AN: This chapter's beginning is Meiling point of view! Not the whole chapter, just a bit of it! Anyways, read on and please review! Thanks =D
Disclaimer: I do not down CCS or
any of its characters much to my dismay! They belong to CLAMP.
" Speech
* Thinking
~ Sound affects
() Translation
By ~Xiaoling~
Chapter 11:
Have we met?
I sometimes feel so empty...hollow almost in my insides. So much has happened to me over the past three years. I am merily a 19 year old, but on the other hand I am the queen of the entire Li Kingdom. Syaoran Li is my husband...yet if you took a first glance at us, you wouldn't think so. We are also distant cousins, but to keep the royal blood pure we must marry. I don't mind this at all! I love Xiaolang with all my heart, if only my love was returned, it would be a dream come true...
He is always so cold to me, saying that I mind his business to much. But sometimes I hear his say under his breath that he was sorry or that I deserved a better husband. Maybe I do, maybe I don't. Xiaolang use to say that I was the most stubborn person he had ever met in his entire life time. Back then, I would have been steaming mad, but now that I look back at the past, I kind of agree with him. But through the years, I, Meiling Li, has matured. I want to be a good queen to my kingdom, just like Auntie Yelan.
What bothers me most is when I look into Syaoran's eyes and I see another girl. I do not know why I can see it, but when I look into his eyes, I see another girl staring back at me. I wonder who she is...but I would be happy for Xiaolang if he found his true love. To him, I am just his wife that he was forced to marry.
I am just a beautiful bell waiting
to be rung...
Syaoran passed by Meiling's private quarters, and he glanced in to see Meiling looking out the window with one arm under her chin. She had a flat face, no smile, no frown. Syaoran sighed to himself and continued to walk aimlessly down halls, not exactly aimlessly, he was to go to his throne room to have a little meeting.
Meetings, he hated them with all
his heart. It was either good news, or bad news. He stepped into the room,
and everyone in the room bowed to him. Syaoran sighed, another long boring
meeting for him.
"Excuse me? Are there any more spaces available to take the job of a maid?" Hu Die asked uneasily at the guards standing outside the Li castle.
They shrugged and one of them gestured Hu Die to follow him. They walked into the servant quarters and into a room where a girl was sewing up blankets that were torn in some places.
"This girl wants to know if there's anymore spaces left to be a maid for the castle, you take care of this," And the guard left, leaving Hu Die with a dark brown haired girl.
The girl smiled, "Hello...I'm Rika."
"Hello, I'm S..Hu Die.." Hu Die plastered a smile on her face.
Rika placed the needle and thread down onto a small bench. "So you want a job? I think there are some spaces in the kitchen department...is that alright with you?"
"Of course...I love to cook!" Hu Die said with a bright smile lightning up her face.
Rika smiled and nodded, "I'll show you to the kitchens then."
They went through hallways, and Hu Die admired that castle very much. It was a chinese style castle with arches and flower gardens and beautiful ponds with lily pads floating all over.
"The lotuses are beautiful..." Hu Die commented.
Rika giggled, "I agree, Queen Meiling loves lotuses, that is why they are everywhere."
"I see..." Hu Die said.
They arrived in the kitchens and Hu Die was introduced to the cheif maid of the kitchen.
"Nice to meet you Hu Die-chan."
"Nice to meet you to MingLian," Hu Die shook her hand.
MingLian grinned, "Just call me Ming, it is much shorter and easier to remember. Now do you know how to work with the fires and cook?"
Hu Die nodded, and Rika said good bye and returned to her place in sewing up the blankets.
"It is almost time for the king's lunch. I heard that he will be coming back from a meeting, so he should be in a grumpy mood, so we must make this lunch delicious," Ming said while rolling flour out.
Hu Die smiled and started a fire in one of the wood stoves, fanning it at the same time. She placed a pot on top of the wood stove, while fanning with the other hand, and placed some cabbage and seisemi oil into the pot. She left the pot cooking while she chopped some carrots and celery and anded them into the pot. After she was finished with the dish, she started cracking a couple eggs, and rolling out flour.
