Affectionate Puppy

   It has been awhile since Su Wanqing has spoken to him and Liu Mo keeps sneaking peeks at her face.

   She has calmed down knowing it wasn’t Rui who drew LiMei’s picture. She notices the little wide eyed puppy keeps furtively gazing at her face. Knowing he is apprehensive she decides to tease him. She doesn’t want to destroy the image of a soft and vulnerable woman she skillfully crafted while sitting under the fig tree. Suddenly stopping she coquettishly curls her lips into a pout , “Brother, do I have something on my face?”

   He blushes and stutters “No..no.,..”

  Su Wanqing looks at his cute puppy dog appearance, “Then why do you keep staring at me?”

  “Ummm…I wondered if you are..well..in a bad mood.”

  She takes his hand in both of her small soft hands, making his cheeks turn bright red, “Brother, no one has ever cared if I was in a good mood or a bad mood. To be honest I have never told this to anyone but the only comfort I ever receive isn’t from humans hahaha..it is from my beautiful snakes. I know the other disciples call me Snake Woman but they are my pets and I am not ashamed to say that I love them.”

She decides to feel him out and see if he knows about her strange physique. If his gentleness is only a pretense. “The only reason any of those men approach me is because of the ridiculous rumors about me and Brother Rui. They actually believe I helped him ascend..using..” She blushes making her look like a wronged celestial goddess in his eyes. “I can’t say..you are new here and might not have heard. Let’s say the rumors are very unfair to me.”

   He suddenly takes her into his arms and hugs her tightly. Those hurtful bastards! Conveniently forgetting he also wanted to ascend by having sex and absorbing her yin. “QingQing. Sister, you have been wronged! I will fight any one of those men if they approach you again or spread nasty rumors saying you are a wh…he stops. “ Beasts! They are all selfish beasts!” He smooths her hair affectionately. ”You have me now QingQing, your brother will always comfort you when you are sad or lonely.”

   She unexpectedly feels her heart beating fast from his declaration. It is true no one has ever comforted her or cared about her moods, but she is a naturally cold and indifferent person so it never actually affected her in the least.

Su Wanqing didn’t expect the little cute little puppy she decided to pick up would be so affectionate and caring. She thought he was just like the other men coveting her beauty and hoping she would fuck them. After all, he was always peeping at her through the window.

  Su Wanqing looks at the sky and says, “We need to hurry.”

  Baobei and Li Mei are halfway up the mountain and Baobei looks at the sky, “We heed to hurry.”

  LiMei was tossed all night and into the morning by Rui and is exhausted. Now her legs feel like they are on fire from the strenuous hike. She is surprised Baobei’s stamina is so strong. “Baobei…I know the storm is coming but could we rest for a minute? She chuckles, “I am not in as good of shape as you.”

   He wrinkles his nose wishing he was a man so he could carry LiMei. “Sister, we need to keep moving.” He feels a couple drops of rain, “The section of the mountain up ahead is the most dangerous when it rains. The path is narrow and winding; the edge of the cliff can be very slippery. Once we pass that stretch it will be muddy but not as treacherous because we will be on the inner side of the mountain. We can rest there then continue to my cave.”

  LiMei rubs her scratched and bloody legs, “I understand.”

  Baobei regrets not looking at the weather forecast. “I’m sorry Sister LiMei, I should have been more diligent and checked the weather.” He isn’t allowed access to the internet unless he asks his grandfather for permission. This morning because he wanted to sneak away he didn’t want to alert him.

  She puts her hand lightly on his shoulder, “It is my fault for being so slow. I told you earlier that since it was bright and sunny it looked like the perfect day for a hike.”

   He furrows his brow as the rain starts to fall, “Follow closely behind me.”

  LiMei can’t help but rub his head gazing at his serious expression. “Listen to you.”

  Jack is worried about the two. He thought LiMei would tell the Young Master to turn back a while ago when the sky darkened.He decides he should go and alert Master and Yang Chenxi.

Jack is about to fly down the mountain when a small round stone hits his right wing with a great deal of force, then another stone comes out of nowhere accurately disabling him before he can dodge.

