Tales Under A Cloud

08| Light and Shadow

"Kun, what are you doing?" Yuxin started to take steps back, but then she couldn't do it anymore. She had been trapped. The way the prince looked at her made her heart tremble. And when his face moved closer to her, Yuxin held her breath.

"Do you still want me to eliminate you?" Kun asked, showing a slight sadness in his eyes. The same question Yuyan asked her, and it's the same answer she has.

"I don't know" Yuxin replied without being able to meet his eyes.

And that answer gave Kun hope. He was nervous about what she would say, but now he remembers the conversation he had with ChengCheng when he brought Yuxin to see her parents.

"I didn't know you went out at night to take a girl on a horse trip," ChengCheng said as soon as he entered the prince's office. He had seen them leave the castle together.

"She wanted to see her parents".

That 's the point. It's something new for ChengCheng. He has known him for years now and he knows that Kun doesn't leave the castle that much unless it's for work stuff.

"Tell me the truth, Kun. You like Yuxin, right?"

He stopped for a second and began to move papers.

"I need to finish fixing these papers, can you leave me alone?"

"Now you're trying to avoid the question. Okay, so I can try to win her over if you don't like her"

Kun stopped moving the papers for real now.

"Don't do it" the prince warned him with a stern look and ChengCheng felt a chill run through his whole body.

"What with that look?! Are you trying to kill me?"

Kun shifted his gaze from him seeing that he was scaring his friend and sighed heavily.

"Yes, you're right. I like her, I don't know when happened" Kun looked at some point in the desk and made a small grin "When Yuxin smile, it's like she is glowing".

ChengCheng sighed with a grin in his face. Seeing his friend more happy than usual, made him happy too.

"And when are you going to tell her? After the competition?"

The prince lowered his head and the mood suddenly changed.

"She doesn't want to stay here" the prince said, and ChengCheng just looked how the sadness enveloped his friend. At first, he thought Kun will eliminate Yuxin, but it turned out the other way.

"And what you will do?" he asked in a soft tone, wondering what the prince will answer. If he chose to leave her and put himself in second place as always, he will be very disappointed.

Kun relaxed his shoulders and looked at his friend decisively.

"Am going to win her heart"

ChengCheng widened his eyes with surprise and began to smile proudly. There hasn't been a moment that he have seen Kun fight for what he want, until now.

"Yuxin, do you know why I haven't eliminated you yet?"

She looked up and then immediately regretted it because their noses almost brushed and Kun's eyes captured her.

Why does he talk to me so close? Yuxin asked herself and then quickly shook her head to answer his question. If they still like this, her heart wouldn't bear it.

"That's because I have feelings for you"

*

The fourth round began. And this time it wouldn't be in the castle. They went to another neighboring town.

"There will be no qualifications today. You can do whatever you want here," Lady Fanzi indicated with a mysterious expression. The girls hesitated for a few seconds and looked at each other. In the end, they all went to tour the place, while the soldiers followed them closely.

"Doesn't it seem strange to you that they brought us here just to see the place?" Yuyan asked beside Yuxin.

"Maybe. Look, they have a fruit shop"

"Let me see" Yuyan rushed to the booth, but after she picked up a watermelon. All the fruits fell rolling "I'm so sorry"

They started to collect them all, but Yuxin stopped when she saw a boy behind the wall.

"Yuxin, where are you going?"

"I'll be right back, don't worry"

When she crossed the road she saw the boy run and she managed to catch up before he got lost.

"What is your name, little boy?" Yuxin asked in a soft tone to not scare him and then she got on her knees to get a better look at him.

"Yuanzi"

"Yuanzi, my name is Yuxin" she held out her hand for the boy to shake it and began to pat his head "Yuanzi, you was the one who made the fruits fall?"

The boy nodded after a long silence.

"Can you tell me why you did it?"

"I just want some apples for my sisters but they don't give me any because I'm a kid and I don't have money"

Yuxin's heart clenched after realizing that he did it to steal some.

"I'll buy you the apples. Wait here." When Yuxin was about to get up, someone else crouched next to her and handed the boy a bag full of apples.

"Wao, thank you ..." the boy tilted his head a little, waiting for his name to be told.

"Kun, and your name is?"

"Yuanzi" replied the little boy now with a wide smile, then he pulled Kun's hand for them to follow him.

Yuxin was still surprised to see the prince there, but she followed them anyway.

Yuanzi introduced them to his sisters and then he told them that they gave him the apples. They stayed to talk a while longer until their mother arrived and thanked them for the fruits.

Yuxin returned to the place where she had left Yuyan, but when she went there she was gone.

"I saw her go with ChengCheng" Kun told her to calm her down.

"And do you know where they went?"

"I don't know"

The atmosphere between the two was already awkward. Since what Kun said last night, Yuxin didn't know how to answer it and she couldn't look him in the eyes either.

"Come with me" Kun told her, and for the first time he dared to take Yuxin's hand.