Xiao Qi and the Crown Prince pt2

"Zhao Xing you come out!"

"Sister Qi, you can't…Grand Tutor is asleep…"

"Umm…"

'What's all the commotion about?' The noise outside woke Zhao Xing up, making her annoyed. She had clearly said that no one was to disturb her. In fact, she knew that no one would actually disturb her, even the Crown Prince gave her some face and would let her be when she rested. She wondered who dared to make noise when she, Zhao Xing was asleep. She sat up and sighed in frustration.

"Who?"

It seemed one of her maids heard her voice and rushed into the room. "Grand Tutor…Sister Qi is here, she said she wanted to speak with you, I already told her that you were asleep, but she still insisted on coming in and wouldn't listen!" Lan'er's voice carried a bit of annoyance in it. But she hadn't ranted enough when the culprit came walking into the room with long strides.

"Zhao Xing, ah, you're really good, you actually made Master cherish you so much!"

Zhao Xing was already in a bad mood, seeing this lady that always like to pick a fight come barging in she became even more irritated, she tried taking deep breaths to calm down, but it seemed Xiao Qi didn't notice that the person in front of her was at the verge of exploding and went on ranting.

"I tell you, there's no way I'll serve you, over my dead body."

"Heh." Zhao Xing scoffed. She had days of peace, and recuperated with peace of mind. She had long forgotten how it was with Xiao Qi back at Little Merchant Valley, when they argued every day. She had even taken Xiao Qi as her good and close friend along with Brother Mo, and had also lied for their sake, so that they don't get punished.

But Xiao Qi remained Xiao Qi, on this day, when she was tired and weak from her wound and poison… from eating too much, she just had to come and disturb her.

Was she someone that people could easily mess around with? Of course not. Since Xiao Qi had asked for it, she shouldn't blame her for not being courteous.

As Xiao Qi went on yelling, Zhao Xing suddenly held her chest, and showed a pained expression that scared both Nuo Nuo and Lan'er.

"Grand Tutor?" They both rushed to her side.

Zhao Xing's breathing became heavy as she gasped for air.

Xiao Qi only just noticed that something was wrong and her face changed.

"Zhao Xing? Zhao Xing, what's wrong with you..?" She also rushed to her side and held Zhao Xing's shoulders.

"…My chest…it hurts…"

Hearing this Nuo Nuo didn't tarry and quickly rushed to tell the Crown Prince.

Xiao Qi also panicked, she quickly took Zhao Xing's hand to check her pulse. Her eyes soon widened.

'Why is it like this?'

Zhao Xing continued holding onto her chest, and soon she started crying, "Xiao Qi…I don't want to die."

No one could mention how frightened Xiao Qi was at that moment. She held onto Zhao Xing's hand tightly, "The Crown Prince will be here soon, nothing will happen to you as long as Master is here."

"But it hurts…"

Seeing her look so pitiful, Xiao Qi somehow felt guilty. The girl had been poisoned, and had to take bitter medicine every day. Today because she was angry with the Crown Prince's arrangement she came here to look for trouble with Zhao Xing. The poor girl was sleeping and she caused a ruckus like this to disturb her. Was all this happening because she had scared her awake?

Soon Zhang Zhengyang arrived with a physician.

"Zhao Xing" He walked up to her.

"Zhangyang…" Zhao Xing looked at him pitifully, making him stunned for a moment.

Something was off about the way she acted.

Zhang Zhengyang allowed the physician to check on her as he turned to the rest in the room, signaling to them to meet him outside.

"What happened?"

The three of them looked at each other.

Both of Zhao Xing's maids didn't dare talk when their superior was here and waited for her to explain instead, after all, she was 'Sister Qi' before their Grand Tutor, she was the tyrant of the whole of the Crown Prince's Manor.

Xiao Qi on the other hand felt guilty, she didn't know what had happened and why Zhao Xing suddenly became like this, but the Master didn't ask her about Zhao Xing, but what had happened before the whole thing transpired.

