66 Returning Stolen Goods

The next morning was simultaneously a tense affair and a humorous one.

At least, that's how it felt to Ming Cheng and Xiao Ying.

Xiao Ying stood off awkwardly to the side as Ming Cheng trailed a tense and jittery Lan Chang, who was ducking behind doors, crawling under windows, and meeting out loud shushes whenever Ming Cheng's face so much twitched to maybe yawn.

Ming Cheng followed along his adoptive mother dutifully, whilst also retaining the dignity that she was rapidly losing by peeking out behind the corners of the Imperial Palace, rushing down the dark, pre sunrise corridors.

Xiao Ying did remember writing out Lan Chang as being overly serious, and had originally framed a scene of her sneaking around, in the original novel, as something tense and full of danger, in the middle of the night when Ming Cheng had been running through the palace to try and save the Emperor, but looking at her doing so now, watching her methodically and critically scan her surroundings for a single hint of life with narrow, beady eyes as she slowly and precisely edged out of one section of the palace to another, it was comical.

Xiao Ying wanted to almost burst out in laughter at Lan Chang's antics, and a part of him was sure that she was only going through the act to help placate some of Ming Cheng's worries about her not sleeping the night before, instead leaving him to find her curled up over the writing desk, all copying completed but still carrying the brush she used in her hand.

She also had splashes of ink on her face and the hems of her sleeves, which didn't particularly help her case any further.

Xiao Ying had stood by, out of the way at the door, as Ming Cheng took charge of the situation, pulling out a new, spare uniform for Lan Chang and tugging at her sleeves until she woke up once, fell back asleep, and woke up again when Ming Cheng told her that she was going to be late.

She had quickly changed as Ming Cheng left to fetch water from the well in the washbowl that they kept in the room, wetting the cloth in the ice cold liquid and meticulously wiping away the ink that had stained Lan Chang's skin, until he absolutely sure that she was presentable to leave for the day ahead.

Lan Chang kept a small, genial smile through the entire action, not at all commenting on what he was doing and not complaining when Ming Cheng accidently pressed down and scrubbed too hard at one spot of her right cheek, a particularly stubborn splotch of ink had settled down.

She patted him on the head and thanked him, when all was said and done, and it was nobody's business if she went out and bought Ming Cheng some extra sweets later for his kindness and dedication.

Xiao Ying found himself proud of his protagonist, seeing the man that he would shape up to be emerging so soon under the care of his mother figure, while at the same time, ill at ease, seeing Ming Cheng so distressed and not speaking about it at all, not even opening up to speak about what was plaguing his mind.