Chapter 43: The Night Meeting
43 The Night Meeting
"Can you play music?" Ming Hui asked the two girls.
Jun Hua stared at Ming Hui in bewilderment before shaking her head. On the side, Fan Lanying nodded her head hesitantly. She could play a few songs but not that really good.
"Then can you play me some music?" Ming Hui asked further.
"If you don't mind my poor performance then, I can," Fan Lanying nodded.
"Please." Ming Hui encouraged her.
The servants of the princess moved swiftly and they soon prepared everything that Fan Lanying needed. The girl plucked a few strings before starting to play a song. The way Fan Lanying played was decent but could not be considered as really good.
As they were sitting, Jun Hua maintained a distance from Ming Hui. The princess smiled at her when the song was over.
"Have you heard about me from your brother? Don't worry, I won't do anything to harm you."
Jun Hua blanked for a few moments. The other party knew that she knows about it! Jun Hua suddenly felt that this imperial family member was truly not simple. She hadn't shown explicitly that she noticed it but the princess had already known that she knew about the secret. Luckily though, she still thought that she heard it from her brother…
As Jun Hua's brain short-circuited, Fan Lanying returned to her place. She looked at Ming Hui nervously.
"How was it princess?"
"Hmm, not bad," Ming Hui stared at Fan Lanying and found her to be really interesting. After a careful consideration, she smiled again.
"Do you want to be my study partner?"
"Sorry?" Fan Lanying thought that she misheard. At the age of 15 close to 16, normally the royal princes and princess were already starting to help manage some state affairs. Why did this girl want to have a study partner?
"I will be undergoing training in music before I turned 16 and I want someone to accompany me. Since partnering with someone who is too skilled will make me apprehensive, I thought that learning with you will be better."
Hearing these words from the princess out loud had made Fan Lanying to be over the moon. She never expected that the princess will choose her so suddenly.
"But if you want someone untalented, isn't Jun Hua…"
Fan Lanying definitely could not continue to say that Jun Hua was worse than her. Jun Hua already did very badly at the lesson in school and she certainly didn't want the girl to further pull down her self-esteem. Seeing that they were already bad enough, it was better to just categorize their skills as worse.
"I want someone who already has some foundation," Ming Hui glossed the matter easily without pointing out the main problem directly.
Jun Hua wanted to applaud Ming Hui for her excellent choice of words. If only Yan learned from her, he won't get beaten up so often by his best friend and new friend. Maybe Yan would also get beaten up by girls. If it's true, he definitely would not talk about it to anyone. It would even be a disgrace for him as a man to get beaten up by a girl. She didn't really want to know about it.
Fan Lanying nodded. "Does it mean that I don't have to join the etiquette class?"
Seeing the highly spirited Fan Lanying, Ming Hui smiled gently and nodded. Fan Lanying almost leaped in joy but considering her status, she suppressed her feeling.
"Tomorrow I will send someone to fetch you. Be prepared for that," Ming Hui exchanged a few more pleasantries with them before leaving. After the girl's silhouette disappeared, Fan Lanying jumped up in excitement.
"Yes! I don't need to learn those boring etiquette anymore! This is going to be fun!" Fan Lanying exclaimed happily. Her servants secretly rolled their eyes. With that kind of Miss, how could they expect her to get a good marriage partner?
Jun Hua smiled lightly. "You have to be careful, though. There will be a lot of people who will be jealous of you."
Fan Lanying stuck out her tongue. "Why should they feel jealous of me? If they want to get this spot of mine, they need to have worse skill in playing music."
In the capital, who would not know that the worst girl in playing music was Jun Hua? Coming second after her was Fan Lanying so those girls definitely wouldn't want to tarnish their reputation in order to become Ming Hui's study partner.
"But Princess Hui truly loves to study. Even when she has almost reaches 16, she still spends some time to learn," commented Fan Lanying.
"Do you like playing music?"
"Me? Not really, at most I only play because of my father. But it doesn't mean that my playing is poor, I still know how to play a few songs."
Jun Hua nodded. She actually wanted to tell Fan Lanying about that secret, but remembering that Ming Hui already knew that she knows about it, she decided against telling her friend. Someday, Fan Lanying might come to know it by herself if the intention of Ming Hui was what she had guessed.
The two of them continued to talk about various things before they returned to their room and sleep.
…
"Princess, do you want to set up the music lesson tomorrow?"
Looking at the guard beside her, Ming Hui lips curved up. "Of course, do you even need to ask about that?"
"Shall we tell Prince Yan about your change of plan?"
"Just tell that brother of mine that something important has happened. He still needs to learn about patience."
"Yes."
Ming Hui looked up at the full moon as she thought of what the two girls talked about. She rarely saw people like the two of them who were very straightforward. Because of that, she approached them in curiosity. Now that she had decided to pick her as her study partner, there were bound to have changes in their plans.