"Ge! Are you seriously just going to let go of Ying jie like this? En? I've thought long and hard about this but I really couldn't come up with anything. You like her and she likes you, so what exactly is the problem? Or am I wrong? You like her, don't you?... There's nothing not to like." She quietly mumbled that last part.

Xiao Ting had followed Lei Yong all the way to the garden, where Lei Yong laid down on the grass, closed his eyes, and proceeded to ignore her existence. Used to being ignored, Xiao Ting plopped down next to him, hugged her knees, and proceeded to "talk to herself".

"Jiejie says being able to live with someone is more important than love... Love can come later but compatibility may not. Ying jie has already lived with us for so long and there were no problems. You two definitely get along!"

Silence.

"Or is it her family that is the problem?" Xiao Ting prodded with a frown, "Jiejie says your in-laws are also very important. She says a crazy in-law can make or break a relationship... Jiejie wouldn't tell me but I think she doesn't get along well with the Empress dowager but since the Emperor dotes on her so much, it doesn't seem to be much of an issue... But this can't be your probelm, right?" She said, getting back on track.

"You're a man so you don't have to live with your in-laws. Other than the occasional meeting maybe once or twice a year, you can pretty much forget they exist. As for father and mother, they have already accepted Ying jie as their own so that can't be the problem either." Xiao Ting thoughtfully said, knitting her brows and going through the list of dealbreakers Lei Xing had given her during her time in the palace.

Tung Mei had a great sense of humor, she was rich, reasonable, smart with a great character, and beautiful - not that Lei Xing mentioned that as a necessary requirement. Xiao Ting added that one on her own.

Silence.

"Ge!" She irritatedly said, shaking him with her hands, "How can you be sleeping at a time like this?!"

"If you're worried about in-laws, you should marry An Hao then. His mother is dead and his father is extremely loyal to the Emperor and since your jiejie and the Emperor are cut from the same cloth, you shouldn't have any problems." Lei Yong sneered. He was still not over his encounter with Lei Xing. Even if the Emperor wanted to mess with him, how could his own younger sister follow along too? When they were younger, she used relentlessly chase after his shadow, but now that she has gotten married, she has forsaken him - not loyal at all!

Xiao Ting's face reddened and she puffed her cheeks, "We're talking about you, why are you bringing up an unrelated person?!"

Lei Yog sneered, "So you can be nosy and I can't? And unrelated? Ahh, I really pity An Hao..." He said, shaking his head.

"I'm pitying Ying Jie!" Xiao Ting fired back, jumping to her feet and glaring daggers at him, "At this rate, she will be an old woman before you make up your mind!"

Lei Yong blinked at her a few times, before bursting into a dry laugh, at a loss, it was becoming more apparent that he really did not know his sisters at all, "Were you always this brazen, or is this a new thing?"

Xiao Ting scoffed, feeling insulted, "I am not just giving you candid advice. Since she left you have either been suffocating me or moping around the house like a lost puppy - those are jiejie's words, not mine." She quickly clarified, lowering her head when Lei Yong narrowed his eyes at the insult. She cleared her throat and mumbled, "I'm just saying, Ying jie has a host of other suitors so-"

"Like who?" Lei Yong interjected with a raised eyebrow.

Xiao Ting raised her head with a sly smile, "I thought you weren't interested. Well, Ying jie is a beautiful, fun to be around and a rich governor's daughter, naturally those things attract attention so it's a given that she would have many admirers. Just so you know Ying jie is going back to get married. I'm just informing you ahead of time so you don't blame me when it's too late." She spat out and then scurried off before he could further question her.

Xiao Ting stopped once she rounded the corner and poked her head back to check if he took the bait. To her dismay, she watched as Lei Yong shook his head and laid back down, perfectly at ease.

"Nothing?" Xiao Ting exclaimed with a frown, as her excitement deflated, "Is he really not interested?" Any normal man would have charged up to go steal the bride at the discovery, or so the stories go. Xiao Ting sighed, perhaps her brother was not normal. After all, her sister was an anomaly as well, it would make sense that they were all abnormal in this family. Xiao Ting shook her head, "No, I'm normal!" She reminded herself with conviction and she poked her head out again to check to see if Lei Yong had moved.

Lei Yong spied Xiao Ting watching him from the corner and rolled his eyes, he let out a heavy sigh and turned his back to her.

{...Honestly, why is everyone being so troublesome?...}

***

"Just admit we are lost." A member of a riding party in the forest wearily said.

"We're not lost! How was I supposed to know that road would be flooded? I was ju"

"If you were any type of guide, you would have done your homework before we left! Because of your stupid shortcut, we have been circling the forest for days now!" Another member of the group piped up, tired of this useless guide's inability to take responsibility for their situation.

"Hey, you can't blame me for that! You know I'm not too familiar with the capital roads. It makes sense to go the way we came. Also, this trip was very rushed. If I had time to prepa -"

"Enough arguing!" Tung Mei ordered in irritation, stopping her horse, turning to face the group, "This is not helping anyone. Lost or not, we'll find our way back... eventually." She added, not sounding all too confident. She let out an agigated breath, faced forward, and resumed riding.

