Sun Mei panicked.
If it had just been her, by herself, it was still possible for her to cut through the bandits and hope for the best. However, with Bai Jingfei sitting there, her chances were cut down by half.
And half was a very lenient assumption.
It was probably less than one fourth.
If a bandit got hold of Bai Jingfei then she would have no choice but to surrender to make sure Bai Jingfei wasn't hurt. If threatened with Bai Jingfei's safety they would instantly lose the fight.
While Sun Mei didn't have any great fondness for Bai Jingfei, she did feel some sort of duty towards her safety. Plus as a general's daughter she had been taught to always value the safety of those weaker than her, and to always protect them.
In this case, Bai Jingfei, who was munching on grapes, was that weaker person.
And Bai Jingfei was pretty weak.
She had thin and delicate limbs, and Sun Mei felt confident she could snap them easily if she ever wanted to. She'd also grown up hearing about how weak and delicate the prime minister's daughter was.
Back when she was a small child, she had been told that she would soon have a friend because the Bai's were having a daughter. She had quite looked forward to it as a toddler and had even been present in the house when Bai Jingfei had been born.
She'd held the newly born Bai Jingfei and stared in awe at how tiny and adorable she was, and had vowed to become close friends with her.
Unfortunately Bai Jingfei's heart condition soon surfaced and the two of them never ended up becoming close. She had even heard her father sighing about how prime minister Bai's condition had deteriorated after his wife had died, and his daughter's condition had worsened.
Sun Mei took another glance at Bai Jingfei who was scrunching her face up in disgust. The grape she had eaten was sour and she stuck her tongue out like a child because of.
Sun Mei felt the urge to protect this tiny person in front of her and thus immediately sprung to action.
She popped the three grapes in her hand into her mouth and then got up and walked firmly over to Bai Jingfei. She then placed her arms under Bai Jingfei's upper arms and lifted her like a baby.
As the bandits got nearer and nearer she rushed and put the confused Bai Jingfei behind a tree.
"Don't move." she said firmly.
Bai Jingfei, with her mouth stuffed full of berries, took a look at Sun Mei in confusion. She had no clue of what had been going on and had been enjoying her picnic.
Minus the sour grapes of course.
She was lazing around on the grass, staring at the dandelions, while eating sweet berries. To put it in short, she was simply living the life.
"Whath happhen-" she said, trying to swallow her berries down.
Sun Mei put her index finger to her lip and shushed her, still treating her like a kid. To be fair Bai Jingfei was both short and tiny like a kid, and looked much like a thirteen year old child.
Sun Mei smiled, trying to cover up her rising panic as the dust clouds got nearer and nearer.
"Nothing. You stay here, I'll be back soon."
She turned around to return to the carpet but it was too late. The bandits were already there, and the muscular man leading them got off his horse and walked over to Sun Mei.
"What do we have here? A rich young miss? And a friend?" laughed the bandit boss.
Sun Mei glared at him. If he came any closer she was prepared to draw her sword, but luckily he didn't come any closer.
"What do you want?" she spit out, not breaking eye contact with the bandit and desperately hoped that she was intimidating him anywhere close to as much as how much he was intimidating her.
The bandit took his sword off his waistband and unsheathed it, twirling it around like a sixth grader with a pen in math class.
He then ran his finger along the edge of the sword as if trying to show Sun Mei exactly how sharp the knife was. "What do we want, hmmmm?"
He turned back to his underlings who had just begun getting off of their horses and then smiled.
It wasn't a pleasant smile. It was an ugly smile and one clearly meant to make the viewer uncomfortable and panic. And it was doing its job. Sun Mei was internally panicking.
Externally however, she maintained the guise of calmness.
Sun Mei did the only thing she could do at that point, now that Bai Jingfei was in plain sight.
She stretched her arms out, covering Bai Jingfei and acting as a human shield for her. Bai Jingfei was still blissfully unaware of what exactly was going on and kept chewing on her berries to finally swallow them.
Once she had swallowed the berries, Bai Jingfei finally decided to take a look at what was going on in front of her. So she lifted her head and stuck her body, from her chest up, outside of what Sun Mei was covering, to catch a glance.
Sun Mei hissed. "Stay behind me!" she whispered.
Bai Jingfei was never one to listen to orders and couldn't understand what could be serious enough to make Sun Mei, the general's daughter, nervous.
Bai Jingfei peeked from behind Sun Mei. She looked like a little squirrel taking a look at the world around her.
Sun Mei groaned. She suddenly felt as if she was babysitting. She was worried Bai Jingfei would cry or scream upon catching a glance at the fierce bandits.
But Bai Jingfei did nothing close to that.
Her face almost instantly lit up into a smile, as if seeing an old friend, or in Bai Jingfei's case, an old sack of money that had clearly not been exhausted.
"Zou Deming! How are you?!"