A Dog Father Cannot Beget a Dragon Son

World 50: Part 3

Fucheng flushes, because he doesn't have a more suitable response. He must have seriously inconvenienced his brother. 

"Don't worry," Yan Jing says, smiling again as if they were sharing a joke. "I still brought you a present." 

This, despite the terrible situation he landed himself in, makes Fucheng feel a little better. Well enough to ask the seconded dreaded question. "Did, uh, did Mumu visit?" 

Yan Jing's lips are still curved up, so it must be Fucheng's imagination that there was a chilly aura lingering in his brother's eyes. "Ah, Miss Mushu? I haven't seen her, I'm afraid." 

That wave of nostalgic anxiety washes over Fucheng again, and he forces himself out of bed to the alarm of his brother. 

Yan Jing tries to get him to lay back down. "Fucheng? Fucheng, where are you going?"

"I need to find Mumu!" Fucheng said urgently, and couldn't shake the feeling that everything counted on these next few moments.

******

Fucheng finds Mumu underneath large tree feeding grapes to He Liufeng. He finds them quickly, as if his feet were wired to lead him there, and it nearly tears his heart out. 

"Mumu..." he says, blankly. "Why?" 

She avoids his eyes, and looks steadfastly down at her lap. He Liufeng quickly surges to her defense. "Miss Mushu can do whatever she wants to do," he scoffs. "What, did you think you owned her?" 

"I wasn't talking to you!" Fucheng snarls. "Stay out of this, street rat!" 

"Don't....don't call Junior Brother He that!" Mumu pipes up, the shrinks back when Fucheng turns his eyes back on her. He doesn't know what's happening, or why she's hiding from him like that. This was a far cry from the Mumu who'd always smile at Fucheng fondly or the Mumu who explored all over the sect with him, and Fucheng doesn't know what happened. 

People are starting to stare, eyeing Fucheng up weirdly as he snaps, "What did you do to her?" at He Liufeng in rage. 

He Liufeng sneers, "What, are you upset that she's no longer following you around like a pet? I didn't do anything! Maybe, this is Miss Mushu's true personality when you're not around pressuring her into being with you!" 

Fucheng is taken aback at this accusation, which was not at all what he meant. What he wanted to know was why Mumu's personality suddenly had all the inner strength of a wet tissue. Unless...."So you're the one who did this!" Fucheng had never been so angry before, and yet the rage was familiar. "He Liufeng, you fucking bastard, I won't let you off! From now on, I'll make your life a living hell!"

Murmurs are starting to arise around them, but Fucheng couldn't care less about their misunderstandings. At the end of his vow, Fucheng sees Mumu stand up and feels a little bit of hope start in his heart. When Mumu looks at him though, there are tears in her eyes, and her hand is raised, and maybe it speaks to how much he had trusted Mumu that he wasn't able to react when the open palm comes flying towards his face---

 ---a hand catches it, intercepting Mumu's slap, and Yan Jing smoothly pushes his way between the two parties, half a step before Fucheng. 

His face is filled with disapproval. "Would someone like to tell me what's going on here?" 

"It's Senior Brother Yan!" 

"Wow, it really is!" 

"I didn't know he was still here!" 

Fucheng has been left reeling and He Liufeng is staring with something like shock. It slowly morphs into defiance, though, and before He Liufeng could open his mouth, Mushu starts, quietly, "Senior Brother Yan..." 

"Miss Fong," says Yan Jing cordially. "Could you please tell me why you are trying to hit my brother?"Mushu, under the Yan Jing's watchful eye, blushed and fidgeted, "That is, Junior Brother Yan lost to Junior Brother He in a fight a week ago, and today Junior Brother Yan came..." She didn't say much more, only blushed deeper. 

Fei Chuan felt a little amused at the way she worded things. How should that sentence have ended? Junior Brother Yan came to pick a fight? Junior Brother Yan came to harass me? What other sort of interpretation could be gleaned from her flushed cheeks and charming wet eyes? Well, there were reasons Fei Chuan never liked Fong Mushu much, and her status [Female Protagonist] was only one of them. 

Her [Male Protagonist] suddenly joined the conversation. "Your brother is throwing a tantrum because Miss Mushu doesn't want to marry him!" He Liufeng says suddenly, and with no small amount of impertinence.

"That's not true!" snarls baby little Fucheng. "You did something to her!" 

At the same time, Fei Chuan turns to Fong Mushu and asks, mildly, "You no longer wish to marry my brother?" The gathering crowd breaks off into whispers again. Fong Mushu and Yan Fucheng's engagement had been all but set, and was hardly a secret to anyway. Gloating and pitying eyes landed on Fucheng, and Fei Chuan can't help but tug his little brother closer and look about in warning. Obediently the unwelcome audience retracted their gazes. 

Fong Mushu's eyes redden, and she looks away pitiably. "I'm sorry, Senior Brother Yan. I'm in love with someone else." At this, she glances at the junior brother by her side and He Liufeng puffs up protectively and glares at Fucheng. 

Fei Chuan placed a calming hand on his younger brother's shoulder, and instead nods calmly. "Very well then. Will you be returning my brother's trinkets?"

At this, Fong Mushu instinctively reached down to fiddle with her charm bracelet, the one that Fei Chuan enchanted to be ...well, enchanting, particularly when it comes to the female sex. She looks so torn that Fei Chuan has to ruthlessly stamp down on his amusement. 

Right before the crowd's eyes could start cutting into his girlfriend, He Liufeng speaks up again. "Way to act like you're buying her. Is your Yan family so arrogant that anyway who doesn't act the way you want them to has to give up everything as a consequence? Were those gifts only given if Mushu loved him?" 

"No," says Fucheng, who finally resolved his inner struggle. Fei Chuan feels pride bubble up in his stomach. "No, Fong Mushu can keep everything I've ever gifted her. But she has to return the things I lent her." He turns to look her in the eye. "Fong Mushu, where's my Lightning Orb?" 

There was a collective gasp at that. Everyone knew that Yan Jing doted on his younger brother like crazy, even bringing home a high grade Lightning Orb for him. And Yan Fucheng had just lent this to Fong Mushu? 

"That's....I'll return it to you immediately," says Fong Mushu. She hesitates. "Please wait for me to go get it. I'll be right back, Junior Brother Yan." 

Gotcha, thinks Fei Chuan, who speaks up before Fong Mushu and He Liufeng could "go back" and get the Lightning Orb. "There's no need." He turns to He Liufeng specifically, who tries not to pale under his eyes. "I ask that you please return my brother's Lightning Orb. I can feel it on your body." 

The crowd gasps in outrage. The Lightning Orb was a treasure of great Yang energy, and greatly boosted one's Yang reserves. To think that Fong Mushu had taken Yan Fucheng's Orb, only to pass it to He Liufeng. Come to think of it, didn't He Liufeng reveal himself to also have a potential Pure Yang body? 

It's such a wonderful feeling, Fei Chuan thinks, watching He Liufeng return the Lightning Orb with a burning face.