1 Chrysanthemum Fragrance

The rattling of metal from a distiller wafting off a scent of chrysanthemum which filled up the small room. A young petite woman dressed in a golden honey jacket, an embroidered white skirt, and a wood-coloured satin cloak that had golden maidenhair leaves everywhere. Quickly scooped out the unusable chrysanthemum petals out, replacing it with new and fresh ones. After she finished replacing the flower, she grabbed a brush, writing down the prescription of the aromatic dew for future reference. She began cutting up sheets of cotton into the shape of a face, two eye holes, a mouth hole and slit for the nose. Finally, finished the preparations, she placed the items into a package.

"FANGSU! QUICKLY RUN! GET AWAY FROM HERE!" A wet nurse rushed over to the young petite girl.

"What's going on?" Fangsu held the wet nurse by the shoulder, an uneasy feeling began curdling in the pit of her stomach.

"Young Miss! Please hurry to the stables!" The wet nurse hurriedly pushed Fangsu out towards the window, a man dressed in black burst into the room rushing towards them. The man dressed in black was about the plunge his sword towards Fangsu, however, the wet nurse manoeuvred her body to take the sword in the place of Fangsu which pierced through her body. "Young miss! Hurry!"

Fangsu threw the aromantic dew she painstakingly created and threw it at the man, creating a window of time for her to escape from the man. The sudden attack unveiled the man which showed a handsome man that had two small moles underneatfilled right eye. Another man dressed in black appeared behind Fangsu without her realising, the moled man killed him. Fangsu was confused with the man with mole actions but she had no time to think and grabbed her book filled with all her writing of prescriptions of aromatic dews, the only tangible items she owned. Fangsu quickly dashed across the house of her family where fond memories of her childhood came flooding in, the thought of leaving the place where she grew up was painfully heartbreaking. Nonetheless, Fangsu hurried to the stable where Fangsu's trusted companion, Tian neighed with unrest with the chaotic situation. Quickly, she mounted Tian and immediately rode out of the house.

The scene that befell before her eyes froze her blood, limp bodies were covered in blood both adult and children. She frantically searched for any of her family members amongst the corpses, her mother and siblings laid in their own blood, their dull eyes were filled with fear in their last moments. "Mother! Jie Jie! Mei Mei!" Fangsu screamed out, unaware of catching the attention of the people who slaughtered her family. Tian neighed loudly and rode out of the estate. "Tian! Go back! Everyone is still there!" Fangsu pleaded towards Tian to return back to the estate where the corpses of her family members remained. Tain snorted against her pleads and continued to run rampage towards the direction of the ocean.

Multiple men on horses chased after Fangsu, releasing arrows one after the other trying to kill her like livestock. Fangsu dodged multiple of the arrows, unsheathing a dagger to protect Tian from getting shot, eventually, they reached towards the mountain that leads towards the ocean. Fangsu tried to steer Tian away from the dead end, however, Tian continued to pursue towards the mountain easily manoeuvring against the tricky twist and turns of the mountain. Soon, the sight of a cliff came into view and Fangsu couldn't stop Tian who leapt off the cliff.

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"That was one crazy horse!" A boisterous man laughed at the comic scene, "Look's like our job is done! Hey! Let's go celebrate and have fun tonight!"

Another man with a much stricter personality slammed the hilt of his sword against the back of the boisterous man's head, "We are merely ridding the Third Prince's supporters," The strict man scolded, "If we leave a single one of them alive they will retaliate against us in the future especially when we are vulnerable."

The boisterous man rubbed the sore spot trying to relieve the pain, "Don't be such an ass, Lan He." Turning his attention to the man with the mole who just arrived at the pair's location, "Hey! Yi Fang join me tonight! Let's get wasted and find some beauties to play with!" hooking his arm around the younger man's neck.

Yi Fang unhooked the man's arm that was around his neck, declining the offer to join the man on a night out. "Tch! Fine! I won't go!" The boisterous man huffed in annoyance with the two's lack of enjoyment of life. A loud screech echoed through the air, alerting the three men, a hawk dived towards their direction. Lan He outstretched his arm with a guard to allow the hawk to land, a message was tied into the leg. Untying and unravelling the message, Lan He read the message and crushed it without hesitation.

