My Prince

It was the day after that fateful day when Mei Wang barged into their house, claiming to be the owner of the Mei Mansion. At the time after midnight, the Mei mansion was enveloped in silence.

Everybody in the house was asleep. Mei Wei was in a deep slumber dreaming about romantic scenes between Aman and him.

The house was extremely quiet, so much so that the sounds of cicadas could be heard. Well, everyone was asleep except two people. These two people were none other than Luo Li and Aman Vasuki.

If one tried carefully, they could hear someone's footsteps. The sound of footsteps wasn't loud enough.

Luo Li held two mugs of warm milk and walked towards Aman's room. There was a mysterious air around her. When she entered the room, she saw Aman sitting on the bed; he was still awake. He knew why Luo Li was here at this point. Their discussion was due for the last few days.

Luo Li sat beside Aman on his bed. She handed him his mug and said in a teasing tone, smiling, "I present to you your mug of warm milk, Your Highness. Please accept this."

Aman was amused after hearing Luo Li addressing him in a very formal way.

"Sister Li! I have told you so many times you don't need to address me like this when I am here. It's not appropriate."

Luo Li smiled and said, "What? It's not like it's not true; you are indeed a PRINCE."

"A prince of your entire Vasuki Clan, and everybody should only address you like this. It is the most appropriate way."

Aman replied to her, in an explaining tone, "Yeah, I am. But there is no need to address me like that here. If anybody hears this, we will be in great trouble. I am only a caretaker here, a pitiful orphan caretaker who is most loyal to my prince."

Luo Li snorted in annoyance. "Yeah, you have to act like a servant to these humans. It is disrespectful to you. I don't understand why we don't bite and kill them all. As of now, they all will come back. Then you can go back, and we wouldn't have to tolerate them anymore."

A glint flashed through Aman's eyes, and he spoke in a cold tone, "Because I don't want to give them an easy death. I want to hear them scream. I want to hear them beg for me, and most importantly, I want to witness the look of fear on their faces, the look that shows their fear of death in their eyes when they realise who I am. I want them to regret even being born."

Luo Li felt that the conversation was getting dark; her purpose was just to talk about their next plan. She didn't want to get Aman angry. She tried to change the topic to a not-so-heavy topic. "Okay, let's not talk about this. But tell me, why do you call Mei Wei 'my prince? He doesn't even belong to a royal family."

She was genuinely curious about this. She had already enquired about all the information on the Mei family through her resources, and she was damn sure that Mei Wei did not belong to a royal family.

Hearing Mei Wei's name, Aman's expression softened. "I don't know too why I call him that. It's just when I first saw him, the first name that popped into my mind was 'my prince'. He even asked me why I called him that when I first did it."

Luo Li was more curious now; she asked eagerly, "Then how did you reply?" 

Aman answered, waving his hand, "I just said that. I call him my prince because he is the little prince of the Mei estate. Although at first, it didn't look like he believed me. After time passed, he gradually became used to it."

There was one more question lingering in Luo Li's heart—something too personal, something she wasn't sure she had the right to ask. Aman had always treated her with warmth and courtesy, but she knew that didn't mean she could cross certain lines.

Yet curiosity has its own will. In the end, she couldn't hold it back. Gently, she asked, "Aman… is that the only reason you call him that? Because… my dad once showed me pictures of him. And Mei Wei—he does look quite a bit like him. Do you… see him when you look at Mei Wei?"

The question hung in the air like a fragile thread. Aman's expression froze in surprise, and Luo Li immediately realized she had gone too far. Her eyes widened and she quickly lowered her head. "Forgive me, Your Highness. I shouldn't have said that. Please forgive me."

Aman looked at her for a moment before gently shaking his head. "No, Sister Li. You don't need to apologize. You're not wrong… Mei Wei does resemble him, and even some of their habits are similar. But the truth is, he and Mei Wei are two different people. I don't see Mei Wei as his substitute. Mei Wei has his own place in my heart."

Aman's gaze drifted, lost in memory. He remembered him—the way he would playfully demand to be addressed as a prince, and how Aman would always refuse, smiling at his antics. But then, when he first saw Mei Wei—someone who looked so much like him—he hadn't been able to stop himself. The words slipped out.

It had felt, in that fleeting moment, as though he was standing there again—alive, smiling, teasing Aman to call him 'prince' once more.

He was not just a prince of a great dynasty. He was the prince of Aman's heart.

And when Aman called Mei Wei my prince, it was as if he was making up for the times he hadn't said it to the right person.

Aman became sad after remembering that again. He missed 'him' so much. His eyes started to water. Tears were on the verge of falling. He didn't want to cry in front of Luo Li, so he tried to change the topic, "Sister Li, tell me something. Why did you still make Mei Wang the owner of the 30%? Why not completely change the papers?"

Luo Li smiled, and Aman changed the topic. She was relieved that Aman was trying to stay strong in front of her. She answered, "I deliberately made them like that. Think about it: Mei Wang lives far away from us. He always makes vicious plans behind our backs. That is why I did it. I completely assure you, my charm has completely worked on him. Now he is unable to stay away from me. If my guess is correct, he will come here tomorrow demanding that he stay here because he is also an owner. In this way, we will be able to keep an eye on him. What's more, he will probably insist on letting his so-called friends stay here because it's his house too. All of our prey would stay in front of our eyes."

Aman was looking happy; he said, "Sister Li, this plan is really good. In this way I will be able to keep an eye on that demon, Mei Wang. He has tried many times to plot against my prince."

Luo Li asked, "Aman, why haven't you done something like this and let Mei Wang stay with you before? You might get some information about them. Is it because of your hate towards Mei Wang?"

Aman replied, "It's true that I once thought about it. But I know my prince would be unhappy. I can suppress my hate, but I can't see my prince unhappy at all. But maybe this time I don't have much choice. I will try my best to coax my prince."

Luo Li nodded her head. Both of them fell silent and looked at their respective mugs, which once contained warm milk.

They drank their milk, which had turned cold, silently, but they didn't have any choice. They become so immersed in the talk and forget to drink it. Then Aman enquired, "Have you lured them into our trap? When are they coming back here?"

Luo Li answered, "Yeah, that greedy Mei Wang had already told me that he has asked his friends who will help me. They are coming back in a week or so."

"That's great," Aman said.

Luo Li asked about their plan again. She didn't want to make any mistakes. "So how are we going to kill him? Same as last time, by scaring them?"

Aman answered; he had already thought about their next move, "No, we can't scare them. If we do it again, they will become suspicious, and it would be difficult for us to stop them from running away. This time I will attack them mentally." He stopped for a moment, then sighed and continued, "You know there was a time when I thought that humans couldn't be that bad despite all the stories they told in our world about humans. But now I realised that I was wrong… if not completely, then somewhat. It's right that all the humans are not bad, but some of them are worse than demons."

"So what's the exact plan?" Luo Li asked.

Aman answered, "Sister Li, we have to first gain their trust, and then they will let their guard down. We will kill them. I want to let them feel what it feels like to have their trust broken. Like mine was broken by humans."

Luo Li nodded, and she looked at the wall clock. She thought it was quite late. Both of them wished each other good night and went to sleep.

The men who were coming back from abroad to settle a great business deal did not have any idea that a death trap was being laid for them…...