Half a day ago, Princess Jingan was still running about in the Imperial Palace. Ever since she saw Ming Feizhen at Jin Wangsun's place, she's had questions on her mind that she couldn't stop pondering. As such, after greeting the most important people in the Imperial Palace, she paid a visit to her good friend in the Imperial, Bai Ling, General Manager Bai.
General Manager Bai grew up in the palace; she was acquainted with the Princesses from a young age. As Second Princess was often out of the Palace, while Third Princess was still young, Bai Ling was closest to First Princess.
Bai Ling was adopted by Brilliant Consort to act as one of her aides to undertake work in the shadows. In order to climb the ranks, things had to be settled both within and outside. Therefore, striking up connections and currying favour with high-ranking eunuchs and members of the royal family were a must. Alas, Bai Ling had a cold personality; hence, asking her to make friends was asking for the impossible, let alone currying favour.
Fortunately, Brilliant Consort had the wealth to overcome the obstacle; she settled all invitations with money. In addition, Bai Ling was smart, which was why she rapidly improved in literacy and martial arts. She was one of those in the palace that were proficient at both. When they left the palace on several occasions and trouble emerged, it was always Bai Ling that settled things with her extreme methods. His Majesty liked the eunuch, who wasn't approachable, but had incredible means of dealing with things. Subsequently, despite her young age, Bai Ling rapidly ascended the ranks.
In terms of connections, though Bai Ling failed at establishing connections in the palace, Brilliant Consort knew that she was a girl, and thus, didn't force her. If she got too close with people in the palace and her female identity was accidently revealed, then it would come back to bite them. Consequently, Brilliant Consort had her focus her efforts on getting closer to the Princesses.
As Bai Ling was stationed in the palace, she could meet the Princesses daily. So accordingly, it wasn't hard to find opportunities to get close to them. Plus, Princess Jingan is a graceful and cheerful character. After interacting with Second Princess, the pair eventually became friends.
Princess Jingan wanted to ask if Bai Ling had seen Fuma in the last few months, but when she asked, she learnt a number of other things, too.
"That Ming Feizhen just randomly became a Fuma candidate. He has no desire to improve, has no accomplishments to his name in literacy fields or martial arts endeavours and is a mere Head Constable at Liu Shan Men. There are many positions at Liu Shan Men. Even someone behind the times can be a record keeper. They, at the very least, are officials of the Imperial Court. Afterwards, I found out that he was a disciple of one of the three major orthodox sects in the martial world when His Majesty told me. He is very fortunate to be their disciple, yet he carries himself in a dishevelled manner and behaves improperly…"
Bai Ling doesn't like to wear her emotions on her face. Thus, in spite of speaking to the Princess, she maintained her cold and straight expression. Nevertheless, judging from the way that she sat at the table with Princess Jingan, one could tell that they were having a discussion without the constraints of the status of master and servant, in other words, they did not bring their status into their conversation.
Jingan looked at Bai Ling in a daze. She kept on hearing Bai Ling speak ill of the man named Ming Feizhen. Bai Ling blasted him for an entire hour. She only felt relieved after Bai Ling finally stopped. However, when she realised that Bai Ling only stopped for a drink, Jingan gave in to the urge to speak up, "Okay, okay now. If you continue to blast him, you'll verbally blast him to death before he can even partake in the selection."
Princess Jingan then shook her head with a smile, "Normally, you don't talk about anyone when I converse with you. Why do you care about this Ming Feizhen so much?"
"Who cares about him?" Proud General Manager Bai gave her response with a snort, "He is a nobody? I could not care less about him."
After she said that, Bai Ling turned her head away to show that she wasn't angry.
Jingan found Bai Ling's action to be humorous. She did chat and laugh away with Bai Ling in the past, but the majority of the time, it was primarily Jingan who spoke and laughed while Bai Ling just silently listened. At most, she'd say one or two things. This was the first time that she heard Bai Ling say so much.
After hearing so much, Jingan couldn't help but become somewhat interested in the Ming Feizhen Bai Ling spoke of.
