A Phoenix Rising - An Untamed Story (Book 1 In Series)

Chapter 18

The juniors arrived back in Koi Tower dispirited. They had left so eagerly in the morning excited by Wei WuXian's new class and his casual mention to Lan SiZhui at breakfast that he would be picking up 'something special' in LanLing City. Despite his repeated protests that he was not picking up an interesting creature for them to study, the juniors followed him; every single one of them was convinced he was lying to them or trying to entice them. But instead of seeing a ghoul, they saw poverty and received a harsh lesson on the realities of being an orphan. The 'something special' turned out to be a bracelet set.

The only one moderately excited was Ouyang ZiZhen's younger sister, XiaoDan. After hearing about her brother's adventures earlier in the year, she was determined to have her own adventure, too. It was not fair that boys got to have all the fun running around and getting into trouble while the girls were expected to learn how to cook or embroider and only let out for the occasional supervised night-hunt. She knew how to use her sword, and if her upper body strength didn't allow her to withstand full-frontal attacks, her speed allowed her to dodge out of the way and slither on past to attack from the side or behind. And her cultivation ability was just as good as her brother's. So she included herself in the group of juniors tagging along after Senior Wei. Along the way, she had discovered that one of the boys in pale blue was not only good looking and pleasant sounding, but he also appeared to be quite smart, and the other boys, including her brother, seemed to look up to him as a role model: Lan SiZhui, the adopted son of HanGuang-Jun and Senior Wei. She smiled as she walked behind him, admiring the way his forehead ribbon ends flirted with his hair, and the occasional smile she saw when he turned to look at the shorter boy in Jin gold next to him.

Lan SiZhui felt more than slightly uncomfortable eating lunch. ZiZhen's sister was looking at him like he was a piece of ancient pottery on display in a shop and she was appraising him to see if she wanted to buy him. This was the look of a hunter assessing her prey, and he was quite certain that he did not want to know exactly what she was hunting for.... Then things took a turn for the worse.

The long table they sat at held not only their group of juniors. A few of the older boys a few seats away were discussing some of their dates, and whether or not they should think about marrying them. Ouyang XiaoDan leaned her elbows on the table and asked, "Lan SiZhui, what kind of girls do you like?"

And he, panicking, blurted out, "I don't like girls." As everyone at the table started laughing and teasing him, he tried to recover, "I mean, there aren't any girls that I like, yet." That didn't stop the teasing.... Lan SiZhui could feel the blush burning his skin from the top of his head all the way down to his stomach. He hugged his knees to his chest and hid his face in them, utterly humiliated.

He fervently thanked the gods when he received a note asking him to find some clothing for Li MeiLi to wear for the evening's wedding. That was, until he noticed the shadow following him to the Lan women's dorm. Whirling around, he forced his shadow to take a few steps back or she would have bumped into him. "Why are you following me?" he demanded to know.

She pretended to be surprised at the accusation. "Do you mean to tell me that I cannot walk in the same direction as you?"

He stood in silence for a few minutes. "Have you decided to wait in the same place as me, too?"

"Is that also not allowed?" she asked innocently.

"I'm running an errand for ZeWu-Jun. I don't require your assistance."

She smiled. "That's quite all right. I wasn't planning on assisting you."

As he walked towards the women's dorms, he wondered if his Lan upbringing really was the proper one. He was quite sure XianBaba would have taught him that there are some occasions where it is entirely proper to run. He quickened his stride, hoping to leave her behind, but the short legged shadow also increased her pace and kept up with him easily. At the dorm, he passed along Lan XiChen's message and turned to his follower. "Why are you following me?" he asked again.