Despite Yanghua's best efforts she couldn't find the stupid snake. She scrambled to overturn her meager room to find the slippery thing, but it was futile. It ran away, or crawled into a corner and died, Yanghua thought dejectedly. Tangtang knocked on Yanghua's door before coming into her mistress's room. Yanghua flinched when she finally noticed Tangtang standing there after trying to catch her breath.
"Young miss, here is dinner. I tried my best to make do with what we have but I apologize in advance for it's humble appearance," Tangtang's voice quivered as she placed a tray of food on Yanghua's table. A small bowl of rice, a little dish of boiled lotus roots, and a dish of stir fried chives were placed next to each other neatly on the tray. Yanghua's heart panged as she saw Tangtang's trembling hands clasped in front of her. Yanghua quickly pulled Tangtang into a hug, and told her "It's fine, I know my circumstances may not be ideal but thank you for making the most out of what we have." Instead of the usual anger Yanghua felt whenever she was treated unfairly, all she felt now was overwhelmingly of resentment. Her deadbeat father was a famous army general, it was so ridiculous that he could not even feed his own daughter with a decent meal. If I'm living like this, what kinds of lives do the servants that staff this cottage live, Yanghua thought alarmed. "Tangtang, what are you and the guard going to eat tonight?" Yanghua asked. Tangtang refused to meet Yanghua's gaze and said after a long pause "Just rice, but it's ok young miss! We are both glad that you were able to wake up after so many years," Tangtang said brightly.
"What. Tangtang, trust me, once we leave this wretched place, and when I become the emperor's concubine, I will take you to the best restaurants in the capital, and dress you in the most expensive silks!" Yanghua said with rare vigor while gazing at her servant. Tangtang cracked a small smile, and left Yanghua to eat her dinner. Yanghua felt a small zap on her chest. Sigh, I guess that was too ambitious of a statement for this character, Yanghua thought rubbing a spot on her chest. And I thought I was doing well...I wasn't zapped all day by this paranoid system, Yanghua thought digging into her dinner.
Now that she was on the topic, Yanghua now had the task to try and make it to the capital alone. Perhaps she could rent or buy a carriage…but with what money? Yanghua furrowed her brow as she eat her dinner running through possible scenarios on how to get to the capital in time to present her self to the emperor. Yanghua wrinkled her nose in disgust as she thought about her despicable father and how he would let his defenseless sickly daughter…wait. That was it! Yanghua thought to herself in a epiphany. Yanghua chuckled quietly to herself as she finished up her dinner. Unbeknownst to Yanghua, two beady eyes watched her from above. Quite literally, from the ceiling. It sighed at this strange girl, and curled up to sleep biding it's time while the wounds on it's body healed.
The next morning Yanghua requested an audience with her father. Thankfully, he was still in the manor and Tangtang rushed to make Yanghua presentable again to see her father. They passed many courtyards with little ponds filled with lotus flowers. However, right before Yanghua reached General Zhang's residence, a little brown stick caught her eye. Hold on, that's not a brown stick, that's that brown piece of shit snake that ran away, Yanghua thought fuming. She momentarily forgot about her plan to see the General and chased after the snake. Yanghua ran around a corner and was met with a dead end. "Damn where did that snake go?" Yanghua panted out loud as she crouched down to see if she could find that troublesome reptile. She wasn't sure why she was so hell bent on finding the snake, as her side quest for NALA already ended, but she had a nagging feeling that if she lost that snake she would be seriously in trouble.
"Excuse me, but it seems like your servant is frantically looking for you," a flat voice said behind Yanghua. Yanghua whipped around to see a girl towering over her. She stumbled back, almost falling on her back, but the mysterious girl grabbed her arm before Yanghua could meet the ground. The girl pulled Yanghua up to her feet and Yanghua could finally have a good look at her face. Yanghua stared at the girl's face, she had "Ah thank you," Yanghua said sheepishly. Yellow eyes met Yanghua's eyes and the girl sported uncharacteristically black, almost navy hair tied into a simple top knot. Except, perhaps Yanghua mis-gendered the person as the person in front of her sported a male servant's uniform, much like the one her guard that guarded her little cottage wore.
Shaking off her confusion, Yanghua smiled at the unfamiliar face and and walked past the servant to reunite with Tangtang. "Wait, what is your name…miss?" the servant asked. "Huh, oh! It's Yanghua, Zhang Yanghua." Yanghua said quickly. She left the servant standing there, missing the quick smirk that flashed across the servant's face.