Chapter 3: Rumors are rumors.
At that instant, everything that surrounded Jiang Wei was a blur except the dark haired lady. His eyes only desired to focus his sight on her. She was an angelic as well as a youthful flower. Her lengthy, onyx hair flattered her fair skin. He noticed the unique light brown eyes of hers. Those light brown eyes were full of innocence, but he sensed they once engulfed into a pit of sadness.
"He is our new comrade. Master Jiang Wei. Boyue," Ma Dai introduced his new friend to the two ladies.
Both ladies bowed in respect.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Master Jiang Wei. I am Bao Sanniang." Sanniang smirked as she peeked a glance at Yinping.
"This is my sister Yinping." She pointed.
What a beautiful name. It matches her face. Jiang Wei thought to himself.
Yinping started to walk toward Jiang Wei to greet him since she was the farthest away from the male generals.
"I hope you are enjoying-"
Yinping tripped over one of the buckets filled with water for the horses which resulted of her body to be on top of Jiang Wei with their face almost touching. All eyes, in the room, were widen in reaction to this incident. Luckily, Yinping's hands landed on the ground on time, beside Jiang Wei's head, before their lips could meet.
Yinping's face transformed into a rosy color in embarrassment.
"I-I'm sorry," she cried out as she rapidly jumped off from him. Yinping felt the heat rising in her cheeks.
Jiang Wei gathered himself on his feet and dusted out some of the dirt off from his trousers. A noticeable wet spot was on his crotch area that extended to his left thigh of his trousers.
"I am so sorry," Yinping apologized again. Her face was now a scarlet shade. Oh, how she wished she would just vanish into thin air.
"Lady Yinping, it is only water. It's not a big deal," Jiang Wei claimed as he grinned sheepishly. "I'll just have to change pants. No harm done."
"…And then after he said that she kept saying 'sorry, sorry, sorry' and literally ran, no, she glided, out of the horse stalls as if a tiger was about to pounce on to her," Sanniang told Yinping's dreadful story to a group of male generals in one of the palace's study rooms.
The group consisted of Guan Xing, Guan Suo, and Zhang Bao. All three boys howled in laughter. Zhang Bao even banged the table with his fist as he snorted.
"SANNIANG!" Yinping's voice hollered in yet again of embarrassment.
"Little Sister, you do look cute when embarrassed," Guan Suo added cheekily.
The youngest Guan sibling pouted and crossed her arms as a reply.
"You see! Isn't she cute?" Suo continued to tease her.
"Brother Suo!" Yinping wined.
"How does cute little Yinping fight? She fights with the elements of water!" Zhang Bao followed the teasing bandwagon.
"Welcome to Shu. Guan Yinping the Goddess of Water will drown you!" Sanniang preceded.
The teasing sustained for several minutes until all of four of the older ones were full from laughter.
"Brother, do you think you will be partnered with Jiang Wei?" Guan Suo asked his older brother.
At this point, all eyes were planted on to Guan Xing. They were certainly curious of his answer.
"Well, since I'm also part of the strategy and politics officials of Shu, it may be possible," Guan Xing replied calmly.
Guan Xing was talented in martials arts as well as he excelled in his studies. Out of all his siblings, he was the most studious and took seriousness in education. As a child, he had a reputation of having the top grades of all his classes. Zhuge Liang was always fond of Guan Xing since the day he met Xing as a little boy. The Chancellor highly praised and encouraged Guan Xing to study under him. Yinping believed Xing was Zhuge Liang's favorite out of all the Guan children.
"Do you think Lord Kongming would replace you with Jiang Wei?" Zhang Bao questioned.
Before Xing could uttered a word, Yinping spoke out. "No one is going to replace you, Brother Xing. No matter how intelligent they are."
Everybody in the room chuckled.
"I know this is too soon, but there is something that gives me a bad vibe of this guy," Zhang Bao stated.
"It's because he was originally from Wei," Sanniang joined in the conversation.
"It is more than just that. During our previous battle against Wei, he just stood out to me than the rest of the officers I have faced or seen before," Zhang Bao continued. "I don't know how to explain this. Although, recently I have heard rumors."
The other four listened intently. They all leaned in toward the round, wooded table to hear what Zhang Bao has yet to finish saying.
"The rumors said that he-"
The door to the study room swung opened. Jiang Wei appeared at the door with a parchment in his hand and Ma Dai closely behind him.
