“Miss, you have returned,” Xiao Qing greeted with a smile.
Wei Liuying nodded. “Prepare hot water and dinner. I’ll be resting after this.”
“Yes.”
As she was eating, Wei Liuying was thinking about the training that she would be forced to do for the next three weeks. It was not that fun, but she had no other choice. And she couldn’t get found out no matter what.
If something happened, she knew that she would be dead.
“Xiao Qing, starting tomorrow, all servants aside from you have to leave my residence. Give them tasks that will require them to stay outside the quarter,” Wei Liuying ordered.
Xiao Qing was stunned. Aside from her and Xiao Yu, there were only a few old maids who were sent by Feng Chun to clean up the quarter. After all, it was quite a hard task to maintain such a large residence by themselves.
“Yes, Miss.”
“You can retire for today.”
“Yes.”
Wei Liuying sighed and walked to her bed. She felt tired with all the façade that she had to put on, but if she wanted to survive, she could never put it off ever again. it was as simple as that.
The moment she closed her eyes, Wei Liuying slowly drifted to sleep. Before her, she could see a world of white. It was warm and comforting, completely different with the harsh and cold world that she had to face every single day. Everything was white and slowly, it changed to different color.
Wei Liuying took some time before she could make up the layout of the new place as she looked around her.
“Mother! Mother!”
The sound of a young kid startled as she could see the image of a young girl around the age of 3 or 4 running to the direction of a young lady. The young lady was holding on a young boy who didn’t seem to be that much younger compared to the young girl. She was dressed prettily while the young girl looked far down to earth and normal.
Wei Liuying faintly recalled this scene in her mind. It was her past, on the time when she was still a bit too naïve to understand how the world around her worked.
“What is it, Liuying? Can’t you see that I’m busy?”
“Mother, look, Liuying start to learn how to write!” the young Wei Liuying showed up the books that she held with a wide grin. She looked so eager to show the result of her study to her mother.
Feng Chun looked at the book with a glance, but didn’t praise her. “You have to continue working hard.”
The young Wei Liuying waited for a bit more, but her mother didn’t say anything else. She was disappointed. Her expression looked sad, but her mother’s attention was never on her. Feng Chun completely immersed in taking care of the young Wei Hong Zheng.
“Yes, Mother.” Finally, that was all the young Wei Liuying could say.
“It’s useless,” Wei Liuying said to herself as she watched the scene before her. Her eyes didn’t hold any trace of emotion as she looked at her younger self. She knew that the young her only ever wanted to have some affection from her mother. But it was precisely the affection that was never given.
No matter how hard she worked hard, Feng Chun would not praise her.
No matter how much she fulfilled Feng Chun’s wished, the praise and comfort would never be directed at her.
All the attention, care, and affection were given to Wei Hong Zheng by Feng Chun. The young her didn’t understand and tried over and over to get Feng Chun’s affection. But it was never directed at her.
When she grew up, Wei Liuying began to understand the reason. It was simply because Feng Chun was so disappointed when she was born. Her mother was expecting to have a son, but what she got was a daughter. It was to the point that Feng Chun continued to pester Wei Hong in order to get what she wanted.
And she got it.
She was so happy with Wei Hong Zheng and completely neglected Wei Liuying. When it was shown that Wei Liuying was far better than Wei Hong Zheng in everything, Feng Chun simply asked her to be the one who taught her brother and helped his study. All in order to make sure that Wei Hong Zheng could be successful.
Wei Liuying stayed still in the world of white as she watched the scene in front of her changed again. Now, it was back to the time when she was seven years old when Wei Hong Zheng started to learn martial arts. Feng Chun was dissatisfied with the result, so she had Wei Liuying become her brother’s sparring partner.
She saw her young self who was crying and begging like there was no tomorrow.
“Get back there and train!” Feng Chun didn’t care and rebuked harshly.
The young Wei Liuying felt greatly hurt. It was her first time learning how to use sword and her brother was already merciless. He wanted to vent out his feeling after losing for so many times and rebuked by his teacher over and over.
Slowly, Wei Liuying closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see it all again. it was already enough to have it happened in the past. There was no need for her to remember all of those accursed incident again.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when Wei Liuying woke up. She glanced to the window and noticed that it was already morning. However, Xiao Qing hadn’t come in to wake her up, so it meant that it must be still very early.
“Miss, are you awake?” Xiao Qing’s voice trailed from the door.
“Yes.”
Slowly, Xiao Qing walked in and smiled when she saw Wei Liuying. “Miss, would you like to eat first?”
“Yes.”
Wei Liuying then proceeded to change into the boy’s clothes. Looking at Wei Liuying’s appearance, Xiao Qing seemed to have an idea of what Wei Liuying had to do. Her expression turned sad, but she refrained from saying anything. There was no need to aggravate the situation.
