Chapter 18: Chapter 18: What to do when simple manipulation doesn’t work.

Realising it was Fenhua, Min Li covered her mouth with her hands in surprise.

Unfortunately for Min Li she had failed to predict that this little movement would cause the top of her body to tilt backwards.

Min Li rotated quicker than she had even thought possible.

She prepared to fall but was instead caught just before she fell when she was almost perpendicular to the ladder.

Fenhua had caught her not by his own arms, but by bubbles of water that he had put under her body to hold her up.

His ability to form bubbles of water were really coming in handy recently, Min Li thought.

In all honesty, there was a little part of Min Li that had wanted to be caught in the library by Fenhua.

The time she had spent avoiding him caused her to miss him and after he kindly embraced her that day the tree had blasted her into near nothingness, she had remembered how good the man could be.

But now she was caught up in his water bubble and she could bend her head backwards and see his very angry eyes, not even a little part of that little part of her had the same wish that it had before.

The crown prince could have easily tilted her back unto the ladder and commanded her to come back down by herself. She was sure that he might have gained a wrinkle when he was shouting at her, but it was better than the frown on his face now.

The crown prince could have floated her down to the ground using the bubbles nice and gently. Being nice and kind was probably not going to help Min Li learn from her mistakes, but the advantage, his face wouldn’t be doing what it currently was now.

But what he had done was pop the bubble presumably in a fit of anger at Min Li’s actions knowing that now she was close enough to the ground to not get injured.

It was a big jump from what he had done some time before in the middle of the gardens where he had run to her and caressed her like a lover that hadn’t seen their partner in an awfully long time and had realised they were dying.

He must have caught me by accident, Min LI thought, seeing the face the crown prince was currently making.

It must have not registered to Fenhua that he was right under the falling person that he had been evilly intent on dropping. Of course, he would step back and hold his arms out to catch her, the first part was only natural for anyone to stop themselves being crushed, and the second part was just what a prince claiming to be charming should do.

But the face he was currently making. There was such horror in his eyes when he had caught her. The horror was akin to Lily’s face when she had heard at age fifteen that the Min Li and the crown prince were no longer friends. The horror was akin to her majesty of Xiin’s face when people, especially her husband, didn’t cater to her every whim.

Now Min Li was in his arms, she smiled at him sweetly telling herself it was nice that he had tried to save her with the water bubbles anyway, it didn’t matter that he had half sacrificed her after his saving, he had ended up saving her after anyway. It must be fate.

A tingle ran down Min Li from the top of her spine, down. She chuckled happily genuinely fooling herself with her act and starting to believe that she was happy with the situation she was in.

After observing Min Li laughing, the anger melted of the crown prince’s face. He no longer looked all that frustrated. He acted accordingly to her act like a real prince charming.

Min Li nodded laughing like she was nuts. She was even happier than she had been, she didn’t know he would also act like she had wanted him to.

The more Min Li laughed, the happier the crown prince got and the wider his smile spread.

Min Li felt floods of happiness go from the top of her body to the bottom of her body.

Min Li was now laughing manically like she had no training in how to be ladylike and the queen’s daughter. She was now a servant not only in job, but in manner too. Never had she ever laughed in such an inhibited way. The queen would have had an aneurysm if she saw the two of them behaving so common.

Luckily, they were not in a public space so no one not missing at least three of their six senses would ever enter into the space and witness their shame.

Min Li stopped laughing at the thought. Min Li looked around. She was in the library right now. And she refused to say that she was missing three of her six senses. They were all doing perfectly fine. She was not about to claim such a ghastly thing over her life.

She amended her earlier thought that only people missing senses would venture into the library. Rather it she chose to believe that only people with grit, a great moral backbone and the strong belief in equality of all human beings would enter the library. Better.

A couple of seconds after Min Li had stopped her laughing to validate her competence, the crown prince had stopped his smiling.

Now, he tilted his head as if trying to think about something that he had forgotten.

As if he had suddenly remembered the certain thing he had forgotten, the man dropped Min Li without worry about the repercussions of his actions.

This time there was no one under Min Li to save her and catch her from falling.

Min Li looked up at the crown prince in pain, rubbing her recently assailed butt.

The man had the good sense to at least look guilty. He avoided eye contact like it would kill him and rubbed the back of his neck.

He looked at her with a slight frown as if his rubbing would cause her to try and heal him again and stopped rubbing still looking about sheepishly.

But then, with a drop of his hands, Fenhua completely stopped looking sheepish.

No. No. No. Such a thing wasn’t going to work for Min Li. She had to move him back unto the back foot. He was starting to look like a predator, like a wolf, with his frown. She would much rather have him baaing and looking like a sheep.

