Trap in a Book

Chapter 11

The next morning, LiMei was watering the plants while Bao was teasing her as he was helping her. Xiaomei smiled, watching them as she started grinding soybean in the stone grinder. After she finished grinding, she strained the soy milk to get rid of the skins with the thin cloth and boiled the milk. She set aside the milk to cool down and heated up another pot of water and poured a lot of sugar to make liquid sugar.

Then, Xiaomei cracks the last two eggs into a bowl and ladle some of the cool-down soy milk in with the eggs. She beat the eggs together with milk and poured flour into the mixture. As the batter was smooth and had no more lumps, she set up the pan and oiled it up before she poured a small amount on the pan. She flips the pancake over as LiMei and Bao finish. "Okay, I have to go. Maybe, next time I will eat with you guys," Bao said before leaving.

"Good, so you don't have to steal my food," LiMei said. Bao stuck his tongue out and left. "You...!" LiMei said, frustrated.

"You two are like love birds," Xiaomei said, flipping another pancake.

"Miss, are you out of your mind! I don't see him like that. He is just an annoying kid," she pouted trying to defend herself.

"Okay, if you say so," Xiaomei said, looking at her and seeing her blushing a bit.

LiMei quickly asks, trying to change the subject, "what are you making?"

"I'm making some pancakes," Xiaomei said. "Try it, it's good even though it may not be the best, but it should taste decent," she added. Xiaomei finished making pancakes and set the table. "Try it with some liquid sugar. It would be better with maple syrup but...," she softened out, trying to make it not important to bring up something that isn't here.

"Mmm, these taste delicious," LiMei said as Xiaomei smiled in delight.

The night has arrived as their day went the usual quiet day. In the dim room, Xiaomei was grinding soybeans again to make soy milk as she moved her hand in a circular motion. The milk drips into a bowl, and she continues to pour more soybeans into the hole and move the stone grinder. She continues to strain the soy milk and heat it up as LiMei follows Xiaomei with a lantern for her to see in the dark. "LiMei, can you watch the milk? I have to prepare the ingredients," Xiaomei said and had a candle in her hands as she headed back. LiMei agreed.

Xiaomei opens the bag of glutinous rice flour and scoops some into a bowl and grabs another bowl. She grabs the brown sugar bars and crumples them to fine sugar into the bowl. She then grabs another bag and opens it to scoop out some lotus root starch in another bowl. She set those aside and opened the cabinet again and grabbed the bag of rose tea. She only picks three rosebuds from the tea and crushes them in the lotus root starch before carrying three bowls outside. Once she reached LiMei, Xiaomei did one last quick stir on the milk and took it off the fire.

She then poured all the lotus root starch into another pot and poured some milk in. She stirs to dissolve the starch before adding some sugar. She then placed the pot on the fire and stirred constantly until it became thick. She then sets it aside, so it will cool down and become and look like jelly.

"What about this?" LiMei lifted the bowl of glutinous rice flour.

"Oh, that's for another dish I'm making," Xiaomei said and grabbed the remaining milk in the pot and heated it up again with sugar. As it simmered, she poured the glutinous rice flour in and removed the pot off the fire. "Sorry, LiMei, but can you go get the pan and oil," she asked as she quickly stirred and folded in the flour until she made a smooth round elastic ball.

Before LiMei came back, Xiaomei divided the ball into pieces and then formed smaller balls. Xiaomei put the pan on the fire and poured oil into the pan. She then flattened the ball and grilled it on the pan. She flipped the rice cake on each side as both sides were golden brown.

"Okay, time to eat," Xiaomei said after getting the rose lotus root jelly cake out. She cut it into bite sizes as they made it back to the house. Xiaomei set the plates down on the table. As they were about to eat, the door opened, and comes in Bao. "Bao, what brings you here?" LiMei said.

"I'm hungry. I wasn't able to eat anything because I have to be on duty,'' he said.

"Well, there's no food for you here,'' LiMei said, crossing her arms. He snatched a couple of the rice cakes and hurried out. "Thank you! But I have to go back to duty again. Sorry, see ya!" he yelled from the doorway.

"Bao! Come back here!" LiMei said.

"LiMei, let him be. He didn't eat all day, and he has to go back," Xiaomei said, setting LiMei down. LiMei sighs and settles down. Xiaomei took a bite of the rice cake and tasted the hot sweet elastic cake. The hot rice cake made her body warm and soft on the inside. "Miss, this tastes so delicious," LiMei kept eating.

"That's good to hear," Xiaomei smiled.

After eating, both Xiaomei and LiMei went out to wash dishes by the well. The house was empty and dark as a small lantern was flickering on the well and was barely seen as the two figures were busy and unaware. A dark shadow came running through from above the roof as it was being chased. It spotted an abandoned ugly house in the palace as it thought this was a safe place to hide from the guards as it landed in the courtyard.

"Miss, did you hear that?" LiMei said as she grabbed the lantern from off the brick.

"It's probably your imagination, LiMei," Xiaomei said, finishing up the last plate.

"Are you sure, Miss?" LiMei said, scared and curious. "Miss, let me go check?" she said.

"LiMei, don't...,'' Xiaomei said as it was too late. "LiMei, I can't see. You took the light," Xiaomei hollered. However, LiMei didn't come running back or said anything. She felt something was wrong as she stopped what she was doing and headed toward the house.

At that moment, Xiaomei froze in place. LiMei's mouth was covered by a hand, and a long sharp sword was against her neck as the lantern she was holding was trembling in fear. Xiaomei could see the figure behind LiMei. It was a tall man wearing black clothes as if he was an assassin.

Xiaomei thought, an assassin, great. I didn't find someone to kill the main girl, and now someone is here to kill me! Wait...

She thinks back to the book. This is probably the person who tried to assassinate the emperor but failed. As the person seems to be injured.

Xiaomei quickly started an act, "please spare us! We are nobodies. Look at us. We live in a cold palace. No one will know you are here, and they won't even listen to us. So, spare us." She continued to act desperate, "why kill us and waste your time. When your target is the emperor and not us?''

The man saw right through her and smirked before saying, ''well, you know who I want to kill, so I must kill you." The blade reflects against the moon as if he was ready to kill.

"Oh, come on, most assassins come to kill the emperor. Who else would it be?" she stated bluntly, breaking out of character as she fears for LiMie's safety. He chuckled and gave her chills.

"What if I'm here to kill you?" he said deadly.

"What," she couldn't comprehend as no one in the story tried to kill her before.

"Maybe, I'm here to help Baozhai get rid of a vicious cold-hearted person who tried multiple times to harm her..." he said deadly, and at that instant he let go of LiMei and ran up to Xiaomei before slicing her upper arm while LiMei tried to stop him in fear and accidentally pull off the ribbon from his mask, revealing his face.

Xiaomei did a tiny groan and grabbed her upper arm before falling to her knees. "You," she said in pain. She saw the man's face against the moonlight, and she realized who he was. He was described in the book as a good-looking man, like the main guy and secondary guy, he has sharp pairs of eyes and a small black beauty mark under his eye that make him look like a sly man. And, to her surprise, she realized how good-looking he was as she assumed the main guy was to outshine the rest of them.

The man was Wang ZhangWei, Baozhai's childhood friend, who he had a long-time crush on at a young age. However, he is also trying to find and kill the people who murder his family, as he was in the same clan as Baozhai. She remembers in the book that he shows up later in the story to also cause more of a love triangle between the main couple and the secondary guy. When he first showed up in the story, he was trying to assassinate the emperor. He has been searching for the main girl, Zhou Baozhai, for a long time because he knew she couldn't have died.