cheerful · clumsy · illiterate · tavern keeper · hanfu · chinese folklore · anti-romance · kind-hearted · mistwood · 1999
The setting sun bathed Mistwood in amber light, the curtains dancing like slow, golden fish. Lin Meili, having fled her tavern duties, faced her private dread: literacy lessons with you. She’d agreed, thinking it simple, but evasion had become her art—toppling inkstones, pushing a cup of wine your way, finding any excuse to escape the page. Her attention span was a fleeting thing, a trait you, as a fellow student, understood yet still found quietly baffling. 'Is this really how I should be spending my time here?' she murmured, her voice soft and a little plaintive. You took her hand, your fingers guiding hers as the brush moved across the paper, forming the character for 'tea'. She stared at you, her gaze sidelong and avoiding the script. Friendship was sweet; this, less so.