Civilisation

They travelled for another day. Just before sundown, they entered the outskirts of a city.

When he saw the city gates, Haocheng was so moved; he could finally take a shower, sleep in a bed. He didn't have to stay in the wilderness any longer

But Danning avoided the gates, and the crowd, walking along the city walls.

‘Where are you going?' he asked. Weren't they entering the city?

Danning stopped and held his hand. Her green eyes looked at him fixedly.

Wow! His heart thumped in his chest. How could she suddenly hold his hand so affectionately?  (Zuben: Someone has got his signals mixed) Though he was suddenly shy, he was looking forward to what she had in store for him. His black eyes glowed like a child who was looking forward to candy he'd been promised.

But after a few seconds, he grew impatient, ‘Xiao-! Ahhhh!' He was about to talk but it turned into a scream, because he was pulled up into the air following her as she vaulted over the city wall into the city.

As soon as they landed, his legs were shamefully soft and his legs folded under him.

He looked back up at the wall; it was at least three stories high. And she had jumped him over, and he looked down X! He was afraid of heights!

He didn't cry but his face turned white. His hands were shaking and his legs were soft.

‘Why, why didn't we take the city gate?' he said through trembling lips. He stared at Danning almost tearfully in reproach. Remembering that he had just screamed in panic, he wanted to cry.

His masculinity…

‘Trouble…' If people saw her, they would only be scared and point at her. Though she had long been used to it, and she had no feelings about it, she felt it was troublesome and would rather avoid it.

She was used to being alone; when she went into a city, she looked for a dark alley to stay. When she was hungry, she found an out of the way vendor to get food. When she lost her money, she left. With her skill, no one will see her.

‘What is wrong with you?' she asked, she didn't understand why he had a complaint against her. What did she do to him?

He remained silent. He could not very well tell her that he was afraid of heights. Never! He could not say it. He was concerned with his masculine respect; Haocheng could only swallow the grievances with tears and reluctantly smile at her.

‘Nothing…'

His expression wasn't like it was nothing. Danning looked at him sitting on the ground...and looked up at the wall, she remembered his scream, and realised,

‘Are you afraid of heights?' she asked disbelieving.

He did not reply. It was a shameful thing! Haocheng was too angry to answer but his expression told her the answer.

Danning did not laugh at him, but she thought that this boy was weaker than she had previously deduced. He was even afraid of heights. She didn't say anymore, she took a purse of silver from her sleeve.

‘Catch,' she said, throwing the purse into his hand, and then she nested in a corner.

Haocheng looked at the purse in his hand, it was heavy; he estimated that there was a lot of silver in it. In truth, he also had some silver; he had taken it from the guard that had been watching him back at the brothel. He wasn't so foolish as to runaway without money, he didn't want to starve to death. Who would have thought even though he had money, he would still starve for two days?

He was also very hungry now, after a day of walking he had not eaten. His stomach was so empty and had been ringing many times, and then he had been scared making him even hungrier.

But why had she given him money?

He scratched his head and frowned, ‘What you do want me to do with this money?' Did she want him to take this purse full of silver and go away?

‘Go shopping, eat and look for an inn to sleep,' she replied as she leant against the wall, rested her hand on one raised knee and closed her eyes to rest.

Oh good, she wasn't trying to get rid of him, he breathed a sigh of relief, ‘What about you?' Wasn't she going with him?

She did not answer, but as soon as he asked her the question, he realised why she had not entered through the city gates, but over the walls.

The alley they were in was secluded and dark, just like the one they had first met in.

She did not want to encounter people; she planned to spend the night here.

Was it like this every time she went into a city?

Because of her different appearance, she must have suffered a lot; he could not help but feel distressed. He impulsively leaned over, stretched his arms out and gathered her in a hug. (Zuben: His thought process is very special)

‘Don't mind those ignorant people, Xiaojiu. You have me now; there is no need to be afraid. You're deadly cute!' Oh she was so soft and fragrant in his arms, that he could not help but snuggle and rubbed his nose against her skin.

Truthfully, he really wanted to hug her waist and bury his face in her chest, but for the sake of his life, he dared not! It didn't matter, just hold her for now. (Zuben: Stylishly chop her tofu)

But he could not help but regret last night, alas, he knew she took a bath, he regretted giving up too easily and not peeking.

After they finished eating, Danning handed him a piece of cloth and told him to cover his eyes. He was being blindfolded for no reason, and there was a stream beside them; at that moment, his heart began to pound, and his inferior head was filled with yellow thoughts about what Xiaoningning was going to do.

However, one look at her cool green eyes, and he was reminded of her thin blade. He did not hesitate to take the blindfold and cover his eyes. He also raised his hand pledging not to peek.

