Chapter 18

Qin Chunhua

Today is a great day in Zhang Jihao’s book because not only did he got extra money from his mother to hang out at the brothels, he also got to see one of the top five celestial beauty of the city. He was strolling along the streets, on his way to the brothel for lunch when he spotted Qin Chunhua. Qin Chunhua is the only daughter of Official Qin – a powerful second rank official who holds influence over many lower court officials. Having such a powerful and rich father along with being one of the top beautiful girls in the city, makes Chunhua the most wanted marriage prospects for all the nobles’ sons.

Chunhua and her maid was at the most well-known jewelry store in the city. The two of them was looking at some jewelry laid out on the counter. Jihao straightens out his clothes and makes his way over to her. “The love goddess must be smiling on me today. To have grace me with the chance to meet the beautiful Lady Qin” he said as he steps into the store.

Chunhua, with her face veiled, turn around to look at him. “Young mister Zhang,” she greeted him. “How did you recognized me?”

Jihao leans on the counter and lustfully looked her up and down, “Who else in this city would have such a nice figure like yourself, and with such beauty that makes even a goddess jealous. Lady Qin, you always shine brighter than anyone else.”

“I cannot accept such praises from you when you have two beautiful cousins who fit that description more.”

“How can they even be compared to you.” He waves away the distasteful feeling he gets when his cousins are mentioned. They still haven’t apologized to him from that incident with the old man and even got his father to scold him about it. He glances down at the bracelets laid out on top of the counter and turn to the store owner, “What makes you think these low-quality bracelets is befitting of the beautiful Lady Qin?”

The store owner quickly bows and apologize to Jihao and Chunhua. Even though the bracelets displayed are the best ones in his store, but he doesn’t dare to argue against the well-known troublemaker son of General Zhang. Jihao grab all the bracelets on the counter and threw it at the store owner, “Throw out this trash! How dare you even display them in front of such a celestial beauty!”

“I’m so sorry Sir!. I’m so sorry!” the store owner continues to bow up and down and apologizing to Jihao.

“Bring me the Souls of the Stars” Jihao commanded as he turn back and smile at Chunhua.

“But…but Sir, that bracelet is your father’s…”

Jihao quickly whipped around and slammed his hand down on the counter, “If I tell you to go get it, then go get it!”

The store owner shakes with fear as he runs off into the back room of the store. Jihao knows that the Souls of the Stars is a special bracelet that his father had custom made for his mother. It is a gold bracelet encrusted with many expensive and rare gems like sapphire, ruby, diamonds, etc. The bracelet is worth a fortune and his father had it made in preparation for his mother’s birthday. Due to how much it’s worth and who ordered it, of course the store owner is scared. But in Zhang Jihao’s mind, whatever belongs to his parents will belong to him anyway. So, if he decides to take it now versus later, there’s no difference.

The store owner came back a few minutes later with a beautiful golden box that he carefully places down on the counter. Jihao picks it up, open it and smile to himself. He closes the lid and turn towards Chunhua. He smirks as he handed the box to her, confident that such a gift will give him an advantage over the others who are also after Qin Chunhua.

Chunhua opened the box and let out a little gasp that cause Jihao to grin widely. He reaches out and take the bracelet out of the box, “This is a custom-made bracelet so there’s only one of it in this whole world. Only something as uniquely valuable and beautiful as this bracelet will fit someone as gorgeous as you.” He unclasps the bracelet and held it out in front of her, “May I?”

She handed the box to her maid and put out her hand so he can put the bracelet on her wrist. “Store owner, how much is this bracelet? I want to buy it,” she asks the store owner as she looked over the details on the bracelet. The store owner really wanted to say that it’s not for sale but Jihao’s death glare caused his words to be stuck in his throat.

“You don’t need to pay. This is my gift to you in celebration of our chance meeting today” Jihao said. “All I ask in return is that you will think of me whenever you glance upon this bracelet” he continues with his flirting.

“Thank you for your beautiful gift Young mister Zhang.”

“Anything for the beautiful Lady Qin.”

---

After returning from practice, Meiyin freshened up and had lunch with her father and her sister. During lunch, Yueyin had asked for permission to go out for materials to make lanterns for the children at the shelter. Meiyin had begged to come along and her father surprisingly agreed without much thought. He seems to have been kept busy with helping Judge Wei to solve a murder case in the city. Meiyin sometimes wonder why a fifth rank court official like her father spends more time at home and helping out with the local lower ranking officials than spending time at the imperial court. She had asked Yueyin once but didn’t get much of an answer, so she just let it go.

The two of them and their personal maid, Xiaolan, went to the regular shops to pick up materials for the lanterns. On their way back, Meiyin skips happily at the front while Yueyin and Xiaolan walk slowly with bags full of things they just bought.

