"D— Deep apologizes, Crown Prince Wu!" She stammered out, dipping her head low to show guilelessness, avoiding any kind of eye contact like she was a servant of a palace instead of a princess.
"I… This one is called Li Fantong, the ninth princess of Northern Li," She said hurriedly. A trembling voice and shaky breath as if she was afraid to cross him and be flogged.
Wu Jiangfeng raised an eyebrow at the name. He turned to fully face the small ninth princess. "Rice… Bucket?" A stifled laugh from Bai Lun reassured him that he hadn't heard wrong. That was indeed her name!
The ninth princess of Northern Li snapped her head up and burst into flames of embarrassment. With a wobble on the bottom lips, she said. "It— It's not…! That is not true! Fan stands for gem and Tong means red! Not— not… I'm no rice bucket…"
"Ah… my bad," The Southern Prince apologized.
"Crown Prince Wu!" Li Fantong suddenly grasped his hand this time, surprising Wu Jiangfeng. Her much smaller fingers clasped onto his larger ones. Her cold one against his warmed ones. "I— I am most sincere in my admiration for you!"
She exclaimed so unexpectedly. It made Wu Jiangfeng raise an eyebrow at it. Who was she to say that nonsense? Never had they met before this very day. Her cold fingers held onto his, making him feel uncomfortable. Fortunately, before he could shoved her off rudely, the eunuch pulled her away roughly, her nails scratched at Wu Jiangfeng's.
"Ninth Princess! How unruly!" Eunuch Zhang snapped at her, hands clutching onto the red-stained cloth. Apparently he was listening to all the conversation despite being busy rubbing his wound. "For the thousands of times, this is why no one likes you!"
Wu Jiangfeng and Bai Lun immediately cast a glance at that remark. It seemed… This princess here was the least favored one. The redhead prince scoffed inwardly. For some reason, he felt insulted. 'What is this?'
Did the Li Emperor look down on them? How much more shameless could he be?
The Southern Prince felt like he should be breaking off all agreements and cutting off all ties with this impudent country, a second chance should never be an option. Well, at least he now had a reason, a valid one at that to breach any agreement they previously had.
The Southern Wu had always been a proud country, a kingdom blessed for their vast and unconditional love for knowledge. Being looked down like this— It was truly unacceptable!
Gosh, Wu Jiangfeng felt like burning this whole place to nothing but ashes. But if he did that, Xiao Bai wouldn't have a place to stay. On the bright side, she would always be welcome to his palace if she wanted to. She could have her own pavilion as well.
She just needed to say it and he would hand everything over to her.
Was this how falling in love felt like? Just thinking about her lifted his mood. He really hoped she accepted the hairpin despite the brute way of obtaining it. Wu Jiangfeng himself couldn't imagine any other prince doing something like that. He didn't know what drove him to take those actions. When the shopkeeper blatantly told her that, something in him just snapped. He was livid.
Wu Jiangfeng pinched his own earlobe, recalling what happened the night before actually embarrassed him a little. He must have scared Xiao Bai yesterday. Was that why she wouldn't accept the hairpin? Wu Jiangfeng felt like turning into a stone and had someone hammer him until he crumbled into pieces.
'Ah, I miss her already,' Wu Jiangfeng pouted. But when he was reminded about today's meeting, he immediately cheered up.
Feeling giddy for their night date, the redhead prince didn't want to stay in this place any longer, especially hearing the loud and disturbing tone of the eunuch. Wu Jiangfeng gave them a deadpan expression, contemplating if he should announce his departure once again.
The Southern Prince studied the little girl's profile. The more he observed her, the more uneasy he felt. There was something odd with this young princess.
All the while, the eunuch was reprimanding the ninth princess with insults that were packed so elegantly with lectures, Wu Jiangfeng never witnessed a change in her expression. Exactly like the first time, she was unperturbed. She was too composed like she never took every spoken insult to her heart.
Unusual, because he was reminded by how expressive she was just a second ago.
That caused the redhead to closely observe her. If he noticed anything aside from that expressionless face, he could now see how her face twitched once in a while, the muscle at the corner of her lips. Her fingers were trembling, either in rage or fear, he wasn't certain.
The closer he looked, the more he realized she wasn't really acting nonchalant, there was this thing— an unreadable gaze in her eyes— the eyes she had were much more mature than someone her age, eyes that had seen the world of pain and suffering.
But without a doubt, among the different noises in this private room, Wu Jiangfeng for sure heard a slither and…
A hiss of a certain reptile.
Soft. The friction of scales and the surfaces of the wood. His sensitive ears picked up every little disturbance in the room. He clenched the dagger in his hand tightly as he listened, carefully tuning out the only elderly's awful sound. As if they knew they were being detected, Wu Jiangfeng heard nothing but silence in the next second.
He held his breath and his fingers had gone white from how tight he held onto the handle of the dagger. After a moment of silence he finally exhaled slowly, letting his tense posture go and putting the dagger away.
His indigo ones slid back towards the Northern Li pairs and Wu Jiangfeng shook his head before signaling Bai Lun to leave the room. He pulled his gaze away right before those yellow ones slid over to him.
Little did he know that those bright golden lit eyes watched every one of his movements.