The Lazy Villainess

Jin Qingye was returning to his sleeping quarters, and there was barely any lit lanterns so it was quite dark, but there was some faint light. It was very silent in the night and he was deep in his thoughts so he didn't expect it when someone walked into him.

As the person fell backwards, he instinctively reached out to catch them, but managed to tear their clothes. He heard the tearing of fabric, but he reflexively grabbed their waist to prevent their fall. He looked down at the face of the person he just helped and almost had a fright when he saw it was Miss Song. He froze while he stared down at her confused face. He only moved when she started getting up, and when he looked up and saw her, Qingye noticed that her collarbones and upper c.h.e.s.t was exposed.

His blood rushes up to his face and he blushed. Qingye's heartbeats felt like he had ran a mile in distance and he could feel a part of his lower body arousing. Miss Song didn't have much of a reaction and only coughed lightly, while he turned away.

"Stop it Qingye!" he scolded himself, "She's only a girl. What are you thinking? She'll think you're a pervert!"

"May I borrow your cloak?"

Qingye wasn't really thinking and handed over the cloak immediately. He saw her smile as she turned and gracefully hurried away. Her smile was so beautiful, he was dumbstruck. Miss Laing was a girl, but she acted so much like a m.a.t.u.r.e woman, he was astounded.

He slapped himself a few times to come out of these thoughts and walked slowly back to his room, breathing rather oddly.

~~~~~

When I reached the Purple Lily Courtyard, I saw Roqing, Sui and Shie anxiously waiting for me and seeing them I felt so happy and ran towards them. They saw me arriving, they ran and checked to make sure I was okay.

"Cousin!" shouted Shie, excitedly, "How did it go?"

"Did he hurt you?" Sui said aggressively

"How was it Lai'er?" asked Roqing gently.

Seeing them care so much about me, it made me so happy that I gave them a big group hug, catching them off guard.

"There, there Lai'er" said Sui, awkwardly patting my shoulder, "Tell us what happened…"

I let out all the weight of my shoulders, bursting into tears and telling them how I had to play Go with the prince, and the poetry competition. I obviously told them how scary he was, and maybe I exaggerated it a little bit. I didn't however tell them about my meeting with Qingye as it could implicate things and they didn't notice the cloak, so why bother?

I also didn't tell them that he wanted to know why Roqing favoured me instead of him. That would probably just send her into an overdrive of anexiety.

We chatted for a long while, went inside and got ready for tomorrow, and I was about to go to bed when I heard a scream.

I whipped around to find Roqing's blanket on the ground and on her bed, what looked like long worms, wriggling around. Roqing looked horrified and was backing away from her bed. If I remember correctly, she had terrible fear of worms and snakes alike, however the novel never did end up saying why.

I snapped out of my thoughts and quickly covered the now crying Roqing and tell Shie and Sui to take her outside, while I face the other girls who are in the room. My expression must have been especially dangerous, because some of the more timid girls started shaking in fear.

'Who is responsible for this?' I say very slowly but clearly.

None of them move an inch, or tried to make a sound, but they just stared at me, wide eyed. They really want to play this game, huh? I look at all of them menacingly. You want to mess with my friends? I didn't want to have to resort to my villainous side, but what choice do I have? To have peace, you have to cut out trouble root, leaf and stem.

'I am going to ask one more time,' I say carefully, looking straight at Erong, 'Who is responsible?'

Still no answer. Fine.

'Chi Lou!'

"Yes milady!"

'Go to the Jade Courtyard and tell my brother to come here. Tell him to make it quick.'

"Yes milady!" she said, hurrying off.

I look at each of the girls in the eyes, "Those who are responsible for what happened here, are not getting away scot free, I promise that!"

Some of the girls had started crying, and with all this pressure, one of them finally broke. The girl who stepped out started bawling her eyes out and finally, with tears in her eyes, she pointed at Li Erong. I wasn't surprised, but I gave her a look of disdain as the girl explained what happened.

"Lady Li threatened to spread horrible rumours about us and our families within the noble circle of we didn't keep our mouth shut about this incident. She also threatened to use her power to get us kicked out from the palace!"

Just right then, my brother came running in, his expression quite worried.

"Lai'er what happened?"

I look at him calmly, then at Li Erong.

'Brother,' I say calmly, 'What was the punishment for bullying, in the palace again?'

Lady Li looks quite terrified now, and I feel bad, but she hurt my friend, and there is nothing more unforgivable than that.