Tales Under A Cloud

01| Light and Shadow

The selection day arrived.

When the king announced the method of selecting the new princess, many women were excited to have their names mentioned and others weren't interested, they just wanted to leave.

Yuxin is one of those who wants to leave. She was somewhat annoyed that they used this method to choose a wife for the prince. If he was going to marry someone, at least it should be a person that he likes and not because she had to fulfill the role of a perfect queen.

"Silence please, we are about to choose the participants" said a man through the microphone as he began to spin a wheel toy where all the girls' names were written.

They forced them to attempt this announcement, that's why Yuxin wants to leave. She had more important things to do.

Those who were mentioned shouted with happiness and then climbed to the platform where the man gave them a pass to enter the castle. So it went one by one until only one participant was missing.

"And the last lady is ..." he inserted his hand again into the object and chose the first role.

This is finally over, Yuxin thought and she was about to leave when her name echoed through the place and made her frozen.

People turned to see her and she was still on her back, not believing her bad luck.

They forced her to go upstairs with the others and take her pass to the castle. While that happened, Yuxin received some laughing and indifferent looks. But she understands that there are some people who doesn't like the way she looks so they have already started saying that she will be the first one to be eliminated and won't get so far.

She looked at the pass card and frowned.

This must be a mistake, she thought, and a fear of leaving her parents passed through her back.

"I don't want this, please, choose another girl"

"I'm sorry, but this are the rules," added the man, ready to leave.

"But I can't go," Yuxin tried to convince him again. But the man just gave her a piercing gaze of warning.

"If you don't come, you can get in big trouble, miss."

She was finished, she no longer had a choice.

Yuxin doesn't want to marry the prince. She even doesn't want to live there in the first place, she just wants to work and support her family. But now she is worried that they have to work harder after she leave.

Yuxin stepped off the platform and went to her home.

The girls were right. She won't get far. Her worry started to disappear, because she was sure that she wasn't going to make it even to the second elimination.

*

The prince, Cai Xukun, was in a room fixing his clothes because he would meet the ten girls today.

He disagreed with this selection, but his father was right: he had to get himself a queen and he didn't have many contacts with women. He was always studying or practicing to use the sword.

Kun felt guilty for those girls who didn't want this, but he promised himself that he would send them home if they didn't want to marry him. He wasn't going to force them.

"I'm sorry for all this" said one of the ladies who finished fixing his tie.

"It's okay, Xie Na" Kun assured her with a small smile. She is like a second mother to him and she knows that the prince was waiting for the right person to arrive, but under the circumstances it had to be this way.

They announced the arrival of the ladies and both came down to greet them one by one. Kun was sitting in his own office while the girls introduced themself.

Number one turned out to be very energetic. She was very excited to meet him. The second and third didn't talk too much and the fourth was just as anxious as the first. The fifth turned out to be curious, the sixth implied that she didn't want to be there. Same with the seventh. And the two that followed were determined to win.

Kun stretched a bit from having spent almost two hours sitting there, and when he finished he said to Xie Na to let the last girl pass.

The last participant arrived and sat opposite him after bowing.

"My name is Liu Yuxin, prince Kun"

Kun tilted his head curiously. He could tell that she wasn't like the other girls who had sat there. She had pale skin, big eyes, and tiny lips. But it wasn't her appearance or the way she dressed, it was the aura she holds.

"You don't have to call me prince, just call me Kun"

She nodded and didn't add anything else. It was very awkward and weird because she's the first one to just sit back and wait. As if she had no interest in talking about her.

Another girl who had no interest in him. At least the other two mentioned topics about their family and their tastes, but they always maintained that atmosphere of wanting to leave.

Kun didn't add anything either and let her settle into what would become her new room.

So three out of ten wanted to go home. Kun already had someone to eliminate for the first round.