#1: Here And There

"Victory Again! My Lord, This servant feels honored to be witness to your absolute victory against those barbarians. His Majesty, the sun of our Emperor, His Highness, the Emperor will certainly reward you well for your efforts.", the eunuch sent by his majesty said.

"Though it is our victory, it is also the death of countless on both the sides, so, tell me, Eunuch Pei, should I really be happy? To have killed many of fathers, brothers, husbands?" asked General Huang Lei in a calm yet mocking voice.

"I have not meant that My Lord. I just felt happy for the fact that our borders are not threatened and people here will be safe. I apologize for any discomfort my words may have caused.", Eunuch Pei said and left the tent.

"Hmph! These Eunuchs are so calculative and cunning. He would definitely exaggerate in the palace about the war." said Captain Xiao Li.

"It is nothing wrong, Isn't it true that I am like a monstrous Grim Reaper who makes people widows and orphans? I heard all these rumors about General Huang while being a spy in the barbarian kingdom."

"Well, Your face is far too handsome to be called a Grim reaper or a monster, That is all, We need to get going, the Emperor has summoned us to be in the castle by next two weeks, If we must reach before two weeks, we need to make haste.", Xiao Li motioned the guards to finish packing up and start the journey.

*In The Capital*

"No, My Lady, the price can't be lowered more! I have offered you a 50% discount already!"

"Fine Fine, I will take the painting.", I muttered while handing him the money.

"10 silvers for the portrait of Qing yuan, hmmm, I don't like spending money like this, but it was Qing yuan, I had to!" , I exclaimed.

"My Lady, you should refrain from collecting paintings of men, you have come to marriageable age! it won't be long before you will be wedded to a young master of a noble family! You must show your graceful manner.", screamed my servant, Xin Xin.

"Xin Xin just let me be! It doesn't matter, I doubt there are any suitors willing to marry me, Don't you know about the current most famous style of consort? It is a quiet, graceful, soft-spoken and beautiful and slim women."

"My Lady. Did you forget? You are already engaged to young master Peng, it was decided since birth?"

"Oh, Yes, I do like him, but it is impossible for me to give him my heart, my heart belongs to Qing Yuan. I doubt he would like a scarred girl like me?", I asked clutching my portrait of Qing yuan.

"You're not scarred, you just have a small mark, that too its above your eyes, showing your cute face, I am sure, at first glance one might not like you, but as they spend time, all will understand that you are the best lady."

"Well it doesn't matter, I am not the small innocent girl who searches for love, I have found my perfect love, but sadly our birth divides us, I can only continue loving him by buying his portraits.", I cried while shedding a tear.

"Stop my lady, any person listening to it, may think you are a weak lady who is bullied and your love is some peasant! you are the most pampered daughter of the Huo family and your lover is Qing yuan? a fictional character from the romance novel? You must stop reading those many novels!" she began shouting in my ear.

Well, that is also true, I should stop, but my novels are the one which make me want to be alive, I am only staying alive because, I need to get the next volumes of the novels, new line of novels.

What can I do? I fell for the novels, My family is a picture perfect and calm peaceful family unlike others where the concubines plot and the father is indifferent to some children, children plotting against each other.

My family is weird I guess, no one is jealous of the other. My father, the marquis, married my mom out of love, she was his childhood friend, and her family was also a noble one, she naturally was the first wife, soon, due to a treaty, a lady from the other state married my father, she became the second concubine, the third concubine was a woman who loved my father and only wanted to marry him, there were one more concubine given to him by his majesty.

My father took care of all, and fulfilled his duties as the husband, but his heart was always my mother's. The concubines were never jealous, they were quite sweet and like my mother a lot. My mother gave birth to the first son, who is the heir, and the first daughter and later me, the second concubine gave birth to another daughter, the third and fourth had two sons each. both had twins, the fourth concubine had a daughter recently.

The reason why I got my scar, is because, I took a knife for my third concubine when she was pregnant, a heroic act, since then, third concubine keeps on blaming herself, in the midst of this, I was pampered by all my siblings since I was small, I was fed well, and thus I am round, not too much, but a little? I don't know, but I can say I am rounder than most girls. No... its wrong, they are too much skinny. I am a normal person.

My eldest sister, Jia Lihua is a respectable and quiet lady, she is very elegant like a... swan, gentle but not easily fazed, she is very graceful, she was married last year to the crown prince. She is the main culprit for me to be addicted to novels, she was the one who had these novels, last year, when I was arranging her room after she left to the palace, I found a romance novel, though it was between two men, it was quite interesting. (^v^)

My second sister, Qi Qinyang, just like her mother, was interested and skilled in martial arts, she is quite a powerful, strong lady, recently turning 17, is so strong willed and aggressive, she is one of the top martial masters, though others don't acknowledge her because she is a girl. As she is quite close to me, I really enjoy her company, though she doesn't like romance novels nor men in romantic way, we are similar. All that she sees while looking at the portraits are the men's height, his muscles and promises to make herself that much tall and strong.(hotheaded person)

"Miss Jia Li, Nice meeting you here."

