"You can?!" Excitement and relief filled Shang Xiang's voice. She knew she needed to return to the Wu camp, return and tell her family of her desperate need for a suitor. She lost a bit of that enthusiasm when the fortune teller added a conditional to that statement.
"It will take time to get everything prepared for your return to the Wu camp," the fortune teller said. "There are rogues and bandits that would love to take advantage of a delicate beauty like yourself."
Laced within the fortune teller's remark, Shang Xiang heard something that she would have taken as an insult not even an hour ago. It was for the best, she realized, as the fortune teller explained. She took no pain in admitting to how easily a bandit could play off her naivete, convincing her to do and believe all manner of suggestions. She was, after all, a woman. The world was too vast and complicated.
She needed someone to take care of the things that were too strenuous for her fragile body and too difficult for her simple mind. She was already going to be pushing herself to the limit by grappling with hard tasks like looking pretty and serving tea. A headache began to form behind her eyes just trying to imagine what it would take to manage finances. No, it didn't matter if it was a feudal lord or a lowly thief or a little boy. All that mattered was that she wouldn't have to think, and that all she would have to worry about was doing what she was told to do.
Sun Mar 09 22:35:08 2008