I don't want to marry the Emperor!

6

A/N: Vote, Comment, etc... 

As the day of the competition arrived, Yu Ning, her parents, and Yu Ning's personal maids left for the center of the capital before the sun even rose. Now, since the Yu family lives within the capital, it would not have taken them long to reach the Floret, however, like all the other wealthy contestants, the Yu family refuses to risk getting a single speck of dirt or smudge on Yu Ning's finished look. They also wanted as much time as possible to prepare Yu Ning for the competition, that's why they left so earlier.

With the Masters of the house gone, Yu Jiang knew all of the servants and maids, will more than likely, neglect their duties. So he got up early, waited for Yu Ning, her parents, and her personal maids to leave, then fetched and poured new water into Yu Ning's tub, and then went to wake Yu Bai up.

---

As Yu Bai groggily shakes her head and rubs her eyes, Yu Jiang drags her to Yu Ning's room and tells her to get in the tub.

"Isn't this Lady Yu's room?!" Yu Bai asks with shocked eyes and dry, frowning lips.

As Yu Jiang opens Yu Ning's large dresser and begins searching thru piles of dresses, he nonchalantly tells Yu Bai, "Yes. Now hurry. We still need to make our way to the capital."

But Yu Bai was frozen shock. "We... we can't do this. Jiang Gege, they will kill us once they find out. We can't do this. This is bad."

With most of his attention still focused on finding the right pieces for a dress, Yu Jiang asks Yu Bai, "If you want to make it to the Floret in time. You should hurry up. Besides, I have already asked for permission. So, everything will be fine."

Now obviously, Yu Jiang had not asked for permission, not that they would have even granted him permission if he had begged. But if it'll put Yu Bai's mind at easy, it's easy to say that he's already asked for permission. It's not like they have any other choice.

As Yu Bai remains shock and stuck in place, Yu Jiang pulls out a few pieces of garments from different dresses in Yu Ning's dresser and then lays them on the table in the center of the room before ushering Yu Bai towards the large bathroom and plopping her into Yu Ning's wash bin.

"Take off your clothes and start washing yourself. When you're done, put on those clothes and come out to the guest area." Yu Jiang states as he pours a bunch of expensive scented soap in the wash bin and shampoo on Yu Bai's head.

---

By the time Yu Bai came out, about an hour had already past and the sun had begun to peek in the horizon.

"Jiang gege, is this correct?" Bai questions as she tugs at the rose red waist band around the vibrant, pastel white dress.

Now since Yu Jiang is not a girl, he can only base his knowledge on what he's seen the other girls wear and it seems correct to him.

So he gives her a nod and then motions for her to sit down and begins attempting his best to fix her hair and make-up.

Seeing how Yu Bai is already cute without make-up on, instead of plastering a bunch of make up on her face to make her look seductive and mature, Yu Jiang decided to go for a subtler look that will fit her cute and innocent appearance.

---

By the time they are done with Yu Bai's overall appearance, another two hours had already gone by, and noon was only a few hours away. So Yu Jiang quickly covers Yu Bai in a thin light yellow cloak, and then himself in an older, thick cloak and discretely left the Yu Manor.

---

When they arrive to the Floret rest house, the large building is filled with thousands of people. However, luck for them, most of those people are not contestants. Many of the contestant have already entered, so that entrance is clearer than the spectators' entrance.

Once they both finally made their way into the grand lobby of the Floret and signed in, the clerk gives Yu Bai a small token with a number and explained to Yu Bai that she will be placed in a group and compete in that group. The clerk also explained that only the contestant can enter the stage area. Spectators' are only allowed to view from the ground or ceiling seats.

The ceiling seats are obviously a better option, because they are individual seats and viewers can see almost all of the acts. However, those seats are pricey, even for families of the wealthier contestants.

Since Yu Jiang does not even own a penny in this world, he reminded Yu Bai to stay calm and tells her that he'll be waiting with the ground audience, then bids Yu Bai farewell at the stage entrance.

---

Once noon hits, the competition began right away. As each contestant performs their talent for the massive audience, cheers, jeers, snickering, and plain old perverse comments were thrown at the contestants.

After about three hours into the competition, as Yu Jiang had predicted, everyone became quite bored of the typical and repetitive singing, dancing, and overall music performance. But, no one has yet to leave.

After six dreadful hours of being crushed into, pushed, breath on, cursed at, etc., Yu Jiang finally hears Yu Bai's name and quickly perks up his head and toes as high as they will go, but all he could see is an empty stage. It wasn't until the third and final call that she finally makes her way to the stage.

However, her head is casted down, her hair is a mess, her waist band is missing, her clothes are disheveled and stained, and Yu Jiang could tell she is shaking and crying.

As Yu Jiang's mind tries to reason why, he hears the crowd begin to mumble among themselves and snicker.

"Such thick skin. Tsk.tsk."

"I would never come out like that, even if it kills me."

"How pathetic! Her parents should be ashamed for entering such thing into this esteem competition."

The crowd's words annoyed Yu Jiang a lot and he wanted to punch those people in the face, but he had more important issues at hand, and tried his best to rush and push his way towards the front of the crowd, towards the lifted stage.

---

Lucky for Yu Jiang, his current body is as thin as a stick, so it makes it a little easier for him to squeeze thru the massive and clumpy crowd. However, as the saying goes, where there is a yang there is a yin. Because of Yu Jiang's slender and weak body, it is also easier for people to push, tug, and kick him back as he nears the front row.

As he looks up and see the host mock and motions for Yu Bai to begin her performance, he hears people beginning to shout out insults and sees Yu Bai tremble even more on stage.

Now Yu Jiang knows that Yu Bai will not be able to hear many of the insults from the audience, but it was different with the host.

Yu Bai's pitiful form made Yu Jiang's heart sink as he again, tries to make his way to the stage. However, as he sees an opening gap and try to squeeze his way through, a feels the group of people behind him aggressively and rudely push hard against his back and legs.

The hard thrust sent Yu Jiang falling forward, but, just as his face is about to slam into the hard floor, he feels a hand wrap around his upper arm and pull him up.