Chapter 2: Make heavens listen to us
"Young Miss, have some pastries. Lu Xin brought these pastries from the dessert house you like a lot," Lu Shi said as she served the pastries, making sure that she didn't touch her young miss.
It was a secret between Lu Xin and Lu Shi that their young miss couldn't touch a person, without bursting into a fit of vomiting. Every time, her young miss would suffer because of vomiting that always ended up almost taking half of the latter's life, she would burst with rage to end the person responsible for her young miss' condition.
If that person was not her young miss's informal fiance, she would have chopped him into pieces and fed him to crows and ants.
Before Xian Xi Wan could have a bite of pastry, the carriage stopped.
"What's wrong?" Xia Xi Wan asked as Lu Shi and Lu Xin started making inquiries about the matter.
"Young Miss, the Xu family's Di daughter is getting married," Lu Xin said, failing to see how Xia Xin Wan's facial expression deteriorated all of a sudden. As if she realized something a while later, she whispered in a pained voice, "Young Miss, if Young Master returned sooner, does it mean you will be married off to the Li family sooner?"
Lu Shi glared at her insensitive sister but Xia Xi Wan's gaze stilled on the wedding sedan as it passed past her. The latter watched the scene of a bride leaving her father's home from the tiny gap between the carriage window and the curtain.
Xia Xi Wan was the eldest daughter of the great Xia family, one of the most powerful families of the empire which produced one of the greatest generals in history. Her father was a general who lost his life on the battlefield five years ago. Her mother, who died a month after giving birth to her, was a daughter of a scholar. Her mother gave birth to a son before her who was compelled to follow his father to the battlefield eight years ago to fight at the border.
It had been eight years since her eldest brother had returned home. Even after the death of their father, he was still fighting for their empire. He was twenty-four years old this year while she was eighteen.
Women her age were married with kids but not her. Her eldest brother had sent strict words that his sister wasn't to be married without his presence. The least he could do for his sister was to be present at her wedding. She was supposed to be married two years ago and he was supposed to come back for her wedding, but the border that he was guarding was suddenly attacked by foreign invaders resulting in postponing her wedding.
The war was unknowingly or knowingly increasing the distance between two siblings who had not seen each other for eight years. Her only blood relative that genuinely cared for her was fighting at the cost of his life for protecting the life of his family and thousands of other families at the border.
After the death of her mother, her father, Xia Zheng Qi, had instantly married the beautiful young miss of the Lu family – Li Ying.
Her father never took any concubine because she had fought battles all his life. There was no place for women in his life. Perhaps, if he wasn't the only descendant of his great clan, he wouldn't have bothered marrying a woman. To continue his legacy, he had to marry and sure children with two women.
Li Ying gave birth to two children while being married to Xia Zheng Qi. Her treatment towards Xia Xi Wan was neither cold nor warm according to the servants but only she knew what kind of thoughts her stepmother had been harbouring regarding her.
If not for swallowing the dowry that Xia Xi Wan's mother had brought which was to be passed down to her as soon as she got married, Li Ying wouldn't have bothered to set her marriage with the latter's nephew, the young master of the Li family who had said to have sadistic tendencies.
Only her two maids knew how much she loathed the young master Li, her supposedly fiance. The engagement was not formal as it was still not certain when her eldest brother would come from war.
Lately, there had been rumours that the eldest young master of the Xia family would be returning to the capital after subduing the invaders on the border but there was no official news about the matter and so Xia Xi Wan didn't dwell on it as such kinds of rumours occur every single year.
Xia Xin Wan was the black spot on the reputation of the Xia household. Eighteen but unmarried. A beautiful face with a nasty temper. Her failure to befriend anyone. Unlike her beautiful rose-like sister, she was a thorn who could only prick people with her words.
It was rumoured that the eldest Di daughter of the Xia family could make a person bleed with her tongue and the wound would be nastier than the one left by a knife.
It wasn't that Xia Xin Wan was outrageous and unvirtuous, it was just that she was cursed with pricking bluntness and acidic reason. In a society where everyone was fawning on the strongest, she was someone who understood the grief and predicament of the weak.
"Young Miss, if heaven truly listens to us humans, I pray with utter sincerity for your engagement with that nasty young master Li to be invalidated," Lu Xin said with a smile that belonged to that of a child.
Hearing the maid's words, Xia Xi Wan burst into a peal of laughter, revealing her so invisible dimples. Her phoenix eyes shone as a ray of sunlight befalls on her, highlighting their depth and allure. If her blank eyes were so beautiful, Lu Shi had no words when those eyes were filled with warmth and zeal.
Lu Shi had seen so many beautiful women in her life but nobody could describe the beauty of Xia Xi Wan possessed in words. It was not the kind of beauty that could cause the ruin of empires, nor was it the one that could be forgotten in a moment. It was unique just like the woman itself. Putting it in words would be such a shame.
"Lu Xin, heaven doesn't listen to us," Xia Xi Wan said as she wiped a drop of tear from the corner of her eye with her embroidered handkerchief in a graceful movement. "Instead, we have to make heaven listen to us."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
tanu_sam
tanu_sam Ah, what do you have to say about our Xia Xi Wan?
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