I didn’t find out who sent the mercenaries. But because of that day, Hu lost his mother, who ran in to save him. I never saw Hu again after that. His entire family moved out of the capitol, for unknown reasons. What happened that day made me feel useless, unable to fight against the mercenaries with strong cultivation levels. After that, I resolved never to be beaten again. 

My servant, Xiao Yue, comes in, interrupting my thinking. “Lisu, your father wants you to meet the neighbors.”

“Alright,” I say. “But first let me practice my benevolent smile.”

I walk over to the small fountain in my room and smile my friendliest smile to my reflection. Like the rest of me, my smile is naturally perfect. I take a moment to take in my amazing reflection. Even the uneven surface of the water can’t stop my beauty. 

 I have this really flowy, shiny, wavy, perfect, dark purple hair that I let loose, with the top put up in a bun held together by a pink, flowery band with a lotus pin. I got my purple hair from the mercenary attack, so I guess that’s one thing good that came out of it. I’m wearing purple, because it's the color that makes me feel special; in fact, my entire wardrobe is purple. Today I’m wearing a beautiful hanfu with wide sleeves and a waistband embroidered with purple lotuses. I’m wearing my best lipstick and my eyeshadow, which is pale purple, is done perfectly. 

I give a heart melting smile to Xiao Yue. “I’m ready to go now.”

“Miss Lisu is so nice!” Xiao Yue gushes. “You’ll be the best neighbor there is!”

We walk out of my room, into the small dining room of our new house. Father, his wives, and my siblings are already there. Lisha waves to me from where she is sitting.

“Lisu! Who do you think our neighbors are?” she asks excitedly.

“Father already told us that. It’s a master cultivator and his students, who live on the mountain,” I explain patiently, as Lisha is a little forgetful. 

“You are so smart and kind, to remind me!” Lisha gushes, giving me a hug. Liling saunters over. She’s the daughter of the evil Chang Ying, and she’s just as malevolent as her mother. In front of the entire family, she spits in my food and grabs my new brooch off of my head. How embarrassing!

“Please give that back,” I say, remembering to use my manners even in the presence of such vulgarity.

“Hohoho, Liling sure is a feisty one,” Father chuckles to Chang Ying, not even bothering to come to my aid. “Isn’t she adorable?”

My cheeks redden but then I remember that everyone who hates me is probably evil and I shouldn’t bother to be embarrassed. After all, embarrassment is the first step to losing! My personal motto is, as long as you think you’ve won, you’ve won and no one can convince you otherwise. So I take a deep breath. I’ve won against Liling as she’s just shown how blackhearted she is. 

“It’s really too bad that you're still alive,” Liling sneers. “I can’t believe I have to actually talk to you now that we’ve moved here!”

She waves the brooch in front of my face tauntingly. “This should belong to me, since I am clearly more suited for it.”

I look at Father, but as usual, he doesn’t care. “Yeah, Liling is right, it looks better on her. Be a nice child and give it to her, alright?”

I groan inwardly, but smile placidly. “Very well, if it pleases Father.”

I take out another brooch that is even more beautiful than the first and fasten it to my hair. Suddenly, the curtain separating the dining room from the entry hall is ripped off. The perpetrator is an old man, with piercing brown eyes, messy gray hair, wearing beggar’s robes.

“Go beg somewhere else,” Liling sneers.

“Wait, if this poor old beggar needs food, then we should give it to him,” I say. “The Ma household must be known for its generosity!”

“I’m no old beggar,” the old man says gruffly. “The name’s Xia Lei. I’ll beat you up if you call me that again.”

“Oh, um, this is our new neighbor,” Father says hastily. “He and his three disciples are in charge of protecting the town of Fulian.”

The old man meets my eyes, and suddenly, I’m struck with a peculiar feeling. I know then that this is the person who will be my lifelong mentor and confidant. He seems to think so too, as he nods toward my direction. “Who’s that young girl over there in the corner?”

“Oh, that’s Lisu. She exists, I guess,” Father says dismissively. 

“Don’t you dare just say she exists!” Xia Lei’s eyes blaze. “She is destined for very great things, and she’ll be a true-” he then says a word in english that I don’t understand. It sounds kind of like my name- Mae-ri Soo? I’m not quite sure. But he is absolutely right, of course!

Father mutters an apology but it’s clear he doesn’t mean it. Ma Zhixin, Chang Ying’s evil male spawn, takes the chance to come closer. He’s just as evilly ambitious as his relatives, but he often fails because he has none of the villainous intelligence his mother and sister have. 