Jiang Wei looked across the room. There were many stacks of parchments, scrolls, ink bottles, shelves full of books, and a round table supplied with five chairs which five generals sat on each one. Regardless Jiang Wei's eyes gazed into the light brown eyes of hers. Yinping quickly turned her head, away from his gaze, in embarrassment of remembering their first encounter.
His eyes led to Guan Xing who was sitting next to her. He then bowed to the group.
"Master Jiang Wei, is there something I may help you with?" Guan Xing broke the silence while he rose from his seat.
"The Chancellor have informed me the study sources I need are in here. You and I are to report back to him with the materials."
Jiang Wei handed the parchment to Guan Xing.
"I know where these are," Guan Xing said after he read the list. He then collected several scrolls and headed to the door.
When Jiang Wei was near the door he paused for split second, debating if he should turn around to see the dark haired lady even if it was only the sight of the back of her head with her full lengthy hair. Jiang Wei decided it was best not to since the other general was here and accompanying him to the Chancellor.
Yinping finally spun her head to only capture the view of the former Wei general's back. Guilt washed over her.
The sound of crickets echoed to Bao Sanniang's room since her room was next to one of the palace's gardens. The bright day transitioned into a peaceful night.
Yinping was currently braiding Sanniang's brown hair. Both ladies were sitting on Sanniang's bed while Sanniang's brown-orange colored cat purred against her legs.
"Sanniang," Yinping blurted out when she finished braiding.
"Yes, Yin?"
"You told the boys what happened today, but you did not tell them how I landed on…."
Sanniang shifted her body to face her sister in-law.
"If I told them that part, you know your brothers would freak out especially Xing."
Yinping knew Sanniang was right. Ever since the Battle of Fan Castle, Xing and Suo became over protected toward Yinping and promised to wipe out anything they considered threatening that would harm her. Xing, who was now the head of his family, determined he needed to step up as the oldest brother and carry on to nurture his siblings just how Ping did.
"Then thank you," Yinping said.
After a few seconds Yinping pouted. "You smirked at me before I tripped!"
"Do you really think that I would purposely plan it so you can lay flat on his chest?"
Yinping hesitated. Sanniang continued to nag at her. "I smirked at you BECAUSE if you remember we were talking about him."
Yinping looked up at her. Oh, that was true.
"Besides, were you able to feel those well define muscles under his clothes?" Sanniang cooed.
Yinping's face blushed. Sanniang loved teasing her sister in-law.
"You should have stayed on top of him a little longer instead of quickly jumping off from him. You could have slid your hand on to his abdomen and-"
"Stop!" Yinping covered her ears.
Sanniang bursted into laughter. Yinping was so cute and innocent.
"From how Bao sounded, it doesn't seem the rumors were good toward Jiang Wei," Yinping mentioned to change the subject. It was also due to how curious she was of what the rumors were since Bao never got to finish what he had to say.
"Rumors are rumors. They are false until proven true," Sanniang responded.
The image of the former Wei's general back flashed to Yinping's mind.
The dark haired lady got off from the bed and walked toward the door.
"Yin, where are you going?"
Yinping's light brown eyes stared into Sanniang's.
"To formally apologize to him."
Yinping wondered around the palace in search of Jiang Wei. She explored the library and almost every study room to find him. Where would he be? Yinping additionally thought to seek Zhuge Liang to ask about Jiang Wei, but she knew the Chancellor had a list of busy tasks to handle.
"My lady, are you looking for something?" a maid spoke in concern. The maid thought the dark haired lady looked completely lost for a person who live in the palace.
Yinping smiled. "I am looking for Master Jiang Wei. Do you know where he is?"
"He is in the throne room with the Chancellor, Lord Liu Shan and your brother, my lady."
"Thank you."
Yinping hurriedly made her way to the direction of the throne room.
From the end of the corridor, a figure witnessed the conversation between the two females and was cryptic to the reason behind the dark haired lady wanting to see Jiang Wei.
He decided to quietly follow her. He already harbored unsure feelings of Jiang Wei's joining to Shu and was now slightly irritated.
Yinping, why are you looking for him?
A/N: Historically, Guan Xing was well-liked by Zhuge Liang.
Boyue is Jiang Wei's style name and Kongming is Zhuge Liang's style name.
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