Demon General's Longing

5. Of Spells and Sight and an Acquaintance

"Your Highness, I..." Ling Wen sighed for the umpteenth time, "I apologize for the others' behavior."

In short, the crowd had become quite lively after the revelation, with the heavenly officials pushing each other to have a better look at this highly-gossiped about deity. Then Quan YiZhen suddenly barreled in out of nowhere. He took one look at the veiled bamboo hat, spied a little gap in the veil, and blurted out at the top of his lungs – "Are you blind?"

At that, Mimi Shen just wordlessly pushed back the veil to reveal the band of embroidered snow silk tied over his eyes before letting it cascade down again. 

Mimi Shen smiled. "I don't feel that he meant it to be offending. Moreover, it is because of General Qi Ying that we arrived at your palace so quicker."

General Pei then angrily told the other that his question was disgraceful and rude to their new 'friend'. Before the crowd could even start sounding sympathetic, the curly-haired god ignored him, grabbed Mimi Shen's sleeve, and nearly punched his way out of the quickly-dispersing crowd.

Then he released the other in front of the Palace of Ling Wen, nodded with a grave expression, and commented, "They're too noisy." Then he handed him a gold bar and left.

Mimi Shen was still holding it in his hand – his bamboo hat in the other hand. He held out the solid bar. "What is the meaning of this gesture?"

"I don't know?"

A stray wind passed the two standing in uncomfortable silence, carrying over lively conversations.

He winced at the far-off commotion. "Just one thing... are they always like this?"

Ling Wen bowed. "I'm afraid so."

His face pulled a pained expression, "I see."

Ling Wen sighed.

***

Ling Wen was about to reiterate her idea for the fifth time in a row before she caught the other's uneasy expression.

"Please - I'd rather not have a palace of my own."

"Well... I guess we can see to it later, then?"

"...As you say."

They were sitting in the main hall of the palace of Ling Wen. All the usually present civil heaven officials had already been made to leave on account of privacy (and to get rid of all the curious onlookers). In Ling Wen's words, Mimi Shen was too attention-grabbing appearance-wise. Even Mimi Shen had to agree on that - after all, everyone stops to look twice at someone walking around wearing a bandage over his eyes.

As for whether Ling Wen meant that or something else is entirely up for debate.

A huge pile of scrolls and notices were heaped on the table between them - which happened to be the only place fit enough to be seated on. Ling Wen might have mentally celebrated that her guest couldn't see the horror that was the half-built palace of Ling Wen. Both of them were currently sorting through the piles - well actually it was more like Ling Wen checking them mechanically before handing them to the other, who neatly arranged them into stacks accordingly.

Mimi Shen cracked his knuckles and muttered an 'almost done' under his breath before reaching for the next one. He had barely touched the cover page before he dropped the whole bunch with a fat THUMP and moved away with a blank face.