A Wuxia Tale: Blades and Flowers

Performance

Three months later...

(WANG HUA)

Nana tied my hair neatly. She brushed it repeatedly until every strands shone before tying it neatly with a thin strip of ribbon and sticking a hairpin on it. Then Nana poured a small amount of fragrant oil on her palm and smoothened her hands on my tied hair.

She sighed forlornly. "You should be married already and establishing a household of your own. Not suffering like this."

I winced inwardly. "I'm not really suffering..." I protested but Nana is not listening to me as she went on. "Everyone is once again looking at you. Talking about you. Not caring about how you are feeling about these rumors..." Nana stopped as she gave me a strickened look.

I took a deep breath to summon my patience. These "rumors" that has been circulating is about Prince Jin courting a diplomat's daughter in South Indes. The story of supposed courtship is slowly traveling in all direction and now everyone is pitying the poor daughter of General Wang who was left in the Middle Kingdom by her fiancé and is now being replaced by a diplomat's daughter.

Oh...and the juiciest part of that story is the fact that I am General Wang's daughter that everyone is pitying on.

What a great life I am having. Truly.

"Master Dayu should start looking for another suitable match for you. You should be receiving suitors for your hand. Not doing any of...these..." Nana continued to grumble.

I smiled at our reflection on the vanity mirror. "Are you pouting? Are you really pouting?" I teased her.

"Wang Hua," Nana indeed pouted. That made me chuckle. "I'm fine."

"Are you truly fine, my lady?" Nana sighed deeply. "Today is your eighteenth birthday and yet..."

"And yet there'll be no big celebration because I am busy with..."

"Master Dayu will never speak to you ever again," Nana sneered. "And you deserve it."

"As long as he also would never speak to my brother again...I think I could live with that." I said, again teasing my Nana.

"Wang Hua! What a wicked thing to say."

I turned my body away from the mirror to look up at my Nana. She is Dao's original Nanny but since my own beloved Nanny died and Dao is out there...doing whatever thing he decided to do...Nana became my nanny. She now devotes her time being utterly loyal to Father and occassionaly admonishing me for all the decisions I made with my life that she seems to think not fitted for a lady of my status.

I stared intently at Nanny. "Tell me, are you this upset at Wang Dao as well?" I asked her.

Tears quickly formed in Nanny's eyes. She is getting old and sentimental. Truly...Dao and I should stop giving her more worries in life. Nana should be enjoying her life now that she is slowly but steadily reaching her retirement age.

"I am starting to see why you hate your brother now," Nana sniffed.

"Oh Nana," I stood up to hug her. Not caring if the hug will crumple my carefully ironed dress. I hugged her tighter. "I don't hate Dao. I just hate the empty space he left behind."

"Me too. I miss him terribly." Nana sniffed louder.

Of course she does miss her ward. Dao has always been sweet on his nanny. Dao won't slow down for our parents but he will for sweet old Nana. I patted Nana's shoulder. "He probably miss you more. Wherever he is, I am sure it didn't have any substitute for your love and miracle warm soup that could cure colds in a heartbeat. Dao is probably eating raw vegetables wherever he is."