Phoenix: Rules Of The Harem
Chapter 2: Without a Plan, Like Destiny

Ling Mei stood alone, staring at the reflection of the moon from her garden pond. The air was cold, but the coldness of his heart. She was a pure and hidden beauty, so powerful and domineering, a subduing gaze and a dropping smile, she was like a Goddess that could not be pursued and carried. As soon as Ling Mei felt unkind, she sighed. Staring at her reflection from the water as if right under the moon, a bright blue eye with a small mole under her left eye, a milky white skin, and pitch-black hair like ink, he closed his eyes. The heavy weight over his shoulders felt stifling.

Increasingly thought out, Ling Mei knew that she needed greater influence and power in the future. The palace was a magnificent place as well as deadly, people competed to have thrones and high positions. Licking, killing, lying, and stabbing from behind is nothing new in this place. Many people thought Shao Ling Mei was harmless because she did not deserve even to take the honorary noble title due to her mental retardation. Sure was! They don't know! Ling Mei was a person who had strong ambitions, without hesitation throwing away her heart to carry out her ambitions.

When he decided to be like this, he had thrown everything away, his love and heart had become as cold as the freezing weather in the snowy winter. Just like everyone else, Ling Mei would not hesitate to get rid of everyone who was blocking her path or trying to oppress her. This year she is exactly 16 years old, which means that soon the Grand Empress will ask her to take the marriage decree. Heh's marriage? It's good enough to add influence and power, but it can also be a double-edged knife that cruelly destroys you.

Ling Mei's gaze became sharp, there were other footsteps around her. Not only one, but also not as noisy as one who wanted to steal. Ling Mei became alert, some people in all-black clothes and swords started to arrive, half their faces covered by black cloth. Someone sent another group of hit men, who knows who this time, he'll find out later. Ling Mei started to prepare, she was going to face all of these people alone. As he prepared to kick the nape of one of them, someone came over and threw a hairpick at the neck of the other hitman.

Wait ... What happened?!

Ling Mei was startled and turned around, a man dressed like a rich young master with a blackish-red Dizi* in his hand walked over to her. He had blood red eyes, black hair like a long night sky, and one small mole like hers under his right eye. She was wearing a black hanfu chime gold with a lotus flower motif on her outer robe making the man even more charming and seductive like a demon. Ling Mei closed her eyes in annoyance, both of her eyebrows clutched. Ah, true! Now Ling Mei was a mentally disabled girl who did not even dare to just kill an ant.

(Dizi: wind instrument in the form of a horizontal flute originating from China and made of bamboo).

"Hoo-hoo! There are bad guys! They want to hit me! I don't want to get hit by Huaaa!!!!"

The man was surprised to see Ling Mei sitting on the ground, shouting and crying loudly, he frantically held both sides of Ling Mei's face.

"Your Majesty, they won't! I'll protect you from them, you'll be fine!"

"YES!!! A ghost! You ghost! Help me ... The ghost wants to eat me! HUU!!! HUUU!!!" Ling Mei covered her face with both hands, she whined and shouted like a madman.

The young master smiled, a smile that looked pitiful. "No, I don't. Look, Your Majesty! I'm just like you."

"uh? Not ghosts? ... Oho! I gotcha! You are a fool!"

"Yes? Stupid guy?" The man blinked his eyes many times, looking at Ling Mei confusedly.

Ling Mei looked at the pink eyes of the young master with a twinkle. "Really! Aye! Third brother said I was a fool, if you are like me you are a fool. Hihihi..."

She was flabbergasted, speechless, in her heart she said, 'Don't know what happened, why does it seem like this princess is mocking me?'

The hitmen stared flat, then one asked, "Should we kill now?"

The friend beside her hit her on the head, "Are you also being stupid like that trash princess? You asked a sure thing."

"Don't you know what it's about?" the hitman snorted after his head was hit, he stared in disbelief.

"Don't know. It doesn't matter."

"Stop the pigs! If you keep arguing like that, I'm sure they'll run away from here without us noticing." The cynical remark of one of the other hit men.

The as yet unnamed young master furrowed his brows, the hitmen started to move again. Staring at Ling Mei once again, she smiled.

"Please wait here, I'll clean it up for you."

