Conflict

As the sun rose on the Emperor's city, a young girl named Meili prepared to go for her classes in the palace. She was the daughter of general Cheng, the first general to the current leader, emperor Wu. She among her siblings was the chosen one to attend school in such a prestigious place but she hated every single minute of it. Why she had been subjected to such misery, she had no idea and had to literally drag her feet to the palace every morning of the week.

"Meili, don't forget your instruction manual," yelled her mother as Meili dashed out of the door. There was barely any reading or writing in school, she was being taught dancing, how to play musical instruments, painting and noble manors. When her father was not looking, her older brother, Xiao, taught her how to read and write without her father's knowledge. Her most favourite class though was painting, she always had great vision when it came to painting. To her, everything had an artist element to it and so found herself mesmerised by the blooming cherry blossom trees growing along the pathway as she strolled to school. She was deeply entranced in the scenic beauty that she didn't look where she was going when Meili accidentally bumped into someone.

She fell to the ground with a loud thud and heard a group of boys laughing in a taunting manner while pointing in her direction. Unfortunately for her fate had been too unkind as she had fallen right on top of crown prince Kai. Her face immediately flushed red as she hurriedly got back on her feet, apologising to him.

"My humble apologies your highness, I didn't see you-," she said as bowed her head down before he rudely interrupted her.

"Of course, you didn't see me, you were looking up at those stupid flowers! Do you know what I think? I think you tried to assassinate me because no one in their right mind walks looking up. You are so lucky I am not yet the emperor otherwise I would have had your head," said Kai as he scolded her in front of his friends.

Meili was in tears as she ran off towards the school gate in fear that he would change his mind and punish her. She wiped her tears away and quickly joined the music class which she was unfortunately late for.

"Late again Miss Cheng, you will have more time to daydream during detention. Maybe next time you won't be late," said the mean-looking madam Bai. Meili sighed as she took her instrument and sat next to her friend Juan who instantly noticed her bloodshot eyes.

Juan leaned over and whispered, "You will tell me after class what happened-,"

She was interrupted by Madam Bai's stick making a loud bang as it hit the table, "You too Miss Zhao, detention after class!"

After a gruesome hour of detention, the girls sat together as Meili finally explained to Juan the events that caused her emotional distress. Juan seemed more interested in the crown prince than her horrifying ordeal.

"He so handsome isn't he? I would have loved to be you gazing into his gorgeous eyes. Ah….I could just die right there and then," screamed Juan raising her hands in the air in excitement. "Such a beautiful cherry blossom moment!"

"Those so-called gorgeous eyes looked deadly to me, he said he would have beheaded me if he was emperor," replied Meili as she anxiously rubbed her neck.

"Well there he is," said a smitten Juan pointing at a group of boys passing through the courtyard. Meili looked where she was pointing immediately locking eye contact with prince Kai. Their eyes remained affixed with each other for a good minute before Meili averted her gaze blushing profusely. She had to admit, the prince was strikingly handsome with charms that could hypnotise women and men alike. Meili almost thought she had gotten away with staring at the crown prince when someone tapped her shoulder from behind.

"What gave you the audacity to stare at the crown prince like a drooling troll," yelled Daiyu, a girl Meili had classes with. Till today they had never crossed paths, hadn't even exchanged pleasantries not even once. Meili had no quarrel with Daiyu but always sensed that they were never destined to be friends. Daiyu was cream of the crop, the best at everything with the exception of art class which didn't settle well with this perfectionist.

"Honestly the girl is stupid, you don't rank high enough for you to be looking at him like that. Let this serve as a warning because next time I will use my hands," she said as she grabbed Meili's bag and tossed it onto the ground. The contents of her bag spilt onto the floor for everyone to see including the book her brother had given her to read. Unfortunately, women in this period were strictly forbidden from learning to read and write, though the emperor was working on changing the law, one could still be punished if found.

A panic-stricken Meili watched Daiyu crouch down to pick up the book. Scared stiff that she would found out, Meili took a swing at her punching her straight in the face. The curious onlookers had mixed feelings watching such a scene. Some were laughing, some had disapproving faces but Meili didn't expect what happened next. Daiyu's friends ganged up on her and threw a few kicks before Madam Bai came to break up the fight. She rounded them all and led them to the emperor's consort for punishment.

Meili knelt on the gravel outside the mansion as instructed by the empress, for a good six hours while waiting for her mother to be summoned. The other girls had already been dismissed since it was all Meili's fault but she didn't mind the punishment as long as no one discovered the book in her possession otherwise the penalty would have been ten times more vicious.

She knew her mother was going to be extremely furious with her and so she attempted to fix her hair and straighten her garments to look less displeasing to the eye. As she continued with her futile task, the hairs at the back of her head rose in fright sensing the impending danger.

"Meili, what's all this nonsense that you were in a fight, they better be wrong otherwise there will be severe consequences. Is that how I raised you? Now everyone is making a joke out of our family. Embarrassing your father like this, how is he going to face the emperor?" yelled Madam Cheng reprimanding her daughter.

They kowtowed before the emperor's consort begging for forgiveness but the gorgeous face before them frowned asking Meili to explain herself. The young girl fumbled through her words making up some odd excuse about attacking Daiyu. She really couldn't expose herself otherwise things will upgrade from bad to worse.

"Why don't I believe that? With such a wild character likes yours, how can I keep you here? You even went as far as seducing the crown prince in public view for everyone to see, shameless!" said the emperor's consort with a look of disgust. Meili bowed her head in shamefaced while shedding a few tears making sure her mother wouldn't see. They ruthless thrown out of the palace and Meili never stepped into the palace ever again that is until something unexpected happened in the future.