“Meiyin, be careful not to bump into other people” Yueyin said to the joyfully skipping Meiyin. It is the festive season, so the streets are more crowded than usual with people rushing about in preparation for the upcoming Lantern Festival.

“You worry too much Jie” Meiyin said as she turns to look at her sister.

It was at this moment that something large was thrown against Meiyin and she stumbled and fell to the ground along with the object.

“What in the…” Meiyin yell out as she tries to push the object off her but stop her movement when she realized that it was a person. The person was also surprised to have fell on top of someone when she was thrown out the door of the shop. She struggles to get off of Meiyin but didn’t have any strength to push herself upward, so she just rolls off to the side while mumbling an apology.

When Meiyin fell, Yueyin and Xiaolan had dropped whatever they were holding and quickly rushed over to her. They were going to help lift the person on top of Meiyin off, but the person just rolled off to the side, so they helped Meiyin to get up. “Are you alright?” Yueyin ask as she looks Meiyin over for any sign of injuries.

“I’m alright,” Meiyin said as she dusts off her clothes. The two Zhang sister then turn to the stranger, who is struggling to get up off the floor. Meiyin would have questioned the person to no end if she had not seen the state the person is in. This person seems to be about their age, dressed in dirty and drenched rags with no shoe. Her hair was so messy that it covers most of her face. She looks worse than the most homeless person in the city. The two of them went on either side of her and help her to stand up. Xiaolan ran to pick up the things she and Yueyin dropped earlier and pulled out a hooded outer coat that Yueyin had just bought for her as a birthday present. Xiaolan wanted to drape the coat over the shaking and shivering girl but she shied away shaking her head. Seeing that, Meiyin quickly took off her own coat and forcefully put it on the girl. When the girl tried to take it off, Meiyin wrap it tighter around her, “You don’t have to worry about dirtying this one since it’s already dirty from the fall earlier.”

The girl was about to apologize again but someone spoke out loudly interrupting her, “You’re still here?” The four girls and the small crowd that had started to gather, turn to look in the direction of the voice. The Zhang sisters scowl upon seeing Jihao step out of the store that the girl was thrown out from.

“Jihao ge” Meiyin said with gritted teeth. She can’t believe that even after last time he still treats lower class people like trash. Although it’s spring but it’s still quite cold outside, so how can any educated gentleman throw a drenched girl out in the street like this. Whatever punishment her uncle gave him was definitely not enough to make him change. 

“Hah, if it isn’t my two cousin who likes to get other people in trouble over low class trash.” Jihao said with such an attitude that makes Meiyin wants to kick him again. 

“Jihao, apologize to her now. That’s not how you should be calling anyone” Yueyin said. She is older than him and he should be listening to her, but she knows how spoil rotten he is so she wasn’t really expecting any proper form of apology. 

“You’re asking me to apologize to that?” He laughed as if she just said the funniest thing he had ever heard. 

“Zhang Yueyin, why should young mister Zhang apologized to a beggar who doesn’t know her place and offended him?” Chunhua said as she stepped out from the store and stand beside Jihao. 

“Qin Chunhua, a beggar is still a person. How can you people treat someone like this?” Meiyin said angrily.

“I think young mister Zhang is already very lenient. The crime of offending a noble could get her whipped or locked up in prison for a couple days. It’s already very noble of him to let her off easy like that.”

“Spoiled brats like you two get offended at literally everything. Don’t you get tired of punishing everyone in your life every second of the day?” Meiyin said.

“Meiyin, I can tolerate you insulting me because we are family. But don’t you dare insult Lady Qin.” Jihao said, trying to act like a hero protecting an innocent lady.

“Family? Please don’t ever speak that word, it’s embarrassing to be family with you” Meiyin said.

“How exactly have she offended you?” Yueyin, who have been staying quiet, asked. 

“Lady Zhang, please take a look. This is the most well known jewelry store in the city where only nobles frequent. Knowing that, yet this beggar still dare to enter the store and ruined the mood of young mister Zhang and our young miss. We’ve asked her to leave but she wouldn’t so we had to have her thrown out” Chunhua’s personal maid explained.

Yueyin glance towards the store owner who was cowering at the doorway not daring to utter a word. “Store owner, is there a rule that only nobles can enter your store?” she asked him.

“Th..there....” the store owner stutter, not sure what he should say because he’s afraid of offending any of these nobles.

“Zhang Yueyin, some rule doesn’t need to be spoken out loud. A person should know her place and see if she’s fit to even walk by such places” Chunhua’s maid said arrogantly.

“So there is no official rule written down anywhere that a non-noble cannot enter the store” Yueyin said and the store owner nodded hesitantly. “Then why must she be thrown out?” 

