MDZS: Still Lament Prologue

Chapter 4: Meeting tHeIM, the mischievous Lotuses of Yunmeng Jiang Part 5

            "...Ta zou le (He left)," Zixuan irritatingly said and slipped away from his mother's grasp.

            "Xuan er, how many times do I have to remind you of your manners while we are here in Yunmeng?  Also, how can you be giving them bad impressions when we are about to leave?" Baoqi disappointedly asked.

            "Who told him to keep visiting Qin er last night?" Zixuan openly inquired.

            "Does it matter to you?" Baoqi questioned. "Why should it matter huh?  You have a fiancé, you have a whole future ahead of you, so why should it matter that other boys approach Qin er?  She deserves to be approached by anyone.  Why should it matter?"  She continued to scold.  

            Zixuan became silent at his mother's question because he knew it mattered.

            ...It just mattered.

            "...It does matter to me," Zixuan quietly admitted as he looked down.

            The mother's face showed a bit of remorse for putting his son on the spot and she sighed.  Baoqi slowly reached out and placed her hand on Zixuan's head to caress it.  Instantly, the young boy softly slapped his mother's hand away and walked towards the direction Jiang Cheng ran off to.

            From the distance, the sunrise was already starting to spread its pigmented colors into the sky and as it did so, the rays began to softly show through the clouds.  Jiang Cheng had caught up to his elder sister in the main hall...but Little Zhuqin was no where to be seen.

            "A Jie, A Ling na (Sister, where is A Ling)?" He asked.

            "Oh, A Cheng," Yanli walked over to her younger brother.

            "Where is A Ling?"

            "Not too long ago, father came and took A Ling with him.  I was told they would be at the training field.  Did you need something?" Yanli questioned.

            "The bells that A Ling wanted are done." Jiang Cheng informed.

He showed his elder sister the newly engraved ornaments that were inside a small lacquer box designed with the nine petaled lotus flower.  However, different from the usual silver color, the two bells that Jiang Cheng had was dark orchid purple with a small tint of silver.

            "A Cheng, wo men Jiang jia de ling se shi yinse (A Cheng, our Jiang family's bell color is silver).  Na ge yanse tianse butong a (Those colors seems to be different).  Tamen shi shuangse; wuzi he nenyinse (They have two colors; dark purple and light silver)." Yanli stated, almost wanting to touch the ornaments herself.

            "That's right.  I requested the color to be different because I wanted the bells to match A Ling's name." Jiang Cheng responded, feeling proud about his decision to melt a different color, other than solid silver.

            "Sha gua (Silly)," The elder sister smiled and lightly pressed her younger brother's forehead with one finger.

            "Zenmeyang (What do you think)?  Will she like them?" asked Jiang Cheng.

            "Of course she will," Yanli responded with a reassuring smile.

            With that being said, Jiang Cheng was going to go to the training field but quickly stopped in his tracks.  He had considered Zixuan's odd behavior from earlier and remembered him mentioning something about Yanli.

            "A Jie," Jiang Cheng started and turned back to face his sister.

            "Hm?"