Another hitman swung his sword towards the man, he quickly parried it with his Dize. The man took out the sword of the assassin who had died from his hair pin, he started attacking those people in black with the sword. Ling Mei saw it, her martial arts were indeed not very high, but it was enough to kill those hitmen even though it would take some injuries. Ling Mei's eyes flashed, she grinned, truly mischievous! When another young master embroidered, dressed, or played with musical instruments and literature, he chose to play with the sword. Under the moonlight, the man looked beautiful with his sword movements that looked like dancing.

"An interesting show, let's see how long that naughty young master can last!"

As Ling Mei had guessed, the young man had managed to cripple some of them. He carried incision wounds on his left arm and right shoulder, and puncture wounds on his abdomen.

"Retreat before I kill you all!" he stared intently at the remaining assassins, unconcerned by the blood dripping from his body.

One of them laughed mockingly, he was a man, but he was very brave. It has been confirmed that the group of hitmen are women trained in martial arts.

"You are very brave. You are a man, go back to your room and just continue your embroidery, no need to bother being here. This is our business with the fourth princess!"

The man's face darkened, he felt displeased. Then he smiled, an awkward smile.

"Is that so? What if we drink tea and eat snacks together? But before you have tea with me, go to hell!"

He attacked again, but this time it was more fiery and aggressive than before. Looks like the hitman's remarks provoked him. One man from behind almost stabbed him, the man quickly dodged with qinggong*, then turned around and unsheathed his sword into the assassin's left chest.

(Qinggong: Techniques in Chinese martial arts. Where martial artists had the ability to move quickly and lightly, performing gravity-defying movements such as gliding on the surface of the water, climbing a high wall, sprinting fast, jumping to the top of a tree, even floating in the air). 

Ling Mei's eyes widened as the man began to be surrounded by the remaining assassins, there was almost no gap in sight. They surrounded him from all directions, Ling Mei clenched her hands. With his previous wounds and sword intent in all directions, Ling Mei was sure that the man would not survive if he did not help her. Ling Mei let out a long sigh, her face calmed down again. That stupid guy! Ling Mei did not believe she would be bothered like this. He had already decided to help a foolish young master who would die soon for wanting to protect him.

Ling Mei furrowed her brows, the fog! That fucking fog! It had a paralyzing poison that made lower and middle level martial experts lose power to even its consciousness. Thinking about this, Ling Mei snorted small, it turned out that the rats were more cunning than she had anticipated. Whoever ordered them this time, Ling Mei wanted to give him an award, they were much better than the previous rash and careless rats.

They stared at the limp young man flat and almost lost their consciousness. "He's just a mid-leveler, still too fast to finish off those of us who are much more trained than him."

Ling Mei stared intently at them, she picked up the dagger hidden within her hanfunya. Silently he stabbed one of them from the back right at his neck, the other assassins were shocked, whereas Ling Mei grinned at them with cold glittering eyes.

"You! You are not stupid! You fooled everyone!" one of the assassins voiced out, the woman looked at Ling Mei in disbelief.

"Yes, I .. don't know what you're talking about?" Ling Mei tapped her finger on the chin like a thinking person, then she showed a plain stupid smile.

The woman gnashed her teeth, her eyes gleaming furiously, she was displeased. "No need to pretend anymore, how dare you cheat us!"

"Of course I dare, who are you? Brother, I give you advice, you better take care of your red face like a burnt monkey's ass. I can't stand to see it."

Ling Mei's face returned cold, looking dangerous. He continued saying, "Because you already know, then you must die, isn't that the rule?"

They stared at each other and nodded, they raised their respective swords, preparing to attack Ling Mei simultaneously. Ling Mei dodged, the sword almost hitting her long hair, she quickly aimed her dagger at the neck of the assassin who attacked her. One of them tried to pierce his chest, Ling Mei parried him, she floated in the air with qinggong and turned around slashing the neck of that person.

Ling Mei kicked the one person in front of her to her knees and stabbed the person's back right in the upper left. Staying two people, Ling Mei attacked and stabbed the neck of that person from the side. Lastly, Ling Mei grinned, casually throwing her dagger like throwing pea skin at the hitman right around the front neck until it was translucent backwards.

"that's ridiculous! Are they too stupid to realize the reason I didn't fall into that fog?"

It's all over, they're all dead. Ling Mei snorted before turning to look at the man who had already lost his consciousness since earlier. He sighed, walked up to the man and lifted him up. Ling Mei carried him like a newlywed who was about to do the first night. Letting the corpses lie just like that in his beautiful garden. Fuck those! He would ask Wu Jin to clean it up later. Ling Mei laid him down in one of the rooms in her pavilion, she slowly undressed the man and cleaned up the blood that was soiling her body.

