Crimson Qi, Exiled Beautiful Lady Falls in Love with a Shy Demon

A Man after Midnight

The rowing largely made obsolete, their conversation turned to what the strangers inescapably end up talking about when they are confined together - their life stories.

Xi described growing up by the endless horizons of the Jade Sea, Minh - the maze of streams weaving through the jungle. His relations were soon exhausted, while Minh laughed how just to name his would have taken from noon to sunset. With Xi's family nearly exterminated, and his mother - a pariah, he earned his social standing thanks to the advancement as a mage. Minh just had to pull on his thread at the tapestry of Bao's nobility - and a good chunk of it would unravel.

In temperament, they also were no more similar than rocks and water, yet by the time they sailed into Luitong's Imperial camp, Xi was appalled when the guardsmen advanced at Minh with a rope.

"Lord... ahem..." Clearly, he did not know everything there was to know about Minh after all. He did not let it stop him. "Lord Minh is not a prisoner. I will not tolerate his hands tied."

Truth be told, someone looking at Minh the wrong way would have set his teeth on edge. The days that passed might have been years.

The officer coughed. "The Lord and Lady Wu's instructions ---"

Xi dry washed his hands, forming an expanding ball of flames. He was only average in his understanding of heat and fire, but it tended to get the point across better than his stronger, yet invisible energies.

"I... I must have misunderstood." The officer stepped back with a hasty bow and waved for his men to lower their axes. "Forgive the dull-minded soldier, Master Chong Xi."

He relented, letting the flames die down, but not his focus. "As you were. I will escort Lord Minh to Lord and Lady Wu myself."

The man kept his face carefully neutral. "As you wish."

Minh remained silent until they were out of the soldier's earshot. "It's Maeng Minh. A mouthful, I know. Will Wu hung me?"

"What?!" The way he tacked on that last crazy question, in a measured tone... was that what he thought, and still came along? Did he never trust him? After all they had been through... wait! There was not much. They fought, they talked. That was all. Was that all?

Xi narrowed his eyes for emphasis, despite the cover of darkness. "No! How can you possibly believe that I would betray you?"

"I trust you. Foolishly perhaps, but I do." Minh's arms outstretched to the sides in bewilderment. The perpetual amused exterior slipped off for a moment. "Xi, what if your superiors do give the order?"

He froze to the spot. "I will not let them touch a hair on your head, Minh." Before he knew what he was doing he caught Minh's hand and pressed it to his core. Once again, he could not tell what he was feeling, what Minh was feeling, it all hit his hsin together like a rogue wave. "You will fight your countrymen for me? Me, an acquaintance of a few days? A foreigner?"

When he put it like this, it sounded like madness. But it did not stop Xi from replying. "I swore to protect you, and I will."

Reluctantly, he released Minh's hand. The shock of the suggestion wore off, the shaking of his fingers calmed down. He could think again. Politically, the move made no sense after all the efforts to pacify Luitong. "You are more useful to the Empire alive than dead. My orders would have been to eliminate you otherwise."

"You think?" In the pallid moonlight, his companion's teeth looked particularly white as he grinned. "Xi, listen to me. We don't have to kowtow to the emperors and demons. My domain is small, but I have the name, and you have the talent. With you by my side, it could be made bigger, richer... We ourselves could be dukes and princes or whatever else you dream of."