"Lan He?! What's wrong?" The boisterous man questioned the contents of the letter that could anger Lan He to this extent.

Lan He's fist whitened as he clutched the letter, "They deceived us!" he threw the crumpled letter onto the ground seething in angry, steam rushed out of his ears, face red with blood, "It was a set up by the Su family to frame the Chen family."

Yi Fang furrowed his brow, deep in thought, "Lan He, do you know any prominent figures that may have been associated with the Su family to be able to frame the Chen family?" He pinches in between his eyebrows to relieve him from an upcoming headache, "I mean why would the Su family frame a clan that has no affiliation with the royal family? It makes no sense."

Lan He finally broke out of his internal strife with himself. "I'm not too sure about that myself, but Jingyi may know something about it." His foreheads began showing lines from stress and fatigue and the lines were quite prominent. Lan He knocked the boisterous man over to the ground, guilt began eating up the once happy carefree man. "Oi! Gang Hai! Stop staring out of space and help bury the dead!"

Gang Hai willing fell to the ground, shocked by the fact he had killed innocent people. Lan He began dragging the poor man towards the Chen estate to bury the innocent people of the Chen family. Yi Fang wandered into the room where the girl who threw some sort of liquid at him, the bottle that held the liquid was completely smashed, however, the fragrance still lingered in the wood flooring as it has soaked the liquid up, "Chrysanthemum?", the floral scent also mixed in with other scents. Herbal, Flowery and Fruity scents created a symphony in the air creating a completely new and unique scent profile. There was a copper distiller, pages of writing and an assortment of flowers.

Gang Hai and Lan He entered the room, staring at the equipment and materials for aromatic dew. To make aromatic dew and perfume was an extremely laborious process but it's a very popular beauty item with women for its customizability, however, the commodity was discontinued many years ago. Lan He wandered around the room picking up a bottle and sniffing the contents, "This person must be extremely well versed in medicine to be able to manufacture this sort of product." Closing the bottle, he returned it back in its rightful place.

Gang Hai sniffed the air, "Chrysanthemum?" He picked a shard of the bottle from the ground, "Isn't this flower extremely hard to acquire?"

Lan He also smelled remnants of chrysanthemum aromatic dew, "Extremely, only royalty or people with connections with the gardener or royalty can acquire it, but other than that it's nearly impossible." Suddenly, he rushed towards the shelves that were stocked with aromatic dews, perfume and cosmetics, looking for something. He pulled the bottles, containers and distillers looking for a mark on the items, a Qilin was embedded in the copper distiller with a Chen character on it.

Chen was an uncommon name and they didn't take much notice to it, but to think that this family has basically erased their existence to the point, their prestige and contribution to the country were forgotten. This family came from out of nowhere, bringing forth new ways to preserve and flourish plant life that saved thousands of lives and cured seemingly 'incurable' illnesses. They are an invaluable family that are considered legendary, however, due to the complications, they disappeared all of a sudden. Rumours erupted since their disappearance. Many powerful families tried to find the Chen family to get medicinal plants for the sickly, however, it was like they had completely vanished from the world.

Lan He visibly trembled with excitement but also despair. Yi Fang stared at the crest, curious about the importance, a Qilin crest a family that excelled in botany. "Gang Hai! Quickly go out and find the girl!"

"Huh? Why?" Gang Hai complained, rubbing his stiff shoulders from burying the people. But, he compiled and went out to search for the girl. After thoroughly searching along the mountainside, there was no sight of the girl but there was an edge that jutted out of the mountainside. "Yi Fang there is an edge along the mountain, the girl must have escaped through there."

Yi Fang and the other two scaled-down the mountain ledge which leads to a secret passage to a hidden port which connected to the sea. There was no ship so the girl likely went into the secret port to escape, "Thank God! She is alive!" Gang Hai exclaimed in excitement.

Lan He sighed in relieved, however, a new problem arises. "She may be alive but how can we find her again?" Staring out into the open sea, "She could be anywhere."

Yi Fang sighed dejectedly, "Additionally, do you think she would forgive us for killing her family?"

The trio sighed in unison obviously trying to find her would be hard but apologising for killing her family would be another obstacle itself. They vowed to find the girl and apologies to her.