At about sunset and thanks to achy muscles, he shifted himself and yawned loudly thinking he was alone. As he opened his eyes , his brain couldn't correctly determine his location until he took a scan of his environment.
He looked around twicw and then realized that he was still in the carriage .
He then raised his head but was soon hit with the vision of Yee with eyes closed. He seemed so peaceful and agile. So stressfree and composed . It was like he wasn't really sleeping but was just posing for a portrait .
Meiyang looked at him for a full eight seconds and even studied the raising and falling of his chest. Yee could be atleast ten or so years younger than his uncle who is eight years younger than his father but he looks significantly more maturer. To be honest , compared to Madame Yee, Yee is so such vibrant-looking and would even qualify to be labelled as her son and not her husband. Furthermore, those children can't possibly be his , especially NaiWen and BaiSu... come to think of it , no one has ever mentioned Enlai.
The way that the maids cared for him like he is a part of the family showed that he was a significant member. Plus when Yee said that there was a child in the backyard, Meiyang found it too much of a coincidence to have Enlai show up and be hiding. Moreover according to Meiyang, Enlai is subtly handsome and young thus might be the one that qualifies to be Yee's heir.
" Are you done looking?",
Meiyang panicked and he jumped off towards the door. He tried to open it but it was locked from outside.
Yee sat straight and begun to massage his shoulders, especially the place where Meiyang had been resting his head. He really did seem sore from all that. Trying to fall asleep on a carriage while a grown adult was deep in slumber onto of him is a heavy load on the body.
" I apologize for startling you.", Yee tried to make things less akward but Meiyang didn't respond and kept struggling to open the door .
Yee explained the mechanism to which, Meiyang was confused why someone would have the audacity to lock Yee inside a carriage.
He continued to struggle and even started to use his body to hit on the door . An akward claustrophobic air was kicking in and the space was getting more and more unbearably stuffy.
Just then, someone opened the door causing Meiyang fall off like a sack of sand . Yee bolted off to catch him but was to late as Meiyang landed full body onto Chiang .
Seeing them like that he giggled at the two and even went down to pick them up. He chuckled like he had just seen a badly-shaved cat.
Chiang cursed in a foreign language and Yee dusted Chiang while still laughing with a partial snort.
" I already had a broken waist and now I have no waist at all", Chiang complained to Meiyang and Meiyang didn't break staring Yee.
He didn't even know that Yee had a gummy smile nor his teeth were so small and glistening. He glows up like an innocent duckling or like a kid who liked loads of candy when they were young but had grown out of it.
At the same time that happened, Fang came and asked if they are doing alright and would like to have breakfast with Madame Yee.
Yee's face melted into a gloomy one and tensed up very firmly. In no time, he seemed like he had been reciting poems of freedom then remembered the chains tied to him like cob-webs . It's as if he was trying to taste joy and someone slapped the dish away . His seriousness apocalypsed and with it , a patronizing exterior. He strolled behind the worker and Chiang followed still holding his waist. He kept pressing it like he was really injured but Meiyang didn't pay attention to it at all. He focused mostly on how shifted Yee became. And it wasn't even like he was joking but was extremely saddened. He did the same thing Dejang does when everyone starts sidelining him for being ' different ' in a scary way.
***
They were standing outside the dining room on the corridor. The rest of the family was silently eating so much so that not a single utensil was making a sound. It was so disturbingly mute seasoned with zero tranquil, it's safe to believe that they were all trying not to propagate a single noise.
Yee was akwardly quiet and as he drank the porridge, he sipped so noilessly that he seems even louder in his sleep. Chiang kept looking back and forth between these adults while BaiSu was making butterfly eyes to him . It was so uncomfortable because he couldn't call her off . The maids were also repulsed by her but they would be insane if they dared to stop it.
Therefore no one dared to make a noise and since the doors were partially open , they could hear fractions of the conversation just by the doors.
"We have to go back to the palace . Everyone is safe here.", Meiyang told ErYuan and Shangli who nodded in agreement
" What about young miss?", Ms Jun inquired . She had been standing there holding a tray of porridge for the two disciples.
" She is fine . We checked on her last night and she is stabilizing ", ErYuan interrupted but Ms Jun knew he was just being rude because ErYuan was here the whole day
" Won't you eat first? ", The worker inquired
Meiyang bowed said his excuse of having to leave to go watch the mansion and bring a complete report. Like his father, he promised to come back as soon as he has some valuable input or rather to send someone back with the same objective. However he said that he would let Shangli stay behind
Once again no one remarked and he assumed they didn't want to argue. Liuhe said that the form he brought from the palace had shut Chiang up and chased away his esteemed lawyer. So maybe that's why they are a little bit tolerable to everything , or to say leats , acting like they are.
****"
Meiyang walked lifelessly and seemed like he was miles away from earth . He stepped without power in his steps and even the umbrella that he held was just seconds away from being swept by the air.
ErYuan tried to make small talk about little miss and her condition but all the time it was like he was introspecting himself. However since he enjoys the sound of his own voice, he doesn't mind blabbering endlessly.
After walking for thirty minutes and still fifteen miles from town , a carriage ran past them and stopped ahead. Meiyang continued on but so only ErYuan went to attend them . As the doors slid open , Yee avoiding eye-contact , asked Meiyang to get inside but Meiyang half-heartedly declined
" Please!", He begged expressionlessly. His tone was clearly cold like he had just been scolded
" I daren't not interrupt", he wasn't sure who he was helping by refusing
" I insist", Yee wasn't doing much to support his request as he still avoided looking at Meiyang
" I really shouldn't",
" There is no problem", Yee protested
" Aghh!!", Chiang run out of patience and stormed out then he pulled Meiyang's hand into the carriage.
He pushed him up the stairs and into the car and before Meiyang could protest, he slammed the doors and went to go and climb ahead . ErYuan was told to run along or climb the donkey which he opted the later.
(Back in the carriage)
" I don't want to ride with thy", Meiyang clenched his teeth but aimed daggers through his gaze to Yee
" Me neither." Yee stacked his legs