Chapter 10

‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍SheJin looked at the books.He decided that will just drop the books then be on his way out of the library.

With what is going on, he has time to burn as the movement of servants and officials would be forbidden for the next couple of hours.

But then again he has to prepare some refreshments for the MinHee s mother as she and her daughter are eventually going to have a lunch with one of the minister s mother.

It's not obvious but it seems that MinHee s mother is on a rush to get her daughter married off as soon as possible.MinHee is at that age where she should be called Mrs somebody and raising tiny people.

Being the royal family member is a huge bonus but that comes with some sizable flaws .

There are so many rules , unavoidable spotlights not to mention very high expectations . Everything one does has to be indefectile all the time. From the things they do, to the things they like all the the way to people they interact with. There is no room for error and there are no exception. These people are the definition of ideal so they have to maintain that image all the time

That also means that they have to get married to the elite of the elite. And that process involves tidious filtering as there are so many tough boxes to tick for one to become an eligible bachelor.

Of course the king can just randomly point at someone to marry them to MinHee but HyanNi wants to be ahead of him. Maybe she is intending to overrule the order of the king by saying she had already found somebody immaculate for her daughter.

The king has to be unbiased but that doesn't mean that he should be deaf to any suggestions. Plus HyanNi only has the best interest at heart for her daughter.So who ever she picks must be a diamond in the desert

SheJin placed the books on the tray that he had brought in with him. The bowl was already cold as as it has been in the open for a while . He could eat it but he never liked milk-porridge more especially when it has cooled. It tastes so funny like frozen saw-dust

His ability to make it comes from the fact he habitually prepared it for his grandfather . Because along side Kimchi porridge or congee and steam buns stuffed with beef stir-fry, grandfather forced him to learn it because it's a 'rite of passage' . Of course that was just a tactic as he just couldn't come up a concrete reason for SheJin to make his all-time favorite

By-and-by no matter how SheJin made it and inspite of whether it was hot or not, he always ate it with so much joy.

Even-so he would mock SheJin before and after eating, saying he would never be as good as himself or that even the goat-smelling medicine AhMun gave him tasted like marshmallows compared this, never once has he ever left a drop of milk-porridge in the bowl. His word and actions when he is and when he is not eating the food always contradict one another . According to AhMun, Grandfather behaved like a man who belittled alcohol when sober but praised it when drinking.

SheJin felt a yearn develop in his heart as he thinks about the only person who ever made house a home. The one person who taught him how to write Kanji and Hanja with a brush. Who taught him how to paint and how to fish.

SheJin never knew anybody else and he didn't need to. His heaven and earth resided in the affection of the old with a crocodile chuckle and a very exotic persona

Though he doesn't usually think about Grandfather, he always sees him in his dreams. His mocking voice, his sarcasm, his soft white hair, deep wrinkles and flat teeth.

He really wishes there was something he would have done to hold on to him a little tighter but he was powerless. The sweet soul passed away in his sleep.No struggle just simply closed his eyes and never came back to see the light.

The summation of such thoughts made him want to cry but he can't do that anymore. He has shed too many tears in his honour and feels so numb towards the burden he bares. Maybe indeed his wounds will heal

At that instant, a knock came on the down. SheJin got startled . The melancholy in his face quickly faded but the one in his heart was far from blurring. He wore his indifference like a mask and faced to the visitor who is very eligible to be called an intruder.

Dressed in the all popular uniform and very neat hair , a young maid stepped into the room.in her hands was a stone containing a black liquid

The stone had golden exterior but it's not pure gold as that would be too heavy to carry around . In this era there is no electrolysis so whatever that stone is made of is a counterfeit of the real deal. That is not to say anything bad but rather to applaud whoever made such a piece with few scientific knowledge. For now this sort of work is worth being expensive.

She bowed then smiled at SheJin.

The sort of smile she gave him was more than just a greeting. And she wasn't even trying to hide that at all.And why should she there is only the two of them in the room

To be honest no matter how strict this place is, there are something that just can't be restricted by laws. Things like the excitement of these young ladies when they meet the handsome men in this place.

They just can't help it, it's the power of opposites attracting and the attraction being stronger if the gap between the two is huge.

That gap being measured in terms of wealth, relation and most of all aesthetic appeal. All of which SheJin has especially the latter as according to his girlfriend and her friends, he is in the top ten most handsome people in the palace. Of course the latter didn't say it to his face but he had caught them whispering occasionally especially when they see a group of men gathered in one place like during the morning meal and delivery of reports.

For a gullible reason he felt quite happy that he looks good to the eyes because whenever he looks into the mirror he can't see his reflection. Never at any point has he seen the look on his face , nor does he know the contours of his face. He can trace them but he really can't imagine what he looks like

Out of curiosity, he wanted to ask if YongSun is in the list and if possible to ask his and YongSun s position so that he can estimate how appealing he looks.