"Who? Oh! mister Peng! What are you doing here?", I asked covering the painting behind me.

"I was coming back from inspecting one of my stores, and I got you a little something, I was thinking of you when I bought it and thought to give it to you, but I found you here, so, I wanted to give it to you.", he said, asking me to put out my hands and gave a hairpin, a blue pearl hairpin, simple yet beautiful, with words etched on the pin, Jia Li.

"It is very beautiful, I like blue, thank you, forgive me I have nothing to gift you right now, I will give something later."

"No need, I gifted it to you not with the thought of receiving something back, I just wanted to gift it to you. Well, I will get going now, I need to give the reports to my father. Nice meeting you. Lets meet again sometime later.", he said as he went away, he looked handsome almost like Qing yuan.

"Miss! Master Peng gave you a hairpin which he bought personally!!!! you are really lucky, he is so kind and handsome. You must have saved the nation in your last life to get someone like him! I must go and tell this to madam! come let's go!!", she pulled me back into the carriage.

*sigh* I guess I really am lucky, to be his fiancée, when I first got to know about this, I was afraid he wouldn't even look at me like other guys. But he didn't ignore me, he was very kind, gifting me small things which make me smile, we had many conversations, he protected me from thieves.

Being with him, made me feel as though I was a protagonist of a novel, and he was my destined prince. I do feel happy and fluffy near my chest when I am with him. He makes me feel... like a delicate but an important woman to him.

The young master Peng, a very handsome scholar, well versed in martial arts, kind with compassion. The only son of a master business man, has a lot of property under his name, kind of like the best husband material.

He and I were engaged in a prenatal engagement between our parents. He always visits me and treats me well, it is no surprise that he might actually marry me. To say, I never expect love from him, but by seeing his behavior towards me, I feel I may have a chance, maybe he will like me?

This is bad, I am expecting him to love me???? (blushing) It is nice, to expect love, and I guess I may fall in love, with a real man... man... now it feels weird to say. why did I read those many novels?

As I was coming, I heard drums, and people parading behind shouting,

'The general Huang Lei has brought home victory!! Hurray!! The war with the barbarians has finally ended!"

I ignored it, what does general and war even have to do with me? when I think about it I only feel sad for the loss, and my mind becomes conflicted to whether war is good or bad. Let's ignore it. I may never even see the general. He and I are of different worlds, which never mix.

"Miss, we have arrived!", said Xin Xin.

"Yes, I am coming.", I got down and went over to my room. Unwrapping my painting and carefully placing it on the table.

"Huh! Qing yuan, you really make me go crazy."

*Cough ,cough*

I turned and saw,

"Mother, it is not what you think, I was just looking through the old paintings and found this- Aah", my mom pinched my cheeks as I was explaining.

"You have begun to lie to your mother also? Xin Xin told me everything. Peng gave you a hairpin? Show it to me."

"yesh yesh", I took it out and showed it to her, while my cheeks stinged and felt numb.

"Hmm, he has a good eye for this. Well, go have food, it is your favorite soup today"

"Thank you Mother!!"

I ran out and went out.

"hmm, I guess, this painting should not be left like this? Let me take it"

*Three hours later*

"Miss, Master has called you to the family hall. Urgently." said Xin Xin rushing into the room as I was rereading the novel.

"Hmm, ok, I will go." I went on to the hall where I saw an unknown man as old as my dad or maybe more, who looked like a noble but I never knew him.

"Yes father, you called me."

"Yes, come and greet hi- my friend, Dong Zhao, he wanted to meet you."

"Hello, sir. I am the marquis's third daughter, Jia Li. Pleased to meet you."

"Pleased to meet you too, you really are a sweet girl. I saw you once before, when your sister was getting married."

"Oh! I am sorry, I didn't recognize you nor met you then."

"It doesn't matter, come here child, I have something to give you."

I came near and he gave me a bag of gold coins.

"But this..."

"Take it, I earn a lot. I simply wanted to give you a gift for your coming of age. You are a daughter to me."

"Thank you uncle Dong Zhao", I hugged him unconsciously, he felt like a father.

"What are you doing??", Dad shouted.

"Come on, Chen, Don't be jealous. I am more of a father figure than you, it is a fact."

"Sorry, but you felt familiar. That's why I hugged you uncle."

"It doesn't matter child, I prefer kids like you, mine stopped hugging me from when they learnt to speak."

I soon went back to my room. Reading novels, and planning how to spend the gold coins carefully kept in my safe.