Yin Zhu did not expect someone to knock into her, she was slightly surprised when someone bumped into her and couldn't stabilise her footing. In the end, she stumbled ever so slightly and fell on her fours causing her veiled hat to drop on the street.
" Ouch! What in the world?" She muttered as she pushed herself back on her feet and crouched down to pick up the hat that was lying limp on the cobblestone path. " Who in the world could be this rude?"
She looked at her palms that were scratched because of her fall and from the throbbing pain in her knees, she was quite certain that even her knees were scratched up pretty badly. A furious rage ignited in her heart as she looked left and right before her gaze fell on the figure in a grey overcoat, it was a man. Taller than her father and from the clothes that he was wearing he seemed quite rich as well but so what?
How can he bump into her and then leave without so much as an apology? Who did he think he was? The young master of the Situ family?
Yin Zhu didn't place her hat on her head instead she decided to give the man who knocked into her a piece of her mind. " Excuse me? You there! Hey Sir!"
With her hat clutched in her arms, she rushed after the man who was walking away without a care in the world.
"How can this man be this rude?" She muttered quietly under her breath, not only did he knock into her but he wasn't even responding! She has been calling him for so long but he was pretending as if he couldn't hear her!
" Hey there sir, I am talking to you! Can you not hear me?" She shouted as loudly as she could making the entire street look at her but then the man turned his head at the people staring at them and then everyone went back to their own things quietly.
" You were talking to me?" The man said in an amused voice as he turned around with a swift and elegant turn of his feet. He was a handsome man, with hair as black as the midnight sky, a few locks of his hair carelessly tousled in a way that they fell over his forehead and eyes that were a predatorial shade of amber gold. Underneath the grey overcoat he was wearing a white shirt, neatly pressed and tucked in without a crease in sight, a black cravat with an egg-sized ruby with silver roses and leaves craved around it was sitting in the centre, the cravat looped around his neck.
All in all, he looked unreal.
Even Yin Zhu who thought that she has seen enough good-looking men felt herself getting dumbstruck by his face but that was for only a second. The pain in her palm and knees seemed to wake her up rather quickly and then she was glaring at the man with fire blazing in her eyes.
So what if this man was handsome? He did not even have as many manners as the little boy in her neighbourhood!
"Yes, I was," said Yin Zhu as she courageously looked into the eyes of the man and brushed her silver locks away from her face. " Just now did you come out of that alley?" She pointed at the mouth of the alley where she was standing just now, the man's gaze followed the direction in which her finger was pointing and he nodded his head. " That's right, I indeed came from there, so what's the matter?"
What's the matter?
This word both affronted and annoyed Yin Zhu, she hugged the hat in her arms tightly and said, " When you came out of the alley did you not knock into someone?"
The man raised his brows at her question, he pursed his lips as if he was pondering over her question, he stayed silent for a while before he nodded and said, " I did feel like I bumped into a little pebble when I stepped out of the alley."
" Pebble?" echoed Yin Zhu as she stared at the man in shock and mild indignation. " You knocked into me, sir! Do you have any idea because of you, I fell on the street and scratched myself, and now I am hurt because of the fall!" She showed him her palms that were scratched and angrily said, "It's all your fault, you didn't stop me falling but that is quite all right. The least you could have done was to apologise to me!"
" Apologise?" The man chuckled as if she has told him some interesting joke. " Little firecracker, it's not my fault that I knocked into you. You were standing there at the mouth of the alley with that midget size of yours, how was I supposed to know that you were there?"
" Are you calling me short?" snapped Yin Zhu as she drew herself to her full height but even then she only reached up to the man's chest. Angry with herself and the man, Yin Zhu clenched her fingers and said, " I am tall enough for anyone to see, don't pretend that you couldn't see me, Sir."
" I am not pretending," answered the man with a soft chuckle as he took a step closer to her. " I do not have the habit of lowering my head, I only look at people who are deserving to look at or who are tall enough to look me in eye, as for you…" he dropped his gaze ever so slightly to take in her features from her old dress to the patched hat. " You do not seem worthy enough to make me lower my head for you."
Yin Zhu's face flushed red in anger, this was the first time she has ever been looked down upon by someone. The men in the slums were respectful and cordial, they were miles better than this man!
" You are really an ill-mannered man," she said with her face burning with humiliation and shame. " I should have known better than to expect an apology from a man like you."
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