My Beloved Enemy

9. Eight Arbutus and One Arrow

"What if we just stay one more day here?" Hua Suo bit his lower lip and Ren Jing laughed. The previous night, they had so much fun with the girls, so they were highly reluctant to leave the town.

"Stop joking and move your ass," Du YuShi snapped at them and mounted his horse with a sour expression. Last night was a fiasco, so he wanted to leave there as soon as possible. As he was dying to leave, he couldn't help but snap at Yu Qiao Bai as well for being late.

"Finally!" the frustrated general snorted, but Yu Qiao Bai ignored his existence and went inside the carriage with a sullen face.

Du YuShi rolled his eyes and gave the command to move.

From morning to afternoon, the small convoy moved in silence as half of them were exhausted from the entertainment of the previous night, and one from overthinking.

"Let's have a short rest," Du YuShi stopped the group who became eternally grateful. It was funny though, two months ago, they were fighting unceasingly, but now they were tired just because they missed a night's sleep. Belligerence was indeed something else.

When the group settled for a while in the forest -Yu Qiao Bai and Chun Hua were sitting a bit far from the Du soldiers-, Du YuShi went for a stroll a bit as he was overwhelmed by Yu Qiao Bai's existence.

After he walked a bit, he saw a fruit tree with red fruits, similar to apples. In order to dawdle himself, he collected six, then plucked two more with a sigh. With his loot, he went back.

"What is this?" was the first thing Du YuShi uttered when was back. He showed the red fruit to Yu Qiao Bai and demanded an answer with his eyes. Well, Chun Hua could also answer but Du YuShi conveniently forgot about her origin.

"It is Arbutus," Yu Qiao Bai answered, fanning himself.

"Is it edible?"

Yu Qiao Bai simply nodded without eye contact, disappointing the prince of Du.

"It is good then," Du YuShi mumbled and started to throw his soldiers the fruits he collected one by one. Then he threw one more to Dong Feng and gestured towards Chun Hua who was sitting closer to him. With that, there were only two left in his hands. Hesitantly he looked at Yu Qiao Bai who was busy with fanning himself. It was obvious from his attitude that he didn't expect to receive one.

"Ge, you can take mine, I know you love this fruit," Chun Hua said, reaching the fruit to Yu Qiao Bai. As Du YuShi was hesitating for a while, she thought the general didn't get one for the prince.

"I... have an extra," Du YuShi lied and threw the fruit to Yu Qiao Bai under the confused eyes of his soldiers.

Yu Qiao Bai caught the fruit out of reflex, but then he threw the fruit back to the general, "I don't want your 'extra'," he said with a cold tone.

"Suit yourself!" Du YuShi said harshly and sat under a tree with two Arbutus in his hand. He stared at the fruits with flames in his eyes as if it was the fruits' fault that he couldn't give one to Yu Qiao Bai without a problem.

"Oi General, you are dozing off, it was a nice night, I presume?" Reng Jin teased Du YuShi and the others nudged each other, smirking.

"Yeah... it was nice," Du YuShi lied one more time. How could he confess that he didn't like the cheap perfume on her or the heavy make-up she was wearing? How could he say that the only thing he saw was Yu Qiao Bai's face while looking at her?

"Only nice? Not the best?" the soldiers started to laugh except Dong Feng who was looking at Chun Hua apologetically.

Similarly, Du YuShi's eyes were holding Yu Qiao Bai's eyes captive, so he noticed when his eyebrows knitted together before arching.

"We are going," the general said authoritatively as the teasing started to irritate him. He put the two annoying fruits into his sleeve and walked to his horse with rushed steps.

The others followed the general unenthusiastically and the group was on the road again.

Excusing to collect some fruits, Chun Hua and Dong Feng preferred to walk, so Yu Qiao Bai got the rein. As the prince was dangerous for Du YuShi's mental health, he spurred his horse a bit, leaving the carriage behind him.

For a while, the group kept going without an incident, but as usual the trouble had to find them.

While Chun Hua moved around with fruits in her hands and her eyes looking ahead for more fruits, she failed to notice the transparent line and she tripped, activating the trap. In a blink of an eye, several arrows darted out from somewhere inside the forest and as Chun Hua was on the ground, the potential victim was Dong Feng who was only a step behind her.

Normally, Dong Feng could handle the situation perfectly well... if only his focus wasn't solely on Chun Hua who was on the ground. As a result, he didn't notice the arrows. Yu Qiao Bai noticed them just fine but he was too far to save him, so all he could do was to shout out "WATCH OUT!"

Coincidentally, Du YuShi's tactic to avoid seeing Yu Qiao Bai's face proved itself highly efficient as it made him only a few steps away from Dong Feng. The general acted on impulse and rushed forward, handling the arrows on the way. The voice of the metal clashing the wooden arrows filled the air as the arrows fell to the ground.

Although it sounds very fantastic, regarding all that happened in just a few seconds, actually It was not a hard task for the general. The only problem was the second trap which was triggered by a fallen arrow. A single arrow darted towards Dong Feng's back and all Du YuShi could do was to change their positions.

"Arrgghh!" Du YuShi cried out when the arrow pierced through his shoulder. A sharp pain spread through his torso, and everyone rushed to him.

Fu Jian wanted to take out the arrow, but Yu Qiao Bai's cold hand prevented him.

"Leave it to me," the prince said authoritatively and Fu Jian nodded with hesitation.

"It is nothing, but what were those arrows?" Du YuShi said in between his clenched teeth.

Yu Qiao Bai rolled his eyes in the face of the general's unnecessary curiosity, "those for preventing wild animals from coming into the villages," he explained nonetheless and turned his face to Chun Hua, "A'Hua, bring one blue and one yellow bottle."

The crying girl nodded with a sniff and ran to the carriage.

"You all, please check around and destroy the traps if there are more," Yu Qiao Bai said, more like a command rather than a request.

"IN A TIME LIKE THIS YOU WANT US TO CHECK AROUND?!" Hua Suo yelled at Yu Qiao Bai who looked at him with bored eyes.

"Yes, indeed. Isn't it extremely cruel to kill animals like this? I am not even mentioning the innocent passerby like us, so please do what I say and give me some space to help your beloved general."

"I DON'T TRUST YOU! WE-" Hua Suo was snapping at Yu Qiao Bai again, but Du YuShi raised his hand, stopping him.

"Do... what... he... says," he commanded with no little difficulty. Unfortunately, the pain wasn't numbing, on the contrary it was increasing each second.

Reluctantly, the Du soldiers went to check around but not before Dong Feng apologizing to the general three times.

After Chun Hua brought the bottles and was sent away with force by the prince, the duo was alone finally.

"As you must have already noticed, the arrow was poisoned," Yu Qiao Bai announced nonchalantly, towering the injured general.

"And... I thought Yu people were... healers..." Du YuShi couldn't help but mock him. It was hurting his pride more than the wound to sit there, being unable to do anything.

"Nevermind," Yu Qiao Bai just shrugged, "you will die, you know that right?"