the tale of Wen Veilu

•Chapter 1•

Wen Veilu was never born rich, infact, she never met her parents. Her town folks says that her mother was taken by the imperial gaurds to the inner court, whilst her father was killed the night before she was born. No one knew who they were, but the ones who did were killed mercilessly leading to her clueless about her parents identity.

She was raised, and trained to hunt bandits. She's like a police in the village, but she knew she was no where close to getting the job. She didn't even like it. She barely gets gold leafs to buy food, clothes and pay for her rent.

Walking around the town road, she could hear numerous chatters around a local bookstore. She wasn't a type to get nosy, but the chatters were increasingly loud. She stood behind the crowd. The people Infront of her were speaking loudly, an imperial something something..?
She ignored them and tried to tiptoe. looking up ahead, she saw a poster hanging on the wall of the bookstore. She could barely read it from where she was standing so she pushed herself in the crowd. Reaching the poster, she reads it.

Imperial exam for Ladies in the inner court. All ladies are welcome to participate.
Requirements -
Ladies must be above 16.

Ladies can be chosen inline for the next empress, be chosen as concubine, or be an official.

The exam will take place in the inner court palace, The imperial grand hall.

After reading the requirements, she scoffed. How could people believe this? It's definitely made by bandits. No royalty would travel to this village. She observed the surrounding of the poster, eventually her eyes landed on a cut out mail box that was rectangle shaped like with a opening. There was something written on it, she red it. Exam tickets. She felt herself scoffing even more.

While Vei was scoffing and shaming the villagers, she was the drowned in her thoughs and was shoved by the crowd. She stumbled to her left, bumping into a person.
"Careful!" A soft yet old voice warned. Vei felt herself falling into a jiggly texture. She quickly stood straight and turned around.

"My apologies."
She bowed before the man. She could feel the embarrassment radiating from the man while he held his stomach. "It's alright, lady Wen." Hearing his reassurance, she stood straight, and met eyes with a chubby man who is shorter than her. It was the bookstore owner, Mr.Hwang. she had helped the old corpse with bandits rampaging in his old shop. Till this day, she never knew what's so special about that decaying shop that the bandits choose to invade.

"Coming back home from work?"
He asked while rampaging in his dusty pocket. A grin was resting on his lips while he mercilessly tries to find something. Vei shrutted her pose, looking down on the chubby man who was spilling papers on the street ground. She bend down and picked them up, dusting the dirt that stuck on the papers. She stood up and turned to look back at Mister Hwang, but was surprised.

The man had his hands extended towards Vei, the hand held a small emerald scroll, indicating that it's a royal scroll. Vei was taken aback by the royal item appearing before her, she stumbled a bit when the man brought the scroll closer to her face.

"I saw you reading the poster and I could read that you have interest. I have had this scroll in my little pockets for two days now. No one was fitted or interested in joining."
He extended it a bit further, he was leaning forward while Vei backed away. She knew the man meant no harm, infact, he was quite fond of her as his own daughter. That's what he told her at least. But, she felt quite uncomfortable in the position. Mr. Hwang noticed it and his face showed slight sympathy towards her.

"Mr.Hwang...."
The old chubby man shushed her down, his played with the tip of his beard while he gained his posture.
"Lady Wen, your talented. Your looks are defined not like many. I'm sure you will be able to get a good life aside from patrolling. Your long black hair along with your striking eyes will catch the eyes of the ministry!"
He had a smile chimed on his face. He reached out his small chubby hands towards Vei's hands and sat the small scroll on her palm.

"I'm sure my offer won't go to waste. Don't back down. Lady Wen."
His voice pleaded with Vei. She stared down the scroll, Mr.Hwang hands was now dusting his clothes and putting back the papers from earlier. "Take your time. The exam is four days from now. Go rent yourself a carriage."
He handed her a bag of coins.

"Mr.Hwang, I can't take this."
She tried returning the gold. But Mr. Hwang pushed it back towards her. He shook his head slowly.
After some time arguing, a big loud thud had stopped them. They turned towards the entrance of the book store to see someone had fainted. The medics that were luckily checking on the poster earlier checked the unconscious pulse, luckily, they fainted due to standing too long in the crowd. Since it happened Infront of Mr. Hwang's store, he bid Vei a stream of good luck and sprint towards the now newly formed crowd.

She bit her lips, seeing the old man trying to escalate the crowd somewhere else from his store. She inspected the bag of coins that was shoved to her and the scroll. Gripping them tightly than looking back at Mr. Hwang who was smiling even though the others were ignoring his request to back away. She was about to step forward to warn them but old Mr. Hwang shook his head. Vei did not know what to react like, so she stood there with her heart aching. She turned around and walked on the same path she was walking earlier. The coin, scroll and her thoughs were kept private.

***