The group rode in silence for a while, until the useless guide rode up to Tung Mei and tentatively asked, "Miss, do you...know where you're going?"

"Do you?" Tung Mei asked, narrowing her eyes at him, not at all in the mood for stupidity. The man gave her a smile and quickly bowed his head, "The Young Miss knows the capital well... This is indeed the right way."

Tung Mei lightly scoffed and rolled her eyes. After following this idiot fruitlessly for days, she woke up today and decided she would lead the way. While it was true that she had no idea where she was going, she had a strong gut feeling guiding her. She was confident it would lead them back to civilization, kind of... At any rate, she had a good feeling about this.

"Wait, stop!" Someone from behind suddenly called out and the group stopped and turned to him, "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" The guide frowned, this was the same man who had just been giving him grief from earlier.

"Horses... I think I hear horses." The man explained, ignoring the guide's sour tone. The group instantly straightened and they all listened intently, their eyes met as they all heard it, galloping horses drawing closer.

"Riders! People! We're saved!" The useless guide was the first to act, instantly spurring towards the sound while calling out to the riders.

"I thought you said we weren't lost." One of the others called after him and the others laughed as they spurred forward to salvation. At that moment, Tung Mei was quite pleased with herself, it turns out she was going the right way. Where there were people, there were roads - unless, the people they were chasing after were also idiots who also happened to be lost in the forest.

As they burst out into the road, Tung Mei suddenly pulled hard on the reins of her horse, bringing it to an abrupt stop. The sudden stop almost caused an accident as the riders behind her almost collided with her. Luckily, most of them managed to safely stop at the last second, although two of them did end up falling off their horses.

"What are YOU doing here?" Tung Mei asked with knit eyebrows. Of all the people, it just had to be this person! What was more annoying was her stupid heart for being so jumpy.

Lei Yong stared at Tung Mei for a few seconds too long, before blinking out of his stupor and glancing off to the side, feeling nervous for no reason, his hands were even sweaty. He frowned and surveyed the group, "I didn't think you would actually be here, in the forest no less." He had only thought to check here to be thorough.

He had made up his mind not to go after her, but he still could not help checking in on her situation. Three days and the Imperial guards had still not caught up to Tung Mei, this seemed odd as there was only a day between them. The guards were given orders to charge through and so would have been going at double the usual travel pace. Five days passed and there was still no news of her, at that point, Lei Yong became too restless and so here he was - everyone else just seemed too incompetent so he had to direct the search personally to be at ease.

Good thing he did too because the girl got lost in the forest! If not for him, no one would have come through here. His men had even been trying to dissuade him but he decided to just ride through the area, just in case.

"The bridges here are flooded during this season and so unusable. There is also a threat of flooding in this area so no one passes through here during this time, didn't you see the sign?" One of Lei Yong's men asked.

Tung Mei's group glared at the guide, who cleared his throat and indignantly said, "There was no sign where we passed."

"You and your shortcuts." Another member mumbled in retort.

"You have not answered my question." Tung Mei repeated, now glaring at Lei Yong, "Why are you here?" It was never a welcome thing when the person you were trying to avoid shows up at your doorstep.

Lei Yong blinked in surprise at the hostility, it was not that he was expecting a hug or anything like that, but... not this, "You were reported as missing." He curtly said, lowering his eyes with a frown. The others wisely stayed silent and glanced between the two as the frost settled in between them.

In the end, Lei Yong broke the silence with a sigh, raised his head, and looked at Tung Mei, who returned his gaze with a suspicious one, "Let's go, I will lead the rest of the way, so you don't have to worry."

"I wasn't worrying in the first place." Tung Mei flatly said, then turned her horse and galloped in the direction Lei Yong had come from, wanting to put distance between them. She was worrying, she had definitely been worrying, but she did not want to be rescued by him!

Lei Yong knit his brows and watched her back, displeased. Was she really that upset with him? The girl he knew had really thick skin, she was not one to hold grudges this long. Even when she was upset with him, she never avoided him.

Lei Yong sighed again and galloped after her, not sure what he or anybody else was doing.

As for the Emperor's ridiculous condition, well, Lei Yong did not want to really think about that. When he went to inform the Emperor that he wanted to lead the search for her, the Emperor eagerly gave his approval. When he asked about the condition of marriage, the Emperor simply asked if he did not want to go. In the end, Tung Mei's safety took priority so Lei Yong dropped the topic and left without another word.

He seriously doubted the Emperor would actually consider the fact that his worry was actually substantiated since the girl was actually in trouble and let it go. He knew the Emperor well enough to know that he could be ridiculous and stubborn in his antics sometimes. Lei Yong could already envision the Emperor telling him that since fate intervened on his behalf and he should not fight it.

Whatever will come, will come. He really wanted to believe it would all work itself out in the end.