At that point, all the rules that Min Li had made for when she was in a precarious situation flooded back to her.

One rule was to pout whenever she was in trouble. She looked Fenhua right in the eyes, pouted and rubbed her hurt butt all the more.

But he carried on nonetheless frowning none the less.

Fenhua had been pretty much impermeable to that rule she had tried. Min Li didn’t have enough time to think of a second rule when the crown prince started questioning her further.

“Why are you here, where you know that you are not allowed to be?”

“The real question is...” Min Li said looking at Fenhua. Fenhua leaned in to hear her better.

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“Not what am I doing here. But what are YOU doing here at this time of night?”

Min Li screwed up her face seeing if this tactic was going to work on him. Not seeing much of a reaction, she persevered.

“Princes, like YOU, should be getting their beauty sleep at this time of night. How dare YOU forsake YOUR kingdom and self by not being asleep at this time. UTTER RUBBISH.” Min Li checked the prince’s reaction, reading the room and seeing if she had taken her words too far.

Again, seeing not much of a reaction, Min Li persevered.

“How is a kingdom, YOUR kingdom, meant to stand when YOU are not doing YOUR job properly because YOU are... tired. “

Min Li conveniently forgot that the kingdom was standing quite fine because there was a king who ruled so that the crown prince didn’t yet have to. His job wasn’t to rule the country yet.

“Don’t start that,” the crown prince said.

Min Li frowned. Simple manipulation also seemed as if it was not going to work for her.

“Answer the question, why are you here in a private family library?”

Min Li pulled her head back, brow furrowed. That question genuinely hurt her. But she realised if she used that hurt and mixed it with the little touch of simple manipulation she had tried earlier, maybe she could use her hurt for good.

She could use the situation to her advantage, she could get the prince eating putty out of her hands if she did. She just had to navigate the situation carefully.

Closing one of her eyes, etching a pained expression on her face and peeking through the other eye to see if Fenhua was buying it, Min Li started her next speech.

“I am sorry. I thought I was part of the royal family. I thought I was the daughter of the queen, even if not biologically.”

The prince scrunched up his face.

He looked at her directly and said, “what exactly are you trying to do?”

Min Li could tell by his eyes that the man was about to grill her again. He was about to ask her all sorts of questions that she was sensitive to.

She had to think of a way to stop it.

Increasing the pitch of her voice to really drive her point in she said “I thought I could go anywhere because I was one of you. Are you telling me I am not?”

Min Li continued with what she knew was going to be the winning narrative. From this point on he was either going to call her out for her musing or allow her to carry on acting with mercy.

The man definitely knew she was doing, that much was sure. He had known her for too long to be surprised by any of his antics.

But he may just let her get away with it. She had good odds for this particular argument.

The crown prince could let her get away with it because he felt guilty for dropping her on the floor.

He could also let her get away with it because he didn’t want to have to comfort an emotional Min Li like he had to do the other day by the tree.

Or he could let her get away with it because he didn’t want to be reprimanded by his mother. If Min Li ran to the queen to tell her about what was happening. She was sure that the queen who was as dramatic as she, would happily act if her son was the biggest villain in the world trying to rip apart her family.

Unfortunately, all Min Li’s odds came crashing down with one simple sentence from the crown prince.

“If YOU are part of the family, then wouldn’t it also be YOUR kingdom and then shouldn’t YOU also be asleep and not floundering about the library.”

Min Li stilled gobsmacked.

she was surprised by his gall, and she was surprised by how he had her right where he wanted her so easily.

This is why no one should ever dabble in the art of manipulation. It's not just me, this could happen to anyone. It is easy to get caught out easily.

Min Li shook her head with a rye laugh at the crown prince.

“You,” she pointed at him. ”You, my dear friend are still not understanding.”

The crown prince narrowed his eyes at Min Li.

Min Li knew that this particular round she had lost and so did the crown prince.

Min Li decided that she should reward him for being so smart by giving up and doing the best thing for the both of them to save both their self-esteems.

Another tactic Min Li had used often was when somebody is about to make a scene, she would make a bigger scene then them and end up getting what she wanted to.

She decided to go with that little number that she had learnt from her majesty.

Instead of stomping her feet and making a big deal like she was planning to do, she simply just acted like she was getting light on her feet and fell to the ground acting as if she had fainted.

The crown prince didn’t move. Min Li was going to make a bigger scene and start frothing at the mouth on the floor so that her tactic worked, but she sensed a small change in the atmosphere

The crown prince after much hesitation picked Min Li up, in a water bubble mind he seemed to be dead set on not touching Min Li anymore.

It was the dead of the night when the crown prince had brought Min Li back to her room. He tucked her in bed and then took his leave.

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