6 Chapter 6

After her week was over she returned to her small courtyard with her Guzheng and personal maid and her regular meals.

She gained a little weight over the next few months and it was finally time for the competition, it wasn't taking place in the imperial city so it was a few days of travel, she was more than willing to leave the little courtyard to see what the world looked like. The preparations took a ridiculous amount of manpower, the situation opened her eyes to just how rich her family was if her family was rich then why was she so poor? It was obvious that her father wasn't stupid and wouldn't allow her to be slighted, was she overthinking it? She wanted to ask Mei li but wasn't sure how.

"Mei Li, should we go and ask father for more money?" She said after contemplating while they looked at their courtyard's expenditure, they had little left after spending money on the basics.

"The master will become angry again miss, you're still grounded from the last time..." her servant said in exaggeration, she most likely did something wrong for her father to cut own her spending and ground her this way. "Do you think what I did was wrong?" she asked after a while trying to see if the servant's answer will give her any clues as to what she did. "That servant girl was daring, trying to climb the young master's bed, you were justified to beat her to death, it's just that someone couldn't keep their mouth shut and ended up causing rumors to spread."

Her face was black as ink, beat someone to death... This body did something so cruel? She would assume this young master Mei li was talking about was her brother, older? younger? biological? stop brother? She had no clue. Her eye twitched, what on earth was this body thinking? Didn't young men normally have sex often? Was this brother of hers really young or naive and easily manipulated? Why go through such lengths for a mere servant girl? "Miss wasn't wrong, however... the young master hasn't visited miss since then and even left for the academy without informing miss..."

This young master wasn't happy with the death of the servant girl, could it be it was a forbidden love scenario?

"Mei li, does brother hate me?"

"Of course not miss! the young master has always had a soft spot for you in his heart! He was just a bit angry, he's your only brother how can he hate you? Don't forget the last time he came back from the academy he brought back lots of rare elixirs he got from his master!" she said trying to console Jilian who was lost in thought with the new information.

Bringing back elixirs yet being unable to find something to relieve her asthma, she groaned internally, the fact he had a master could either reference a martial arts master or a master that trains him in becoming a good young nobleman. She was personally hoping it was the latter because she did not want a situation where martial arts was important or as mystical as in Chinese drama.

"Mei li, do you also know martial arts?"

"Of course miss! Personal maids must be at least a level 2 martial artist!"

Jilian felt an impending sense of doom, level 2... the martial arts had levels! "Can you teach me?"

"Miss, the last time you asked me to teach you, you fainted because you found it difficult to breathe so I thought you simple meditation techniques."

Liu Jilian wanted to kill herself, of course, she couldn't keep up with the martial arts, her illness wouldn't allow her to breathe properly, but meditation... "Can you show me again how to meditate?" Even if it was a little she wanted to see for herself the fantasy elements of this world.

In the main study, prime minister Liu seemed absent-minded as he stared at the tea set his primary wife was setting out for him. "Is Ji'er getting ready for the competition?"

"Yes, her and Wen'er, I applied Jilian in the arts and literature portion and Wen'er in the female martial arts portion." the madam replied as she sat on the low stool by the side.

He nodded in satisfaction, "makes sure nothing goes wrong in preparation, this will be Ji'er's debut, we can't have any unfortunate events." She bowed her head slightly, her fists under her sleeves were clenched, he's always asking about the first girl even though she's not talented in any way, always ignoring her Wen'er, even after death her sister dared to compete with her.

[Liu Li Wei, if I met you first would my Wen'er be the apple of your eyes?] Of course she could not answer that question so she excused herself and left.