Birds of a Feather

Wise, innocent-looking fallen crown prince Shuang Bai Sheng × aloof, "scheming" grand preceptor Ji Qinglan, who acts like an old hand

Word around town had it that Bai Sheng, crown prince of the Le Yang Kingdom, was a heavenly deity incarnate, extraordinarily clever from childhood. He learned poetry at one, the abacus at two, and Go at three. By four or five, he was already being brought to court to "rule from behind the curtain."

One day, an immortal master came to Le Yang and made a mysterious pronouncement to the king: "This humble one observed the stars last night. The crown prince is surrounded by stars and has an exceptionally prosperous fate, but his body cannot bear it. He is at risk of an early death."

The king of Le Yang doted on his son, so he immediately appointed the man grand preceptor.

The next day, Ji Qinglan happily entered the crown prince's chambers and became his tutor.

But after a few days of teaching, Ji Qinglan felt he'd been fooled by the rumors. He wrote in his Lessons Learned Journal:

Day One: Dull.

Day Two: Facial defect.

Day Three: Summed up as stupid, crossed that out and added: also blind.

Ji Qinglan hid the journal after every entry. Then one day, just as he had cornered the young crown prince by the bed and was about to get handsy, someone blocked him with a journal whose existence even its owner had forgotten.

Ji Qinglan: "..."

Dull meant that the crown prince hadn't called him teacher all day or said a single kind word. Facial defect...the crown prince had kept a straight face all day and hadn't smiled once, so Ji Qinglan suspected he was paralyzed in the face. Stupid and blind...he liked Du Feng. He had to be completely blind!

The crown prince himself only said two words from beginning to end: one was "Speak," and the other, Bai Sheng smiled at him. "Get lost."

After the door slammed shut behind him, Ji Qinglan picked up the long-unused journal from the floor and added a few more words: "Disrespectful to his teacher."

Posted 24.11.15

Theme: Husband and wife are birds of the same forest, but when disaster strikes, each flies away alone.