The Lady And The Commoner: Chapter 21

Morning came too soon for the women as were woken up by the birds who had decided to make the tree that they were sleeping under their home. Shimeng was the first to wake up and she groaned as it was still early morning and she had far from enough sleep to make her feel well rested.

For several minutes she attempted to fall back asleep but when she realised that she couldn't she instead began to perform some of her exercises. This mostly involved stretches as she knew that she needed to warm up before she tried more strenuous activities. Once she was done with her stretches, she mostly practiced her punches and kicks. These were exercises that she hadn't been able to attempt recently since she had been on bodyguard duty, but now seemed to be the perfect time.

It would have been ideal to have a sparring partner such as her twin brother Dalei. In her mind, he was the perfect sparring partner as he was just as skilled as her although she wouldn't admit it to him. Even so, she did perform her punches and kicks at speeds that some would consider superhuman. Few people would be able to block or dodge in time before each strike would hit. Hao had been one such person and she was glad that she would likely never see him again. She couldn't help but wonder what would happen to the people who had kidnapped Xinyue. Shimeng thought that it was likely that Lord Chen would track down their base of operation and then have them executed. That was if they hadn't had the foresight to flee first.

For the next half an hour, Shimeng continued her exercises and sparring and she was so fixated on this that she didn't really notice anything around her. This also included the fact that Xinyue had also woken up and had been able to see what her bodyguard was doing. She had wanted to call out to her and tell her that they should carry on. But she couldn't help but watch her, something about watching Shimeng sparring was like watching a dancer perform their craft. The two seemed incredibly similar to one another and she couldn't help but watch in awe.

This was the first time that Xinyue had really seen Shimeng in action. She had not been present during the test when Shimeng had first been brought to the manor and she had been blindfolded when her saviour had taken down the bandits. Seeing her in action was simply breath taking to her.

Eventually Shimeng did stop as she was beginning to feel somewhat tired and knew that she had to conserve her energy for the travelling that day. After wiping some of the sweat off of her brow, she turned around and looked towards where Xinyue had been sleeping. She expected to see the high-born woman still asleep, instead however she could her sitting up and looking over to her. This quickly made her blush as she felt a small amount of embarrassment about the situation.

"H-How long have you been awake for my lady?" asked Shimeng with a hint of embarrassment in her voice. She also quickly made sure that her hair was done correctly as she didn't want to look dishevelled in front of her.

"Long enough to watch you sparring," replied Xinyue. She smiled over to her and this only made Shimeng feel more embarrassed. "Seeing you in action like that makes me see why you became my bodyguard."

"Well I was trained by my mother and father. Both of them are incredibly skilled combatants, my father is even known as the Man With Lightning Fists. My Mother was simply called the Giant."

"It would have been nice to say hello to them. I would have told them that they had trained their daughter well. Also, a part of me wants to know if your mother is as tall as they say. Or if they're just exaggerating." Before she would have likely taken it at face value, but after her expectations of Prince Shou had not been what she had expected, she now questioned matters of such.

"Believe me, think about the tallest person that you've ever seen. Even if you added two feet onto that, they would still be shorter than my mother." She considered telling Xinyue about her mother's ability to make herself even bigger, but decided not to as she thought that it wasn't important. Any continuation to this line of conversation ended when she felt her stomach begin to growl. The same happened to Xinyue as she too felt hungry. "I think it's best that we find something to eat. We can't go on a long trip like this with an empty stomach."

"Y-Yeah, you're right." She then slowly rose up to her full height and she knew that they hadn't brought any food with them. Since they had been in a haste to leave, she had failed to pick any up. This made her feel foolish for her short-sightedness but she still wanted to get as far away from there as possible. "Any idea where we're going to get food?"

This did seem to be a problem for them, but salvation seemed to present itself from the tree that they had been sleeping under. Trying to steal eggs from the nests that happened to be there was a fair from an ideal plan. Instead it was from the fruit that grew on the tree that was the most appetising.

