Chapter Ninety-Four: Have You Been Waiting Long?

Xuan Xuan was dressed in a snow-white bodice embroidered with silver-thread magnolias, over a moon-pale blouse with wide sleeves and pale pink apricot blossoms, cinched with a silver-white waist sash inlaid with gold and violet trim. Below, a twelve-panel floor-length skirt of a hundred flowers flowed in soft, trailing folds, with a cloudlike silk stole threaded with gold winding about her.

Though a face veil still covered her features, making them impossible to see, it only deepened the air of mystery around her.

Zhan Yu stared at her and said softly, “You look beautiful.”

Xuan Xuan looked at herself in the mirror. The outfit had been chosen by Ran, but it was far too elaborate. Just dressing in it each day took long enough for her to doze off again after waking.

And it was hardly practical; it made movement inconvenient. Still, since there was nothing else to do today, she would bear with it.

When she stepped out of the shop, walking beside Zhan Yu along the street, he wanted nothing more than to announce to the whole world that the person beside him was his.

The moment Xuan Xuan emerged, she drew every eye. Though it was the Lantern Festival, she looked so resplendent that one might have mistaken the night for Mid-Autumn, a palace lantern in her hand, white robes shimmering on her body, as if a jade rabbit should be perched on her shoulder for the picture to be complete.

Yet in the guise of a phantom fox, she was no less lovely than a jade rabbit.

Because this street had been modeled after the Chang'an of the Tang dynasty, most of the shops sold things connected with the old empire’s culture. Nearly all of it was unfamiliar to Xuan Xuan, and almost everything she saw aroused her curiosity.

She paid no mind at all to the stares and comments around her, only looking about at the things that interested her.

Of course, not everyone was content to simply watch.

Zhan Yu had only stepped away for a moment to buy something, leaving Xuan Xuan seated in a shop to wait, when someone approached.

“I want the fox on your shoulder. How much?”

A clear voice sounded from behind her.

Xuan Xuan did not even flick her eyes toward it, entirely ignoring the voice beside her. As an alchemist, countless people had come to her seeking one thing or another, but never had anyone dared speak to her in such a tone.

“I want the fox on your shoulder.”

Perhaps unused to being treated this way, the girl behind her raised her voice several times, drawing the attention of many nearby onlookers.

Still Xuan Xuan did not turn around. She merely looked toward the direction Zhan Yu had gone. He had gone into a shoe shop, and had asked her to wait here.

Xuan Xuan’s indifference made the person behind her flush with anger and humiliation. In two quick steps the girl came forward and stopped in front of her.

“Are you deaf?”

Xuan Xuan gave her a glance. She was young, pretty, and had the spoiled look of someone long indulged.

Having been looked at by Xuan Xuan, the girl was somehow overborne by her presence and took two steps back. Only after retreating did she realize that she had actually been frightened by a girl about her own age, and her anger flared higher still. She reached out to push Xuan Xuan.

Xuan Xuan did not even change expression. The phantom fox on her shoulder needed no instruction at all; it sprang up at once, and before the girl even noticed, it had raked her with a claw.

The fox leaped back to Xuan Xuan’s shoulder and rubbed affectionately against her cheek. Xuan Xuan stroked it. At least it knew better than to be useless.

The girl’s face had been scratched askew by the fox’s claw, and the hand she had stretched toward Xuan Xuan was knocked aside. Looking down, she saw three long bloody streaks across her formerly delicate hand.

She stared in disbelief, about to speak, when a faint sting came to her forehead as well. Raising a hand, she touched it and found blood there too. Without another word, she slapped toward Xuan Xuan’s face.

Xuan Xuan gave a cold laugh. Since accepting her master’s instruction on the Martha Continent, no one had ever dared raise a hand to her.

Or perhaps the one before her had simply thought too highly of herself.

She pressed down lightly on the phantom fox’s shoulder to keep it from moving. If it struck again, it might be too much. Xuan Xuan even thought the medicines she had recently refined finally had a place to be tested.

Before she could move, the girl’s hand was already caught.

Xuan Xuan looked up and saw Zhan Yu. His expression was dark. He glanced once at the girl before saying nothing, flinging her hand aside and drawing a handkerchief from his clothes to wipe his own hand carefully, as though he had touched something filthy.

The girl’s face shifted through shades of green and white, yet she did not dare say another word. In a timid voice she called, “Young Master Zhan.”

Zhan Yu seemed not to hear her at all. He turned to Xuan Xuan, his eyes so gentle they seemed ready to drip with water. “Have you waited long?”

Xuan Xuan shook her head as well, not even looking at the girl beside her. “The surprise?”

Zhan Yu smiled faintly and lifted the thing in his hand for her to see. Xuan Xuan opened it and found a pair of beautiful embroidered shoes.

After changing her clothes, Xuan Xuan had still not changed her shoes, but fortunately her skirt was long enough to conceal them.

Zhan Yu crouched down and gently removed her shoe, then carefully slipped the one in his hand onto her foot. Xuan Xuan did not move, letting him put on the other as well.

At such a moment, Zhan Yu looked very serious. Xuan Xuan found him especially handsome and did not want to interrupt him.

Once the shoes were fitted, Zhan Yu’s eyes also brightened. He had hesitated for a long while before choosing this size, and it fit perfectly.

