Chapter 694: A Quiet Evening…
‘Well…this is surprisingly awkward,’ Zhen Xing thought to himself as he stood there like a deer in a hunter’s crosshairs while holding a tray of congee, staring at the girl he and his cousins rescued not too long ago.
A part of Zhen Xing had known that such a situation would arise at some point in the future, everyone had to regain their consciousness at some point, but Zhen Xing had figured by the time this girl had returned to the world of the waking, he’d know what he would say to her. So far, he was drawing a blank.
Then again, it probably didn’t help that she was also silent as well, and looking at him with a mix of anxiety and fear.
‘Okay, I should just put this down here and-‘
“EEP!,” the girl squeaked out before recoiling as if she was pre-emptively preparing to block an incoming rain of blows. Much to her surprise though, that didn’t happen. Zhen Xing simply placed the tray of food on a nightstand right next to the bed she had woken up in, all while giving her a look full of concern.
Once she realized that nothing had happen to her, a look of confusion appeared on the girl’s face, which was soon followed by hungry desire as she looked at the prepared congee waiting near her.
Most people would immediately dive in once they saw that a plate of food was placed next to them, but this girl did not.
Zhen Xing couldn’t help but find this situation familiar, but those situations usually involved neglected tamed aether beasts. Needless to say, Zhen Xing understood that it was kind of a fucked up comparison.
‘Dear lord, she’s like an injured puppy who’s scared of the world…which…is not an inaccurate comparison in the worst ways possible, holy shit…’
Apparently, Zhen Xing and company had neglected to factor in the possibility that despite rescuing the poor slave girl from a shit situation, she was still a slave girl who was used to dealing with predominantly shitty situations.
Understanding that this girl was probably reacting predominantly based on past, very shitty experiences, Zhen Xing attempted to try a…gentler approach.
Having handled defensive aether beasts before, Zhen Xing understood that the best way to get them to open was to give them space and let them come to their own decisions in regards to food…usually. He knew there were less friendly methods, but he was fairly certain he couldn’t force a person’s mouth open to eat food unwillingly. As such, he decided to introduce himself and tell her that she could eat the food if she wanted and that he would give her space, simple as that.
“Alright, first thing first, my name is Zhen Xing and I understand that you are recovering from a rather crappy situation. As such, I’m just going to leave you with the congee and make myself scarce so you can-why are you looking at me like that?”
Just as Zhen Xing was about to leave the girl alone and let her eat, he realized that she was looking incredibly bewildered the moment he opened his mouth. It took him a second to realize the reason why though….well, what he thought was the reason.
‘Wait…right, different continent means different language.’
Realizing his blunder, Zhen Xing redid his planned lines in a language that the girl could understand. However, he was not expecting the reaction that would happen as a result of this sudden change in language.
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In a complete reversal on how she was acting just moments ago, the once timid girl suddenly rushed and hugged Zhen Xing like he was a long lost family member that came back into her life like a miracle of the heavens.
Zhen Xing was both equal parts confused and gratified by this reaction, but he needed a bit more information as to why there was a sudden change of heart. Luckily, the girl provided it with any prompting.
<< It was you, right? You're my angel of death? The one who took me away from that awful place and gave me an opportunity to finally rest peacefully ?!, >> the girl exclaimed excitedly with some mildly worrying implications in her choice of words. << You're the one who rescued me? The one who rescued Pai Ling? >>
‘Ah, so that’s her name…huh…whatever.’
Zhen Xing recalled that the name of Pai was one of the ones associated with the Fallen Clan, but didn’t really think this girl was actually a part of the Fallen. After all, even the hotel owner they were hanging out with was named Gao Feng.
As Pai Ling kept hugging Zhen Xing, the latter eventually decided to reciprocate the hug in kind, while making sure she understood that she hadn’t actually died.
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As this awkwardly tender moment continued to unfold and helped to make this quiet evening a touch more lovely, a small figurine hiding in the shadows looked on with approval before silently giving the two of them, a little more privacy.
Even a monstrous entity made of jade knew how to read a room…usually.
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[Well, looks like I won’t have to worry about fox boy doing anything rash,] Nepherage thought to herself, proud that she managed to influence someone who she had initially marked as a dastard to be a better person.
[Wonder how things are going on the other side of town though…]
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‘Dammit, dammit, dammit! Where the hell did my necklace go?!,’ Zhen Jun Yao cursed as he hopelessly searched the floor of the arena’s hallway.
A bit after realizing that he had lost his important aether treasure, an item known as the [False Dream Jadeite], Zhen Jun Yao had become a rather surly fellow for the rest of the day. However, he soon remembered where he might’ve dropped such an important item, after having unconsciously touched his injured neck.
‘That bastard…how the hell did he break the chain?!’
Therefore, long after everyone in the main clan and the citizenry had turned in for the evening, Zhen Jun Yao had decided to stay up and go back to the Zhen Clan arena, despite the place being marked off by guards.
Due to his status in the clan, Zhen Jun Yao was able to get in easily with a rather flimsy excuse, albeit, he wasn’t able to mess with their memories like he would usually do.
He needed the necklace in rider to do something like that.
Unfortunately for him, it was starting to look less and less likely that he was going to find it this evening.
‘Fuck, fuck, fuck! Did that fucking brackborn kid take my necklace?,’ Zhen Jun Yao thought for a second before determining that couldn’t be the case.
The thing about the [False Dream Jadeite] is that despite being an incredibly useful and powerful aether treasure, it had this innate quality that made it impossible for cultivator to detect it via the normal method of sweeping an area with aether.
Most other aether treasures gave off a sort of feedback when interacting with a cultivator’s aether, [False Dream Jadeite] did not. Instead, it just gave off a feeling that it was just a normal piece of jade.
This quality made it invaluable for those who wanted to use it for underhanded reasons, but it also made it nearly impossible to find under normal circumstances such as digging the damn thing up, or extraordinary circumstances like somehow fucking losing it in the middle of an arena.
‘Dammit! Where the hell did it go?!,’ Zhen Jun Yao mentally screamed one more time before angrily kicking the dirt. He would’ve used aether at this point to help vent his frustrations more and destroy something, but he still had an image to maintain and didn’t want to risk alerting anybody else that he was in the arena.
Unfortunately for him, multiple little someones already knew he was there.
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[Looks like Spring Brawler was right. The guy who was making himself useful was apparently our inside man,] Hurricroak observed. [The hell kind of dumbass returns to a crime scene literally hours later though? I know it happens in mystery novels, but damn.]
[Do we know why this chunk of jade is so important to that guy yet?,] Razorstella asked. [I mean, it’s pretty but Nepherage is made of better jade.]
[Who…knows…who…cares…,] Frosttusk rumbled. [Right…now…we…need…to…follow…that…guy…]
[Right, burden of proof…man, the maestro cares way too much about little details like this.]
[In his words, the less doubt, the better.]
[Fair enough…still boring though.]