She made cute little cakes, oddly they were shaped into a flower, a cherry blossom. Hu Die blinked at what she had made, but she shrugged it aside and placed the cakes onto a china dish.
"You are quite a good cook Hu Die," Ming commented, impressed.
Hu Die smiled, "Should I bring this to your majesty?"
"If you please, his eating place is just down that hall and then turn left then go down the hall and turn left again." Ming explained.
Hu Die nodded and quickly hurried off with the plates of food on the platter. She went down the hallway and turned left and down again and left again just as told.
She came upon a round doorway and she stepped into the room. She saw a young man, around her age, sitting on a chair. He looked frustrated and stressed at the same time.
"Finally, lunch is here," He said sarcastically.
Hu Die frowned, but placed the food on the table. Syaoran didn't even look up at who brought him lunch until he noticed that cherry blossomed shaped cakes.
"Is this some kind of joke?!" He roared.
Hu Die stepped back in fright. "What...what do you mean your majesty?"
The guards around Syaoran seemed alert, ready for any order from Syaoran.
"Everyone knows that I do not like to be reminded of someone..." Syaoran said sadly.
Hu Die's frown disappeared. "And yet you still like staring at cherry blossoms?"
"...H..how do you know?!" He demanded.
"...I just do your majesty," Hu Die halfed smiled.
Syaoran stared at the girl. She was beautiful, with her long black hair and her...her..emerald eyes. Syaoran felt a wave of sadness flood through him, those eyes, there were a complete clone of his ying fa's.
"...Eyes..."
"Excuse me?" Hu Die titled her head in confusion.
Syaoran blushed a bit in embarrasement. "Nothing..I haven't seen you around before.."
"I am new here." She replied calmly.
"Oh I see.."
Hu Die bowed and left the room. Syaoran
sniffed the air and could smell the smell of honey suckle and cherry blossoms
in the air. That smell was so familiar...but he couldn't put his finger
on it. And those eyes...he couldn't forget them anywhere...they were exactly
like Sakura's eyes, and he had not met anyone else with eyes such like
hers. Until now.
*You were lucky this time Syaoran...that
I did not poison you...I wanted to see you alive...but I will have your
life...*
"Let's go butterfly catching...just you and me..you promised, that we would go butterfly catching...just you and me..." Hu Die hummed silently to herself as she leaned over the railing of a small arched bridge over the pond. "You're my little butterfly...in the blowing skies. All alone, to face reality..."
Syaoran heard a singing voice, a familiar singing voice. He followed the voice out to the gardens, and he saw that maid who brought him lunch.
*Her voice..is so familiar...* Syaoran thought as he neared the bridge she was standing on.
Hu Die felt a familiar aura, Syaoran. She turned gracefully around, and bowed. "Good afternoon your majesty."
"...Have we met?"
"..I'm afraid not.." Hu Die stammered.
Syaoran raised one eyebrow. "Are...are you sure? You're voice, you're eyes, they are all so familiar..."
"Familiar? How so?" Hu Die asked, quite interested.
"..I use to..love this girl...she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She had the most stunning emerald eyes, and the most beautiful auburn hair...she was my ying fa...but she's gone now..." Syaoran said sorrowfully.
Hu Die wanted to smirk but she plastered a fake frown on her face. "Oh dear...yet she is gone? Dead I assume. She was probably killed by her own love." She said bitterly.
Syaoran looked at her, with a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"
"...Oh nothing, I was just thinking to myself..." Hu Die said and smiled. "I must get going." And she walked down the bridge and disappeared down a hallway.
"...She is so weird...but she reminds me of Sakura so much...maybe it is just the looks, except for the hair of course..but everything else is so much alike..." Syaoran thought out loud. "I must miss her to much..."
Hu Die smirked when she heard what
Syaoran said. "You miss her to much Syaoran? Why did you kill her in the
first place then? Kill her whole family? Kill her heart and soul? That
was your mistake Syaoran..."
AN: Hoe! Anyone have a guess who
Hu Die is? Anyways, thanks for reading and please review! I love you reviewers
and I just love it! Thanks and ja ne~
