A Lifetime Promise

Chapter 4

"W-who are you? And who are you calling a little boy?!" The young boy stuttered.

She didn't know if he was scared or angry but either way, he looked adorable. He was only taller than her by a few centimeters. His black hair was messy and looking at his appearance, he seemed to look like a beggar but somehow she felt it wasn't right. Maybe he had an accident or something.

"Ah? Of course I'm calling you a little boy. Who else is here but you and me?" Lin Xinglan was confused, it wasn't like there was any other people other than them, right?

When the young boy heard the stranger call him a little boy, he became angry and so he stomped one of his feet on the ground a few times before shouting at her.

"This prince is not a little boy! You look younger than this prince, and do you know who this prince is?!"

Lin Xinglan looked blankly at the young boy, by how he referred himself, could he really be a prince? If so, Lin Xinglan was in deep trouble for offending a prince. It was more shocking that she even met one, especially in a forest. But then again, the young boy could be pretending.

"You are a prince? Pfft, don't joke around. Just look at you, how could you be a prince when you look so dirty? Where are your servants?" Lin Xinglan was making fun of the young boy but never had she expected that he would begin to cry.

Tears kept pouring out from his big dark eyes. She froze, she was only joking so did he need to take her so seriously?

"W-what are you starting to cry for? Didn't you say you weren't a little boy? Then how do you explain this?" She started to panic, she wasn't someone who knew what to do with crying children, she was awkward in that field.

The young boy began to sniff, trying to stop the tears from coming out with his dirtied sleeves. As soon as he stopped crying, his watery big eyes looked at her, he looked so sad that she wanted to comfort him but she held back.

"Of course I'm a prince! I'm Qiang Jingyi, the fourth prince of Qin." He firmly stated his name and rank, he looked so confident but she was still a little skeptical.

"Really?" Lin Xinglan looked at him with eyes full of skepticism, accusing him for lying.

When he saw that look on her face, he began to panic and hurriedly took out a jade token from his pocket and showed it to her.

"See?! This prince knows that this prince is unfavored and my mother hates this prince but this prince is still a... Prince.." Then the young boy began to slowly cry again. Lin Xinglan was shocked, the young boy was really a prince...

That jade token was proof of having the status as a prince of Qin. Her senses came back to reality when she heard him cry again and she started to panic once again.

"Alright, alright. I believe you so stop crying, okay? Only little boys would cry so stop crying already." She tried her best to comfort the young boy, but really no one could blame her for disliking crying children.

It took a while for her to calm him down, it was really energy draining to do so. She sighed and she couldn't stop herself from thinking why a prince would be in a forest alone.

"So, tell me about yourself. Why are you alone in this big forest?"

"This.. This prince is ten years old, the son of an unfavored concubine, Hui Ting... Because of this prince's mother, nobody in the palace likes this prince. Mother doesn't like this prince too... Since nobody cares about this prince, this prince decided to go to the forest and explore but then, this prince dropped this prince's shoe in the water..." The young prince voice went lower and lower as he finished his sentence.

He looked at his feet and indeed, his left foot was missing the shoe, showing small cuts in his skin from stepping on stones. Lin Xinglan frowned when she heard him talking about himself.

She then flicked his forehead hard when he lifted his head to look at her. He groaned in pain as he held his forehead with his hands.

"Are you foolish or just simply stupid? Why would you go tell strangers about yourself? What if someone wanted to kidnap you after hearing you? It doesn't matter if you're an unfavored prince or not, to keep the Emperor's face, he would still pay a ransom to the kidnapper to bring you back. Why are you alone? What if a stranger sells you as a slave?" Lin Xinglan kept scolding the young prince, not caring whether he was an Imperial or not. He was still just a small child.

"But... But you don't need to worry... This forest belongs to the Imperial family..." Lin Xinglan stopped him from talking any further.

So what if it belongs to the Imperial family, it doesn't change the fact that I could easily go in there which means there are easily many opportunity for others to go plot you if they see you! She was getting irritated every second she heard him talking.

"Stop! Enough. Listening to you makes my brain even more stupid. Really, how is your brain working?" She helplessly shook her head at the hopeless young prince.

This won't do... Thinking through, she decided to teach him a thing or two.

"Listen here, little prince. This big sister is going to teach you a few things."

"Big sister? But you don't look older than me.... Also, I need to find my lost shoe..."

"Your shoe? Forget about it, it's probably already gone because of the water flow. Yes, you're right, I'm just 6 years old but still, I'm smarter than you. Suck it up. Don't care about the small details." She waved her hand at him as if she was dismissing him.

He was stunned, although he was not favored in the palace, no one would talk as rudely to him as the little six year old girl before him did. Moreover, she was a girl. The young prince really felt that the girl who was younger than him was really weird.

"Okay, what's this young girl's name?" He timidly asked, somehow, he felt shy asking for a girl's name. Lin Xinglan looked at him getting timid, he was acting so adorable, her heart warmed a bit.

"Right, my name is... Xinglan. But you can call me Lan if it's too mouthful for you to say." She decided to tell the young prince her past life's name which she really liked. She disliked her current name and had a feeling the little prince before her would someday tease her, that was something she didn't want to happen.

"Xinglan... Lan.." The young prince tried to call her name.

"En. It's nice to meet you too, little prince. Let's start our lessons shall we?" Lin Xinglan showed him a bright childish smile. For a moment that very smile of her caught the young prince's attention. He couldn't stop staring at her face for a while.