"I thought she had a nice and delicate body, it was beautiful." satisfied to see the beautiful scenery in front of her, Ling Mei neatly bandaged the man's wounds.

Ling Mei saw it, the mark! The men had a sign shaped like five red lotus petals with one small dot underneath that was on their left chest as a sign of chastity. Uh! It will probably be a big problem in the future, Ling Mei hoped it would not get carried away with it. The sound of knocking on the door made Ling Mei take her eyes off the man.

"It's me, Your Majesty."

"I know, enter Wu Jin!"

Ling Mei stood up, she turned her back to Wu Jin. "I'm sure you've seen it, cleaned up the bodies that littered my garden."

"I'm sorry I was late to help you, Your Majesty." Wu Jin knelt down, he lowered his head.

"You're on duty, I don't blame you."

"Your Majesty, regarding that matter, there is something I would like to tell you."

"Alright, let's go to my room!"

Ling Mei walked into her room followed by Wu Jin who was behind her, the girl just stared forward flatly without speaking anything.

"What did you find?"

Ling Mei stood staring at the round window that showed the night sky with the sparkle of stars and the bright radiance of moonlight.

"Your Majesty, the Crown Princess began to move closer to the Kingdom of Wei to strengthen her position. I don't know for sure, but maybe they'll take it by way of marriage or business."

Ling Mei gave a small smile, her eyes flashed faintly, "Oho! The first brother turned out to be quick as well. So sloppy! She was overconfident, she thought being favored by Empress Wei was an easy matter. I've seen during the banquet, it seems like Grand Empress and Empress Wei have their own plans."

Wu Jin furrowed his brows, "Should I find out, Your Majesty?"

"No, there's no need! The Grand Empress had many shadow guards, they were invisible and too silent. It'd be dangerous if you touched it."

"I understand, Your Majesty."

"Hmph! now I have to take care of that freak. Wu Jin, call Physician Xia to come here in secret and find out who this man is."

"Okay, Your Majesty."

..................

"Your Majesty, Physician Xia has come."

Ling Mei turned her gaze away from the book she was reading. "Good! Ask him to treat the man now, and you stay here! There's something I want to ask you."

"Alright, Your Majesty." as soon as Wu Jin relayed his master's orders to Physician Xia, Wu Jin returned and sat down in front of Ling Mei.

"Do you know who that man is?"

Wu Jin nodded. "Of course, the young master was the Second Prince of the Kingdom of Wei and the son of Empress Wei with the Principal Companion of the Kingdom of Wei, Grand Master Liu Mu Yuan. Wei Yun Rui, is 21 years old and unmarried."

"Second Prince Wei Yun Rui? Now I understand Empress Wei's intentions. Wu Jin, how many princes of Wei have come to visit Shao?" Ling Mei sighed, she knew something like this would happen.

"From the three princes of the Kingdom of Wei, it is certain that all of them are in Shao, Your Majesty."

"All right, I get it. Comewith me! It's time to see the naughty prince."

Ling Mei had been in the temporary room where Wei Yun Rui was treated. He looked at Physician Xia who had finished with his examination.

Physician Xia smiled faintly, "Your Majesty, I have treated all the wounds on his body, you just need to keep his puncture wound from opening and bleeding again. Looking at all this, I'm sure something interesting happened before this."

"I guess you've always been curious about what happened to Physician Xia, I'm also sure soon you'll definitely find out what happened from your people or maybe from the courtiers." Ling Mei licked her dry lips, then continued her words.

"I just want to warn you Physician Xia, sometimes curiosity can kill you quickly."

The expression on Physician Xia's face turned resolute, his eyes flashed coldly. "That's not a difficult thing for this old lady, Your Majesty. I'm pretty sure I can handle something like that."

Ling Mei smirked, she rubbed the dragon-shaped jade ornament that was on the table slowly.

"Aiya! Of course, I know. Your loyalty to the empire is truly terrifying Physician Xia. You know everything that happens in the palace, even about me."

With great politeness, Physician Xia smiled faintly. "You're overly complimentary, if it wasn't for your unrestrained anger that day, I would not have known it Your Majesty."

Ling Mei's gaze cooled, she knew, very well knowing how much the Xia family had an ingrained obsession trait in every member of the family. It was no wonder that Physician Xia was obsessed with loyalty and a partner, Ling Mei did not feel surprised about that.