"Young master Lan, Yuxian is sick and resting so he can't see anyone."
Yuwen had been pacing around the courtyard denying entry to a certain someone looking for his young mistress. It had been going on for several days and he was starting to feel bad constantly having to lie to someone with such high stature.
"Who is that Yuwen?"
"Its young master Lan again father, He's looking for Yuxian."
"He probably wants a rematch with me." Weiying said without looking up. He was reading a book and munching on sunflower seeds on the pavilion by the garden.
"I'm getting bored. Lets go and rematch with him."
"No you are not going anywhere young mistress. naima pulled his ears. You are already sixteen and young maidens at sixteen must stay home."
"But naima, he's been coming everyday don't you feel sorry for him? Just let me see him once then I won't anymore."
"Okay, just once my dear. After that there will be no more Yuxian. Otherwise I will be scolded by Madam."
The next day Weiying wore his male disguise and waited for Lanzhan in the courtyard alongside his loyal bodyguards Yubin and Yuwen. They were throwing darts onto the marked straw board that hung on the magnolia tree branch in the courtyard.
"Young mistress, remember you must tell him that you are going away back to grandmother's place in Zhao kingdom to treat your illness and you won't be back." Yubin said handing him a coat.
"Put on this coat so you look sick!"
"Seriously?"
"Yes if it didn't go well I will be scolded by father later!"
"Okay I understand Binge." Weiying replied.
As they had predicted, Lanzhan came again for the tenth time. He was one persistent dude.
"Yuxian, I want a rematch."
"I knew it he wants a rematch." Yubin whispered to Yuwen. They both were hiding behind the screen in the courtyard watching their young mistress talking to the handsome man who donned expensive white garment from head to toe.
"Lanzhan as you can see as much as I wanted to do a rematch with you, I can't *cough cough."
"Woww young mistress is such a good actress. I'm almost convinced she's terminally ill." Yuwen said.
Lanzhan paused for a long while looking at Weiying half convinced that he was really sick.
"In fact Lanzhan, this will be the last time I see you. I am going to my grandmother's place to cure my illness."
Lanzhan who usually wore a cold stoic expression showed a bit of remorse.
"You..you're going away? This is the last time?"
"Yes *cough cough"
"I always thought that we would enter the imperial academy together."
"Me too. Sorry Lanzhan"
"Who's that guy? Is he hitting on our young mistress?" Mingyu squeezed herself behind the screen beside the two boys.
"Shhhh..." they said in unison. "Not so loud."
"In that case, here, this is for you" Lanzhan handed him the bow and set of arrows hanging on his back.
"Huhh?!?" Weiying's eyes widened.
"You're giving me your precious bow set? Are you serious?"
Weiying could not believe his eyes. Lanzhan was so protective of his super fancy bow set. He remembered when another boy casually touched it and Lanzhan was so angry he pushed the boy down and they got into a huge fight.
"Farewell Yuxian. May we meet again" He bowed before walking away.
Weiying was holding the bow and arrow on his hands dumbfounded. He continued to watch the young man's back until he disappeared into the distance.
"Wow young mistress, you caught the eye of young master Lan. How lucky!!!" Mingyu said.
"It doesn't mean anything. He thinks young mistress is a man!" Yuwen said
"Oh my God look at this. Young master can I touch it?" Weiying casually dumped the heavy bow set on Yubin's arms.
Yuwen ran his fingers onto the white contours of the pristine bow. It was heavier than it looked but firm and solid to the touch. The string was thin and strong. It looked almost translucent to the naked eye. Yubin plucked the string a little with his index finger and it let out a soft 'ding' resembling an exquisite gujin string.
Both brothers were admiring the legendary bow.
"No wonder he was so pissed. You beat this amazing bow with my regular one." Yubin said.
"What's the deal with this bow anyway? It just looked slightly more fancy than normal ones."
"Young mistress.. Ahh young mistress you may not know but this legendary bow was the legendary bow that killed the ferocious beast that had been haunting mount Wulong. Rumor had it that it was carved out of whale bone smuggled by the turks to our territory. They claimed it came from a place a hundred thousand miles away. Its so rare there isn't another one made like it."
Weiying had never seen a whale before. He had only read about the strange large creature in one of the travel books his father acquired from his travels.
"There's more young mistress! The strings are made from the whiskers of legendary white tiger who once terrorized the ancient kingdom and killed a thousand villagers before he disappeared during the biggest flood by the yellow river."
"Dude, if that tiger disappeared how could someone manage to cut off his whiskers and strung it into a bow. Its bunch of nonsense!"
"Someone might've found the tiger's corpse and got the strings then."
If he really would gift me such a treasure he must be sick in the head. Or otherwise what you just said was all nonsense. Its just rumors and none of them are true.
But young mistress. They said that if its the real deal, it is unbreakable.
No bow is unbreakable Yubin. What a ridiculous story. If a bow breaks, just quickly make another one. It's the skills that made the archer. Not the other way around.
"Woww.. Spoken like a true warrior. You're so cool young mistress. It's a pity you're born a woman." Yuwen said.
Weiying rolled his eyes and facepalmed himself.
"Yes no wonder he ga ve the bow to you. He must be so angry that an ordinary bow could beat his godly weapon. He must have considered you the only person worthy of wielding it that he gave it to you.
"Thats too bad Lanzhan what a waste of a good bow. He was not supposed to see me again."
Weiying did not care much about a weapon being fancy expensive or made of the most basic material. He only cared about its functionality. An arrow is meant to shoot a target so it did not matter what the arrow was made of or where it came from if it could serve its intended purpose.
However, Yubin's words kept coming back to him. He was confused. Why would Lanzhan do something like that? He had always thought Lanzhan was a rival at military school. They competed at almost everything. Either him or Lanzhan would take first or second place. Be it horseriding, swordmanship, archery.