He released the lady and she gasped for air. I nodded at her to leave as she hesitated, but decided to run for her life. He grabbed my hands and tied them with a rope.

            “You’re mine now.” he knotted my hands together.

            “Actually, she is mine.” someone said from behind. I glanced to the voice, making eye contact with the young sir dressed in a blue silk robe.

            “Who are you?” the man questioned the blue-dressed sir.

            “Su Wei,” he answered and placed his hand on the man’s shoulder.

            “What are you doing?” Su Wei smiled and pushed the man away from me. They both attacked each other, but every move the man took Su Wei would dodge. Su Wei grabbed my hands, but the man did the same.

            “You’re not taking her.” the man demanded.

            “She’s already mine, sir.” Su Wei reminded and struck the man in the chest. And then, he threw me over his shoulder and ran. Once we were across the bridge, he sets me down and I glared at him. We both stared into each other’s eyes for a long time. His sharp facial features fascinated me, yet having sharp features his eyes drew me in. They illuminated darkness and sadness.

            “Are you going to continue staring at me, Miss?” Su Wei asked as he leaned forward. I jerked back and lost my balance. Immediately he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me forward from falling backwards into the river. I fell right into his chest with my head leaning on it and I felt my cheeks burning. Without thinking, I shoved him away and couldn’t turn to face him.

            “Are you okay?” he asked.

            “I-I’m fine!” I answered harshly.

            “Then why is your face red? Are you getting sick?”

            “No!” I turned to him, “It is just too hot.” I lied and noticed Gao Yang and his men heading our direction.

            “Don’t you know who I am?’” he asked, but I didn’t pay attention.

            “Thanks for your help, but I am in a rush to leave!” I bowed to pay my respects and ran back towards the town.

            “Hey! Hey! Miss!” He shouted behind me, but I didn’t stop.

            I stopped running as soon as I reached home and tried to catch my breath. Luckily Gao Yang didn’t see me or else he could have kidnapped me. That would have been bad because then it means I have to get forced into marrying him. Suddenly, someone touched my shoulder from behind. I turned to the person and jumped a little.

            “Xiao Ming! You scared me!” I shouted at his face.

            “Sorry, Xiang Yun. I didn’t mean to, but what is wrong? You wouldn’t have been scared if you paid attention.”

            “I just saw Gao Yang outside the market, so I ran as fast as I could to get home.”

            “He’s here again? I thought he’d left to go back to his kingdom?”

            “I am not sure, but he must be heading back here to cause troubles. I must warn father!” My eyes lit up and I immediately ran inside without saying my goodbyes to Xiao Ming.

            “Silly girl, always jumping from here to there without considering that she can hurt herself.”

            In the Main Hall

I rushed inside even though my father was greeting guests. I head to the front without greeting the guests and grabbed my father’s hand.

            “Father, I think Gao Yang is coming back to cause troubles.” I said to him but he didn’t respond to me as he kept his head facing straight.

            “Xiang Yun, shouldn’t you greet the guests first?” father corrected me. I turned my head and stood before me was all the suitors including Su Wei.

            “Why are they here?” I asked and spotted Gao Yang among them, “Why is Gao Yang here!?” I shouted.

            “Before you ask us, you should ask your dad about why he had us come here,” Gao Yang said, seemed irritated with me.

            “It was actually your shifu’s idea to gather them here,” father said.

            “Shifu? Why would shifu ask them to gather here without a purpose?”

            “Seems like Xiang Yun already beat me to coming here,” shifu said as he entered the room.

            “Shifu!” I greeted him and had him sit next to my father. “What are you planning on doing, shifu?” I asked referring to the gathering.

            “Your marriage competition is coming soon, so I wanted your suitors to know the final competition they have to go through before being accepted as your husband.” I cocked my head and glance from my shifu to Su Wei. He also came to compete for my marriage? Wasn’t he the man who saved me from earlier? “As everyone has heard, the competition consists of 2 trials. The first trial is poetry and the second trial is a battle among the men. As for the final competition that I decided to add on, the first person who kills the white-eyed eagle will officially be Xiang Yun’s husband.”

            “That sounds easy,” Gao Yang commented and glared at Su Wei.

            “Shifu,” I pulled him closer to me and whispered, “Doesn’t the white-eyed eagle only come out during a specific time? So will they be able to kill him?”

