua not think things through and give me enough time to take a breath before going under the water? She shook her head. He should take an example from me; I plan things and lest things go wrong I plan even more.   

Min LI opened her eyes in the water.  

She realised something that she hadn’t before. Her face wasn’t under the water at all. Fenhua wasn’t attempting murder at all. Only the majority of her body was submerged in water, she could breathe freely.   

Why don’t I think thing through? 

Min Li considered apologising to the prince for thinking he was capable of murdering her, until she looked up and saw he was already looking at her and shaking his head in disappointment.  

The prince turned his attention back to do the serving attendant currently in a state of confusion about petals.   

“No. Stop.” The crown prince said more calmly now. “I have enough petals, in fact there is a whole flower in front of me now.” That earned the crown prince a pinch from Min Li. The crown prince yelped slightly and had the gall to look shocked.  

The crown prince carried on, but now with a slightly higher pitched voice then he was using before. “Why would I ever need more than I have now? Leave now and don’t come back until you have figured out how to always prepare the appropriate number of petals for a bath.”  

The servant left as quick as he came, eager to get away from the roaring prince.   

Fenhua let go of Min Li and bit out roughly, “Control your mark.”  

Before Fenhua had said that, Min Li hadn’t realised that her mark was out. She figured that she must have been more comfortable around him than she had thought. Usually, she was fussy about making sure that her mark was hidden from everybody.   

Min Li was going to pull up her shawl up to cover up her mark but was surprised to see that the water seemed to have a pinkish hue to it.   

The water seemed to be glowing the same hue that she had seen in her nightmares from her birthmark.  

Fenhua moved away from Min Li whilst Min Li blinked and rubbed her eyes to confirm that the hue was coming from her mark. But after the blinking, it seemed like Min Li had imagined things, the water just seemed to be reflecting a similar colour to the petals.   

Min Li climbed out of the bath walked out with her head held high trying to retain even a touch of her dignity.   

Unfortunately, she was up against a relentless opponent she had faced before. Not the crown prince no, she could take him down in an instant. He would never be able to hold her down.   

Rather the floor. She had forgotten that the crown prince had turned out to be something of a toddler in the bath, his playing with bath toys including her, had left the floor wet.   

Trying to leave the bathhouse, Min Li skated left, she skated right, she slipped, she fell, she got up again.  

Min Li shot the crown prince what she wished to be a withering look.  

 She skated towards the door. Again, she tripped and fell. Another withering look, this time she hoped that she had gotten the message across that she was trying to scald him from afar.   

The cycle of falling and tripping on the rubbish obviously unsuitable, unsensible floor, who cared for a little thing like a heated floor when it couldn’t even fulfil it’s purpose, carried on until she had managed to leave the bathhouse.   

Fenhua still had no conscience at all. He was too busy laughing.  

Min Li did manage to escape the appalling bathhouse, but not before she stomped her foot on the floor just before she left to get her own revenge.  

 Unfortunately, that did lead to her rolling out of the bathhouse rather than leaving in the way she would have liked.    

Lying in bed later that night, Min Li realised that she didn’t ever reach her initial purpose, she still hadn’t seen the injury behind Fenhua’s neck. His instruction to her to ‘control your mark’, not ‘cover your birthmark’ or ‘hide your birthmark’ did stick with her though. 

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