15 Chapter 15

"Miss have you heard the recent rumours?"She stopped the embroidery she was attempting do she wouldn't prick her finger, "Does it have anything to do with me?"

"Yes miss, it's about the recent event at the banquet, about the crowned prince choosing a fisheye instead of a pearl."

Jilian looked down at her embroidery, rumours that fanned her good reputation were great, especially if she wasn't the one spreading them, she would just let it circulate.

Mei li brought out a letter piping up, "There was a letter from the Hong residence, they're going to visit later today"

The Hong residence? She wasn't sure exactly who they were or why they were coming and she wasn't interested, she nodded and continued embroidering, it was rather relaxing to learn a skill she had never even dreamt of practising in her last life, she pricked her finger and brought her hand out from under the piece of cloth, was this a bad omen?

"Where's my first sister?" That older male voice coming from the outer courtyard that could only be her so-called older brother, was he the bad omen?

Piss off, "Tell him I'm having a nap" Mei li looked at Jilian and sighed before leaving the room to tell the young master to leave.

"Who does she think she's fooling? It's barely noon!

So what if it's barely noon, she doesn't want to see such an annoying person.

"Is she still angry at me for what happened before? She still doesn't understand what she did!?"

"Oh my god, could you take him away!? his voice is irritating!" she snapped throwing away her embroidery, she was really not in the mood to be a docile young lady, standing up she stomps outside to look at the face of this so-called brother of hers. He was... pretty handsome, it hurt her to say it but damn his face and body were an 8/10.

"What do you want?" Her anger had reduced by half because of his pretty face.

"What do you mean what do I want? I came home from school and you haven't come to greet me?"

"Why should I?"

"Liu JiLian! I am your older brother!"

"Some kind of older brother, you were angry at me because of a servant girl!"

"You-!"

"If you have nothing useful to say please leave my courtyard, we do not have to see each other if we will only irritate each other" Without she turned around ignoring him, and went to sit back down. "That guy is very infuriating, how can he come here just demanding to be seen? Who does he think he is?" She picked up a cold snack that had been brought to her before she started embroidering to eat, she instantly felt better with the taste of good food. "Tell the servants that the next time he gets this far without me being informed I will beat them severely."

Fortunately, even though the rest of the day was rather busy, it wasn't as bad as her brother's sudden appearance. Hong Juan was a rather cute girl, she had a mild temper and was slightly spoilt but that was the case with most children her age, she wasn't very scheming or vicious and could most likely only pull off petty tricks like attempting to push someone into a body of water. It was rather funny, the Hong family used the excuse of thanking the young miss of the Liu family to push their daughter into her small circle. Hong Juan understood her family's intentions and sucked up to Jilian rather aggressively, It was a bit strange for the modern teen who was used to the 'no one gives a shit' mentality of the 21st century, It made her feel a little happy, maybe she should propose a marriage to her elder brother to get revenge on him. Thinking of that a small smirk appeared on her lips, but she didn't want to use this method, it wasn't fair on the child if she was dragged into their family matters.

The two girls opted to go out shopping, Jilian wanted to secretly look at the salon which should be shaping up nicely, it should be in the centre of the city with the other shops and restaurants for easy access. It would be good is she had a circle of influential friends so she could advertise her salon to them later on. "Miss Liu! I heard this style is really popular" Hong Juan pipped in showing her a beautiful dress with flowers embroidered on the edges of the dress with silk thread, it looked so lovely and alive she couldn't help but want to buy it.

"It's beautiful, would you like one?" The girl shyly nodded, it was rather expensive and was probably not something she could afford on a normal day. Liu Jilian couldn't blame her for falling in love with the dress, as a lover of beauty she would have bought it if the little girl didn't show interest first. She didn't feel too bad spending this much money while shopping, she hadn't been shopping in this life so she took it as since she started living this life, it shouldn't be too bad to go all out once in a while, squandering money while shopping was a hobby that had crossed over with her into this life. She looked at another beautiful dress with a matching hair set, "This is also pretty good."

She felt mildly ashamed on the way home, on the amount of money she spent, but she was a rich young lady, It's not too strange for her to spend lavishly on clothes and jewellery. Hong Juan was in a pretty good mood on the way home since she was able to go home with some lovely dresses she could wear out to show off, she had a favourable impression of Liu Jilian, she also felt a little envious but that couldn't be avoided, she was young and impressionable, all Liu Jilian had to do was make sure no one used that budding envy against her.

When she got home her mood dropped slowly as she was told her father wanted to have a meal with her and her brother. Throughout the entire meal she refused to even glance at her bother, and only talked to her father who noticed the weird dynamic, he felt like his daughter wasn't necessarily in the wrong, but if he said that he'd cause a wedge to form between his son and himself, he felt at loss and just smiled along with Jilian as she chattered about her shopping spree.

"You've become more unruly, even squandering money like the daughter of a merchant" Her brother muttered under his breath in disgust.

"Bo jing. What is wrong with me spending money? Is there a problem? It's a bit hypocritical to say that when you take your friends out to eat and spend even more money on courtesans, how are you not ashamed to speak?" If there were two characteristics she hated the most, it was stupidity and hypocrisy, and her brother had both characteristics.

"Ji'er!" Her father said sternly, she didn't say anything else, she may have said too much but she got her point across, when a man wastes money on stupid shit no one says anything, once it's a woman it becomes greed and unruliness, what bullshit.

Dropping her chopsticks she stood up, "I shall be taking my leave now, thank you for the meal." These kinds of double standards made her so angry she was afraid she would punch that brother of hers if she stayed any longer.