The Other Side of the Mask 4 Chapter 4: Jealous much?

"What do you think would happen if the Royal Family were to hear about this? Worst case they could have us all executed! How dare you cause such a mess!"

The noblewoman glares at me, but puts the food down. Everyone follows.

Suddenly, someone behind me claps.

"Good job controlling the crowd."

The knights beside him all kneel, "Your majesty."

We all follow suit.

The country girl kowtows and says, "I'm sorry for the mess I created. Please punish me, your majesty."

I see her tears dripping down her face. I sneak a peek to see his majesty's reaction, only to see him staring down at me. I swiftly lower my head again.

"Girl, with the purple dress. What is your name?"

He's talking about me?

"It is QiLing, your majesty."

"Follow me."

He walks out of the room, and I follow a few steps behind. What does he want with me?

He takes me into the Imperial Hall that we went in yesterday, and greets his parents.

I kneel.

"You may rise. Huang Fu, what brings you here with this candidate?"

"Mother, there was a fight in the breakfast hall. This one was able to stop the fight on her own, so I believe we should reward her."

The Queen looks down at me, "Very well, we shall send 100 gold to her family."

I hide my face from their sight and frown a bit. Mayor Chun is definitely taking all of that!

"What's wrong? Do you not like it?"

"Your majesty, if it is possible, can you give the gold to the whole town instead?"

I choose my words as carefully as possible.

The King smiles suddenly, "Very well, this gold shall go to the village instead of her family."

I head back to the group. All the noblewomen glared at me and gossiped.

"Who does she think she is! Kissing up to the Royal family! Even I could have stopped it!"

I could tell this isn't going well. Our task was embroidery on a handkerchief. I sat away from the nobles, trying not to cause trouble.

"Um, thank you for before, at breakfast."

It was the girl who had been blamed.

"You don't need to thank me. I just did what I felt like."

Um, my name is TianYu. I hope we can be friends."

I frown. She'd definitely leave me if she knew my mission.

I put up a fake smile and say, "No, it's fine. I don't deserve to be friends with such a high ranked noble."

About five minutes later, the noble who picked on TianYu and the noble, SanXing came up to us and dumped two cups of water on us.

"Oh my, I'm sorry, my hand slipped."

The nobles behind them snicker.

"Oh my god, you better get changed! The Royal family is going to be here in any second!"

I stand up and start wiping off the water on TianYu's head and face, ignoring the sneering and smirks. Then, I take the two floral patterned tablecloths, a needle and thread and sew it over both my dress and TianYu's dress carefully. If I didn't do so many chores at home, I doubt I'd be able to finish this in time. Thank you, mom, dad! … I'm probably the only child who would thank their parents for making them do chores...

TianYu's face lit up and she kept thanking me. I looked away and spotted the red carpet roll to the center of the garden. We all curtsy and greet the Royal family.

I whisper to TianYu, "In the back! We can't let the Royal family see such disgraceful dresses. We'll just blend into the crowd!"

TianYu nods as I pull her along to the back.

A servant takes out a scroll and announces,

"The Royal Family will be eliminating candidates each day to find the perfect crown princess for our kingdom. The elimination for today is already made. The Royal Family would like Xuan MeiJing, TianYu, and Hua ChangYing eliminated today."

Chapter end