Chapter 8: Chapter 8: If it seems wrong, it probably is wrong.

 

Attention now drawn away from the drill, Min Li looked around. What was it that the girl had said? Min Li wanted the attention of all the men. The only man of appropriate age, she even added up to thirty years above her own age for good measure, was Fenhua.

Want the attention of a group of elders? Unlikely, give me some suitable candidates and maybe you would have a point.  

Min Li was fed up with Miss Annoying. Min Li was frustrated that she couldn’t even nip the conversation in the bud quickly by tying up her hair.  

The dratted prophecy reared its ugly head in Min Li’s life again. The birthmark on her neck was awfully noticeable. Every year that she got older it seemed to brighten in colour. It started off a very pale pink and now it was a particularly bright shade of red.  

The scroll that the prophecy was written upon was apparently lost. And Min Li had heard that apparently it also needed one member of each royal family of the three kingdoms to open it or read it or something along those lines. These details combined made certain that most information that had been passed down through generations was probably faulty and incomplete.  

One thing for certain, no one of this generation, or no one willing to say, had gotten a glimpse of it. Min Li hadn’t listened too intently to the boring classes in school on the prophecy and so she didn’t have too much information about exactly what it entailed. Maybe she had forgotten some details on purpose, maybe not.  

She knew enough to know that the gist of it. A chosen one would have the ability to put the three kingdoms back together again or to absolutely destroy the world. 

This chosen one would apparently have a lifelong friend who would also be extremely powerful, able to take away pain from the chosen one and vice versa. Looking at Lily’s martial arts skills and remembering how the girl had screamed when she saw a spider in the gardens, Min Li concluded that her one lifelong friend was hardly suitable. 

One thing that did stick with Min Li was that the prophecy did say that the chosen one would have a birthmark. That’s where she had stopped listening as anyone with any common sense would, did not everybody have a birthmark? 

It had said something about a glowing mark... Unfortunately, from the time of the power ceremony when she was fifteen, with the reddening of Min Li’s birthmark, she was sure that the Xilin conspiracy theorists would say that her birthmark had begun to glow. 

All Min Li knew was the prophecy was usual mythical nonsense. It was really all too silly. Min Li didn’t even have a power, so she was certain that there was no real way that the prophecy had anything to do with her. Despite such compelling facts, she was sure most would condemn her if they saw her birthmark and so even with the pressure from the ladies, she couldn’t tie her hair. 

Every lady on the battlefield seemed annoyed at Min Li. Min Li thought about what could have happened since the last time she had seen them to infuriate them all that much. I became a servant. That can’t be it, I still have the favour of the royals. I beca- 

The crown prince came into view, he was walking around not looking their way. Min Li screwed her face up at the crown prince, it was his fault. He had moved her into a chamber that she didn’t want and still didn’t want and now everyone was mad at her.  

“Tie up your hair. Stop trying to be so different.” Could Little Miss Annoying not give it a rest. 

Min Li glared at the crown prince all the more. He seemed to feel it as he turned around. The crown prince made eye contact with Min Li and he appeared to inherently know that she was in a spot of trouble. Fenhua took his time in approaching the group of girls. 

The ladies accosting Min Li did not stop talking for a second. This meant Min Li was certain that Fenhua knew exactly what was going on.   

The girls all stopped talking to see if the crown prince was going to deliver his verdict. Without his say so, Min Li knew that the girls surely wouldn’t drop the topic. She was depending on him right now to sort it out for her.  

The crown prince after a little thought gave his orders.  

“Don’t worry ladies, this is an easy fix. In battle there are two main reasons warriors tie up their hair. That is to stop the opponent from using their long hair against them, and to stop their hair from getting in their own way. However, that being said I don’t tie up my hair when I fight, there is no need; I am confident in my abilities.” 

Min Li wondered how one could be so boastful so naturally. She decided against saying anything about it since right now he was her judge, her jury and hopefully not her executioner.  

The crown prince carried on, “If one can win with their hair down, there is no real reason to tie it up. Anyone annoyed by her hair choose amongst yourselves who will battle her today. If she,” he pointed to Min Li with his sword in an awfully dramatic way, “wins, she gets to keep her hair how she would like it. If she loses, then what you say shall go.” 

Min Li pointed to herself asking if Fenhua if he was talking about her. He nodded. She shook her head. He smiled and nodded again.  

Madness is an illness these days, quite contagious. It’s affecting the crown prince in this very moment.  

She screwed her face up at the man. Forget executioner, he was clearly trying to hammer the nails in her coffin. She still couldn’t fight to save her life; such games were sure to rip her from the top of her head to the space in between her legs.

It’s all part of his grand plan to ruin me, she sniffed. 

