The Journey of the Goddess

Chapter Twenty-Two: Secret Dates, Rivals....and Oh Yes! I'm In Deep Shit

            "Poison needles and wash essence medicine you say?" Father Time asked in thought. "Yeah, but the thing is, I already destroyed the poison needles; Man Tian and I assumed we wouldn't need it but I forgot all about the rest of the plot, stupid of me really" I told him as I mentally beat myself up. "But Man Tian isn't on their side anymore, doesn't that change everything?" Father Time asked, wait, he's asking me? What the crap?

Father Time saw the look on my face which definitely says 'What the hell?' and rushed to explain "I got here the same time as you too, besides we don't usually get involved in human relations" "Right, anyways, we don't even know if Man Tian is on our side anymore, if anything, I'd say I'm the reason she turns bad this time" I told him hopelessly. "In that case, why don't you go and see how's she's doing?" Father Time suggested. That struck me frozen for a bit, I peeked over at Father Time who was smiling innocently; yeah, he's definitely playing the mediator between Man Tian and I.

Father Time's not wrong though, I can't be selfish by my pride here, after all the future is at stake. "Alright, I'll see what I can do" I mumbled. Father Time gave me a reassuring smile then suddenly turned away in alarm as if listening to something. He then turned back to me "I-uh I have to go, I'll think about the situation and see what I can do alright? Goodbye my child" Father Time told me distractedly before he disappeared and time resumed again; wonder what that was all about, it's not like Father Time to be distracted. But then again, what do I know about that old man?

I spent the next few days practicing with Qian Gu on the Cloud Arch Nine forms and I am dumbstruck every time, boy can that girl work! But then again, Bai Zi Hua does work her butt off. While I don't really care and goes to the Afternoon Hall to eat, Qian Gu waited until she was allowed to eat. Well, at least the relation between the couple is going well as planned so that's good, and even better since I'm out of the way for things to go well for them.

That's enough for me anyway, as much as I want Qian Gu to make a good impression on Bai Zi Hua, I want to stay out of their romantic life too. Besides that fact, no worries for me, I'm doing pretty well on my lessons from Bai Zi Hua so he doesn't say anything to me about roaming free and if I didn't know better those two are probably too busy with themselves to bother with me, yay! So on one of my meal breaks, I went over to Man Tian where we had a slight awkward conversation over tea. "You're looking good, is your teacher taking good care of you?" I asked as a start and perhaps to break this tense mood in the room which could probably be sliced by a knife.

"Yeah, well, he's ok I guess" Man Tian replied back tensely. "Things have been quite busy these days" I commented with a sip of tea. "Y-Yeah, me too, don't worry about it" Man Tian quickly agreed with me before things got quiet in the room again. Finally, I let out a sigh, seriously this cannot continue any longer, "I'm sorry" I let out softly.

Man Tian looked up in surprise but I continued my piece "It was wrong of me to blow up like that when I know that you were just trying to help; when I know what has taken for you to help me like this; how you went against your believes, your father and your goals to help me with mine like this; for ignoring all your efforts and intentions due to my one sided beliefs told by someone else instead of my friend who have been by my side all this time, I am terribly sorry" I closed my glassy eyes, letting my tears fall. "Ariel, I-" Man Tian uttered while I silently sobbed unable to stop. "Oh Ariel" Man Tian came over to me and hugged me. I hugged her back as I sobbed and told her repeatedly "I'm sorry, I'm sorry my friend, I'm terribly sorry" "I'm sorry too" Man Tian told me back as she patted the back of my crying self. "I'm sorry Man Tian"

"So you guys made up?" Father Time asked when I told him my meeting with Man Tian when he came by. "Yeah, after I let out a waterfall of salt water" I agreed as I sipped on my tea. "I never knew you for a crybaby" I frowned at his comment. "There's a reason I'm training to enter the art industry, I'm never too far away from my emotions"