A New Calamity

Chapter 9: Too Late...

basically this chapter is just hc/sy bonding and what exactly hc did, that i implied last chapter!!
Found this beautiful art on google, i take no credit!

Hong Hong'er had been following Lu as well. He had at first done it to know where he went so that he could avoid him later, but Lu went everywhere, there was no pattern at all! He would walk down the Xianle capital street one day, then the network of alleys behind it the next! And he even had some freaky senses that Lu noticed him every time. Heaven forbid the many fights he got into to explain away his presence!

But soon he developed a habit of simply watching Lu. It helped though. Now he was good at stealing and sneakily getting out of places simply from watching Lu. Even Lu had stopped noticing his presence.

It was during one of these (stalking) following incidents that Lu and him came across the Qi Rong situation.

His opinion on that person could be compared to what he felt for his cursed eye. That is, very bad. This was the person that had grouped up on him and beat him and Lu up with his guards, who had planned to put him in a sack and drag him around, who had almost trampled both him and Lu to death. So he hated him.

He had called what he did a form of punishment, (even if he deserved it hekilledhisa-niangheshoulddie) and made Lu suffer. He made dianxia angry and his actions were a slander to the royal family, to his saviour! In his humble opinion, Qi Rong deserved being slandered, he asked for it.

Though he was certainly angry at what the nobles had to say about the wayward Prince's mother, it wasn't her fault that her son was like this, (justlikeitwasnothismother'sfaulthewasacurse,butshestilldiedSTOPCALLINGFORHERI'LLKILLYOU! YOUDON'TDESERVEITYOUCURSE!) he had no feelings of defending him or anything.

But oh, Lu sure did.

Hong Hong'er was astounded at the brilliant skill Lu showed in stealing of all things but it was nonetheless beautiful. The way he just.. flitted between them like a breeze, stealing from them from right under their noses, and those foolish people are none the wiser.

It was pretty entertaining.

But then it happened the next day.

And the next.

And suddenly Lu had a routine, a routine which included stealing from these nobles who kept coming back like absolute idiots, or perhaps because Qi Rong brought them here everyday, but they were all stupid, losing their money every day and not even noticing a pattern. Hong Hong'er was just 12 but he felt like an experienced old man compared to these buffoons. Tsk, how boring these bunch of nobles were, they had the best education Hong Hong'er could only dream of but it all went to waste anyway.

But while it was hilarious to see them making a fool of themselves he didn't quite like how much Lu was invested in defending the honour of his almost-killer. But it wasn't like he could do anything to sto-

That was when he saw the young Prince, standing in the corner and quietly watching his 'friends' being robbed, and Hong Hong'er felt like he'd discovered something. But if what he'd thought was true then..

Then next day too he saw Qi Rong and all his doubts were cleared. He sidled up behind him quietly and asked him, "What do you think you're doing?"

The Prince, who looked so similar to his God, but with none of his elegance and warmth, jumped and then turned towards him, a guilty look on his face that was quickly wiped out when he saw it was only a street kid. Hong Hong'er saw the bucket of water anyway, as well as the recognition in his eyes, so he knew Qi Rong remembered the previous year's incident too. But before the Prince could open his mouth, Hong Hong'er had already started to speak,