Riluo City (Blue Phoenix Book 1) (13 page)

Her giggle made Rong Ming look at her.

“Where have you been?” he asked curiously as Rong Xing rarely left the campsite whenever they were here.

“I met with Hui Yue,” she answered with a voice brimming with happiness. Rong Ming’s face suddenly changed and he grinned towards his twin sister.

“Do you like Hui Yue?” he asked with a slightly nervous voice, and his eyes were fixed at Rong Xing’s face. A feeling of relief flooded Rong Ming when he saw his sister nodding.

“Hui Yue is definitely an interesting person,” she said, her eyes shone with a light that was hard to explain.

“Would you like if Hui Yue became your sister in law?” Rong Ming asked seriously, but his serious expression quickly changed into a frown as his usually quiet sister started laughing uncontrollably. Although it was an uncontrollable laughter, it was still pleasant to the ear and it was hard to stay mad at her.

“Oh my dear brother,” Rong Xing said with a great smile on her face, “I would definitely love for that to happen, however I do not think that it is very likely.” Rong Ming furrowed his brows upon hearing her reply, but he was a stubborn young boy.

“We will see,” was his answer before he once again returned to work out the list of magical beasts they needed to slay.

Chapter 6 – Younger brother

It was early morning when Hui Yue woke up. Usually he would be up and about within a few minutes, however today was fairly different and he had to force his young body to leave the comfortable safety of his worn out blanket.

The white haired boy left the shack, but today he did not walk towards the village pen to pick up the goats, instead he walked towards the cottage belonging to the village elder.

Hui Yue walked on the silent streets and his whole body was enveloped by the thick morning mist. The sun had yet to break through the sky, and the temperature had dropped low during the night, making the small body shiver from the cold.

A slight feeling of relief appeared in Hui Yue’s eyes when he saw light within the village elder’s cottage, and he quietly knocked on the door, which was almost instantly opened by the village elder’s daughter.

“Hui Yue,” she said with a surprised voice, “do you need to see father?” she asked after a bit. This young child was known to be very mature, so the woman treated him as an equal, although he was only seven years of age.

Hui Yue nodded, and slowly entered the warm home. To feel the heat from the hearth was a luxury that they did not have in his parent’s shack, so the young boy had to fight temptation to just stand in front of the gentle flame and allow it to heat him up. Usually Lan Feng would assist him in managing his internal temperature, however Lan Feng enjoyed sleeping in the mornings, so Hui Yue was on his own.

The woman gave Hui Yue a gentle smile upon noticing his eyes that were glancing towards the hearth. “Just wait next to the fire and I’ll get father out here,” she said with a cheerful voice as she moved into the inner quarters.

It did not take long before the village elder stepped into the heated room, and he looked at Hui Yue with a slight confusion. It was not that rare for the village children to visit him during the morning if they were to skip out from their chores, however this hardworking child had never done it before.

“Village elder,” Hui Yue said respectfully while cupping his hands together and giving a slight bow, “I need to ask for a replacement to take care of my chores today,” he said depressed. Hui Yue hated leaving his work to others, but right now he had no choice. Dealing with the Rong twins was definitely much more important than the goats.

The Village elder looked at him with furrowed brows. Hui Yue was clearly not sick, nor had he ever been sick so it was a big question as to why he needed the day off. However, the village elder decided that since Hui Yue had been looking after the goats for so many years with no breaks, it was not his place to question the boy. Instead he just nodded his old head and walked towards yet another room in the cottage.

“Lang er,” he said with a fairly loud voice, and rustling could be heard from within the chamber, “you will look after the goats today, Hui Yue has business to attend to,” he said to the boy who had just been woken up, and a grunt could be heard as a reply.

Hui Yue was grateful that he was not asked any questions and he quickly bowed towards the elder once more before he left the heat from the cottage.

The mist had gotten thicker as the heat had increased, but the sun still had to break past the mountain rage towards the east. It was a calm morning and the village was slowly waking up, ready to welcome yet another day just like the previous.

At least it was a normal day to every other villager. Hui Yue knew that today was different for him, and he was aware that if he made one mistake, it was likely that the calm village could be erased.

His mind once again returned to what had happened the previous evening, and he gritted his teeth as he had understood why Rong Ming had been treating him so specially. Although Rong Xing was reacting as if it was a good joke, Rong Ming was the one who might feel as if he had been made a fool.

Hui Yue reached the edge of the campsite and quietly sat down below a tree as he waited for the young master to wake up. He could not help but feel slightly nervous. The current problem was obviously caused by a misunderstanding, and although it could be argued that it was Rong Ming’s fault for assuming that Hui Yue was a girl, it could also be argued that Hui Yue should have noticed and cleared up the misunderstanding rather than leading the young master on for multiple years.

If Rong Ming wished to punish the village, it was very easy to put all the blame on Hui Yue, or even the rest of the village, saying that they had ordered the small child to act in order to gain favour from the young lord of Rilou City.

Hui Yue sighed deeply. He did not see Rong Ming as such a petty person, however this world was so different from his old one, and he had understood just how important honour and dignity was. If Rong Ming really did feel dishonoured, then he would likely get very mad.

The young white-haired boy gritted his teeth once again and forced himself to stop the negative thoughts, instead he emptied his mind and allowed his consciousness to enter his dantian cave where he sat down and started absorbing essence and refining qi. This trance was capable of calming his uneasy heart and also allowed him to improve his strength.

