"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"You are useless as always!"
Bai Shuyin watched Ah Ning being pushed around as mean words poured out of the others. The white-haired could actually predict this kind of situation going on. Ah Ning was only a year or two older than her, her determination to be accepted among the sisters was enormous. She probably just wanted friends and would go to great lengths for it.
Her head was down, long straight black hair swayed as the older ones mocked her pathetic self. Bai Shuyin inwardly sighed, she could only look at Ah Ning with pity, she brought all of these onto herself. She wanted attention and there she had it.
The taunts were worse the more they got on. The food that tasted bland now became rubbery. Did they really have to do this early in the morning? Way to ruin a mood. She thought Wang Heiyue might agree with her, however, when she turned to look at him, he was munching on the food nonchalantly, completely ignorant of the surroundings.
In the end, her bloody soft heart couldn't take it any longer, she dropped her chopsticks on the bowl, they clattered loudly. Acting like an innocent fool, she barreled into the scene with little regard. "Greetings senior sisters!" She chirped cheerfully, bowing at them with respect. "What are the senior sisters talking about so excitedly?"
"Hey, brat." Yue Yi, One of the sisters greeted her. Privilege of being the youngest among them, despite always being the office girl and ordered around, they were actually kind of softie towards her.
Probably because they had never seen someone so young coming to this place before. They even babied Wang Heiyue, gushing about how cute he was despite being taciturn little ass the whole time.
"Don't you know?" Jia Jia, another one of the sisters asked.
"How could you be so clueless?" The other girls' frustrations clambered all over. Feeling unbelievable that she didn't know about such a huge event.
"Hey, she's still a kid, alright?" Yue Yi hissed pointedly as she reached over to pinch the tip of Jia Jia's ear.
"Ow! Please be merciful, sister Yi! Jia'er is sorry, Jia'er didn't know she could be that stupid, okay?"
Bai Shuyin's vein popped at that but she remained composed and only batted her eyelashes at them.
Despite her elegant look, Yue Yi was a very intimidating-looking woman. It probably came with the job, being the oldest and the head of the maids, she needed those to control these little mice.
Yue Yi bent on her knees so she could be on eye level with Bai Shuyin. She pinched her cheeks and chuckled. "The prince of Southern Wu and our ninth princess are having a date! Aren't you excited?"
'Yeah, totally,' Bai Shuyin deadpanned inside. Why should she be excited though?
"I heard the prince has the looks of divinity!" One gushed out.
"The eyes of phoenixes—"
"Nose as high as mountain—"
"Jawlines that can cut!"
"So handsomeeeee!"
"The ninth princess is like a goddess as well!"
"Can you imagine the features of the child?"
Bai Shuyin sweatdropped. She now understood their excitement. The sight of them squealing in excitement reminded her of her high school years, of how teenage girls fangirled and shipped their idols together, even went as far as imagining them having kids. They would cry when their ships drown— they didn't even manage to sail!
Though from what Bai Shuyin discerned, these girls knew nothing of the prince. The information of the prince's looks were passed on from mouth to mouth. They were merely describing the standard of beauty they knew and the rest were up to their imagination. They did not even know the hair and eye color of Wu Jiangfeng!
The young girl felt somewhat bad for them, however, at the same time, she didn't want any of them to know either. Without thinking too much, she blurted out. "You mean the handsome man this morning?"
Like vultures, they all turned towards her. Bai Shuyin remained unfazed, she even brought a finger to her lips to resemble the thinking pose. "I saw a very, very," The snowy haired girl exaggerated by waving her arms wildly, "Very good-looking man when I took the laundry out!"
There was a cough at the other end of the kitchen, followed by the soft thumps of fist hitting chest, but Bai Shuyin skillfully ignored that.
"Right, Sister Ning?" Bai Shuyin turned towards Ah Ning, purposefully dragging her in the conversation.
"Huh?" Ah Ning spoke, confusion in her eyes. "What—?"
"Didn't we see it together?" Bai Shuyin looped her arm around the other's, inwardly hoping she would get the hint. 'Hey, I'm saving your reputation here!'
"Uh… yeah!"
"What does he look like?" Tian Yu asked.
"If he is handsome, he is definitely the prince!" Jia Jia declared from the side. Much to Bai Shuyin's surprise, the others seemed to agree with her statement.
"I think he has this very long chocolatey hair…" Bai Shuyin managed to get out when the others kept on bugging her. "He's a real beauty, isn't he, Sister Ning?"
"R—right!" Ah Ning hurriedly approved.
"What else? what else?" The sisters looked like starved hyenas, ready to absorb any information she spew. Bai Shuyin shook her head with a sigh, making a face full of disappointment. "I'm so sorry, senior sisters, I promised Madam He not to say a word."
The responses were immediate, they all whined childishly until Yue Yi calmed them down with a simple 'enough!' She patted Bai Shuyin on the head and chided the others, "Come on, don't make Yin'er feel bad. She's just a kid and was just following Madam He's order."
Then she turned towards Ah Ning, "You should have said so from the beginning, then we wouldn't pressure you. All of you, apologize now!"
One by one, the sisters mumbled out soft apologies, which Ah Ning accepted jovially. She must have thought her chance to be accepted in the gang was no longer hopeless.
"Ah Yin, Ah Yin!" Sister Mei poked at her. "Spill some more, we promise we won't tell anybody!"
"Yeah! Pretty pleaseee?"
When they all kept on begging her, some even offered their precious ornaments. In the end, with hands full of stuff she could sell, Bai Shuyin finally gave in. There was nothing wrong in describing a fictional man. It's not like he would come to life. She did all of this just because of how pathetic she thought Ah Ning was. She picked the color she thought matched the most with brown hair. "Oh! He also has greeny eyes!"
Under the loud squealing of fangirls, the sound of wooden chairs clattering to the ground went unnoticed by Bai Shuyin.