Ok so I'm new fanfiction and I just figured out how to add to a story as well as add an author's note thing. Anyways, this is a Gan Ning married a woman, Ling Tong (hell bent on revenge) puts her in the middle story. Please be patient with me and review also, I love receiving comments and suggestions. Oh and the looks of the characters are based on their DW7 outfits, I haven't tried eight yet do bare with me.
I do not own DW. I do own though Cai Meng, Zhong Ying, and Yi Bao.
Chapter 2 (Cleaning and basic reading skills)
It had been a week since the banquet, and Cai Mao, was very upset with his daughter. Though he was happy that he was able to arrange some kind of courting with his daughter and the new general. However Cai Meng knew nothing of the arrangement and continued working in the castle. Word of her outburst had spread throughout the whole place.
"I never thought a man could push your buttons like that Cai Meng." Yi Bao said to her as they went with their chores. The girl in question just blushed; it was very rare that Cai Meng ever had to raise her voice. "And I was beginning to think that you were a spineless insect ready to be crushed by any man who you are married to." That statement made Cai Meng's cheeks flush more.
"I lost my temper, I promised father that it wouldn't happen again. Oh, I feel so bad about it!" Cai Meng was about to ramble on more when Yi Bao hushed her with a signal from her hand. Just as the red head closed her mouth, Gan Ning strode by. "Keep working kids," her said and disappeared around the corner. "I'm not a child…" Cai Meng mumbled under her breath, something about him irked her. "Calm down Meng, it seems that if he knows you get upset over that comment, the more fun it is for him. Ignore him is the key."
"Lady Bao how are so wise to be only a child?" Cai Meng asked. Yi Bao only smiled and continued on her way. As Meng watched her move on she wondered what she was to do next. The entrance hall held a list for the maids that could read. She might have been the daughter of Cai Mao, but Cai Meng knew little of the art of reading so she was given the list with easily read symbols on it. Her blue eyes widened as she looked at her next chore.
The blonde man laughed as Cai Meng appeared at his door. Gan Ning was shirtless, as always, his bells lay strewn somewhere out of her sight. It was almost sun down, like her plan, and she needed to hurry in order to finish. She only looked at him with an indifferent face. He still intimidated her, no matter how long he stayed around.
"So, I'm supposed to allow you, in my room to clean? Why don't Huang Zu just send me a concubine, they do the same." At that the door was closed in her face. It took a moment for Cai Meng to regain her composure. She knocked lightly on the door, there was no answer, and so she knocked again. It was almost too light to hear from her small hands. After the third knock she sighed and began to speak.
"Please let me in lord Gan Ning, I have to clean or I won't be paid. You won't even know I'm there just let me do my job and I'll be on my way." She pleaded a little to the door. A few seconds went by and she was about to speak again when the door opened. She stood dumbfounded for a few moments. "Well are you coming in or not?" She jumped the slightest and scrambled in. The room was well, roomy. Not an inch of dust anywhere, probably because he just moved in. The only thing Cai Meng thought that needed to be done was straightening. A light recognition cough slapped her out of her trance turning she saw and irritated Gan Ning leaning by the door.
His eye seemed to burn into her, yet they were also entrancing to look into. "Alright you saw it, unlike most guys, I'm not even here long enough mess anything up. And when I am here the only women in my room puts out, so either you get my drift or get out." Her face flushed ever the slightest, at his comment. "Well um, um…" She was at a lose for words at his comment. Then she heard him laugh at her. Cai Meng's blue eyes flew over to the ex-pirate. He had a genuine smile on his face, it seemed that the irritated look a few second ago was just an act. She did not even notice the breath that left her lips, as she seemed to hold it in.
Cai Meng did in fact find something to do to finish her chores. All she found though was to dust and move things over. For a man, Gan Ning seemed to accumulate things; though Cai Meng took that as from during his days at sea. A desk looking at some scrolls seated him, that Huang Zu's strategist lent him. Peering over his broad shoulders she tried to read the symbols, but all in vein.
"Can you even read?" It was a genuine question. Though the answer embarrassed her greatly. "No, well a little, I've never had time to try and learn." She felt a tugging on her wrist; it was Gan Ning pulling her down to sit beside him. Doing as she was told, Cai Meng took her seat and allowed Gan Ning to explain the different symbols and words. Their lesson was done about nightfall, way past Cai Meng's curfew.
Both people stood up looking out. "Come on I'll take you home, and explain everything to Cai Mao." Cai Meng only nodded to him as the two set off to her home.
Over the next weeks Cai Meng slowly learned to read, thanks to Gan Ning. She actually started to warm up to the man. It was getting close to summer, around the corner would be Cai Meng's fifteenth birthday, and he father was very frantic. His other two daughters were married by the time they were fourteen, here Cai Meng was about to be fifteen and had no husband.
Though the small girl never worried. Now she looked forward to cleaning and spending days with Gan Ning. She guessed it was a pass time for him just to sit on the railing and talk to her all day instead of clean, well he would hide when Huang Zu or Cai Mao rounded a corner. The two found ways to make each other laugh as well. Then there were days Gan Ning wouldn't come, being stuck with training and drills, and she was seen with Yi Bao.
Though now she was stuck scrubbing the floor from mud with Zhong Ying, who was unusually chipper. "Cai Meng, I'm getting married to general from Wie! Oh, I never though I'd see the day when I'm finally able to leave this castle and never look back!" Cai Meng only smiled at her friend's enthusiasm, she looked forward to that day as well.