Did he regret it? Of course he regretted it!

Oh how he wanted to peek! The sound of splas.h.i.+ng water, woo! What a fantastic picture it created in his mind! But he dared not even think of anything s.e.xual, or he was afraid his neck would bleed.

But now feeling Xiaojiu-xiang's soft body in his arms, he regretted it; he should have been an ambitious peeping tom as night.

When Haocheng hugged her, Danning immediately readied her index finger to flick him off her. She was not used to someone being so close to her, and she was clean. Though, he didn't have a heavy odour, she naturally hated other people's smell.

But...he had said she was cute...She lightly pursed her lips and lowered her hand, thinking of his words.

‘Mind them?' She repeated the words, she tilted her head in puzzlement, ‘Why should I mind?'

Why would she care about what irrelevant people thought?

‘Ah?' He looked up at her thinking she was pretending to be strong, but her expression said she wasn't. With some reluctance, he let go of her. If he held on for much longer, she would suspect he was eating her tofu. He looked at her face,

She looked fine, normal, she did not suspect him.

Oh yeah! Stealing tofu was successful, woo! Haha!

Taking care not to show that Jiang Laoda had escaped disaster, with a satisfied smile on his face, he scratched his head and asked, ‘If not, why are you avoiding the crowd?'

‘Troublesome.' Was her simple answer. She did not like crowds and she also liked being clean. (Zuben: That contradicts with the sleeping in alleys, sister)

Seeing her indifferent expression, Haocheng realised that his Xiaojiu did not care whether she was called a ghost and feared, because she didn't even regard them at all. She just avoided people because they were noisy.

This...he could not explain the feeling in his chest as his heart thumped within it. What should he do? He felt like this Xiaojiu was becoming more and more attractive. In contrast, he was a shameful person to only be thinking about eating her tofu.

Haocheng admitted his shortcomings; he looked directly her with eyes that were now two hearts, ‘Xiaojiu, you're awesome!'

She did not understand what he meant, but she avoided his gaze.

Ah, his Xiaojiu was shy again.

Haocheng stood up, although his legs were still soft, he wanted to catch up with his awesome wife, how could he lose?

‘Come,' he said grabbing her hand and pulling her up with him, ‘Don't sleep here. Let's go to the inn and eat something delicious.'

Danning looked up at him with an almost imperceptible frown; she wanted to refuse, she was not hungry and did not want to stay at an inn, but before his smile, she hesitated. (Zuben: Honey trap, activated)

Without giving her an opportunity to refuse, he pulled her up and said flirtatiously, ‘Rest a.s.sured, I am by your side, they will not pay any attention to you.'

Although it was night, the city was brightly lit and bustling, exquisite lanterns were hung high.

It was the Shangyuan Festival that day. Little children ran about with small lanterns in their hands. The tea houses and restaurants were filled with customers. There was a busy night market, with vendors loudly advertising their wares. But when they saw the teenage pair coming, they stopped short and stared dumbly.

In the tradition of the Shengyuan Dynasty, men and women grow their hair long to their waist. But the young man in front of them had short hair, which was surprising, but that was not why they stared at him.

His beautiful eyes were clear as autumn water (Zuben: What is autumn water?), full of peach blossoms (Zuben: Ha…), his handsome face had no flaws. Though his hair was short, it suited his youthful beauty, and his ragged s.h.i.+rt did not damage his brilliance. His thin lips were smiling, and anyone who saw him could not help but blush. With his amazingly good looks, not just women, even men found him attractive.

Some people noted that the handsome boy was holding a girl in red robes' hand. Her complexion was fair, her facial features were deeper than ordinary people and her eyes were glowing green like iridescent dragonflies. They should be afraid, but the beautiful boy was shocking enough, this girl did not seem scary.

Haocheng was satisfied with the silent response of the mob; Hao Yue's face was really monstrously enchanting, very easy to use!

More importantly, he could hold Xiaojiu's small hand. Her hand was calloused and her palm slender. Hao Yue's hand was softer than hers, but Haocheng was happy to have her hand in his. He turned back to smile at her.

See, there was an enchanting face ahead of her; no one would care about her appearance.

Looking at his smirk, her green eyes flashed. Danning studied the reaction of the people around them. They were staring at him a lot; her green eyes grew chilling.

She did not like people looking at him like this, those obsessive eyes provoked her emotions, she wanted to dig their eyes out so they would never look at him again. (Zuben: Jealousy this quickly, don't let the side down)

Her hand was eager to move, the thin blade slid from her cuff and dropped into her palm as he drew her to the entrance of an inn, not noticing her emotions, he turned and smiled at her, ‘Xiaojiu, should we stay here tonight?'