“Be..because…” the store owner fearfully glance at Jihao and Chunhua.

Jihao cool down a bit from his prideful high as he notices the crowd’s attitude beginning to lean towards Yueyin. “Enough with your nonsense inquiries cousin. The trash’s presence offended me so I threw her out. That’s all there is to it so stop wasting both mine and Lady Qin’s time.”

Yueyin motion for Xiaolan to take over on her side to support the still shaking girl. Meiyin, who was supporting the girl on the other side, send her a questioning look and she smiled in reassurance. She makes her way over and up the store’s porch where Jihao, Chunhua and the maid is standing. Everyone watches, wondering what she’s going to do. They all gasped in shock when she slaps the maid and push her hard down the few steps of the porch, causing the maid to fall painfully on the ground. 

“Zhang Yueyin! How dare you!” Chunhua turn and yell angrily at her.

“Yueyin! What do you think you are doing?!” Jihao also yelled at her.

She turns to them and calmly said, “What’s wrong? I’m just punishing a lower class person that has offended me.”

“Zhang Yueyin!” Chunhua yelled at her again with more anger in her voice than the first time.

“Didn’t she said it’s an unspoken rule that only nobles are allowed in this store? I’m just helping her to remember her place. You should be thankful that I’m saving your face by not having her whipped for offending me. Lady Qin, you need to re-educate your maids. If they keep going around and talking to other nobles with such an arrogant attitude and forgetting their place, people might begin to think that the whole Qin clan are all uneducated lower class people who are only noble by appearance” Yueyin said then makes her way back towards Meiyin. When she passes by the maid that was still crying on the ground, she said, “Before judging if others are good enough, you should judge yourself first. Don’t learn all the bad traits from your young miss.” 

Chunhua was so angry that she doesn’t know what to say. Jihao was furious, these two cousins of his is causing him to lose face again. He won’t take it today, not in front of Lady Qin. He rushed down the porch and used his left hand to grab onto Yueyin’s left arm and pull her back towards him, while raising his right hand ready to strike her. 

Meiyin quickly reacted and rushed over to stop him. She yelled out to him as she rushed over, “Zhang Jihao, do you not want your arm anymore?!” But as she was about to intercept and block his strike with her arm, she felt Yueyin pushed her out of the way with her free arm. Meiyin watch in horror as Jihao’s strike came down on her sister’s face. “Jie!” Meiyin cried out and run back towards them after quickly recovering her momentum from Yueyin’s push. She hit a pressure point on Jihao’s left arm hard, causing him to cry out in pain and releasing his grip on Yueyin’s arm. 

After seeing the red mark on Yueyin’s cheek and the blood from her lip, Meiyin wanted to chop Jihao up into a hundred pieces. She was about to go teach him a lesson but Yueyin grab onto her hand and pulled her back. She doesn’t understand why Yueyin pushed her away earlier and taken Jihao’s strike. She wanted to ask but right now her anger overruled her curiosity. 

Chunhua straighten up and laugh out loud as Jihao back up towards her, “Young mister Zhang, thank you for teaching your insolent cousin a lesson and take revenge for me,” she said as she reaches out and touches his left arm gently, “I will always remember what you did for me. I must take my leave now for I do not want to be involved with such trashes any longer. I hope we will meet again young mister Zhang.” She gave the Zhang sisters a deathly glare then stomp off.

Having gotten the favor of the beauty and his pride back, Jihao also left the scene without sparing his cousins another glance. Xiaolan help support the girl in rags over and asked Yueyin concernedly, “Eldest young miss, are you alright?”

“I’m so sorry! Thank you for helping me” the girl said in tears.

Yueyin smile at them, “I’m alright.”

“Hurry, let’s get you treated!” Meiyin said as she was about to drag Yueyin to a physician.

“No, not right now” Yueyin said as she shook her head.

“What? Why?” Meiyin asked.

“Some people need to see it first.”

Now Meiyin understand why her sister let Jihao strike her. Their father and uncle will definitely not let Jihao off with just some light punishment this time. If Meiyin had hit him then she would also be in trouble and he would have gotten off easy again. But if Yueyin thinks that Meiyin will just let it go without punishing Jihao personally then her sister doesn’t know her very well.

Author's Notes:

The mei from meimei (younger sister) is different from the mei from Meiyin's name. The mei from Meiyin's name means beautiful. 

The xiao from xiaoming and xiaolan's name are usually used with minor character's name. It's used for a different purpose when used in xiaofei and xiaoyin (which is an endearing or closer way of addressing a younger person).

I should have clarify this on the chapters in which these names appear but I forgot and only realized that I forgot about it now XD

Thank you for being patient with the slow updates :)