 “Hey, do you think I can be your disciple? I’m quite gifted at cultivation,” he says, attempting to be crafty but just sounding pushy. Xia Lei smacks him in the face. 

“I don’t just take any disciple, especially not one of an evil no-good concubine!”

Wow, Xia Lei and I really are kindred spirits. He might be the only one who actively agrees with me about that. 

“What? I try my best to be the best wife to my beloved Ma Fu. How could you say something so hurtful?” Chang Ying says, her eyes welling with tears.

“Please don’t say those things to my beautiful!” Father says.

“Eh, whatever,” Xia Lei says dismissively. “Anyways, anyone have any food? I’m starving.” 

Without waiting for an answer he grabs a baozi off of Lisha’s plate and stuffs it in his mouth whole. Lisha looks mildly disgusted until I give her a look. Then she frantically shakes her head, pleading for my forgiveness. 

“So where’s your disciples?” Su Huian asks after a while. Xia Lei is grouchy, and hasn’t really responded to any questions other than short, one word answers. 

Xia Lei scratches his ear. “I don’t know. Probably tethering the horses or something.”

Suddenly, the curtain that the servants had finally attached to the frame is again torn off. Three young men stride in. One is dressed in red, one in sickly pale orange, and one in azure blue. The blue one has a white streak in his hair. Wait, I remember that hair; I was there the day he got it in the same way I got my own purple hair. It’s unmistakable. This must be a sign of fate, that we are meant to be together, two people meeting once again after nine years apart like faithful lovers. I remember how mature he was (well, not as mature as I am now) and how witty he was with a kind heart (well, not as kind as I am now). He and I are a perfect match! And now, I go to greet…

“Lin Hu!” I squeal, tackling him in a hug. He gives a groan, probably of surprise to see the amazing girl from his childhood again. I can’t wait to show him how much better I’ve become at everything. “I didn’t know your family moved here!”

He gently separates his arms from me, and opens his mouth. I think he’s come to profess his undying love to me, but instead he says “Why is everyone staring at you in adoration?”

I look around and realize everyone (except Father, Chang Ying and her foul offspring) is starry-eyed. 

“Well obviously, I’m just that great.”

He groans. “Ughh, I should have caught a clue based on how much your name sounds like Mae-ri Soo.”

“Yup, that’s me!” I say cheerfully, not quite understanding what he’s getting at. But I remember Hu is very sarcastic, so he’s probably just expressing his admiration for me. “Where have you been all these years?”

“Wait, you know this girl?” the orange guy says with jealousy. “Why don’t I get to know any cute girls?”

Hu rolls his eyes. “Well, more like we met once before a long time ago.”

“Even so, we had a very close bond from the moment we met, right? Some could even call it…love at first sight!” I exclaim, leaning onto Hu’s shoulder in what is supposed to be a romantic moment but he pushes me away. I guess Hu wants our relationship to go slow and steady on the outside to disguise the burning hot passion on the inside. I pout at him in a cute way, but wink while doing so to show I’m not mad at him for that. Abruptly, someone pushes past me and saunters over to Hu. Liling bats her long eyelashes at him and leans forward in an effort to impress him with her cleavage. Trust Liling to never give up a chance to exert her evil influence on boys.

“Hey there handsome, why don’t we have a private chat in my room? Forget about Lisu. I’m so much better,” she simpers. Hu pushes her away.

“Nope,” he mutters. “Not interested. Why are all these girls flocking me?”

Liling smiles complacently and walks away, but I can tell she is still scheming to get Hu. But no way will I let her steal him from me! First her mother took my mother, and now she wants to take my boyfriend too?

As if noticing my thoughts, Hu scowls. “I’m not your boyfriend.”

“Oh, of course, if you want to be fancy, we’ll call you my fiance,” I say cheerily. 

“I’m not that either!”

“Then how about significant other?”

“I’m not in love with you! And I’m not just saying this sarcastically, I do not love you at all! We’re just friends, and even that is questionable!”

I’m shocked. This is the first time in my life someone I like has told me they don’t unconditionally love and adore me. I start glowering. Hu must have realized his mistake, because he backtracks. 

“Look, I’m just saying we’ve met exactly once before this, and then we haven’t seen each other for nine years.”

I’m a nice person, so I don’t push. “We’ll talk about that later. Anyways, who are your classmates?”

This is Zeng Zhiqiang-” Hu nods toward the red guy, “and this is Huang Qiao.”