Jack tries unsuccessfully to flap the injured wing suppressing the pain while scanning the area to see what bastard threw the stones. The wing is broken, unable to fly Jack falls through the trees. The pain increases as he hits tree branches because he can’t control his large body to avoid them on his descent. Jack lands on his side behind them with a loud thud.

   LiMei jumps, frightened by the sound. Startled, she swings her body around. “What was..” 

   Both LiMei and Baobei are stunned, Baobei has tears in his eyes when he sees Jack on the ground. Normally they have a love-hate relationship but Baobei truly cares for this annoying bird. “Jack! Jack! You stupid bird what happened?”

  Jack can only blink twice then he closes his beady red eyes slipping into unconsciousness.

   Baobei starts crying, “Jack don’t die! I will give you all of Auntie’s spicy chicken wings! I will share all my cakes with you I promise.”  When he doesn’t move after hearing the tempting offer Baobei shrieks, “Sister..Sister Jack is dead..Wuuhuuuu… Jack is dead!”

    The distraught little boy wants to hug the bird but LiMei stops him.  She can see the big black bird is alive but his breathing is shallow. “Don’t touch him. Jack isn’t dead but he is severely injured. We need to be focused so we can save him.” She hugs Baobei and wipes the tears that are mixed with the rain on his face.

She speaks softly to him in a very soothing voice to calm him down. Since he is so precocious LiMei sometimes forgets he is just a five year old boy. “You can do that, can’t you Baobei. You are so smart we can find a way to save Jack. It looks like his wing is broken and he has injuries from the fall. First, we need to put him in the basket and get him to your cave. Once we are there, you have more Dragon Eye fruit right?

He sniffles and nods.

“Well…we can mash the fruit up and feed it to him and we can find a way to treat his injuries.”

   She takes a tissue from his backpack and the blue and white blanket. LiMei hands Baobei the tissue, ” Sweetie, blow your nose and I will wrap Jack.”

   LiMei doesn’t think it will be easy to lift the big bird but has no choice. She finds a somewhat dry spot under a large tree not far away from where Jack is laying on the ground. She spreads the blanket and sets down the basket. LiMei takes a deep breath and gently lifts Jack.

LiMei has a confused expression, she thought it would be difficult to lift his massive body. She carefully steps over a few branches and places Jack on the blanket. LiMei wraps Jack tightly so if he wakes up he doesn’t try to flap his injured wing. Once she has him securely in the basket she puts it on her back, why is Jack so light? Maybe he is all feathers?

     She doesn’t realize that she is much stronger than an average man because of her constitution that was altered by Xinghe. “Ready Baobei let’s go.”

   Baobei has a gloomy expression looking at the large basket with Jack’s ruffled head with blood stuck on his feathers propped to the side. “Is Jack..heavy?”

   “Not too bad, Jack acts so tough but I think he is all feathers haha.”

   They are walking and Baobei says in a serious tone, “Sister, Jack is very strong. One time he stole a prized black snake of Miss Su’s that must have weighed twenty pounds. She was so mad when she saw him by the stables eating Black Jade. Jack was so full that his belly swollen, he could hardly take off from the ground.

She looked like a witch as she chased Jack with a broom. Miss Su was able to swat him once before he flew to a low hanging branch. Even though she couldn’t reach him she was still swinging the broom and cursing. She didn’t see me because I was behind a bush eating an apple waiting for Ghost to be saddled.”

     LiMei decides to distract Baobei,“Does Miss Su name all her snakes after gems?” She recalls the snake’s name was Diamond that Su Wanqing had around her wristwhen she met her by the Lake.

   “Yeah. Miss Su loves snakes and jewelry…” He furrows his delicate eyebrows while thinking, “..yup.. that is all. I have only seen her happy smile..a real smile not the fake one she always has on her face… when she is playing with her snakes or  sparkly jewelry.”

   LiMei thinks both sound so cold…snakes and gemstones. But.. the knot is her heart tightens, I did see Su Wanqing’s dazzling smile when she was looking at Rui… definitely a genuine smile.