In the Pei household's study, all candles were lit, casting the shadow of two statuous men onto the pieces of documents in front of them.
"Father," finally one spoke.
"I will…"
A pause.
A sigh of tire was let loose from the elder's chest.
"The city of Shui." He dropped those words and looked at his son, Pei Xiu.
"Depart tomorrow," Pei Xiu nodded.
Minister Pei took a piece of the parchment that lay on the table deftly between his forefinger and thumb. He let the corner catch the candle fire and watched as the ring of burnt blackness spread until he could not hold on anymore. The paper dropped to the melted waxiness of the candle, and as Pei Xiu left, Minister Pei extinguished all light inside the room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The sun seemed to arrive too early.
Pei Yi grumbled with an attitude which was completely unseen before when her maid A Lian came in and woke her up.
She opened her eyes and the slightly worried face of A Lian was over her.
"Miss? Are you not feeling well?"
"A Lian…?" Pei Yi mumbled, "what's the time?"
Confuzzled, A Lian walked to the windows and opened them, and then came back to pull aside the bed veils.
"Ugh…"Pei Yi instinctively lifted a hand to her eyes. A moment later she suddenly sat up straight.
"Miss…?"
Pei Yi shot her a small smile, "Good morning. A Lian, please help me get dressed. As fast as we can, please."
Still very confused, A Lian carried her orders out. While getting her hair done, for every five seconds Pei Yi would look out of the window. Faster, quicker...tsch, no time. She stopped A Lian's hand reaching for the hairpins and numerous other modest but expensive accessories.
"It's fine I'll do it myself. Just do the rest."
A Lian got out the foundation powders and primers and started rubbing on her face.
"mh…" Pei Yi gave up on trying to look at the mirror and instead just tied a high ponytail by hand.
"Miss!" A Lian looked up, shocked. What has gotten into Lady Yi today? She seems so hustled and so...different.
Pei Yi saw the numerous palettes that A Lian had got out for her, almost all of them filled with about 600 different shades of rouge. She pursed her lip in a little and let go just as soon.
"A Lian," the maid sighed and moved her gaze from Pei Yi's immaculate pores. "Yes, lady?"
"Just, just leave it to me. I'll be fine."
"But lady-"
Pei Yi sighed and put down the brush and bud that she held in her hand, "I can do it. Why don't you get me some breakfast?"
A Lian pursed her lips tightly. Just as when she couldn't hold Pei Yi's gaze anymore, servants came in with boxes of food.
"The food's already here, now, if your ladyship will kindly allow me to do my job-"
Pei Yi closed her eyes and took a deep breath in.
The next second she turned to A Lian and broke into a puppy dog expression: "But A Lian, please? I weally weally want to do it myself, please?"
A Lian was in a state of shock: "I-what-I, I, lady-"
Pei Yi took this instant and finished fixing a light layer of foundation, gave up deciding on which makeup to go for, in the end, she just stuck with what she had. She rinsed off all the makeup A Lian so painstakingly fixed and just simply dabbed some lip balm.
And she quickly packed away some things, A Lian still stood there with a blanked out expression. Only as she was walking out the door A Lian 'woke up'.
In the end, as a result of A Lian's persistence, Pei Yi wore a silver Fa Guan* with a simple jade Zan zi pulled through.**
As soon as she got out the door, she ran to the backyard, where a horse carriage rests there, waiting to be used.
She tied her bundled over her shoulder and across her front and lightly opened the back trunk. It was already loaded with some clothes. Great.
Subtly she climbed in. The size of the basket was perfect for a child to lie in, and was no problem for her as long as she curled up.
The wait seemed so long and she stared at the light that came in through the space between the weaving of the willow-like patterns. The aftereffects of last night's craze and drinking seemed to finally kick in as she slowly dozed to sleep.
Some time in her floating dream the carriage set off on it's bumpy excursion, Pei Yi's conscience acknowledged it, however was feeling too sleepy to wake up.
So tired that she, even in a situation such as hiding in the back trunk of her older brother's, she 'oomph'ed when the wheels hit some larger rocks and the trunk jiggled too much.
Which, in turn, probably wasn't the best of coverage when you are being a stowaway.
Even when the carriage stopped, she was still unconscious of her current situation. Only when the top of the trunk was lifted and bright daylight filled in, did she rub her eyes and sit up. Halting mid-movement in remembrance of where she was and why she was here.
Stiff, she slowly turned her head to the opening of the trunk, where her eldest brother Pei Xiu stood with his arms crossed, looking unimpressed.
Pei Yi regained herself the best she could as she sat up straight and turned to Pei Xiu, with a bob of her head she said, "hi, brother Xiu. Nice to see you, the weather's very nice today…"
Maybe she hadn't regained herself so well. Normally she wouldn't even have said more than a sentence. However her thoughts were cut off by his voice.
"The weather is indeed very nice today," Pei Xiu mused, "so is that the reason you decided to hide on my carriage?"