Still crouched, he looked up at Xuan Xuan, and she in turn met his gaze without meaning to.

When Kuang Shao came in, this was the scene he saw. For some reason, though he felt the two of them were perfectly in harmony and there was not the slightest room for anything else to intrude, the sight was still unbearably glaring. Damnably glaring.

“Zhan Yu.”

Though it ought to have been a scene no one should disturb, Kuang Shao still wanted to break it.

Only then did Zhan Yu and Xuan Xuan look toward him at the door. Zhan Yu’s face immediately darkened. Why had he come? He had finally managed to keep that troublesome fellow from showing up.

He rose from in front of Xuan Xuan and pulled her up from her seat.

“Does it fit?”

Only then did Kuang Shao notice that Xuan Xuan was different from usual. Whenever he looked at her, he was accustomed to first seeing those clear, pure eyes, and only then did he realize that with those eyes alone, paired with this Tang-style dress, she was already so beautiful that no one else could enter his sight.

Xuan Xuan paid no mind to the difference between the two men. She tested the shoes and found them not only lovely, but a perfect fit—very comfortable indeed. She nodded to Zhan Yu, then looked at Kuang Shao.

“Why are you only just arriving?”

Why are you only just arriving? You should be saying why did you come at all, Zhan Yu muttered inwardly, his gaze toward Kuang Shao far from friendly.

Kuang Shao glanced at Zhan Yu, then said to Xuan Xuan, “Something delayed me.”

It truly had been something. His old man had somehow taken it into his head to bring back some girl from who knew where, so that after finishing school and going to the Kuang family, someone would be there to take care of the little chubby girl from the Wanqi family. But did the Kuang family lack people? If she was to come, naturally he would be the one to entertain her.

He had finally managed to fool that girl from nowhere onto the star network and come over here, leaving her to wander on her own while he went looking for Zhan Yu and the others. But after searching all around, he found no one, and when he came here, he actually saw such an obnoxious scene.

“Cousin.”

A timid voice sounded from the side.

Kuang Shao looked over and only then noticed that the “something” delaying him was also here.

Only—are you attending a masquerade ball?

That face full of blood and that pale complexion—were you trying to play a ghost or what?

The girl actually did look pitiable; otherwise she would not have managed to cling to the Kuang family’s main branch in the first place. Her eyes were full of tears, and she gazed at Kuang Shao with boundless grievance.

“Cousin.”

That single word came out winding and tender, and Xuan Xuan only then realized speech could be used this way.

Kuang Shao, however, was a little impatient. “What is it?”

Seeing his impatience, the girl only grew more pitiful, sniffing without speaking, then looking at him with shy, hesitant eyes.

On ordinary days, Kuang Shao might have shown a bit of gentlemanly spirit and asked what was wrong. But that girl probably did not even realize her face was covered in blood, her complexion white as paper, and with those little eyes of hers, she looked to him like she was about to stage a horror tale.

Kuang Shao hurriedly contacted Kuang Chi and had him take her away.

Kuang Chi was quick about it and swiftly led the girl off. She had originally been unwilling to go, having finally appeared before Kuang Shao and Zhan Yu, but she also knew how important the white-clad girl was to the two of them. Thinking of her own attitude toward that person just now, she left resentfully, telling herself there would always be another chance.

Once the girl was gone, Kuang Shao felt alive again.

Looking at Xuan Xuan, even though she was dazzlingly lovely today, he still found her somewhat offensive to the eye. The more he looked, the less good-looking she seemed. There was no need to say it was something Zhan Yu had bought.

“Where did this dress come from? It’s ugly as sin.”

At that, Zhan Yu’s face darkened again. He was already thinking that next time he should speak directly to Kuang Hongyi and have him find Kuang Shao a wife to keep him in line. Such a weak girl would not do; the eldest young lady of the Bai family would probably be more suitable.

And as for that girl, Zhan Yu silently marked her with a cross in his heart. She did not need to remain in the imperial capital either; no one knew where she had come from, with such an arrogant and overbearing temper.

He glanced at Xuan Xuan and only felt sorry that she had been wronged.

Xuan Xuan looked down, frowned slightly. Ugly?

She looked at Zhan Yu, then at Kuang Shao. Could it be because that girl had just tried to bully her, or because they were afraid Zhan Yu would misunderstand?

In truth, Xuan Xuan’s thinking was not like theirs. Zhan Yu thought she had been bullied, but she felt it was she who had bullied someone else, because she believed in her own strength and could not possibly be bullied.

Xuan Xuan thought she had bullied someone’s girl. No matter what, Kuang Shao was still her master’s son, and that face had to be given some respect.

She took out a bottle of healing medicine and handed it to Kuang Shao.

Kuang Shao’s eyes lit up. Taking it, he said, “A Lantern Festival gift for me? I didn’t prepare anything for you.”

Only then did Xuan Xuan realize that the other party had not cared at all about what had just happened. Glancing at the medicine in Kuang Shao’s hand, she wondered whether she could take it back.

“Hm? Why is it a healing potion?” Since he had spent quite some time with Xuan Xuan, Kuang Shao was familiar with the potions she usually used. Looking at it in confusion, he then said, “Are you worried I’m hurt? You’re so kind.”

Listening from the side, Zhan Yu’s face darkened yet again. She had given him nothing, yet the moment she saw Kuang Shao, she gave him a bottle of medicine.