Between the lines

Discovering her

"What is her problem? "Tom addressed Zhu Ran. He'd followed him as he didn't know what else to do.

"She fell in love with the wrong man" was the answer he received. "And she's too stubborn to let go. He loves her, too, but he's too stubborn to admit and too cold-hearted to care about breaking her heart."

"Can't she..." Tom started "Can't she make him fall in love....admit his feelings or whatever she has to do to have him by her side?" Tom couldn't understand how someone as strong as her could be so unhappy. If it had been him, he would have been the happiest man on Earth.

"I guess she can, but she doesn't want to. She had a heart too kind for such a cruel world. She was the last person who'd ever asked for such power, but fate had different plans for her. Unless she learns to harden her heart, she will have a very tragic ending." Zhu Ran ended his short speech.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want to guess, but I think she'd already planned her own death. It will be tragic and painful, but at least that mountain of ice will finally see what she means to him."

"Can't she transfer her power?" Tom couldn't help asking. He realized how stupid he'd been, but it was too late.

"No. She won't allow you. She wants this power gone forever. Even if that means her own ending. And I don't think you have the strength to survive such a power. Moreover, you have to stay in line." He laughed. "There are hundreds of people who want it. What makes you think you'd be any special? I used to look for this power as well. It was long ago. Now, I have to be content with the little she gives me. Bow and beg. She's not being cruel without a reason, though. She'd seen all the darkness in me. She sees the darkness in you, as well. Yet she's tired. Too tired to care and yet she couldn't stop. Maybe, she's right. Her death may bring things back to normal, but... there are others who deserve to die more than she did. Me including. But I...I'm not that brave. And even if I were, my death won't make any difference to the world."

"Why don't you stop her, then? I bet keeping her alive, keeping her a queen is in your own interest. What is going to happen with you if she kills herself? Are her people strong enough to fight against your enemies?" The throne was really tempting to Tom, but he doubted that her death would set him any closer to it than he was now.

"I don't want to beat them all. I only want one. The murderer of my mother. The one who is called the honorable one, but who had no problem in making a girl fall in love with him and leaving her pregnant only to kill her when he found she was a demon. If I average her I don't care about anything else. "

"You're very strange," Tom muttered. "What about me? What does she plan to do with me?"

"I doubt you are her concern now." Zhu Ran answered bluntly.

"But..."

"Do not do anything stupid," he warned him. "Now, leave me alone. You ask too much."

Tom thought he was going to die of boredom. There was any book he could understand. No spell to test. He did not even have a place for himself. He kept wandering around, trying to find something interesting to do.

Eventually, news of war reached his ears. A part of him wanted to go. Curiosity was killing him. The other part - the surviving instinct - told him to stay behind. He knew nothing about the history between those sects. The demoness hadn't talked to him again and Zhu Ran refused to answer his questions.

"Come and see." He suggested it to him. "Don't worry. They stand no chance against her." Zhu Ran laughed.

"Unless she wanted to," Tom spoke his mind.

"Let's hope she won't do anything stupid."

Soon, it became clear she didn't intend to win the war. Zhu Ran lost against Mo Yan while Hua Qiangu was playing around, trying to scare the sects, but doing nothing to assure the victory. And then, she challenged Bai Zihua. A question crossed Tom's mind "Why?" She wouldn't kill him. She might want to humiliate him, but Tom felt she'd planned something bigger. Something...

"Does she want him to kill her? Could she be that stupid?"

"Could he kill her? If she let him to?" Tom asked Zhu Ran as he suspected what Hua Qiangu wanted to do. "Can you stop her?" Tom continued.

"Are you mad?! She would kill you" Zhu Ran answered immediately. "She won't like you to ruin her plans." Zhu Ran shouted.

"Do you really think she would kill us?" Even he doubted she would hurt a fly and he hardly knew her.

"No," Zhu Ran answered. "But she won't be happy."

"She never is"

"Do you have a plan?"

"Not exactly."