A Phoenix Rebirth: Dragon Emperor's Beloved Wife

Chapter 14: Xue Zi Hui

An Bing Qing's eyes were dazed as a flock of memories streamed in her mind. Her heart fluttered with joy.

"Cough", the squatted young man coughed and she was brought back to earth. She was scared silly when she saw him spat out a mouthful of blood. As she jumped down the tree, she blurted out, "Zi Hui!"

The young man didn't flinch with the coughing but he still took back his right hand from digging to cover his mouth. His action was half-completed as he half-heard a sudden cry.

He hastily turned around, his purple eyes gleamed bloodlust but this didn't make the rushing white figure came to a stop. His face grew cold and his evil breath began to spread out but soon, he coughed more and more blood, making him bend a little in pain.

"Xue Zi Hui, are you an idiot? Why are you mobilizing your energy?" A white-robed An Bing Qing chided at him.

In the middle of his coughing, he froze a little; he clearly heard his name this time. This made him frown, "How can that lowly little thing know my name? Moreover, is she scolding me?" His heart sank and a ruthless flash shined through his purple eyes; the evident worry he saw in her eyes didn't make him stop and think over things. If his condition were to be good, he would just ignore the little thing in front; but now, even a mysterious fly could be dangerous. He waited as he couldn't do too much now.

An Bing Qing had completely forgotten that this wasn't the past where they were good friends; even if his eyes were so, she didn't feel any danger when she was striding forward.

When she was ten steps before him, he raised his left hand but it quickly went meal and a confused light flashed in his pair of purple eyes as he felt something familiar coming from her.

In that moment An Bing Qing had finally reached his side, she exclaimed as she saw some little specks in the blood, "Dark green? Where you poisoned?" She reached her hand to take his wrist, but he pushed her hand, and said the first thing it came to his mind while he suppressed a sudden impulse, "Little thing, don't you think you are taking to many liberties with this Lord?"

"Huh?"

Seeing her puzzled face, he said with displeasure as he grabbed his breath, "This Lord doesn't now you". He paused and added with a bloodthirsty tone, "This Lord is very curious, how can a little thing like you know this Lord's name?" He swallowed a mouthful of blood that was about to be spat out.

"Oh... That..." She finally understood, she flushed, "Right, this isn't the past". She looked at him and saw he was still waiting for an answer and was able to discern his dangerous gaze this time, "How can I answer such a question?"

While she was pondering, he was appraising her, "This can't be, that is actually... How could I... No! When did I...?" His head was a mess and he couldn't make sense of his swirling thoughts. He was sure he didn't know this girl; moreover, she was a little human. How could he have placed his soul imprint within her soul? Was he drunken?

At length, he heard her response, "Oh, is that really your name? I just thought it will suit you". She stopped to clearly look at his expression, seeing that he didn't have a ruthless gaze anymore, she explained, "I mean, you have white hair like snow with a pair of devilish purple eyes and also... you seem to be a knowledgeable man. So..."

He instinctively blurted out, "Little thing, are you flirting with this Lord?" When he finished his question, he almost bit his tongue. He was flabbergasted.

Though for him it was rare, An Bing Qing didn't found anything wrong. Still, she cursed in her heart, "Tch, how did I forgot this guy is even more shameless than eldest brother? Once you give him an inch, he will take a mile".

She placed her hands on her hips and retorted sarcastically, "Flirting, me? This miss only stated the facts. Isn't his Lordship putting too much blame on an unmarried lady like me?"

His mind was still in chaos, he couldn't accept he had made something unreasonable without even knowing and was saying nonsensical things. He took a deep breath and said to throw her far away and ponder things over, "Little thing, it is best for you to go now".

She smiled widely, "Heh heh, I won".

He saw her strange smile and knew what she was thinking. Strangely, he didn't feel irritated but funny instead; he wanted to laugh but refrained himself from doing so and only a slight smile was drawn. But it quickly dissipated when he saw her kneeling down and carefully digging with some tools in hand.

"You..." He couldn't complete his sentence as blood got stuck in his throat. "Does that little thing know the things hidden in this place? That can't be, the little thing is so young that..."

Before he could end his line of thought, he heard, "Zi Hui, you are looking for the Blood Bud Roots, right? Is to detoxify your poison? What kind of poison is it?" She was clueless about this event as she had met him when she was over eighteen years old in her previous life, though it was a similar situation; he was badly hurt but he was very scary back then, now that she remember. Was it because he was older?

Hearing so, he was sombre.

She didn't felt his changing mood, and mirthfully said as she pulled a dark red root with ten little buds along its body, "It really is the Blood Bud Root and is a hundred years' one. Zi Hui, here". She raised her head to look up to him; and saw he wasn't looking at the herb but at her.

His eyes were deep and bottomless, as though he was in thought. She asked, "What is it? Don't you want it?"

"This is this Lord's place, everything here is mine".

She blinked, and said, "Hmph! You just were lucky there was a drove of beasts or else this place would be filled with them as this place had many Blood Bud Roots in time to be picked up". She then placed the herb by her side and continued to dig without looking at him.

He was out of words, thinking in his heart, "Is this little thing stupid? Didn't she know where the herd's heart was coming from?" He was unaware, but he slowly began to lower his guard. It wasn't because of his soul imprint as it was meant to protect and not to control. Maybe it was a feeling of yearn, one he was oblivious about.

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Edited: I'm sharpening it around the edges. (Not a great change, just punctuation and grammar)

Thanks for reading.