"It was this servant that came to look for Grand Tutor, this servant caused a ruckus and disturbed Grand Tutor's sleep, then she became like this…" She explained in one breath.

Zhang Zhengyang didn't looked pleased at all, Xiao Qi knew this and her heart sank.

"You can leave." He said, he bypassed her, reentering Zhao Xing's room.

Xiao Qi had a sad expression on her face, her master had never acted like that to her before. Why was it that after this girl came, her master started treating her differently?

She was angry. She took one last look at the door to Zhao Xing's room before leaving.

"That was too cruel don't you think?" Zhang Zhengyang said. He had already asked for the physician to leave. It was only the two of them in the room.

Zhao Xing who looked like she was about to die just a moment ago, looked normal, with no trace of the pained expression from just now.

"She asked for it." She grimaced. "How did you find out?"

Zhang Zhengyang chuckled. "Do you think you can fool everyone? Such childish trick"

Zhao Xing glared at him. But then a big smile suddenly appeared on her face, "What do you say about my acting skills? What do you think, wasn't it flawless, even the disguiser, Xiao Qi didn't notice."

Zhang Zhengyang smiled at her, "You won't make her leave you alone using these little tricks."

"I know that, this is just a small punishment, beside I asked for you to praise me."

"What's there to praise?"

"What do you mean, what's there to praise, my acting, may plan, see how the enemy fled."

"Um."

Seeing how disinterested he sounded she got bored. "Tch never mind, I forgot, you don't know how to please people."

She then thought about what the guards said the other time. "You even went ahead and told Xiao Qi that she was pretty, you can't even tell me something like 'your acting is quite good'."

Zhang Zhengyang frowned when he heard this. "I said that?"

"Still want to deny it?" Zhao Xing didn't believe it, it was either he forgot or was plainly denying it, besides those guards had no reason to lie against their Master.

Zhang Zhengyang looked as if he was trying to recall something.

"There was indeed a time I said this."

Zhao Xing looked at him as if he was hopeless. 'Tch, he remembers now."

"Hey, Zhang Zhengyang, what exactly is your relationship with Xiao Qi?" She was really curious. Xiao Qi acted as if she owned the Crown Prince and the Crown Prince acted differently towards her. She just had this feeling that their relationship wasn't simple.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because I'm curious, I want to ask so I ask." She said a matter-of-factly. She's always acting so high up, among all the people under the Crown Prince, she hasn't seen anyone as troublesome as Xiao Qi. She was so stubborn. The Crown Prince didn't say anything about it, there must be a reason behind it, right?

"What other relationship could there be?" He said looking relaxed, but it didn't make Zhao Xing believe him.

She thought about so many stories, so many scenarios; noble falling in love with a peasant, love between master and servant…. In short, the possibilities where endless.

"Is that so?"

Zhang Zhengyang didn't respond.

"I'll leave you to rest, Xiao Qi is gone and won't be disturbing you for the moment." He said so and began to leave.

Zhao Xing didn't stop him, he was like that all the time, he evaded a lot of her questions, she had already gotten used to it.

Zhang Zhengyang walked out of Zhao Xing's courtyard.

"Master…" Xiao Chen who had waited for him, came up to salute him.

"Let's go." He looked into the distance, he recalled a few memories of when was younger. When he first met the troublesome child, Xiao Qi. He chuckled to himself, as he walked away.

Flashback.

[Then Zhang Zhengyang was just the 'Second Prince' his father had only recently ascended the throne. He was young and carefree. He also liked to run around, along with Xiao Chen as his companion.

He remembered his mother who hadn't yet been crowned Empress, had taken him out of the palace during her second pregnancy, they both lived in another palace far from the hustle bustle of the Capital, this place was relatively calm, during that period he could have fun the way he wanted and wasn't restricted to palace rules.