"I've never seen him, so I can't really give fair judgement. In your opinion, then, is he a good fit for my sister?"
Princess Jingan's question left Bai Ling in silence. Ever since Ming Feizhen was announced a Fuma candidate, Bai Ling has been out of sorts. She got closer and closer to Ming Feizhen over the last half a month, but she still knew where to draw the line.
'He's… not somebody that I should get close to. Absolutely not.'
Nothing good would come out of Bai Ling getting close to Ming Feizhen from any perspective.
But nonetheless, when she found out that he had a fifty-fifty chance of marrying the Princess, a strange feeling disturbed her. It was a feeling that she had never felt before, and she didn't know how to describe it.
For the last two days, she kept recalling her very first meeting with him when he forced a kiss on her. Whenever she recalled the kiss, she'd feel a hot sensation on her lips. Whenever the hot sensation returned to her, she'd see an image of Ming Feizhen and Princess Hongzhuang holding hands. The more beautiful the scene looked, the more it felt as though her heart was being pricked.
"Is Ming Feizhen a good fit for my sister?"
When Bai Ling heard the question, her heart shook.
"They are… not a good fit for each other."
When she came back to her senses, she had already blurted that reply.
Seeing Bai Ling's reaction, Princess Jingan responded with just, "Oh," but kept her eyes on Bai Ling, nevertheless. She looked at Bai Ling as if she was trying to figure out if Bai Ling was telling the truth or not.
Bai Ling couldn't stand Jingan's gaze on her, and therefore immediately added, "He likes men! That is why they are not a good fit for each other whatsoever."
"Ah?" Jingan thought she misheard, "Wh-What did you just say?"
"Ming Feizhen likes men!"
"M-My sister's Fuma candidate… is queer?" Princess Jingan angrily got to her feet, "How can they be put together, then?!"
"Uhm, uhm, exactly." Bai Ling felt relieved to see that Princess Jingan believed her, "Exactly. He is queer. He has an ambiguous relationship with that colleague of his. Eh?! Wait! Why did you leave before I finished…? What a hasty person!"
========
The atmosphere in the room was very awkward.
Right now, there were amazing shows to see at every corner of the room.
Exhibit one: Tang Ye desperately grabbed onto his pants. A man with horseshoe triceps was yelling stuff that a sexually abused maid would yell such as, "Go away! Move!" and so forth.
I went to grab Tang Ye's X with my Dragon Claw – where X is a placeholder that can be anything. As for what it is, you can imagine it to be whatever you want to imagine it to be… Either way, it wasn't something good.
Do not try it at home, kids.
Exhibit two: Su Xiao covered half of his eyes, as he didn't want to look, but he kept half of his vision unobstructed, for he needed to satisfy his curiosity.
Exhibit three: Princess Hongzhuang was driven nuts by her hunger. She was in the middle of an attempt of trying to hook a meat bun on the table over using a length of fabric. As a matter of fact, she ignored the fact that her elder sister was standing at the door.
All of those scenarios took place at once.
As for Second Brother, he was still there shouting, "Ass we can…"
As soon as the door swung open, Captain Bai Yeshuang and our dynasty's eldest Princess, Princess Jingan saw what I just described.
It's not the biggest issue if Bai Yeshuang saw the scene, but Princess Jingan!
'Why has Jingan come back here? Have I been busted?'
'Shit! Shit! Shit! Shiiiiitttt!!!'
When Princess Jingan saw me, she reacted with her mouth wide. Her entire body trembled.
'Wait! Wait! We can take our time talking about our business in private!!'
Princess Jingan, however, ignored the eye signal I sent her and thundered, "Ming Feizhen!"
'Eh? She's calling me by that name?'
Nevertheless, I responded, "Present!"
Jingan shivered as she exclaimed, "Y-You're too much!"
"Yes! Sorry! Please listen to my explanation!"
"Enough. I don't want to hear it." Jingan waved her hand. She then pointed to Tang Ye with her slender finger, "So you are in an ambiguous relationship with your colleague!!"
I planned to apologise, but as soon as I her say that, all I had to say was, "I %￥#&[email protected]"
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