Trap in a Book

Chapter 13

Xiaomei watches them leave as she frowns. She sighs before thinking in her head, such a shame. She was disappointed to find that Han ChuHua is an annoying bratty person as she liked her character in the story because ChuHua was the person who stood up for the main girl and was the main girl's best friend. As Xiaomei always rooted for ChuHua's flashy comeback. Xiaomei shook her head and went back to cleaning.

The man chuckled, "She does have a smart mouth." ZhangWei put up his arms above his head and leaned against it and continued to watch her.

As BoJing and ChuHua left, both LiJie and Baozhai saw where they were leaving from, and LiJie headed there, and Baozhai quietly followed. Xiaomei had a soaked cloth in her hand, and she was wiping away the mud off the door. She then heard footsteps as she turned her head to see a shiny handsome man with a proud and ignorant look with a beautiful pure innocent-looking woman beside him. They had a shiny bright aura around them as she knew it was them. She took a deep breath and walked toward them. She braced herself and was ready to act into character, "What are you doing here! Trying to see how horrible I look! SO, you can look down on me! Ha, yeah right! Just wait! I will get you!" She yells and lunges toward Baozhai, and right on time LiJie stops her and pushes her to the ground. "Daiyu! How dare you!" he shouted. She landed on her wounded arm as she endured the pain and stared at them with fury. "How dare I! Why are you here then!'' she rebuked.

"We came here to see the commotion and see how pitiful you are, but it looks like you are not pitiful but disgusting," he said.

"Yes, I am disgusting! So, you better get out, or this disgustingness rubs off on you!" she said hysterically.

"You-" he said at a loss of words.

"What nothing to say?" she taunted him. He then tried to find something to blame her as he noticed the spilled rice.

"How dare you steal food! You are not allowed to have any food tonight!" he blurted out.

"Steal?" she laughed. "It was given to me. Why don't you ask your friend, General BoJing," she said. She then chuckled again and spoke before he could, "No food. Look at me, do I look like I eat? My maid and I haven't got any food for almost a month now," she said, sharply. Both LiJie and Baozhai look shocked and confused as they felt this sort of pity for her. LiJie's eyes saw her thin body and pale face, but he had never noticed her sharp clear eye before. She has this strong look even though she looks so frail.

"What! Do you feel pity for me? I don't need your pity." she mocked.

LiJie remains silent before storming off. Baozhai never saw him this way and followed him.

Xiaomei exhaled deeply as she felt so exhausted getting into character while she grabbed her arm. "Miss, are you okay? I heard voices and you shouting," LiMei came out, extremely worried.

"Oh, it's nothing big," she said, weakly. "Let's continue," she said. As the man in the tree had long gone when he saw Baozhai, he quickly sat up and quickly followed her when she left.

Baozhai was trying her best to keep up with LiJie as he was speed walking toward the kitchen. She didn't understand what he was doing and had this unsettling feeling in her heart. Once they reached the kitchen, LiJie said, "Why haven't you sent food to Daiyu? I heard you haven't been sending her any food for a month now!"

The maids trembled in fear, and the court lady spoke, "I I- thought I sent some maid to send it, but I guess.... I do apologize. Please forgive us, your majesty. I will not forget."

"You better! If the emperor hears about this, you will be in serious trouble!" he shouted before leaving. Baozhai did understand why he did that because if the emperor had heard that they hadn't fed Daiyu, he would kill them as he cared for Daiyu and favored her, but Baozhai felt jealous.

Baozhai walked away, upset, and bumped into BoJing and ChuHua as ChuHua was trying to reconcile with BoJing. "Baozhai?" ChuHua said, seeing Baozhai upset. "What's wrong?" ChuHua asked, but Baozhai didn't say anything.

BoJing was about to ask her if she was okay as he was worried, but LiJie appeared and said, "BoJing, did you give Daiyu a bag of rice?"

He answered, "yes."

"Why?" LiJie said.

"Because" BoJing simply said. At that moment, Baozhai felt jealous again.

Xiaomei and LiMei were finishing up until LiMei told Xiaomei to rest as she will finish up and make lunch for them. Xiaomei reluctantly agreed as LiMei was very persistent, so Xiaomei went to water her plants before resting. After watering the plants, Xiaomei felt so drained out and exhausted as she sat on the ground and leaned against a tree. Her eyes felt droopy as she fell asleep. The wind lightly blew against her skin and hair as her hair swayed back and forth. A tall figure reappears again to spot her sleeping against the tree as he has returned because he was unsuccessful to talk to Baozhai as she was occupied. He watches her sleep as he sees her slowly and quietly breathing in and out with her eyelashes resting. She seems peaceful. Soon a voice came closer and called out, "Miss?" LiMei was looking for her. "Miss?" she cried again. Xiaomei woke up from her nap and rubbed her eyes. "Here," she called out before slowly getting up. "Miss, why are you resting here? Why didn't you rest inside?" LiMei asked.

"I just felt drowsy," she replied as they headed back. "Miss, do you want to pick up the rice?" LiMei asked.

"No, leave it. Let the birds have it," she said.

"But we are almost done with the rice," LiMei said with concern in her voice.

"It's okay. We can make glutinous rice balls," she assured LiMie. The man listens and watches them leave before disappearing.

However, that night food had arrived at their door as they ate leftovers from the maids who brought it to them, which was a surprise to them and did not taste good.