Qiao scowls, making his face as ugly as his barf-colored robes, although being a nice person, I would never say that to his face. “Why do you get to introduce us?”

“Because you didn’t bother to,” Zhiqiang says cheerfully.

Qiao glowers again. I get the feeling he’s not a very cheerful person. 

“Why don’t you introduce your family, Lisu?” Zhiqiang says. 

“My family is really big. Do you want me to list every single person?” I ask.

“Go ahead, I can remember. I have a photographic memory,” Hu assures me.

“Well, that man over there is Ma Fu, my father, and the evil pale woman clinging to his arm is his concubine Chang Ying. The other woman decked out in jewels is his other concubine, Yin Cuifen, and the woman in the corner talking to the servants is his official wife, Su Huian.”

“Chang Ying looks like a nice lady,” Zhiqiang remarks. “Why do you call her evil?”

“Well, it’s pretty obvious she’s out to get me,” I reply. “Anyways, continuing on, we have Chang Ying’s evil spawn, Ma Liling and Ma Zhixin. Su Huian’s children are Ma Lina, Ma Lisha, Ma Zhibin, and Ma Zhigang. Yin Cuifen also has two sons, over by the window. Their names are Ma Zhihuan and Ma Zhijun. And then there’s me, the daughter of the deceased concubine Pan Zhenzhen, yours truly, the great Ma Lisu!”

“I did not remember any of that,” Qiao complains.

“As long as Hu remembers, we’re fine, right?” Zhiqiang says cheerfully. 

Hu nods. “I remembered everything already.”

“You’re very smart. Well, not as smart as me but still really smart,” I compliment him, causing Hu to roll his eyes again.

We continue on to chat for a while about mundane things, like the weather and their training, before a crash interrupts us. I look over in concern to find out Ma Zhihuan and Ma Zhijun have accidentally knocked the entire row of plants off the windowsill, breaking the ceramic pots holding them.

“Oh no!” Zhijun wails. “We have to fix this before Father comes back, or he’ll punish us!”

“Don’t worry, I can help!” I say helpfully. I pick up the pieces of each ceramic pot, matching them together perfectly and using some red bean paste from a dish on the table to hold the pieces together. I put the pots back on the windowsill, where the sunlight hits in just a way so you won’t be able to see the cracks. Then I take the dirt and plants, put them back in the fixed pots, and sweep the remaining dirt off the floor until the floor is spotless and clean. This is all done in a matter of minutes.

“Thank you so much!” Zhihuan says. “If not for you, we would have been ruined!”

“No need to thank me,” I reply. “I’m just doing my duty!”

I turn around to see Zhiqiang and Qiao staring at me wide-eyed at my impressive feat.

“Wow, Lisu, that was amazing!” Zhiqiang remarks.

“Lisu, you’re so good at everything,” Qiao says dreamily, making his face look much better. “If only you could be my girlfriend…”

“Well, I want her as my girlfriend, too!” Zhiqiang yells.

“Boys, don’t fight over me,” I tell both of them, although I’m flattered so many boys have fallen in love with me. Although it is sort of a curse because everyone will fight over me, and I’ll have to pick one to be my boyfriend. Speaking of boyfriends, where is Hu? I look around and see him crouching on the floor, staring intently at the plate of red bean paste I used to piece back together the pots. I watch as he uses a finger to dab the paste on one part of a broken plate, and tries to fit it back in with the other piece. It doesn’t work and the plate falls to the ground, fracturing it more. I hurry over to his side.

“Want me to help?”

“Sure,” he says. I piece the plate back together perfectly, and hand it back to him. Hu stares at me for a long time, and I’m sure he’s about to admit he loves me. 

“This shouldn’t be possible. The bean paste doesn’t have enough adhesion to stick these two pieces together, and even so, the cracks should be visible.”

This is definitely a love confession! Hu has just complimented me on doing the impossible! I feel extremely happy. 

Again, as if he’s anticipated what I’m thinking, Hu snipes, “That isn’t a love confession. That’s just pointing out how much of a Mae-ri Soo you are.”

Hu groans again. “Great, just great. I get stuck with this ridiculousness? I swear, if I spend one more minute in this company, I swear I’ll go mad!”

“Well, nice to know that you’re going mad for me!” I say.

 Hu throws his hands up in the air and stalks out of the house. I let him go, since I understand everyone needs their alone time. As I look at my family, chatting with my new friends/prospective boyfriends, I feel a sense of contentment. Maybe living in Fulian won’t be so bad after all.