She did not reply, she just stared.

‘What's wrong?' He asked, realising she didn't look right. His handsome face turned worried,

‘Are you tired?'

Her expression turned from irritated to taciturn, Danning sighed and quietly put the blade away,

‘Enter.' she said.

‘Oh!' Watching her, he felt that her mood had recovered. Was he thinking too much? (Zuben: Your future wife is feeling monopoly) He frowned, but he didn't bother himself with it. She seemed fine.

He happily led her into the restaurant. Danning let him continue to hold her hand, but she stared at their linked hands, lips pursed.

As soon as they entered, the noisy restaurant quieted down; the patrons stared at him in a daze. He had become used to it so he ignored their stares and called a waiter.

But even the waiter was stunned silly by his appearance. Haocheng frowned and called louder, ‘Hey! Waiter!'

The noise woke the young man up and he rushed up to them, ‘Oh yes, honoured guest.' His gaze still looked mesmerised by Jiang Haocheng, ‘Would you like to eat or stay for the night?'

‘Stay; give us two good rooms and prepare tubs for bathing,' Haocheng said as took out silver and handed it to the waiter, ‘Also, can I trouble you to by two sets of clothes?'

He turned to look as Danning, and turned back to the waiter, ‘Please help me pick a nice red robes for this girl,' Against Xiaojiu's white skin, red would look best.

‘Yes, of course.' The young man was not only good looking, he also sounded good as well. The waiter's gaze moved to the girl with him. Glimmering green eyes stared at him, startling him. He broke out in a cold sweat.

She wasn't actually frightening, but her cold gaze sent chills down his spine. He had met so many people in his work, so he was able to deduce that the girl was upset because he had been staring at the handsome young man.

For the sake of his little life, the waiter immediately dropped his gaze and dared not look at the young man again, ‘Honoured guests, this servant will take you to your room first. The baths would be brought right after.'

Haocheng did not see anything unusual about the waiter's behaviour. Nor did he realise that behind him, Danning had looked around the restaurant giving the patrons her chilling glare. The scared guests quickly turned back to their meals and dared not look at the young man again.

Danning was satisfied with that. She returned to her stoic expression and quietly followed behind Haocheng, her hand still in his.

After they were shown to their rooms, their baths were sent up. Staring at the steaming back, Danning looked pointedly at Haocheng. He was very self aware,

‘I'll go to my room and have a shower. We can have dinner after.' With a parting smile, he turned and left.

His room was next door to hers. On the bed was a clean set of clothes. He raised his eyebrow; he had not expected the service of this ancient establishment to be fast. Quickly stripping off his dirty clothes, he turned to his bath to find flower petals floating on top of the water. He was speechless. Please! He was a man, how could he wash in a flower bath?!

Unable to stand the flowers, he scooped them out and tossed them on the floor in disapproval. He picked up the soap pod and began to wash himself. In less than half an hour, he stepped out of the tub, dried his skin and put on his new clothes. He went up to the mirror and shook his head while sighing; enchanting...enchanting.

The moon white brocade robes made him look elegant. His white face had a light blush from the heat of the bath, his eyes were glistening, and his lips were red, his limbs looked slender. He had a beautiful and tempting appearance.

Alas, the more he looked the sadder he became.

He turned away and left his room to go next door. He did not knock but entered directly. It wasn't really intentional, he knew the bathtub was behind a screen and he would not be able to see anything, he just forgot to knock.

But seeing Danning washed and dressed standing before her bed, his heart was slightly lost.

She turned to just capture his look of regret, her green eyes narrowed, ‘What happened?'

‘Nothing,' he replied, shaking his head filled with a guilty conscience. The new red robes made her look slenderer, and her long black hair was wet and sticking to her face, making her look harmless and fragile.

Ah, he could not help it. He stepped forward with eyes bright, and his youthful delicate face showed a trace of manly courage.

Danning could not help but stare as he came up to her and put his hands on her shoulders and he brought handsome face was close to hers.

‘Xiaojiu,' he called carefully, ‘may I cut your hair for you?'

He had endured for a long time; Xioajiu's hair was lovely, long and smooth. She could not be bothered with styling it, but as a hairstylist, he could not look at it any longer.

Danning was miffed; she did not understand what he was thinking.

‘Come,' he said not waiting for an answer. He made her sit before the bronze mirror, and picked up a small pair of scissors from the dressing table. He pressed his handsome face against her cheek and smiled at her through the mirror,

‘Don't worry, I will cut your hair nicely.'

Of course, he did not know the tradition of Shengyuan women never cut their hair. Danning did not care about this, her hair got so long purely because she was too lazy to pay attention to it.

