"IIIIIIIIIIIIIt's Friiiiiiiiiiiday!" Mei Lan sang as she jumped into her brothers study. But no one replied.

Du Hai had stayed up all night long, investigating the assassination attempt. Therefor he never left his desk and just fell asleep. 

His face was dropped on the high table sideways, the table pressing against his cheek, his whole body was leaning on the table that came up to his chest when sitting. His face clearly showed exhaustion  . But he still looked like a handsome sleeping tiger. 

Mei Lan stood there, admiring his face and body. At one point in the night he must have taken of his upper clothes because of the strong heating system. He had moderate long bulky arms, pecks, and 6-packs. They were very tan and luscious-looking. She felt drool come up, but swallowed it, as if she was dry swallowing a very big pill.

But, Du Hai's scars did not fail to escape her attention. She never thought he would have so much scars. His back was left with horrid looking whipping marks that he received when he was 14, at least 4 slashes on each of his arms, burns marks and wound marks everywhere on his chest. She had to swallow more fluid that came up her nose and eyes. 

She didn't know why though, maybe she was feeling some sort of attachment towards this human being. She laughed at herself for even thinking that, as she slowly walked towards her brother.

"Dear brother mine." She called him softly.

Du Hai woke up in a start and, yes, he pulled out a knife from god knows where and pointed it at her. When his brain caught up to his body, he quickly threw the knife far from him and hugged her.  

"Lan'er, why are you here?" He murmured, she was used to him over-reactingly hugging her every time he saw her. 

"Well, dear brother, we were suppose to be at the crown prince's palace an hour ago..." Before she could finish her sentence, Du Hai was gone. ~with the wind  :P

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Although it was quite freezing outside, their carriage was a well heated, it was a heater carriage that carried a separate heater to warm the carriage (Also Bestowed by the Crown Prince). 

Of course the carriage was made of cedar wood, and had lotus decorations made of jade all over the outside and inside of the carriage, the cushions were made of soft fox fur. 

She was dressed in a mint green brocade gown with leaves embroidered elegantly on her sleeves and hems. She was wearing a dark cyan velvet cape that had red blossoming flowers beaded onto it, and her hair was let down with a single green gem pin to hold her hair up. 

"If you feel nauseous you tell me right away, also if you feel like throwing up or dizzy, or anything like that, we'll go home right away. Ok?" Du kept fussing over her like a mother. However, even her mother didn't fuss about her as much as Du Hai did. All her mother wanted from her was more power. Because of this she just had to look pretty and stay healthy. 

Mei Lan just sat there, watching her brother fuss. Thinking of thousands of noble ladies who would die of jealousy right now.

When the carriage arrived in front of the crown prince's palace, Du Hai quickly got off the carriage and ran over to her side. Before she could move, he had already opened the door, and held out his hand. She laughed at his cuteness and accepted his hand.

The crown prince's palace was big. It was probably almost as big as the imperial palace. Although the crown prince did not have much support or favor from the emperor, he was a great man and everyone liked him. He owned several businesses, manors in every part of the country and  many people swore their loyalty to him. Everyone who worked for the crown prince either willingly or forced, signed a blood contract to be loyal to him. He was quite a tyrant, a rather good one at that.

They walked through the gates into the garden, The snow had fallen beautifully onto the bare garden, making it look like an never ending forest of snow. 

As they walked through the trees, she readied herself. She wasn't going to allow herself to fall this time. This was why she took the pains to move out by herself. She did not want to end up pregnant and dead. She did sometimes wander about her child. Who it could've been, maybe it would have been a princess, and she would've used that child to get to the Emperor. If it was a Prince, she would have done everything to make him the crown prince. Either way that child would've had a miserable life. Her child felt like a needle in her heart. She would constantly remember it, however she would never be able to go back and save that child or kill it herself. She still felt the pain in her heart, she wished her child was reborn to a way better place. Maybe a happy merchant family, with a loving father and a loving mother. Maybe some siblings would be good too. As she was having these thoughts they arrived in front of an grand hall. 

She tightened her grip on Du Hai's hand. She had lived here with him until he became emperor. She had been so happy. She felt the regret swell up, but before it could become anything poisonous she smiled and looked at Du Hai, who was looking at her worriedly.

"I'll be fine brother. I'm sure the crown prince is as wonderful as his rumors!" She exclaimed happily like a child. Although she knew everything about him was true to the very end, she didn't feel any happiness in meeting him. 

"Don't worry, he won't fail you." He said. Although Du Hai knew that the crown prince could be a little unruly, he had thousand of goodness in his heart. How else would have the crown prince gotten such a handsome, hardworking, strong, genius of a man like himself to follow the crown prince.

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They were led to a giant room. However it was neither chilly nor official looking. Rather it was very cozy looking and warm. 

"This is where we all stay when we meet, whether it is for work or tea. That's why the crown prince made this room." Du Hai explained. 

The walls were covered with bright expensive tapestries, the floor was covered with wood but mats and mattress were scattered everywhere, there was a wide low table that was piled with food, thirty big bookshelves filled with books, and the Crown prince's "gang" sitting in the iddle of the room drinking tea. -_-

Mei Lan felt like giggling, but she was sure she would die in some sort of way if she did. So she held onto Du Hai's hands like death and stayed as calm as a piece of paper. 

A willowy guy with a beautiful face suddenly stood up, rushed towards her, and suddenly started hugging her feet. She was at loss for words. It happened so quickly she didn't have enough time to be surprised. 

"My goddess! you've finally arrived, I owe you my life now, you may order me around like a dog, I will do anything for you." Li Anye said as he hugged her feet. 

"Get off my sister's feet you molester, you back to the hole you crawled out of" Du Hai said, as he kicked Li Anye rather powerfully away from her.

"Sorry lady, my little brother seems to have made you his religion" Said Li cheng, grinning so widely that he's smile seemed to start from one ear and end at the other. 

" Duey! My love" yelled long as he jumped onto Du Hai, in her opinion it was a very sexual position, but no one seemed to think it weird, so she didn't say anything.

The crown prince who was watching intensely suddenly stood up. Everyone turned their attention to him, however, he suddenly seemed to have forgotten everything he was going to say.

"Lady Mei Lan, I...I wo..would like to, umm....." He kept stuttering. she thought he was stuttering because he had threatened her death a year ago. But nobody really knew why. 

However Long smiled with a knowing glance. Then got off of Du Hai's chest and spoke for the crown prince. 

"Duey's little sister, you are invited to join the crown prince's gang, if your Duey's sister, you should know, what it is like. It's pretty good, you should join" Long said, lazily leaning on Du hai shoulder.

Although the gang wasn't officially a gang, people called it that, because they would always stick together, wherever they went. They were also very loyal to each other.... in life threatening times. 

"Ummm....." Mei lan was confused. She never thought she would be invited, sure she would receive gifts and stuff, but  an invitation to the gang? In her past life she had yearned to spy on the gang, she hadn't even thought to join it. To the noble ladies, it was like a holy group of beautiful, capable, powerful beasts of young men. 

"You don't have to decide right now, the option will always be open for you, however for now we were wanting to invite you for tea." The crown prince said hastily.

Although she was going to say yes, because she would never be on the opposing side of the crown prince, she decided it was a little awkward for her to say it right now. So she just agreed and followed them to the middle of the table.