            “Don’t worry; I made sure that when the competition happens the white-eyed eagle will come out.”

            “Oh…” I nodded and from the corner of my eyes noticed Su Wei staring at us. “Who is that guy anyway?” I asked shifu. He glanced over to Su Wei and back at me with a smirk.

            “The one I personally selected for you.”

            “You know him?”

            “Of course, he’s the best out of all of them.”

            “Of course he is because you selected him, right?”

            “Yes.”

            “Where is he from? Who exactly is he?”

            “He is the personal attendant of the Crown Prince of Cai Kingdom. Cai citizens love him, so I assumed he would be a perfect match for you.”

            I laughed and moved away from shifu. Shortly, my father invited all the men to stay over and have dinner before the big day. They chattered as they were escorted to the guest hall to be entertained by music and performance dances. I followed them from behind and noticed Su Wei purposely walking slower to enjoy the scenery. Our eyes made contact as I immediately looked away while he chuckled to himself. He stopped to admire the courtyard garden as everyone was ahead of us. I avoided looking at him and tried to escape, but he said something that made me stop.

            “Huh?” I stopped where I was, “Were you talking with me?”

            He laughed, “If I wasn’t talking to you who would I be talking to?” He gestured to make me realize that it was just me and him in the courtyard garden. I laughed nervously and nodded with agreement.

            “Sorry, Mr. Su Wei if I had offended you.”

            He walked over to me and stood in front of me. “Earlier you were so daring, what happened to that, huh?”

            “Sorry…”

            “Why aren’t you looking up at me?” he bended down to get a good look at me. “Are you embarrassed?”

            “No,” I jerked back and briefly looked up. “We should get going. My father and shifu is waiting for us.” I quickly walked away as I heard from behind him laughing softly.

            Once we got inside the guest hall, he sat from the opposite side of me but directly from me so that he can see me. I tried my hardest to avoid looking at him knowing that he would tease me as soon as I react to him.

            “Princess” A’Li came from behind, “Your Majesty wants you to prepare to perform a dance for the guest.”

            “Now?” I glance at Su Wei, “I am not prepared though!”

            “Your Majesty wants you to perform no matter what.”

            I groaned and got up to leave my seat.

            A few minutes passed and the performing dancers left the floor. The maids rushed and blew out a few candles as the guzheng slowly started playing. Accompanied by the erhu and bamboo flute, the soft music lightened up the mood. The entire guest turned to look at the me, who’s playing the guzheng. My father and shifu nodded their head in approval as the guest couldn’t take their eyes off of me. I continued to play the song and looked up at Su Wei. He smiled at me and I lowered my head feeling a bit shy. The song ended shortly and everyone applauded.

            “Beautiful! A very good song to listen to,” Gao Yang complimented.

            “Beautiful yet sad. It sounds like a lover is yearning for a loved one who’s no longer living,” Su Wei commented.

            “Correct, it is song about Lian Hua who’s family got escorted to the northern lands because the Great Emperor wanted Lian Hua for himself. Lian Hua never loved the Great Emperor, but the Great Emperor forced her to sleep with him in exchange for her parent’s lives. But on that night, she died because the Great Emperor told her, ‘if she will never love him, then no one else can have her’. She was , choked, and stabbed to death. She lost her dignity to a man who didn’t have dignity himself. Shortly, her parents found out about this and collected a hundred fireflies to send their love to Lian Hua in the spirit world.”

            “She deserved it.” Gao Yang impulsively remark. I glared at him and stood up furious.

            “Gao Yang, she definitely did not deserve it. It’s like this; she was forced to be with someone because her parents’ lives were at stake. She’s not an item to be thrown around with; she did her best to preserve her honor but he took that away from her. And so, he’s at fault for being selfish,” Su Wei interjected.

I stared at Su Wei, amazed at what he said and smiled. Gao Yang was about to respond back, but my father interrupted them both and dismissed me from the stage. I got down and walked over to Su Wei to give him a toast. He smiled at me and gestured the servants to grab us two cups of wine.

            “You impressed me,” I praised, “I am sure your poetry skills aren’t bad either.”

            “Thanks, but I am not as good as you,” he replied being humble.

            “Let us toast; as an apology for being rude earlier,” I raised my cup of wine so did he.

            “Apology taken,” he smiled as we toasted to each other.