Soul Lock

A Little Nuisance Brings Two Revelations

When Ju Xin woke up, he was alone in the house. Panicking, he darted out of the tangled blanket and rushed out only to find Wen Lan was busy with checking the herbs in the garden.

"What's wrong?" Wen Lan asked with a frown, noticing Ju Xin's panic.

"Nothing!" Ju Xin ran his fingers through his messy hair, "we are late!" he blurted out and ran back inside the house.

He is cute, Wen Lan thought with an indistinctive smile on his lips. Before long, Ju Xin appeared again, ready to go with his wicker basket and the duo left the house without having breakfast.

"We couldn't have breakfast because of me, I am sorry," Ju Xin said timidly while they were walking.

Wen Lan looked at him with the corner of his eyes and chuckled lightly, "I guess you slept well last night."

"En," Ju Xin replied rather quickly, "it had been a while, sleeping that well."

In the face of such an honest confession, Wen Lan was flustered. Could it be because of him, he slept well? It wasn't possible as his body was technically dead, so it must have been as if he slept next to a corpse.

"Thank you."

What?! So was it really me? Wen Lan felt very proud as well as happy being Ju Xin's reason for a good night's sleep. But, his happiness was short-breathed as he remembered Ju Xin was the arch-enemy.

Lost in his thoughts, Wen Lan didn't notice when they reached the market. Only after seeing the bustling alley, he came to his senses and followed Ju Xin to his usual spot.

After the stall was ready, Ju Xin wanted to go buy something to eat, but Wen Lan grabbed his slim arm, stopping him. Then, he raised to his feet leisurely and declared "it is my job," and mingled with the crowd, leaving the shocked Ju Xin behind.

Walking around to find the little bun-sellers, Wen Lan noticed an essence of evil in the market. Although it wasn't nasty, it still belonged to Huang-quan. Being alerted, Wen Lan checked around, but couldn't find the source. Therefore, he bought the buns and rushed back to Ju Xin in case the evil being decided to strike.

"Thank you," Ju Xin received the paper bag with a shy smile.

Wen Lan just nodded, his eyes frantically looking around. Luckily, he didn't have to wait for a long time because soon three orange ghost fires appeared in the market, teasing the merchants and the customers. They were messing the stalls, breaking stuff and pushing people as they wanted.

Everyone was panicking and shouting except two; Wen Lan and Ju Xin.

As soon as Wen Lan saw that those ghost fires belonged to small children of the South, he relaxed and decided to enjoy the show. He wouldn't cross his line by dealing with other Ghost King's souls as long as they weren't too evil.

Still, as Wen Lan was feigning to be a normal person, he had to pretend. He turned his face to Ju Xin and grabbed his sleeve, "what is going on?" he asked with a fake shock in his voice. He also wanted to hear what Ju Xin was thinking.

"Don't worry," Ju Xin smiled reassuringly, "they are just naughty children's ghosts."

What?! So, Ju Xin could see ghosts although he didn't remember who he was. Wen Lan decided to dig more, "how do you know?"

"I..." Ju Xin paused, thinking how to continue, "I can see them," he declared in the end, his eyes studying Wen Lan's face to see his reaction.

"Oh," what else could he say?

Ju Xin wanted to say something, but a scream shushed him. Apparently, the ghost fires discovered the terracotta, throwing them to random people. Suddenly, Ju Xin took out three pieces of yellow talismans with some red writing and threw them to the ghosts with amazing accuracy and speed.