Loving You is My Greatest Sin

43- A Happy Family?

"Here take more meat." Jing places several slices of beef to her bowl.

"Thank you."

"Mother, I also want some!" The little one raises his bowl.

"Here.. here.." Tao Ru laughs pinching his cute cheeks.

Such a weird feeling of fullness grows inside her heart. Li Tao Ru peeks at Jing and her son who are eating happily. Is this her fate?

"Papa.. a pigeon!" Jing's carrier pigeon comes with a stroll.

The letter as follows:

Gege, I know you just reunited with Tao Ru. And you have waited for this moment for years. Your sister does not mean to interrupt your family time. But you need to come back as soon as possible. After you left the gathering two days ago, chaos ensued. People are confused, angry, and outraged. You are now the leader of the martial arts world, come, and put this chaos to rest.

Your sister, Wei.

Jing shakes his head while reading the message. He doesn't want to comeback just yet. It has just been two days and he knows that Li Tao Ru must not feel comfortable facing everyone. Especially, if they will get questioned.

He just can't take her back just yet. He needs to protect his family.

"What is the letter about?" Tao Ru's asks in between eating.

He shook his head. "Nothing." The most important thing now is to make her feel comfortable, because she just lost all of her power. The stress must have been unbearable for her, but she is acting like everything's alright.

"Tao Ru, follow me."

They walk outside their house to the more secluded area of the forest.

"How are you?" He genuinely asks.

"..." Tao Ru couldn't answer, suddenly a surge of tears fill up her eye socket. She had been trying to suppress it.

Not long, she is sobbing, crying her heart out. Jing reaches out to her, trying to give her some warmth.

She is now sobbing in his embrace.

Jing knows that it is unfair to her. To be honest, it's him who robs her dream. And this time she lost everything, it is because of him as well.

"I will always be here for you." This is the most important time to protect her.

______

Jing looks at his wife and his son playing in the kitchen. He had purposely made this house even more hidden then before.

He wants to hide Tao Ru from the cruel world.

Here, they will be safe together.

He walks closer to them, smiling.

"Mother! Mother! Do you want to see me do the level 5 kungfu routine?" He wants to make his mother proud.

Jing stares at him, this is surely make Tao Ru uncomfortable since she just lost her abilities.

"Yes, show mother what you can do." In contrary, Tao Ru seems excited to see his performance.

His small frame posses a great power due to being the son of the two most powerful fighters alive. He took his sword that was hidden in his belt and start moving sharply. His movement is strong yet smooth, a perfect balance between Huang Ma Jing's and Li TaoRu's fighting style. A deeply controlled qi.

"Wow! That is Amazing!" Tao Ru claps happily, when she was 5 years old, she definitely cannot do the moves that clean and controlled.

"Thank you mother.." he receives the compliment bashfully.

"Then you have to practice harder to make your mother proud! Do you understand?"

"Yes papa!"

"Is that a flexible sword?" Tao Ru just realized.

"Yes, it is lightweight and suitable for his style, so I got him one."

"Interesting... I have never met anyone who uses flexible sword as their main weapon. Can I hold it?" Her eyes sparkles when talking about swords and fighting. It surely is her passion.

"Sure Mother! Here!" He hands his sword.

Tao Ru reaches and took the sword. "Ouch!" She drops the sword to the floor with a clinking sound.

"Are you okay?" Jing rushes to see her hand worrily.

"yeah I'm okay." She says in a monotone, starring blankly at her now bloody hand.

Both of them are silent. They know.

The sword is a powerful one, and Li Tao Ru doesn't have enough qi power to hold it.

In her current state, she is not worthy to hold the sword. And it reflect on her.

______

"Can you harvest some vegetables for papa?" Jing says, wanting to get a free time with his wife.

He looks at her eyes, holding her cheeks. In the last few days Jing realized that Tao Ru tend to avid his eye contact.

"Why is there fear in your eyes when you look at me?" He frowns.

Tao Ru quickly looks away.

"Tao Ru.."

"I'm afraid." She says bitterly.

"Why?" He can't understand.

"Because.." she looks distressed, she must have tried to hide it. "Jing, you are the leader of martial arts world. You have all the power in the world. Meanwhile, here I am powerless, and useless." She explains sadly.

"...."

"And if one day you decided that you don't want me anymore." A tear drops. "You can just easily get rid of me. And I won't have a chance to stand and fight before you" a deep sense of fear can be felt in the air.

"You know I won't do that." His heart drops when she says that. He doesn't want to hurt her nor does he want to leave her.

"But you can just kill me, that's what everyone expect and-"

Jing pulls her and kissed her forehead. "Why would I do that?" His eyebrows rises.

"Jing I can't even hold a sword, I don't have enough power to do anything." Her insecurities is taking over.

"And I will make sure that you won't need to ever hold a sword to protect yourself." He promises.

______

After a few weeks, Jing decided to come back to his manor and give explanation to the world. And of course he can't take Tao Ru there. But he feels unsafe to leave her alone as well.