CHAPTER 1

(IN THE MAIN RESIDENCE)

The entire Meng family were eating their dinner in the main residence when Meng Fusheng's servant girl came and whispered something to the ear of the main Wife; Meng Meixin. As they were talking, MeiLan could be seen physically shaking on her chair from fear. The Man of the household; Meng Wuzhong noticed the commotion caused by the servant and on noticing that she belonged to Meng Fusheng, he angrily said "Where is Fusheng?" 

The Meng Madam (Meixin) said "My Lord, the maid just told me that Fusheng being as careless as she normally is, managed to get the flu in the middle of summer and has demanded that she be excused from the dinning hall for a few days so that she does not spread the flu."

Meng Wuzhong shook his head in disappointment and said "That girl is so clumsy, just like that her despicable mother. Humph if not for the fact that the eyes of the royal family and some prominent families in the capital is on this family I would have done away with her, after all she serves no benefit to this family."

The Meng Madam smiled tightly and said " I understand my Lord, but in just a little while our little lanlan will surely get the attention of the royal family and will be prominent enough to make people forget about that Fusheng and then they will not be bothered about that stupid girl's disappearance."

Meng Wuzhong felt very satisfied with his wife's advice and said "You are the only one worth being the Meng family Madam (Furen), what would I have done without you? Fine give her the best portion of food, that's all she does anyway, eat our food.." He went back to eating his food. Meng Furen then ordered Fusheng's maid to take away a portion of food to Fusheng. As the maid was leaving, Meilan nervously followed after her to ask about Fusheng.

"How exactly did that good for nothing survive this time? Is she that useless that even death rejects her?"

Beads of sweat appeared on Fusheng's maid forehead and she stuttered "I I did not know what went wrong, she clearly stopped breathing, but as I went to call the guards to confirm her death, she suddenly came back to life and was even better and stronger than before." The maid hesitated thinking if she should tell the second Miss how differently the first Miss acted after she woke up, but after considering how upset the second Miss looked, she decided otherwise, lest the anger be taken out on her.

The second Miss (Meilan) angrily dismissed the maid and stayed outside fretting over the fact that Fusheng was still alive. She remembered how in the past when she was little, she was always in Fusheng's shadow, be it beauty, brain or cultivation talent. She was always second best to Fusheng, rumor even had it that Fusheng was eventually going to be the crown princess or even get married to the royal family. But after that sickness that took away Fusheng's beauty, brilliance, cultivation talent, she (Meilan) had been able to rise just like a phoenix and outshine Fusheng's legacy, She (Meilan) is already on her way to getting acquainted with the royal family and being well known in the Empire as the true phoenix and a prodigy. The final step to take to make this a reality is to finally get rid of that scourge Fusheng, but she stubbornly does not want to die and she (Meilan) had a feeling that as they could not kill Fusheng now, they might never get the chance to kill her again.

As she was still thinking about her life predicament, she did not notice that her mother had joined her outside, untill her mother touched her. She came back to reality with a start, only to be hugged by her mother. Meng Furen (Madam) patted her daughter's head and said "I heard about what happened to Fusheng today."

Meilan feeling entitled said "I don't know why that waste still won't die"

Meng Furen smiled and said "don't worry about her and leave her to mother. Little lanlan, you know I do not want you getting involved with the dirty stuff that goes on around here. I will take care of that scourge and she will wish she died when you gave her the chance. Don't worry, you won't even know when she's gone."

Meilan not feeling too satisfied was still with a pout on her face. Meng Furen saw the smile and decided to share a bit of good news with the daughter "I heard from your father, that the crown prince will be coming over to our mansion in three days time. He is here on an official trip by the emperor."

Meilan widened her eyes in excitement almost squealing said "Mother, why did you not say so earlier, lanlan could have not touched that bad luck Fusheng."

Meng Furen laughed lightly due to her daughter's cuteness and said "I just got the news from your father. You will have access to all the funds you need to prepare for the crown prince's arrival."

