Prince Yifan

By J L Blenkinsop

Prince Shen Teal is looking forward to seeing his annoying older brother Kale married to the eldest daughter of the Queen of Taiwan, but he's not enjoying the long sea voyage on the tall-masted European ship The Unicorn, where the food is even more nauseating than the motion of the waves. It's a long way to go for a wedding.

But one day he wakes up in another World, in the body of a girl, and with his dead mother leaning over him.

Ji Ye and John, with the essential help of Bart the cat, find themselves all at sea when they find their daughter has been replaced by this self-assured, competent young fighting man. What has happened to Yifan? How can this boy fit into Yifan's school life without exposing them all? And what are they going to do about the invitation to a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace?

When Yifan wakes up the bed is moving, and there are some nasty surprises in store for her - dragons, tidal waves and the mysterious Dutch Captain of the Unicorn are bad enough, but when she meets an eleven-year-old Princess who has just killed her first man she realises that she doesn't know quite how dangerous her new life could become.

Prince Yifan is the second book in the Worlds of Yifan series. The familiar characters from Princess Yifan are joined by the larger-than life Regent of Joseon and his sons Kale and Teal, the mysterious Captain de Vlieger and the scientist Alan Baer, whose hopes of a Nobel prize might just expose Yifan's Worlds-travelling secret and put the family in peril.

• Language: English
• Publisher: J L Blenkinsop
• Release date: Nov 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310431784

J L Blenkinsop

After many years during which I've written plays, pantomimes and short stories for friends, I am now the proud possessor of a step-daughter, attached to a beautiful and intelligent wife.I've never had a child to look after before, and it's a challenge. She'll be a teenager this month. Watching her trying to work out what life means to her, how to cope with friends and foes, made me write (for the very first time) a novel, just for her.But this novel is not just for her; it's for me, and it's for anyone who is a child or who has a child who is intelligent and enquiring, who is shy, who has dreams.It is enjoyable to write about Yifan, and the fantasy element of the story means that there are many more adventures for her to have as she grows up into the balanced, resourceful adult that I know she will become. And so here I am, hoping to share her life - the real life and the life of dreams - with you.

Book preview

PRINCE YIFAN

Worlds of Yifan Book 2

by J L Blenkinsop

Copyright 2015 J L Blenkinsop

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Also by this author

The Worlds of Yifan series

Princess Yifan (Worlds of Yifan Book 1)

Eleven-year old Yifan Shen always believed she must be a princess, so when her older self tells her about an old pot in the attic of her grandparents’ house, she hurls her family into a breathless adventure leading to kidnap, conspiracy and the crime of the century.

The Tower (Worlds of Yifan Book 3)

At the end of the world, there is a Tower. It’s the last hope for humanity – so can Yifan and her mother find out who is trying to destroy it?

Teal’s World (Worlds of Yifan Book 4)

Swapping minds is something Shen Teal has no control over, but when he is attacked on a world that is not his Earth, he realises that he took his betrothed Qing Shur with him – and he has no idea where she is.

Lucifer’s Children (Worlds of Yifan Book 5)

Shen Aoyun wakes in a tomb, hungry for blood and revenge against the vampire that put her there. Her quest drives her on a bloody trail until she meets the android, Van Helsing – and begins her undead life anew, to infiltrate and destroy an alien threat to humanity.

The Technical War series

Lucifer’s Children (The Technical War Book 1)

This book is a bridge between Worlds of Yifan and the new adult series, The Technical War. The series follows Shen Aoyun and her human lover Wilbur Deneuve, casual employees of Abraham Van Helsing and the secretive Bureau headquartered in Buckingham Palace. Their task – merely to stop the world from ending.

My books are available in all electronic book formats from all major eBook sellers. Please also see the Worlds of Yifan Facebook page, and visit the author’s Facebook page at Facebook.com/John.L.Blenkinsop

Contents

Dedication

Prince Yifan

To my brother

Prince Yifan

I.

Make your own breakfast, said John sternly. Yifan, snug in her bed with a Chinese romantic drama on her laptop, pouted and then yawned.

I’m tired, she complained. And I’m a Princess. This did not cut any ice with her step-father, who made a tch! sound and left her room with a parting And get up! It’s past noon.

Yifan made a face behind his back and shouted, Go away! Nobody likes you! Then she snuggled deeper under the duvet, made her own tch! sound and unpaused the video.

This is how Saturdays start in a household lucky enough to contain a Princess. It will be recognised by the guardians of Princesses and Princes all across the land.

She was lovely when she was ten, said John to Ji Ye, who was also still in bed. Now she’s thirteen she’s just a pain. He went to sit on the bed, but Ji Ye shooed him off.

Where’s my tea? she asked. John cast his eyes to the ceiling, but there was nothing there to help him. I’m a Princess too. I deserve a cup of tea, at least.

John sighed and set off downstairs. He had been up since eight-thirty, and had done the dishes, washed the clothes, picked up work emails and fed Bart, the cat. But he couldn’t argue with his wife, and it was frustrating arguing with Yifan. Besides, they really were Princesses – they were the last direct female descendants of the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who had ruled China in the third century BC. Since their connection had been discovered the family had found fame and a certain amount of fortune. They now lived in a really nice house, big enough to hide quite a lot of clothes, shoes and bags (for Ji Ye and Yifan), and books and computers (for John), and with many places where Bart the cat could lurk and ambush Ji Ye, who hated him.

Bart was waiting in the kitchen beside a full bowl of food. He mewed when John approached, and John bent down to shake the bowl. Bart immediately started eating. Stupid cat, said John, and went to fill the kettle.