Min Li looked like was the only one who minded. Lily was trying hard to not make eye contact and a few other girls called out how wise the prince was from the crowd.  

“No powers allowed,” the crown prince boomed. 

“She couldn’t use powers even if she tried,” the other ladies sniggered. 

Before Min Li could remember the rules she had made to help her get out of tricky situations, a sword struck out and nearly prodded the front of her. Min Li barely dodged it.  

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Little Miss Annoying had decided that she was the woman for the job. Without any warning she had started the fight. Without even a polite bow or a small handshake. Even the poor audience had to hurry out the way. 

The girl jabbed left; Min Li dodged to the right. The girl jabbed her sword right, Min Li dodged to the left. That happened again and again, it was becoming a rather nice dance. 

Min Li tried her luck and actually started using her sword. She too jabbed her sword left; the girl dodged to the right. She jabbed her sword right, the girl dodged to the left.   

Wow, this is fairly easy. Surprisingly Min Li was using the skills she had been formerly taught. She was dodging, running and blocking her opponent’s sword. 

The girl’s face changed. The girl ran forward. The girl looked like she was going to jab to the right, but instead she swiped her sword from the right to the left as if she had decided to split Min Li in two at the diaphragm.  

That was not in the plan. Min Li wanted to stop and ask how such a thing could be allowed. When were we taught such sorcery?

Did the girl want to kill her? Min Li had expected them to poke and prod bringing their swords into their bodies and out.  

She should have set no swinging as a rule earlier on. She had exhausted all her knowledge and now was going to be slain like a sacrificial sheep.

Min Li pushed herself back away from the glint of the sword, at least she thought she did, but she had no idea how so quickly.  

The girl was swiping furiously. Min Li’s body moved her away from the cold steel sword. At least she thought her body did, she had no idea how.  

It felt like her body was as light as a feather. It felt like she was floating on air. She was moving away from the girl so easily with just one problem. She had no idea how.  

She looked down at her body, and even when she couldn’t see the opponent, her body was moving in her favour.  

Examining her body carefully, there was something about her that looked out of place. 

Unnoticeable if someone wasn’t right up close to her, there were miniature little water bubbles all around her body. So tiny they looked like a speck of dust, but somehow, they were managing to control her movements. 

Finally, Min Li nearly wept. I can wield water finally. At the time of my greatest need, my powers haven’t forsaken me. And my powers are pretty strong, I should have known I am not a simple peasant, Min Li sniffled, I am a complicated one. People who have trained for hundreds of years can’t do this.  

This thought prompted Min Li to wonder whether she was really the chosen one.  

Technically, her using powers during this fight was cheating, but Min Li wasn’t worried about that. Rather she tried to figure out how she was controlling the water. She tried to tap into the very depths of her soul. 

Min Li was still trying to tap into the very depths of her soul half a minute later, when she started moving backwards until she reached the ceramic water jugs.  

She watched herself in horror as she picked up one of the heavy water jugs as if they were a piece of paper and emptied its contents all over Little Miss Annoying’s head. 

The girl went down with force and her own hair fell out of her head piece. Little miss annoying looked oh so annoyed slumped down as she slid her hair out her eyes and spat a large amount of water out of her mouth like some sort of fish. 

Whatever had possessed the now drenched Little Miss Annoying seemed to have fled from her. Her confidence seemed shot now and her tail, if she had one but Min Li couldn’t completely confirm for sure the girl didn’t, would have been positioned firmly between her legs.

Min Li was nearly certain that there wasn’t any water in that particular ceramic jug when she had looked into the jugs earlier. And if so, there definitely wasn’t that much inside it.

Min Li looked on as the water droplets disappeared from around her. Again, she wondered whether they were really of her own creation. Even though Min Li’s methods were questionable at the best of times, it didn’t really feel like her modus operandi to embarrass anyone, even Little Miss Annoying, by dumping water over their head.  

One other thing did not make sense and was stopping her from conceding that it had been her doing. She knew she would never do such a thing like ruin a dress like the girl’s dress was currently ruined. Even if it was basic, boring and plain.  

She looked over at the audience curiously. The crown prince looked gleeful, happier than he had before. She wondered whether it was because emptying a bucket of water on someone’s head was sure to get Min Li on a hit list or two, however recently she had only seen him gleeful on rare occasions. And on those occasions, he had been happy that he himself had done something quite grand.  

Min Li came to the heart sinking realisation. It was definitely not of her own power that she had fought the girl.  

 

Author’s note:  Do you think that Min Li will be a nice and kind protagonist or turn out to be an unpleasant woman after her trials? Or maybe she will be both? Is anyone truly good? No matter which way she does go, she is sure to be charismatic

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