Meilan smiled happily and said "yes mother I will surely leave an impression on the crown prince."

Meng Furen nodded and continued "You also have to train your cultivation regularly. In a few days you will officially start attending THE ROYAL DRAGON ACADEMY, so you need to be exceptionally outstanding. I heard that the Crown prince is also getting enrolled in the academy, make sure to get along with him properly. I also heard a rumour that the 1st prince would enroll into the academy this year. Make sure to be on the lookout, you know nobody has seen the 1st prince before, so just be careful. Even if you do not recognize him, make sure to impress the crown prince and other prestigious families."

Meilan was left staring at her mother in awe "Mother how did you find about all these things. You are really capable. You were right, I was really wasting my efforts on a waste when I had a lot of things to prepare. I will get going now to prepare." She hurriedly hugged her mother and went on her way, happily even skipping.

Meng Furen smiled happily as she looked at her daughter, after a while the smile disappeared and she thought to herself that she had to finish off Fusheng, so she does not restrict her daughter's success.

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Back in Fusheng's courtyard 

Fusheng now properly cleaned up, wearing a silk nightgown with her hair flowing, sat lazily on her bed while in front of her various dishes were laid out. She looked at them and stared at her personal maid, for the first time she observed this personal maid of hers closely. She couldn't help but blame herself for being so foolish as to trust this girl given to her by her stepmom the Meng Furen, when she practically knew nothing about this girl, not even her name. She really was naive to not realize that this girl was clearly a spy placed by her side. It really took death to wake her up from her illusions.

She felt bored and decided to tease the maid. Fusheng put on a serious face and said "Hey, what's your name again?"

The maid not suspecting anything proudly said her name "This one's name is Wan, you can call me Ah Wan Young Miss"

Fusheng nodded repeated the name and said "Okay Ah Wan, I need you taste these dishes"

Ah wan clearly paused not expecting this command from Meng Fusheng, she looked Fusheng straight in the eye and said "This food is straight from the master's table I am very sure that the food is not poisoned, so I will not be tasting them"

Fusheng was taken aback by the bold response from the maid. She shook her head and thought to herself "these people really looked down on me and sent such a foolish spy. Well I will make them regret this"

She chuckled lightly and Ah Wan thought that Fusheng was going to apologize to her like previous days but to her surprise Fusheng said something very different from she thought.

"Ah wan help me understand something, these past few days I have been getting a bit confused about our roles in this Meng household. Remind me, who I am again to you in this house?"

The foolish unsuspecting maid said "You of course are the Young Miss in this house, my Mistress."

Fusheng nodded and asked again "So what is your role in this household again?"

Ah wan proudly replied "This one is your humble servant, your personal maid "

Fusheng continued "So if I understand clearly, I am your master, while you are my maid, so that means that when I issue a command, you have no right to disagree, and I just told you to taste my food and you have not only disagreed but you also proceeded to waste my time. I really do not want to repeat myself and please hurry up about it I do not want to eat cold food."

Ah wan had never been as shocked as she was at the moment. She stared at Fusheng like she hadn't seen her before, she did not dare to waste any more time and hurriedly tasted the food, she could only pray that the Meng Furen did not choose that day to poison Fusheng. She instinctly felt that if she didn't do this now, she would anger the angel of death, the amount of pressure she felt from Fusheng, she hadn't even felt it from the Meng Furen. Meanwhile Fusheng was smiling as she saw the maid shakingly taste all the dishes, she knew that asking her to taste the food was pointless because even if there was poison in the food, it will not be the type that would act quickly in an individual, she just did that to tease the maid and to also put her in her place.

While Fusheng was eating, she did not mention her injury or even ask why a doctor did not tend to her injury. Ah wan in her small mind figured that the outburst that Fusheng just showed was probably as a result of her anger towards her injury, Ah Wan rolled her eyes thinking that Fusheng was just transferring the anger to her just because she could not face Meng Meilan and once again she foolishly did not mention Fusheng's change of character to Meilan or even the Meng Furen.