The sun quietly rose while Hui Yue was busy cultivating, and the campsite got quite busy as the soldiers woke up. All of them glanced towards the small child at least once, but they all knew that he was a personal friend of their young master, so none of them saw him as a potential threat and allowed him to cultivate in peace.

Hui Yue was about to finish refining the last qi thread and finally allowed his senses to return to his body, when he noticed that Rong Ming was sitting next to him, smiling.

“I am glad to see you cultivate as I told you to,” Rong Ming said cheerfully while grabbing the younger boy’s hands and dragged him towards the main tent in the middle of the camp.

The reason that Hui Yue dared cultivating this close to others was that his cultivation base rose so slowly that it would seem as if he had not cultivated for more than a year’s time with the most popular cultivation method, also they looked similar from outside, as Hui Yue now left his body in a meditation stance before submerging his consciousness within his dantian cave to refine qi.

As Rong Ming dragged him closer to the tent, Hui Yue felt how his worries decreased for each step he took. He knew that Lan Feng would be of no use to him right now, as both of them had agreed the previous day to go here and clear up the misunderstanding.

Even if Rong Liang was not present, Bu Huang was, and Lan Feng said, that he was not much weaker than Rong Liang himself. It was obvious that he too could notice Lan Feng if the phoenix did not use his full focus on concealing himself.

But Hui Yue felt calm, even when he considered all the risks he was taking to straighten up this misunderstanding. His aim was to become the strongest person in this world, to become the fifth creature to reach the rank of a god. If he was getting scared from something like this, then he had lost all his right to strive towards greatness.

Rong Ming was stronger than Hui Yue yes. His entourage could erase the whole village, which was also correct, but Hui Yue instantly understood that this was only the first time he was facing against a large force of overpowering opponents. Hui Yue would definitely encounter this again in the future, and by then he would be in a much worse position, as right now he had the leverage of being Rong Ming’s friend through the past many years.

The two children entered the central tent while Hui Yue was thinking all of this, and Rong Ming lead the white-haired boy towards a table to the side.

“Come sit down!” he said excitedly, “let us share breakfast. You did not eat breakfast?”

Hui Yue shook his head and was about to open his mouth, when Rong Ming stopped him, “you should be out guarding goats today, so I did not think I’d get to see you. Tell me, why did you come here?” the voice was friendly but it was easy to hear that the older boy was serious with a hint of worry. He too had understood Hui Yue’s personality and knew that the younger boy would never skip out on his chores unless he had something important to speak with Rong Ming about.

Hui Yue looked at the older boy with conflicting feelings evident in his face. It was obvious that the misunderstanding needed to be cleared up, however it had a high possibility of ending the one friendship that Hui Yue had gained in this new world, and it did cause a slight pain to the young boy’s heart. However, Hui Yue steeled his heart and determined raised his head, looking straight at Rong Ming.

“I met Lady Rong Xing yesterday,” Hui Yue started, “and she seemed shocked when we ran into each other at my bathing spot,” he continued. The voice was not rushed nor was it slow, Hui Yue had completely controlled his emotions as he was getting ready to reveal what would most likely shock Rong Ming quite a bit. “She was quite shocked when she noticed that I am a boy.” Hui Yue finished off, and a slight blush appeared in his face as he said the final sentence. It was the first time in his double life that anyone had mistaken him for a girl and the conversation was genuinely quite embarrassing.

Hui Yue did not look at Rong Ming, instead he stared at the ground in front of him, and gave off the impression of being scared of the older boy, fearing that he was mad at him. Hui Yue was well aware that he could not rely on strength to get through this, instead he would rely on his acting skills.

Hui Yue quickly glanced towards Rong Ming who was staring at the younger boy in front of him with a completely blank expression on his face. Rong Ming opened and closed his mouth a few times as if he did not know what to say, however, before he had the time to decide on his words, two people strode through the tent door.

Both Hui Yue and Rong Ming turned their heads and noticed Rong Xing and Bu Huang entering the tent, talking cheerfully to each other before both came to a stop when seeing Hui Yu and Rong Ming.

A slightly confused expression appeared on the face of Bu Huang but it was quickly masked by a stern look.

Rong Xing was instantly aware of what was happening, and Hui Yue managed to pick up a quick flash of playful disappointment in her beautiful ink-black eyes before a smile lit up her face, and she moved next to the younger boy, grabbing one of his small pale hands in her own.

Rong Ming had quickly returned his gaze to Hui Yue, and Hui Yue’s face was turning a deeper shade of crimson as he was the subject for such an intense gaze.

“I…” Rong Ming finally managed to push out a word, while still staring shocked at Hui Yue, who still appeared to be frightened to death, and dared not utter even the slightest sound, “I… Hahaha,” Suddenly a helpless laughter escaped Rong Ming’s shocked lips, and surprised everyone present. At first Hui Yue was rigid while listening to the laughter, but he soon realised that there was not even the slightest trace of rage, if anything it sounded quite self-mockingly.

“You… Are you really a boy?” Rong Ming asked again with a disbelieving smile on his face, and his clear eyes focused on Hui Yue who silently nodded, his cheeks scarlet red from embarrassment. He had to admit, that this was without a doubt the most embarrassing situation he had ever been in, in both lives combined. It was even more embarrassing than the one time his mother walked in on him while he was having fun with a girlfriend.