I Don't Give A Damn About You

"I married a hunk Lord but…," she recalled what he said...

[In fairness, I'll be honest with you. I don't like you. You are not worthy to be entitled as this clan's first lady and for someone to stand by my side. From this day forth, you are to live in Anjing Pavilion.]

She pouted, recalling it, but forgot the rest of his words. She only remembered the sentences that suppressed her.

Xinyi got a bit irritated recalling those words and went back inside and took a brush and dipped into a bottle of ink. She then stood in front of the portrait, her free hand on her waist while the other held the brush. A giggle with a snort came out from her as she rubbed her nose with the hand holding the brush.

"Hehe, yeah, you're handsome all right, but in fairness too, I don't give a damn about you."

Xinyi's eyes glinted as her evil plan went into motion. Her hand began swishing and swooshing the brush on the portrait while sounding an evil laugh. And when done… She looked at her artwork and nodded in satisfaction.

Ming's lips became bigger and wider as the camels. The eyes became round, as round as the owls. The ears looked like long trumpets extending outside and his fingernails have black manicures on it. A ribbon now replaced his hair clip on his head.

"Muahahaha, I'm a great painter. Maybe, I should choose Painter as my vocation and earn cash," she said as she snorted. "I hope after I leave, you can live happily ever after. Just like those fairy tales I read after the villain ME, XINYI will be out of your sight."

After saying those words, she threw the brush on the floor. She placed back Kuàilè in the loose area of her blouse and about to run with the jade emblem and some clothes.

As she was about to step out from the room again, her eyes noticed some cabinets she hadn't tried opening. She pulled the jewel-like holder and pulled out a drawer with hair clips and hair jade sticks. In another drawer, there were colorful dangling earrings, jade and gold rings. In three more drawers were some nice assortment of combs, embroidered hankies, and other assorted trinkets for a lady in her stature.

She left the room with a tied cloth filled with the pieces of jewelry and a few clothes, which were hers by right as the owner of this pavilion intended for the Governor's wife. Xinyi kept on giggling, remembering with what she did on the portrait.

Minutes after, two maids came in, talking.

"Well, we need to clean this place again. What is wrong with the Governor? Yesterday was the wedding, but this room was so bland with no red decorations and sent Lady Lei to Anjing Pavilion and now he instructed us to make this place presentable and full of decorations for Lady Lei's return," said the younger girl between the two.

"Who knows? Let's not involve ourselves with our masters' affairs," said the older maid.

Suddenly, "Ahh! Oh, my great heavenly ancestors, thieves stole everything here but how?" said the older maid, looking at the opened empty drawers and thrown blankets and clothes on the floor. Both of them gasped in horror.

"Ahhh!?!" Then the younger maid shouted too as she pointed the repainted portrait on the wall. The older maid followed the younger maid's eyesight and yelled the same way.

"Who did this to Lord Lei's portrait?" said the older maid. "This is bad. This is terrible. Lady An painted this for Lord Lei. What are we going to do? If they find this out, we will be in great trouble."

"But we are not the one who did it?" said the other maid.

"Still, there's no one else here to speak for us," said the older maid as she pulled the younger maid's hand, "Come, let's get out of here and clean another room."

"But they told us to clean this place."

"We should deny that or else… Also, the instruction that other maid told us was to help a cleaning girl here, but there's no one else here."

"That means… the other girl robbed?"

"No, silly. She can't get away that easy. They will behead her if she did. Maybe, the girl also ran away because of this…," she pointed the mess, "let's help clean the garden where the banquet was held yesterday and never mention this to anyone or about the instructions."

Both of them ran to another area, while the true culprit was now very far from the main residences and nearer to the forest. She whistled as she skipped and prance, unknowingly, her face had smudges of black ink.

Then she heard some noise… turned her head and focus on where the noise was. She ran as fast as she could go back to Anjing Pavilion. Her way was unhindered until she reached yards away from the place... and stopped to hide behind a tree. There, she saw guards and some maids standing outside the opened gate.

"Oh, my great Lei ancestor, may he rest in peace, why did big brother put sister-in-law here?" A shrieking yell came from the courtyard inside. Everyone squinted their eyes to hear Lady An. "No lady in sister-in-law's background could stand this…" she stammered pointing to the courtyard, "this… ah, I don't know how to describe THIS PLACE."

What she saw was a partly mowed center of the courtyard with cut grass on the ground above the white broken tiles. The uncleared sides were full of long-standing weeds. Beyond was a ran-down building with a roof full of holes, as if tiny meteors fell over it.

"What's wrong with big brother? How could she send sister-in-law here?" Lei An cupped her mouth. "Big sister Xinyi, yoo-hoo. Sister-in-law, please come out. I'm here to bring you back."

No reply…

"Sister-in-law, I'm your younger sister An. Please, come out now. Please…" and said to herself… 'please, come out before mom will arrive. We will receive the sermon worth a lifetime if she arrives and learned that big brother sent you here.'

Silence… and only the whooshing of the wind was heard, giving Lei An goosebumps all over her body. 'Gosh, is there a ghost living here. Is sister-in-law fine? Did anything happen to her? Where is she? Why no one is responding or coming out?'

Out of fright, she pointed her fingers at the guards and maids and ordered. "You, you, and you find Lady Lei and bring her here. The two of you, get some food, clean clothes, and new shoes for her. The rest of you clear this place."

Everyone moved as ordered. While An tried to find a place, she could sit and later went to a nearby tree, which happened where Xinyi hid. Lei An leaned against the tree and wondered, "Sister-in-law must be exhausted to wake up from crying herself to sleep last night after she was sent here. Oh, poor thing."

Unbeknownst to her, the person she referred to was just behind her and could hear her well.

---- o ----

In Ming's quarters, he sat behind a big table and thought of the events last night, most of all that 'lady fairy' playing with the fish. He had a lot of questions in mind, but... three prevailed the most.

"Who is she? Why is she here? Where can I find her?"