These grew on branches that were fairly high off the ground and looked similar to figs. Shimeng stepped towards the lowest branch that held the fruit. She reached up and attempted to grab one of the fruits. Unfortunately, even when she stood on her tip toes, she was unable to do so.

Suddenly she noticed Xinyue step up towards her and then reach up for the same piece of fruit. Since the high-born woman was around half a foot taller than her, she was easily able to reach it. She was able to pick it off the branch, but rather than taking it herself, she instead gave it to Shimeng.

This did take the shorter woman somewhat by surprise as she thought that Xinyue would have had it for herself first. Instead she was giving it to her and she couldn't help but feel honoured by this. After a quick nod to say thank you, took a bite out of the fruit and found it to be quite sour.

Despite the taste, she still bit into it as she knew that there was nothing else. Xinyue watched her for a moment before reaching up and taking another fruit down. Like Shimeng before her, she found the taste to be quite sour and it was far from the usual food that she would eat. Even so, she ate up and she also knew that they would have to leave very soon. It wouldn't be long before people in the manor realised that they were gone.

Each of them ate three fruits before they decided to move away. They had seen a town the previous night but thought that it was best to not go there as it was going to one of the first places that would be searched. Instead there was a town that was a further ten miles away that would be ideal for them.

The plan was that they would get transport and some supplies so that they could travel to a place even further away. Xinyue, didn't particularly care where it was, just as long as it was far away from there.

The ten-mile walk was long and mostly uneventful. Constantly they were looking out for anyone who was one of Lord Chen's men. Thankfully they didn't seem to run into any for the time being but they did have to take a rest. Hunger was a problem for them and also thirst as all the walking had made them feel dehydrated them.

Some salvation came as they walked by a small stream and so stopped for a moment so that they could drink some water. There were a couple of fishermen but they didn't take any notice of the pair. As far as they were concerned, these two women were simply on a walk and nothing more. They didn't realise that one of these women was the daughter of a very powerful lord.

Once they had drank the water that they needed, it was around another three miles until they reached the town that they were intending to travel to. It was relatively small and both were very happy to see it. By then it was past midday and the streets were filled with people who were going about their daily business.

None of them were of any importance and thanks to the clothing that they were wearing, both Shimeng and Xinyue simply blended in. The first place that they went wasn't somewhere that they could buy food or even find transport. Instead it was to a pawn shop so that some of Xinyue's jewellery could be sold.

The owner was completely taken aback by what he was seeing as the single piece of jewellery that was placed in front of him was worth more than everything in his shop combined. He could see the value of it and at first attempted to lowball the women so that he could make a greater profit once he sold it.

Xinyue saw through this immediately demanded that they be given more money for it. Like him, she knew how much it was worth and although she knew that she wouldn't get market value, was she was being offering was an insult. Shimeng would have accepted the first offer but thanks to Xinyue's determination, they were given much more money than they originally would have.

Now that they had some money in their back pockets, the pair did begin to go through the town and buy some of the essentials that they needed. This included some food and water but they were still careful. They made sure not to get food that would spoil quickly since they didn't know how long they would be on the road for. Because of this they were cautious with what they had bought and their actions. The last thing they wanted to do was do anything that brought attention to themselves.

The next item on their list was to find some kind of transport to wherever they thought was far enough away. Thankfully such a thing was something that they could find in this town as just on the outskirts, there was a large coach that was destined to travel to another a large city that was several hundred miles away.

Such a journey would take several days, maybe even a week since it was simply a large coach like cart which was being pulled by numerous horses. One problem that they did come across was the fact that the coach wouldn't be leaving until the following day. This meant that they would have to find accommodations for the night and then arrive the next morning. This was something that they considered to be risky as they were still close enough to Lord Chen's manor that there could be some of his men searching here for Xinyue. If they were discovered, the consequences could be dire for at least one of them.