Trap in a Book

Chapter 14

The sun rose bright in the sky, Xiaomei's body felt drained, and she wasn't able to get up. LiMei quickly went to boil the medicine, but when she opened the door, she found a bag of rice at the door. She looked over where the previous bag was yesterday, but that bag was still there. "Miss, there's a bag of rice here," said LiMei. Xiaomei forces herself up and limps towards the door. LiMei hands her the bag of rice. "Who gave us rice, Miss?" LiMei said.

Xiaomei could only think it was from BoJing. She looked out the door to see no one in sight. However, there was someone in the trees, sitting on a branch, unnoticed.

Afterward, LiMei boiled medicine and made rice porridge again for Xiaomei. Today, Xiaomei stayed in bed all day as she had no energy in her body. While LiMei went out to water the plant, there was a knock at the door. Xiaomei woke up from the sound before calling out, "LiMei?"

"It's me, BoJing," the voice answered.

Xiaomei forced herself again to get out of bed and weakly headed towards the door. She opens the door to see BoJing with a bag in his hand. He saw her face looking extremely pale and beads of sweat on top of her forehead. She looks weak and extremely frail. "Are you alright?" he unconsciously said.

Her clear eyes look at him, unexpectedly shocked. "I I- mean you don't look fine," he said.

Her lips hook up, and said, "What do you mean I don't look fine. What do you expect me to look like? I live in the cold palace. Do you expect me to look healthy?"

He didn't say anything and lifted up the bag to her. She looked at him clueless.

"Here,'' he said, handing her the bag.

She opened the bag to see rice in it. "Rice?" she said.

"Since it spilled yesterday," he said, quietly.

"Oh my, General BoJing has such a kind heart," she continued. His face stiffened in anger as he walked away. "Thank you, kind-hearted General BoJing," Xiaomei shouted loudly, and BoJing ignored her. Once he left, she finally relaxed as her pain had reappeared, and she felt out of sorts. "Miss," LiMei arrived back when she heard Xiaomei's voice and hurried to support her back to bed. While Xiaomei was resting, she thought if BoJing gave her rice now, then who was the one who gave it to her earlier.

The next day arrived, and Xiaomei was slightly better than the day before. She was watering the plants again while LiMei once again was making lunch for them since the maids had forgotten about them again. After finishing watering, she sat down on the grass again and leaned against a tree. She took a relaxing breath and thought to herself, ahh, this is nice. Not doing any work and just relaxing all day if only I could do this in real life. I would do this every day than going to work. She leaned her head against the tree and looked up into the sky. She basks in the sunlight as she closes her eyes, feeling the warm sunlight hitting her face with a light breeze coming here and there. Soon enough, she falls asleep in the light. ZhangWei once again appeared on top of the branch. He saw her forehead crinkled as the sun was shining brightly in her eyes. He raises up his hand to create a shadow to cover her eyes as the crinkled on her forehead had disappeared. However, she opened her eyes as she felt it was weird that the sun had disappeared. To her surprise, she saw the tall handsome man sitting on a tree branch with his leg straight out as both of them were looking at each other.

She already saw his face, so he wasn't afraid of hiding it. He smiled before saying, "Look at that, you haven't died yet."

A small rage had appeared inside of her as she suppressed it without showing it. "Mister Killer, are you here to kill me again?" She said, sarcastically.

He wasn't bothered by the name-calling and chuckled, "like you said, why waste my time killing you when you look like that?"

Her smile twitched tighter, "I see, you have come to watch an entertainment."

"It seems so," he said.

"Well, sorry to inform you, Mister Killer, but this might bore you," she said and was ready to walk away.

"Call me, Mister Wei," he said.

She stopped and turned, "Mister Wei? Then it won't be as entertaining," she coiled with him and left with a smile on her face. ZhangWei was left with the last chuckle.

Xiaomei's smile died as she kept walking away, as she was thinking about how to get him back for hurting her. She was about to enter the house until she saw the rice bag moving. She slowly walked towards the moving bag. She crouches down and touches the bag as it starts chirping. She opens the bag and out comes a small black-capped chickadee. The bird landed beside her as she dumped all the remaining rice out. She watches the little bird but instead of eating it looks at her. She lowers her palm down to allow the bird to jump into her palm. As she was raising her palm up to her face, the bird continued jumping around in her hand.

"Hello there," she said and tried to pet it with her pointer finger. The little bird started to peek at her hand, thinking there was food there. Xioamei chuckles before lowering her hand down again to let the bird off her hand and to the pile of rice on the ground.

She took the empty bag and headed back. "My lady, just in time. The porridge is ready," LiMei finished setting the table. After eating, Xiaomei was drinking a cup of medicine. She set the cup down, a bit angrily. "Are you alright, Miss?" LiMei asks, worried.

"Yes. I'm just thinking of a way to kill him," she said, clenching her hand.

"Sorry, Miss. what...." LiMei said, lost for words.

Before Xioamei was about to answer back, a voice appeared at the window. "It seems like someone is talking about me?" ZhangWei was sitting on the window frame. Xiaomei's eyes shot straight to him.

"You haven't left yet, Mister Wei?" She forced out with her eyebrows twitching in irritation.

He smiled and said, "well, I heard someone talking about me."

She smiles before saying, "Who says anything about you?" As she got up and walked towards the cabinet and set the cup of medicine on top before sneaking open a drawer to pull out the small rusty scissor. She hid it in her hands with her sleeve blocking it from sight. However, his sight was quick and splendid to see what she was up to. "Mister Wei, do you think I was talking about you?" She said, cunning as she slowly walked toward him. Once she was close to him, she faked a trip as she had the scissors ready to stab him. While she was falling onto him, his quick move pulled her hand past his shoulders, making her completely fall onto him as they fell out the window together. His back landed on the hard solid ground, but his eyes were on her while she looked surprised and tried to comprehend what just happened. Her hair tickles his face as it brushes against him. Xiaomei quickly got off of him.

As he was getting up, she then tried again to stab him again, but he was quicker than her as he grabbed onto her wrist and redirected her away from his body, making it as if he didn't notice her real intention. "You should watch where you are going, or you may hurt yourself again, and might accidentally die," he does a sass talk.

"You are right, Mister Wei. Thank you for catching me," Xiaomei thanked him with a tight smile as she knew that he knew what she was planning and caused them to fall out of the window for his own protection and redirect her hand. She got up and dusted herself off as LiMei had run out to check on her. "Miss, are you alright?" LiMei was checking for any injuries on Xiaomei's body. "Yes," she answered back simply. She didn't want to waste her time with him anymore as she headed back to the house.

As he watched her leave without saying anything, he picked up the small rusty scissor that was left behind and chuckled at it.