But then again they might say or ask something inappropriate so he forgoed that. If and if only YongSun doesn't fall in the list whoever made it must be very much in need of an optometrist or a physcologist. Reason being that if SheJin made that list,the first four positions would have the same candidate

Notwithstanding he looked away from the lady, who instantly felt like she had just been thrown with cow dung across her face. It's not uncommon for the men here to give them cold shoulders but rumour has it that the men seldom do it when it's just the two of them. So she was probably thought that SheJin would keep the trend alive. Poor her!

The only woman that SheJin knew to be exquisite was his beloved. Her conduct and down to earth behavior is what made SheJin take a deeper liking into her .

However ever since he came here he has seen women who far much gorgeous ,cultured and extra-ordinary.

So seeing these traits is everyone doesn't make one interesting as they just acting commonly as is everyone. Therefore it's not worth saying it makes one unique.

Withal he bowed to her since she is a lot older than him. That was also his way of telling her that doesn't want to have to interact further with the likes of her.

Even if he wanted someone of her calibre, it would never stop bothering him that she threw themselves at him or other men like this. In SheJin s perspective, It's truly undignified especially for people serving a heaven s sovereign. And thus a big turn off especially if he's not aquinted to that someone. It just looks crude and un-lady like

He headed out of the place

The king s reading room is in a square along with other buildings like the meeting room and the talk room. They enclose a small garden that is very famous for the king and his ministers . Due to the fact that it is shaded they tend to favour having meals or tea meetings there. This section is called in the west so they named it W4. The number indicates hierarchy in ascending order.

There are many such important buildings grouped into sections but they just name the sections this way instead of using superstitious names.

The design for each section was made with incredible accessibility in mind.

It's not practical to pass through any section as it's where important business is held but the royal family can use it and some workers unless forbidden by the guards.So since there is nothing happening , they can pass .

Enterance towards the king s room can be from where Iseul was coming from which is from the resident side. Another is from the direction of the library and then from the direction where DeJang and YongSun arrived. The route they came with was absurd as the king would never have a reason to go to the grand room without passing by the W4 so they didn't make a door way behind the reading room but instead they made a passage that would join to the one leading out of W4 to the library.

But the official enterance that everyone else is supposed to use is the the one directly ahead,which is like the gate of the whole complex. Out side that gate, it leads to the streets that also criiss-cross like the Lang passages.

The other two buildings here, they, like the king s room, have a shielded passage so it's very comfortable to walk here. In front of them there is a short pleat of stairs leading into the garden.

This is the general structure of the sections with some having a U-shaped buildings or two L-shapes ones positioned opposite each other. But whatever the case there is a middle space. Either a garden or just a yard.But the former is popular ,taking eighty percent of the sections

He walked for over two minutes and in front of him a trio of palace workers came walking from that direction. They must be from the other rooms and have been performing some errands

The man had a cream-white Baji and a pale brown Jokki. He must be working in some remote place like the laundry because SheJin had never seen this color of uniform before.

As for the two women they wore the same thing as the maids that serve food and the woman who had delivering the ink. Their Jeogori was different that it was magenta color instead of purple. This pink hue is free styled a lot but only under agreement and those that wear a freestyle are personal maids. So if they are personal maids,why does it seem like they are guarding the man

Anyway he bowed to them and they the same before they passed him.

He watched them leave , surprisingly that was trully akin to impeccable walking.

The man was striding effortlessly while the women seemed to be flowing over the ground. They walked way better than most noblewomen that SheJin has seen and that it truly commendable because those ladies are groomed from infancy on the etiquette of composure.

SheJin was impressed so much he completely forgot to stop gawking.

Just then a whooshing sound swerved over the Lang passage he was standing above. He turned back and upwards to locate what it was and before his mission was completed, a humongous blast errupted behind SheJin, startling him so much that he lost his grip on the tray.

The books went out flying and the bowl splatter on the ground. He could not care less that because he wanted to identify this malicious factor

His eyes scavenged through the scenery to pin point what it was and he saw that a young male with the same dress color and attire of the south sect.

SheJin deduced from the description of the novel that only few cultivators used a whip in the South sect. So this could be Zhao LiuHe, Zhao YuFen or Zhao SuYen. They are the only prodigees of Zhao MeiYang so probably they use the same cultivation weapon like him

Nevertheless the young master split the sky and roof of the Lang passages in a single slash of his flexible thunder bolt

" Are u crazy!?! Let him go", the guards shouted to the capturer

SheJin ran to the scene alongside some of the imperial workers who emerged out of nowhere.

The cultivator had wrapped his whip around the man and the more chaotic everything was becaming the more it was tightening around him

Thier anger woke him up and compelled him to show the tricks under his sleeve.