How had Ji Ye and Yifan found out that they were Royal? That’s a strange tale. Yifan had fallen into a sleep when she was eleven and found herself sharing the mind of her older self, who was studying at Cambridge University. Over the next year Yifan had ‘gone off’ many times to join Vicky, as her older self liked to be known, and had watched as Vicky and her mother got into danger when their regal history had been revealed, with assassination attempts and political pressure threatening to overwhelm them.

Vicky had told Yifan that it all started when she had discovered an ancient pot in the attic of her grandparents’ house in Cardiff. Yifan then found the pot herself and took it to the British Museum. Armed with the knowledge of what had happened to Vicky, Yifan and her family had managed to avoid most of the perils and agreed terms with the various governments and interested parties, coming out of the situation with a pension each from the Chinese government, and lucrative offers for television appearances, product endorsements and articles in magazines and online. Ji Ye’s ‘Queen of China’ blog was tremendously popular, and Yifan herself got fan mail from girls and proposals from boys, some of which were for marriage.

John continued to work on and off on how Yifan had found herself with Vicky. It was obvious that Vicky was not in Yifan’s future, but from a different but similar Universe. It wasn’t easy for him, because he didn’t have the scientific training and he couldn’t talk about Yifan’s secret with anyone outside the family. But Vicky, before she died, had told Yifan that it was very possible that she could go off again to a different Universe, and John wanted to find some way of controlling Yifan’s excursions, if they were to happen again.

The kettle boiled, and John made tea. Bart wandered out through the open back door into the garden. Upstairs Ji Ye could be heard on the phone to her friend Angela in Cardiff, and Yifan sang a Chinese song. The kitchen radio did not drown it out.

John took two letters up with the cup of tea, and gave them to Ji Ye. They were both identical, heavy creamy white envelopes with the addresses beautifully hand-written. Ji Ye opened hers, read what was written on the single sheet of thick cream paper and raised her eyebrows. We’re invited to dinner, she said. Well, I am and you are allowed to come with me.

Where?

Buckingham Palace, Ji Ye replied. In September. There’s a banquet for the President of China. Details will come later. Yifan’s invitation must be in the other envelope. Ji Ye paused. It’s weird. I don’t know how to feel about this. Why would they invite us?

Well, said John, you are the Queen of China.

Then rub my feet, demanded the Queen, and John had to obey.

Yifan! Ji Ye shouted, making John jump. Come here! Letter for you!

Bart was exploring the garden. It was quite different to the mossy, weedy garden at the previous house. This garden started with a patio, next to a conservatory that jutted out on his left. On the patio there was a barbecue, which held no interest for him. Then, the lawn. The grass was quite long, which he liked. In this grass, mice could be found.

Seriously, humans don’t like to have their mice delivered. Bart had not learned this, despite the noises that were made whenever he dropped a tiny corpse onto the kitchen mat. He scanned the sea of waving green, looking for irregularities.

At the end of this new garden there were mature trees. In the branches of the largest of these there was a treehouse built by the previous owners, which Yifan used to treat her friends, and which Bart used as a blind to spy on the lawn. He was making his way there, in leisurely feline fashion, when a piercing scream rang out behind him. Bart turned, gazed incuriously up at Yifan’s bedroom window, shrugged, and continued on his way.

I’ll meet the Queen! Yifan squealed, clutching the letter to her chest. Her eyes were round with awe. She was still lying in her bed, where John had had to deliver the letter to her.

We’ll all meet the Queen, said John, rubbing his ear where Yifan had screamed into it. And the President of China, and lots of stuffed shirts and maybe the Prime Minister. There’ll be a guest list coming. We have to contact the Equerry’s office with our acceptance.

We’ll get some nice new dresses, Ji Ye remarked, coming into Yifan’s room. And you will need to get a proper suit.

John thought for just a fleeting fraction of a second about becoming a republican. He didn’t much like wearing a suit.

There remained a week before School was, as John quoted Alice Cooper, Out. All that remained before Yifan was free to practice her favourite hobby was an end of term trip, after which Yifan looked forward to staying in bed till two pee emm every day until school was In again. Saturday rolled on with shopping, lunch out and Yifan clutching her letter and squeaking over her mobile at her friends. It was a good day for her, but a bad day for John, who found high-pitched sounds uncomfortable.

Eventually Yifan ran down, and the house fell quiet when she went to bed with the promise of a visit to Tilbury Fort the next day. But then, at an unearthly hour…

The scream rang through the house. Next door, the neighbours’ baby started crying. Bart resolved to leave home, but could not pack a bag because he didn’t have thumbs. Ji Ye sat bolt upright in the bed, and John leapt up, made for the door, then checked himself and searched for a dressing gown.

The screaming went on, a breath then a scream, as if a murder was being committed.

And then there was sense in the noise, words, and as Ji Ye opened the bedroom door and made at top speed for Yifan’s room with John right behind her, a wail froze them in their steps, a wail of pain and deep loss, despair, loneliness, utter confusion.

Where’s my willy? Where’s my willy? Aaaaahhh! Help! Help! Where am I? Where’s my wiiiiilly?

They burst in to Yifan’s room. She was bolt upright in her bed, tears streaming down her face. She looked straight at them with fear in her eyes, her hands clawing at the duvet. Her whole body shook, her mouth twisted in pain. When she saw Ji Ye she threw back her head and howled. Aaaaaahhh! Dead! Dead! Where’s my willy? What have you done? Take me back!

And she fell into a faint, and that was all