The entire day had been quite adventurous for Ru. She had not been to a supermarket for years and as for a bookstore, that was a big no-no in her life. The number of books she had to register in her brain back at her clan was already more than enough for her.
These days, she'd only read books if she developed an interest in something new. And mostly, these books were bought by one of her subordinates. Although she had tasted all kinds of delicacies that the world had to offer, she still felt that there was something heavenly delicious in the burger she ate today.
What she didn't understand was that it wasn't that burger that tasted so good. In reality, it was the fact that she actually shared a meal with someone in such a warm, harmonious, and joyous manner. People like her were used to eating all alone perhaps that's why being with those brothers gave her such a homely feeling.
"Raven, it's official!" She exclaimed out as she entered her apartment.
"May I ask what is official, master?" Her virtual nemesis a.k.a assistant asked in her humanoid voice.
"I'm homesick… Argh! I never thought there would come a day when I'd be homesick." Ru ruffled her own hair in exasperation. She was certain that this homesickness was because of seeing Xiao Zhi Ren. She had seen the way he doted on his younger brother and it made her yearn to see her own brother.
*Flashback*
"Big brother!" A young child of five years was trailing behind her teenage self, calling out just to get her attention.
"Aiyah, stop following me… If mother got to know that you skipped your training because of me, I'll be hung to my death." Ru tried to shoo him away but the little lad had no interest whatsoever in paying heed to her words.
"You're talking as if our mother is a demoness… Stop being so full of yourself. Wait for me!" While he was trying to sort out his words, Ru had already climbed the mountain far ahead of him. His small feet were trying hard to catch up but how could he possibly match up the pace of a teenager?
Her courtyard was in the most secluded part of the mountains and that was one of the reasons that nobody usually came to disturb her except for this little lad who liked clinging to her like super glue.
She was changing the headboard over the door of her courtyard when she heard his panting from behind. As she turned to look, his small face was flushed and sweat was dripping down his face like water droplets. She could only shake her head at his persistent nature.
"Why did you follow me?" Ru asked glaring at him but he was unfazed. Knowing his older brother's nature, the little lad was aware that his brother would never be angry with him.
"I saw you with a new name board for your courtyard. I just wanted to see what's it like…" Justifying his reasons, the little lad lifted his eyes to look at the head of the door to see the new name board. He was left dumbfounded.
He gave a look of disbelief to Ru before asking, "Big brother, who names their own courtyard as 'The Easy Breezy And A Bit Peasy Hall'?"
"I do!" Ru answered plainly with a look of content.
"Why?" The little lad asked in his childish voice.
"Because I'm an easygoing person who is like a breeze always floating around and as for peasy part? That was just rhyming perfectly so I added as a touch of humour." With ease, she described the whole reason behind a single nonsensical name of her courtyard. The little lad was truly impressed as he facepalmed himself.
"Aiyoh, big brother! Grandfather won't be happy to see this." The little lad's reminder was timely but Ru was used to going against her grandfather's words. She thought, 'The old man is already angry with me. With this, the anger will just go up a bit more. It doesn't matter much.' Thinking this, she shrugged her shoulders.
"That old man is never happy anyway." Her words had just left her mouth when a booming and imposing voice rang out from behind her,
"Have you ever tried making this old man happy?"
Ru was frozen still at her spot as if someone had charmed her. 'Why is my luck so rotten?' she thought to herself before slowly and carefully turning her body around.
There he stood with his hands clasped behind his back like a noble aristocratic person of a calm demeanour. But how could Ru be fooled by his outer look? "Heh heh… I always do everything just to make my grandfather happy and proud." Ru tried to use some skills of brown-nosing but she forgot that she wasn't really good at it.
Her grandfather took slow steps towards her and pulled her ear saying, "Young master Ru is getting good at his antics. But what a shame… I still don't fall for that."
"Grandfather, let my ear go. It's not fair. Why do I have to suffer? Pull this little brat's ear as well." The little lad made an adorable face as if he was wronged as he looked up to his grandfather's face.
