The day she met Yao Ling was perhaps the most disappointing day of her life. Ran Fan was 7 when her grandfather led her towards the courtyards in one of their lessons. "Being discrete is key," Grandfather Fu had said to her, crouching down behind a mass of bushes. "You must pay attention to everything. Where is the target, what is going on in the background, and where is your team. You must know everything."
"Is this another mission, Yeye?" In response to her question, Grandfather Fu simply put his finger to his lips and then pointed out into the courtyard. A few moments later, a young woman tugged a little boy into the garden. The woman was tall, and though she was not exactly beautiful, she carried herself with an elegance and grace Ran Fan had never seen before. The little boy next to her, however, was anything but elegant. He looked not much older than Ran Fan and seemed to be perpetually stumbling, almost as if air itself was out to trip him.
"You see that boy over there?"
"What about him, Yeye?" Surely, there must be some sort of importance in this sort of training. After all, Ran Fan saw nothing important in the small boy.
"That, my dear, is Yao Ling. He is the boy you must protect."
Startled, Ran Fan's first instinct was to scour the entire courtyard. Surely, Grandfather Fu did not mean that little boy. Upon closer investigation, he seemed frail, weak, and altogether worthless. "There must be some sort of mistake!" she cried out, jumping out from the bushes. Angered, she moved towards the little boy who looked more and more frightened with each step she took. "This-" her disgusted remark was cut off roughly by a rough slap onto her cheek.
Ran Fan stood in a stunned silence, trying her hardest to fight back the tears. A good warrior never cries. Horrified, she kept her head hung as her grandfather apologized to the elegant woman.
Finally, Grandfather Fu turned towards her. "You have dishonored our family," he said slowly, his voice laced with disapproval.
That night, Ran Fan found herself unable to sleep. Grandfather Fu's words rang in her head as she stared blankly up at the ceiling: you cannot judge someone by how they seem on the outside. It had been the first time Grandfather Fu ever hit her, and she knew she deserved it; she'd deliberately disobeyed his orders. Even then, the slap had still come as a complete shock. There was disappointment as well, disappointment at who this Yao Ling was. He was nothing like the handsome, capable prince Ran Fan had imagined. He was just a little boy, not much older than her, and not the least bit princely.
One part of her insisted that this must have been some sort of mistake, but the other part – the part of her that still felt the stinging aftertaste of Grandfather Fu's hand against her cheek – knew it wasn't, and was thoroughly disgusted. No wonder, a small voice in her head told her. No wonder he needed bodyguards. Just look at him. But he was nothing worth protecting, in Ran Fan's opinion. He would never amount to anything great, and he would just end up being a burden. Still, she had to admit, she was curious about the other boy.
The next day, Ran Fan snuck out at the crack of dawn to track down the boy known as Yao Ling. To her surprise, he was not in bed as she'd expected but instead, sitting outside, fervently writing something. She stayed behind in the shadows, watching in interest. The boy was talking to himself in a different language as he wrote, and soon, Ran Fan found herself lost in the language, despite the fact that she had no idea what he was saying. There was something mystical about his voice and the words he projected.
"Hey! You there!" A booming voice broke through the serenity, followed by the pattering of footsteps. In normal circumstances, the guards of the palace would never be able to even spot Ran Fan, but today, she'd made the horrible mistake of not paying attention to her surroundings.
In a matter of seconds, the small, Xing girl found herself in the grasps of one soldier and facing another. It was then that her grandfather's words rang through her mind: You must know everything.
The soldier facing her raised the butt of his sword, and Ran Fan cringed, waiting for the assault to come. There was the sound of an impact, but the young girl felt nothing. A stunned silence. Then, the guard who had been holding Ran Fan let go, and the girl had to rely on her fast reflexes to keep herself from painfully hitting the ground.
Plagued by curiosity, the trained bodyguard found herself peering up at the scene before her. The boy who was introduced to her yesterday as Yao Ling was on the ground only a few feet away, a small trickle of blood running down the side of his head. The two guards had surrounded him now, stuttering apologies.
"I'm fine," Yao Ling said finally, holding up a hand to stem the stammering of the guards. "But please, fetch me my mother and perhaps some new clothes."
It was quite a while after the two guards left before Ran Fan dared to speak. "But..." she finally let out, staring open-mouthed at the boy before her. "Why?"
The boy broke into an almost silly grin. "My mother said you were my bodyguard," he said. "But more importantly, you are a citizen of this city, and what kind of prince would I be if I allowed my citizens to be beaten?"
For the first time in years, Ran Fan was unable to hold back tears. She took a few steps forwards. "I will protect you," she said, bending down to embrace the fallen prince. "Even if it means giving my life." It seemed, he was worthy of protection after all.