After a little stunned moment, Yan Yi recovered her sight back as the little servant girl arrived with another servant girl. They laid four dishes in front her and the porcelain tea pot placed on her right.
The food looks delicious and the aroma makes people drool in hunger, but Yan Yi is not a mortal and have long abandoned human cravings (besides teas, I guess). Aside from simply approving the dish with a nod and had the servants leave, her hands went directly to the tea pot and served herself a cup.
Nice fragrant, she thought. It has a calming and refreshing scent that makes people have good mood. She had expectations but not that high, even so, the tea's fragrance surpassed her expectations. Then what about the taste?
*sip*
"Hmm..."
Yan Yi searched for words to describe it. It wasn't good, though it isn't bad either... She tried to objectively judge it but her taste buds has long been spoiled by heavenly tea flavors.
Nn.. She wouldn't say it's bad. She wouldn't mind drinking it once in a while just for a change.
"It's okay..."
Not afar from her, the servant girl who lead her earlier noticed her expression. The girl thought she had problem with the tea since Yan Yi had been staring at the cup of tea in her hand. Her feet haven't took a step when she saw someone approaching her from behind. So she held her breath and went away to do work while her inner self goes: "What, what, what... what did I just see??? ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄﹁⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄"
Moments ago, it wasn't actually what the little servant girl thought.
It was like this.
Just right after Yan Yi finished her second sip, a man sat beside her swiftly from behind her and comfortably sat on the low chair on her right.
It was a man who have leaned with his right hand resting on his chin and his eyes intently watches her with interest.
Yan Yi looked at this man in silent surprise. He is a very beautiful man. He has an effeminate face that if he wasn't wearing loose purple robes showing off his wide and lean chest, he might as well be a woman.
His hazel eyes are staring into hers that you could imagine three lines showing up on Yan Yi's forehead.
"I don't remember inviting a strange man to my table. Especially a man who looks more beautiful than a woman. If possible, I would be very glad if this person can be considerate and immediately leave my sight." Silently irking inside, Yan Yi annoyingly blurt her words with an indifferent tone, but if she wasn't wearing a mask, one could see that her face shows her annoyance.
The beautiful man widened his eyes and soon recovered, his smile is even more blooming. Yan Yi could imagine rose and poppy flowers blooming as his background.
"Fiesty little lion girl."
Even his voice is very beautiful like how oriole birds sing their songs.
Actually, Yan Yi didn't mind this man himself, but because he is interrupting her session with her tea time. So she ignored him and continue drinking.
Seeing that she is not paying him any attention, Guan Xuan didn't mind and shamelessly served himself a tea from her pot and pour it into a cup who knows where it came from.
"This is the Heaven's Paradise tea. Thousand Lotus Pavilion's best tea. It's a tea that have been everyone's favorite and has the emperor's praise. So I am very curios as to why this is labeled as just an 'okay' to you, little lion girl."
Guan Xuan drank it with his unnecessary beautiful movements and looked as if he is drinking the most tasteful tea and not to mention— the most beautiful tea in the whole world.
Why is everything about this guy has to have the word 'beauty' in it? Yan Yi exasperatedly thought.
"..."
Guan Xuan continued : "The powder was refined as flawless as it can be and the fragrant is like the spring coming near. It have been made with sure perfection. So, it has to be the best right?"
Suddenly he stands up with his unnecessary beautiful actions. His hands waved around as ge explained his words with a serious and (he thinks) majestic aura. Behind him, you can see blinding lights and flowers popping out in air.
"Unfortunately, the world is vast! Ah, the best cannot always be the best! There will always be beyond that perfection! One might not know, but what if there existed yet another tea herbs and flowers that can surpass such level of perfection? Ah, pity go those shallow minds, perfection is still far beyond of us! *blah*blah*"
Yan Yi is already at her third cup and silently watch him explain his theory with explicit and self thought enlightenment in disinterest and disgust. Just where did this guy came from?
As if nothing happened, Guan Xuan turned his beautiful smiling face towards Yan Yi.
"... wouldn't you agree?"
All this while, Yan Yi never responded so until the end of his long blabber she still won't say a thing. This man is a stranger to her, specifically a weird and crazy stranger.
Guan Xuan knows that he was once again got overwhelmed by his own antics and can't help but to think that it has been a long time since he was like this.
He didn't mind that Yan Yi wasn't responsive and is treated as an air for her. He sat down beside her again still with a beautiful smile.
No longer, Yan Yi stand up and dusted her soft fabrics when she stood up. She faced him with yet another indifferent tone.
"Well then, if you excuse me. Good bye and I hope we will never see each other again."
With that, Yan Yi left her table to go down and left the area.
Guan Xuan stared at her lingering image in his head. Her sharp chin and petal like cherry lips were the only vivid things he could remember. He wasn't able to see her face as the red lion mask she wore still covered her when she was drinking her tea. She had lifted it up until under her nose, hence he only saw her lower half face.
Even with that small detail, Guan Xuan can tell that she is a very beautiful girl.
It's really interesting. Not her face nor her attitude, but her mystery to him.
Just earlier, when he was on his way to Thousand Lotus Pavilion, he heard a beautiful soft humming voice passing beside his slowly moving carriage. The tune sounded familiar that it compelled him to open the window curtains.
He followed the soft voice and his eyes fell onto a girl's petite figure who just paid for the red lion mask on her hands. Just as he was able to see her face when she turns his way, she quickly wore the mask preventing him to see her face.
His eyes were staring straight at her in curiosity because of the tune she hummed earlier. He got a gut feeling that it was definitely something he always hear but couldn't pinpoint it.
When he saw her turning a corner opposite his direction, he regrettably took away his sight from her and along the whole short journey he silently pondered his earlier thoughts.
Guan Xuan snappily smacked his hand on his leg when he remembered it.
"Ah! Wasn't that what First Brother always sing when he's alone?"
He quickly finished his matters in the Thousand Lotus Pavilion and he was descending the stairs to leave when he saw a petite girl sitting on the second floor enjoying her tea.
Guan Xuan wanted to approach him but with his good ears, he caught her talking out loud and got more curious about this girl.
He is Thousand Lotus Pavilion's owner and when he heard her say that, something just clicked inside him and he lost his self in his fantasies.
The more he interact(?) with her, it only made him more curious. And finally when she said her leaving words he was stunned for a moment as he watch her back leaving.
"That girl... Her words are really like First Brother. (Ō ԑ Ō ૢ) "
Guan Xuan reveled in this kind of new experience and embedded it into his mind that the next time he'll meet the girl, he should control his self more just because her actions reflects his scary First Brother.