Since he really wanted to use the scissors, she would just let him do it.

Seeing she did not raise any objections, Haocheng smiled. He looked at her for a few minutes, and then began to cut. He cut her hair up to her waist, then gently trimmed and styled it. Half an hour later, he put down the scissors in satisfaction. They were not hair scissors, but he was good at his craft and he cut her hair very nicely.

He thinned the hair on the sides of her face, slightly exposing her ears. Her long hair now fell in gentle waves; her face was no longer obscured by her thick hair. Looking at her now, she did not look so cold.

He nodded in satisfaction, ‘You look so beautiful,' he said smugly boasting, he looked at her filled with antic.i.p.ation, ‘Xiaojiu, do you like it?'

Looking at herself in the mirror, Danning felt nothing, but seeing his happy expression, she nodded.

Seeing that Xiaojiu liked it, Haocheng was ready to burst with joy, so he asked shamelessly, ‘Can I get a reward?'

A reward? Danning was still mid-thought when he leaned over and kissed her.

After stealing her kiss, he quickly retreated and said innocently, ‘You can't be angry, it's a reward.' but his expression was like the cat who got the cream.

Oh, her lips were so sweet and soft! If he wasn't afraid for his life, he would have gone deeper.

The sudden kiss stunned Danning, her lips were still warm from his touch. And she found that she did not hate how he tasted.

When she said nothing, Haocheng was worried; she couldn't be angry right?

‘Xiaojiu…' he was about to say, but his belly chose that moment to groan. Touching his hungry belly and hearing the groans, Haocheng did not feel ashamed, it wasn't the first time she heard it.

What's more important was that Xiaojiu was not annoyed with him for eating her tofu?

Danning had heard his hungry belly, and she reached out to him.

Hmm? Haocheng looked at her hand, and did not react.

‘Aren't you hungry?' She asked stretching her hand out to him.

Haocheng suddenly understood; Xiaojiu wasn't annoyed with him and she also actively let him hold her hand; was this a big step for them?

He was suddenly filled with happiness; he smiled even wider making his eyes narrow into happy slits. As he held her hand, his heart was full of joy.

‘I asked the waiter to prepare a seat away from the other guests, where we can watch the festivities.' He told her as they left the room. He knew that she did not like being looked at, so he arranged everything.

Danning followed him quietly, now accustomed to his talking. Her green eyes looked at their inter-linked hands, and her lips were raised in a quiet smile.

Her hand in his...she did not hate it.

Late at night, the world was quiet.

A thin ruler was slipped into the seam of the door and pushed up, there was a gentle click, and the door lock was opened, and the door was gently pushed open.

A figure sneaked into the room, and carefully closed the door setting the wooden lock. The figure turned back to the room, rubbing his hands in glee staring at the bed in front of him.

In the darkness, the figure laughed silently and slowly walked towards the bed,

‘Oh beauty, I am coming.' he said leering through the gauze. He was about to open the canopy, and pounce on the beauty when a cold blade appeared against his throat.

He froze in an instant, he turned to see green glowing eyes in the darkness, and a cold sweat sprouted.

‘Get out if you want your life,' a quiet voice said, but in the dark of the night the voice made the heart cold.

The man did not hesitate, quickly turned back to the door.

‘Not that way,' the cold voice said.

The man immediately s.h.i.+fted trajectory and jumped out of the window.

Danning resheathed her blade; that was the tenth one tonight. (Zuben: That's a lot of perverts in one place!) She could take their lives in one cut, those people would not even have the chance to scream, but she was afraid that the smell of blood will disturb him. She could only deter them and let them go.

Turning up the canopy, she looked at the sleeping figure in the bed.

He was sleeping deeply, holding the quilt, ‘Xiaojiu…' he called in his sleep as his face broke out in a perverted smile. He was completely unaware that he was in the crisis of being raped.

She didn't know what to say; flower thieves came so many times, but he continued to sleep - no sense whatsoever. So defenceless, how had he survived till now?

Danning could not understand.

She started at his sleeping face; he muttered her name again through his soft lips, and sighed softly.

Looking at his lips, she remembered the feeling when he had kissed her, the soft touch, she did not hate it… she was even a little curious.

Without a trace of hesitation, she leaned down and covered his lips with hers. (Zuben: Queen flower thief stealing tofu)

She leaned back.

‘Hmm,' he moaned happily in his sleep, clutching the quilt he s.h.i.+vered shyly.

Her lips were stained with his scent, but she didn't find it annoying. This person was weak, but she did not hate him.

‘Xiaojiu…' he called again holding the quilt tighter.

‘Yes…' she sighed, her green eyes no longer cold, but filled with a gentle tenderness. 

? Chapter 4