Bai Li set about building a small fire for them.
"Who's ready for their flatbread?" asked Tan Bowen, pulling out the bread he had purchased at the inn.
Everyone took a piece and settled onto their bedrolls, munching on the fresh bread and enjoying the beautiful view laid out before them. Meili took a long drink from her water bottle and gave Tricky a drink of his water and a meat stick to mumble on. Tan Bowen handed out little tumblers of wine, bypassing Meili.
"Not you," he said. "I'm too scarred from last time."
"Just one little celebratory cup Tan Bowen?" she wheedled. "I just had too much on my first time, that's all. I have to learn how to drink wine some time."
"Some other time," said Tan Bowen with a pained expression.
"What 'first time' was this?" asked the prince suspiciously.
"Nothing," said the other three at the same time.
The prince raised his eyebrows at them. "There's obviously a confession there," he said. "I'll have it from you before too long Tan Bowen."
"No. Never," he said, covering his face. "It's not an evening I like to relive."
"Has this man been corrupting you, Mei Meili?" the prince asked, jealousy starting to eat at him.
"Not at all," said Mei Meili. "It was entirely my own fault. Poor old Tan Bowen was very long suffering."
"It was all his fault," said Bai Li flatly.
"If he let you drink too much, it was his fault," the prince glared at the man.
"It was my fault. I admit it was my fault. I take full responsibility," cried Tan Bowen. "Bai Li has already beaten me up for it, there's nothing more to be done."
"Bai Li," she appealed to her court-appointed babysitter. "May I please have one small cup of wine to celebrate the lantern festival," she asked him sweetly, making a tiny gesture with her fingers. "I promise to sip it slowly," she tilted her head to one side coquettishly as she had learnt to do with her father when she wanted something from him.
Aaah, she was diabolical, he thought. He didn't think he'd ever be able to refuse her anything she wanted. "Give her one small measure Tan Bowen," he said grudgingly. "You're on probation young lady, do notoverdo it."
"Thank you, Bai Li!" she hugged him in delight, before realising he wasn't one of her brothers and that this was completely improper.
She jumped back, dropping her arms quickly. He looked at her with an intense glint in his eyes and the smallest of predatory smiles.
The temperature emanating from the prince dropped by about one hundred degrees. He glared at Bai Li like he planned to decapitate him on the spot.
Meili took her wine from Tan Bowen and nursed it while the night fell. The four of them chattering while they enjoyed the view and the mellow mood induced by the alcohol.
Tan Bowen got out his pipa and played a song, and Meili got up to dance. She was silhouetted against the fire and the lantern lights of the city still wearing her daisy crown. With the untamed edge of alcohol influencing her graceful movements, she freely interpreted his tune, merging it to her heightened mood, dancing for her own enjoyment without a care for her audience.
It was a beautiful scene that tightened the hearts of all three men, dragging them ever deeper into the intense feelings they all had for her.
Tan Bowen's heart was full to burst as he played the sweetest music on his pipa and watched his fairy queen interpret it. Bringing it to life exactly as he had imagined it, better, even.
The prince's cool face hid the myriad of emotions he had been battling since this girl burst into his life. A heat, intense desire, deep tenderness, and a magnetic pull that drove a hammering demand he was reacting to for her to be his at all costs. He laughed at his old self, who had thought he was immune to such well-worn pathways of the human condition.
Bai Li watched her with a combination of adoration and protectiveness. He wanted her to have the freedom she so clearly desired, but within the confines of his protection. He yearned for her to return his feelings, but he knew he couldn't force her before she was ready. He just hoped she didn't take too long to grow up and that he could protect her until then. She was still a little girl at heart. Her mind had some catching up to do with her woman's body.
Tan Bowen had finished his song. He pulled some flattened lanterns from his pack.
"Here we go," he handed each of them a small lantern to be lit and released to rise into the night sky.
They each used a charcoal stick to write rough characters on their lantern with their secret wishes for the New Year.
"Can I see your wish?" Meli asked the three men?
"No!" they all said at once.
"Oh," she said, slightly hurt. "Well, you can all see my wish."
"I wish the Year of the Dragon to be happy and healthy for my family and filled with more memorable experiences with my wonderful friends," she read.
Bai Li sighed. It looked like he had a way to go.
"Okay, I'm lighting them now," said Tan Bowen.
Each of them launched their lantern as the great sea of lanterns floated up from the city laid out below them.
Meili sat down on her bedroll and put her arm around Tricky as she watched the beautiful spectacle. Tricky whined and nudged Bai Li to sit with him and pet him, and he sat down on the other side of the dog, rubbing his head roughly.
"You little flirt," said Meili to Tricky.
"I've made a gift for each of you," she pulled out four little hand-sewn and embroidered velvet pouches. "To say thank you for being my first real friends and with my best wishes for the New Year. Your highness, yours is green with a dragon for your birth year," she handed him his pouch. "Bai Li, you have purple with your birth year tiger. And Tan Bowen, yours is yellow with your pig."
The prince snickered at Tan Bowen.
"I have a pink one with a rabbit for my birth year," she smoothed her pouch, tying it onto her wide sash belt.
"Thank you, Mei Meili," said Tan Bowen. It wasn't quite how he had imagined her first gift to him, seeing as all three of them had received one. And he did wish it wasn't a pig design, but he would still treasure it. He could see, even in the dark, that it was beautifully made.
"Yes, thank you, Mei Meili," said the prince with approval, admiring his intricate dragon design. This was more within his expectations of the things women did for men that they liked. He didn't like the fact Bai Li and Tan Bowen had also received pouches one little bit, but in the end, his was the best.
Bai Li tucked his pouch away carefully for looking at later. "Thank you Meili. Don't think that makes up for what you owe me, but I'll take a little off your ledger," he said inscrutably.
Meili climbed into her sleeping roll. "That was a perfect day," she sighed happily. "Goodnight dear friends," she snuggled down under her warm cover in perfect contentment.
Tricky settled himself between Meili and Bai Li, chuffing quietly to himself.
The prince and Tan Bowen both lay facing Meili, watching her in the dark, their thoughts drifting towards happy fantasies where this might be how they slept every night, and woke every morning.
Bai Li lay with his head propped up on one hand so he could watch over Meili. Tricky inched himself over closer to the man, snuggling up against him.
"You are a flirt aren't you, big fella?" he whispered into the dog's ear. "Tell your mistress to take a leaf out of your book, will you?"