MINI CHAPTER BONUS: Washing Clothes

[Weizhe's POV]

Qin Fuhua had instructed the servants to prepare him the bathe a couple of hours ago. Weizhe had been doing some odd jobs for Qin Fuhua such as: finding clothes for the young Miss (Suyin), keeping an eye on Suyin and the girls (Areum and Wu Fei), and acquiring orders to examine certain areas around the city.

Areum has been having a hard time carrying the wooden basket to do laundry at the well and small river outside of the courtyard.

While Weizhe was coming back from the royal library after putting away some of the books Qin Fuhua had borrowed, Areum bumped her shoulders against Weizhe by accident.

"A-Ah!" Areum yelped, dropping the wooden basket loaded with clothes on the ground.

Areum would have anticipated having fallen face-first to the ground, only to have Weizhe's arms wrapped around her waist.

Weizhe was able to catch her in the middle of the fall, and he was leaning in towards her, as she gaped up at him.

"Oh no!"

Areum had noticed that her clothes were all over the ground now. Areum was mortified at what happened, but goodness' sake! She needed to put her clothes in the basket before anyone sees her undergarments!

"Let me help you with that," Weizhe spoke. "Sorry I bumped into you, I should have looked ahead of me." He remarked, bending down to pick up the clothes on the rocky ground.

"No, it's okay. You don't have to help!"

"I insist on helping--" Weizhe's hands had grazed on something soft and silky: Areum's Dudou. As he grabbed it with his hands, holding it up because he's never seen one before, Areum immediately shrieked at him.

"DON'T TOUCH THAT!" Areum roared, slapping his hands as the dudou gently fell back down on the ground like a feather.

"Sorry! I didn't know what that was" Weizhe then realized what he grabbed and instantly got up. "I apologize, young Miss!" He bowed presently, his hands by his hips as if he was from the military and was in trouble with the general.

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After letting Areum pick up her clothes and toss them in the wooden basket, Weizhe insisted on carrying it for her, walking to the back of the courtyard where the servants (and Areum and Wu Fei now) washed their clothes from the Orange Blossom Courtyard.

"You should learn some martial arts. At least, to protect yourself and get strong." Weizhe commented, glimpsing at her body.

Areum's body was fragile, but little did he realize that her fragile body was due to her malnourishment when she was young. Also, the punishment from Suyin's parents didn't help her back. The scars that she had gotten on her back will now have men thinking that she isn't proper*.

(*What this means is that having a scar on a woman's body is not usually a good thing. They are either dangerous, not a good person, or often have very bad luck. It isn't attractive from a man's point of view)

Areum could only nod her head with a bittersweet smile on her face. "Yeah, ah. But there's no one to help teach me. Wu Fei's good, but it's only for self-defense. She doesn't know how to teach the last time I talked to her." Areum expressed.

"Ah... well. If I have time, maybe at night or in the morning, why don't I teach you?" Weizhe offered. Areum shifted to look at him, and with a smile on her face, he grinned.

"That would be amazing! If there's something that I can do to help you-- I will happily do so!" Areum answered.

Weizhe and Areum reached the little well with a small stream coming down from the mountains. There was another servant, scrubbing some clothes with a wooden washboard.

Weizhe noticed that they were washing clothes that were tossed from the night before. As Areum thanked Weizhe for carrying the wooden basket, the male servant pulled out women's clothing in bafflement.

"Hm?" The servant examined the pair of women's clothing with Qin Fuhua's clothes.

"Hey, that's Suyin's clothes that she wore yesterday," Areum whispered to Weizhe. They then both darted at each other, and their eyes widened.

Areum covered her mouth, stunned at what she was thinking in her head.

"Didn't Suyin take a bath yesterday?" Areum conveyed.

"The Prince did too." Weizhe continued.

They were both embarrassed at what they were thinking of.

"To even think about doing that first instead of courting her," Weizhe said to himself, shaking his head.

"Suyin, what in the world happened yesterday night?!" Areum thought to herself.