Yisheng sighed, trailing back out of the forest after a decently successful hunt. However, he didn't feel satisfied. Not at all. The girl with the beautiful voice had escaped him, leaving his heart feeling pained and heavy. His thoughts were flooded with imaginary visions of her. He envisioned dark hair, bright eyes, a slender body and pale skin. He knew, absolutely knew, that she had to be gorgeous. And, even if some people would think otherwise, he knew that /he/ was the one that was right.

He kicked at a loosened stone on the ground, lightly flinging it against the base of a tree.

"Is something wrong?" Jiangren questioned, watching the slightly older boy as he seemed to lose himself in thought. He'd known the prince his entire life and could easily read the frustration and impatience that had settled onto his features.

"That girl..." Yisheng muttered his response, his eyes fixated on the ground that appeared to move before his feet. He wanted... no... needed... to see her. It was driving him mad to know the voice but not the face.

"You know her?"

"Of course not. Not yet, anyway." Yisheng suddenly flashed a smile back at the younger man, something of a smirk rising to the top and settling. They would be taking this hunt to the butcher at his small food shop.

This family, a husband and wife with their young daughter, were known to have the best produce in the town. They knew everyone, and, in turn, everyone knew them. This meant that, if he was lucky, he could get information about this mystery woman of his. He had never, personally, been to this shop before, but he thought this might be the perfect time to do so.

"What are you going to do? Send guards through the town asking every girl to sing until they find the right one?" Jiangren jested, giving a chuckle to go along with his words. In response, Yisheng glared at him, but only for a moment before giving a response.

"No. Actually, we're going to that produce shop in town." He stated matter if factly, turning his attention back to the path leading out of the woods.

"What? Why? We grow our own food at the palace."

"I know. But, I hear that their produce is even better than ours." Yisheng, now quite pleased, believed his idea to be fool proof. He needn't explain himself to Jiangren, he knew that, if he told the younger man, he would simply shoot down the idea and tell him to give up.

But, how could somebody give up when fate was tugging so persistently at the strings of his heart? And the fabric of his mind?

Though all he knew was her voice, he was already in love.

Lixiu watched as her mother laughed and smiled with a familiar customer and family friend as they traded not only necessities, but gossip. Lixiu had never been one to enjoy gossip, if she were to be quite honest, but she couldn't say the same about her mother. The woman soon gave a bow and walked south down towards other parts of the town, surely planning on gathering more things that she needed for the week.

"You know, Lixiu..." Her mother started, leaving the stall where their food was on display to walk the few feet back into the small, open, hut in which Lixiu was keeping herself concealed and preoccupied by weaving dyed materials into a delicately intricate pattern, no doubt to be used as either clothing or a blanket. The dull blue, she thought, matched the sky, and gave her a sense of peace... which was broken by her mother's constant talking.

Lixiu looked up from her work, placing it on her lap as she let her gaze meet her mother's. The elder crouched down beside the sitting girl and raised a brow at her.

"Apparently, Bojing has set his sights on you. He wants to ask you to marry him." Her mother smiled widely, nudging her daughter a bit in the hopes of receiving some sort of reaction, "You know that his family is one of the wealthiest in this town. His father is even friends with the king. I think you should take him up on the offer and marry him."

"But mother..." Lixiu whined, not caring that, if anyone else was in close proximity, they could hear everything that was being said, "I hardly even know him. I don't want to be with a man that I don't even know."

"You know how this works, Lixiu. Besides, Chen proposed getting married to you, and you rejected him as well. I thought that the two of you were decently close."

"Mother... what's so wrong with wanting to wait? Why can't you just let me fall in love rather than trying to pawn me off on whomever you see fit. I won't be happy unless I like the man that I marry." This disagreement wasn't something new. They'd had this same argument several times before. And each time, they ended up disgusted with one another.

"I should never have put such nonsense into your head. Love only comes that easily in stories. When you love somebody, it has to come in time. You get married, and, over the years, you eventually learn to love the person that you're with. It's like... survival. You choose whomever can help you make it through life the most comfortably, and you teach yourself how to get along with him. Is that understood?"

"That's ridiculous! You might have done that, but there's no way that I'm going to let myself go through the same!"

Her mother rose a hand to strike her daughter, as was usual during the heat of this never ending battle, but her attention was drawn back to the stall when a strong voice called. Quickly, she gave Lixiu orders to go to her father and help him to bring back today's catch of fish, which, without hesitation, the