"Grandfather, big brother left me at the foot of the mountain. All alone…" Ru gaped at that adorable rice cake wanting to bite him off. How was this kid so good at acting?
"Ahhh!" Ru shrieked a bit as her ear was not the only thing now she had to worry about. Her grandfather's personal imposing pressure was too much for her young self.
"You are fourteen and still, you have no idea how to care for your brother? And what's with this name board? What was wrong with the original name?" Being reprimanded by her grandfather was a common phenomenon for Ru. There was nothing noteworthy anymore. She silently listened to him or more like let it pass all over her head.
After he was done, she spoke in her defence, "First of all, that old name didn't go well with my personality." The original name of her courtyard was, 'The hall of youth scholar' and according to herself, she might be knowledgeable but she'd never want to be called a scholar. Not by anyone! "Second of all, I do care about my little rice cake but even he knows that mother and father would punish me if he missed his training and yet he's following me around." This time, she truly felt wronged. She just didn't want to spend another week in the punishment hall. Was it too much to wish for? "And lastly, I'm not going back with that original name board."
Seeing her huffing and puffing, her grandfather touched her head affectionately and said, "I'll get a new name board for my grandson. And I promise you'll love it." These words were enough to make her smile brightly as if the sky was cleared up after a storm. Of course, she had her ways to deal with this old man. Although everyone doted on the little rice cake, she knew she was still the most important to this old man.
True to his promise, her grandfather actually got her a new name board. Her courtyard was named: 'The Raven's Nest'. Obviously, she loved this name since it was aligned with her nickname perfectly.
*End of Flashback*
With a sigh, Ru looked out the window. This homesickness was not good for her health. Oddly, she still hadn't figured that she'd been homesick from the very beginning otherwise why would Lord Alev Knight's authority symbol be a black raven? Also, why was her only companion who happened to be a virtual assistant was also named, Raven?
"Why do I feel so stuffed all of a sudden?" Feeling a bit discomfort in her chest, she had to move her hands underneath the oversized sweatshirt to fix the binding around her chest. When it didn't work, she simply pulled it off freeing herself from the stuffy feeling. "So, it's one of those days when this binding actually gives me trouble," she mumbled to herself with a slight irritation visible on her face.
"Without this discomfort, I believe master you'll even forget that you were actually born a girl." Ru really had the urge to punch Raven in the face but the irony was that Raven had no face. The urge to punch her wasn't because Raven was wrong but rather because she was absolutely right.
If occasionally, she didn't get a slight discomfort in her chest area or the monthly reminder didn't knock on her conscience, Ru would probably forget that she was, in fact, a girl or at least had the body of one. She wasn't disguised as a male rather it'd be right to say that being a male was dyed-in-the-wool[1] not just in her heart but also in her soul.
"Shut up, Raven!" Before Raven could reply as she was programmed to do, the sound of the doorbell interrupted their argument. "Check who's at the door at this time."
"Facial recognition complete. The personnel waiting outside the door is your secretary." Reven answered.
"I don't have a secretary." Ru reminded her.
"I almost forgot, it's the person who poses as your company's CEO and yet has a habit of running around you like your secretary."
Ru rolled her eyes at this reply as she said, "Can't you just say that Wu Dishi is at the door?"
"I wasn't programmed to answer so plainly and it's master's own fault." Ru banged her head against the table saying, "Right! it's indeed my fault! My biggest mistake was to create you."
Grumbling to herself, Ru went to open the door herself. "What do you want?" Wu Dishi was taken aback by the sudden outburst of his master. What did I do wrong? He didn't have the courage to voice this question but even if he did, he wouldn't have gotten a reply.
"I… I brought the documents you asked for, " he stammered a bit before composing himself.
Ru extended her hand and ordered, "Give it to me and get lost!" Poor him was startled as he passed the documents and ran away as soon as possible not knowing that he was just used as a punching bag. Since Ru couldn't yell at Raven, she transferred the anger on to Wu Dishi.
[1] "dyed-in-the-wool": deep-rooted