Empyrean Rebirth |Jing Yuan & Dan Heng|

☾-Five Impossible Requests-☽

"Um..." (Y/n) stared at the dozing general, torn between the decision of waking him up or leaving him be. After accepting his offer of staying at the Luofu, making it her new home, three days had passed since her arrival. And still she was not accustomed to the general's ways of "working." She let out a sigh and gently set down the pile of papers she'd been carrying onto his messy desk. His soft snores made her chuckle as she then went to his side and shook his shoulder.

Jing Yuan's eyes slowly fluttered open. His pretty lashes hid his alluring golden eyes from sight as he let out a yawn and stretched his arms. Upon setting his gaze upon (Y/n), he smiled and greeted her with a deep and groggy 'good morning.'

Furrowing her brows, she said, "It's one in the afternoon, General Jing Yuan."

"Ah, my mistake..."

"Right... you've dozed off more times than I can count and I've only been your new personal assistant for three days! Honestly, I can't keep acting like a personal babysitter. It makes me feel like some housewife..." she shivered at the thought of being married and shook that disturbing thought off to the side. "Ignore what I said. Anyway, don't you have a bunch of work you need to get done, general?" (Y/n) eyed the piles upon piles of paperwork Jing Yuan had yet to complete. The man simply shrugged and leaned back in his seat nonchalantly, completely ignoring the mention of work he had to do.

"I can never seem to rid myself of the papers on my desk, can I?" He chuckled and looked at the lady standing in front of him. "Instead of doing paperwork, how about we talk more about you? I'm curious to hear about those five impossible tasks you gave to your suitors back at home."

"General..." she sighed and shook her head. "If it'll get you to actually attend to your duties then fine, I'll indulge you in some storytelling." As (Y/n) was about to begin, Jing Yuan suddenly slid over to make room on his seat and he gestured to the now empty spot for her. At first she looked cluelessly between him and the empty spot before realising what he was saying. Such a gesture like this would earn her an earful from her father! But she wasn't at home right now, so she took in a deep breath and awkwardly took a seat next to the white haired general.

"I wouldn't want you to tire yourself out while telling a story," Jing Yuan grinned. She narrowed her eyes at him.

"I get tired from having to watch after you all day long. Ahem... anyways the five impossible tasks right? It's quite a short tale, nothing special to it. I simply asked my suitors to find me five things: the stone begging bowl of Buddha, a jeweled branch from the island of Horai, a robe of fire rat skin, a colored jewel from a dragon's neck, and a cowry shell from a swallow. Those idiots really thought they could fool me with fakes! Of course they couldn't trick me because I know that it would be impossible to get these items from the Xianzhou Alliance alone." Proud of her intelligence, (Y/n) held her head up high whilst smiling widely. "The galaxy is vast and filled with so many worlds that it wouldn't be possible to find everything within this world. I'm quite a genius aren't I?"

Chuckling, Jing Yuan posed a simple question. "You are (L/n) (Y/n) then, right? The famed 'princess' who refuses to marry any man in the Yaoqing?"

"H-how—?"

"News of your... rather ridiculous requests haven't quite made it to the rest of the Xianzhou Alliance outside of the Yaoqing, but I've been doing my research. I've just been so curious about you that I had to."

"That makes you sound like some sort of creep, General Jing Yuan," (Y/n) glared at him.

"Forgive me; I didn't mean it like that," he paused before chuckling. "And haven't I made it clear that there's no need for formality? You can simply call me 'Jing Yuan.'" Brushing him off on his comment about formalities, (Y/n) found the papers on his desk to be the most interesting thing to fixate her gaze on and she once again asked him the same question as she had the night they met.