"Who are you and what're you doing at the Lao's mansion?" Ling Ling asked again, this would be the third time she asked for his name if she recalled it right.
The man's lips thinned. "Do you not remember who I am?"
"No, I don't know who you are and if I knew, I wouldn't be asking. Now, tell me what're you doing at the Lao's mansion?" She pried some more.
The man's lips twisted with disbelief, not only he saved her life as he whisked her away from the streets, he also fed her. He leaned closer crowding Ling Ling with his usual familiarly.
Ling Ling stepped back to claim her personal space. She thought, perhaps, the man doesn't know how personal space works.
"I know you could be demanding and clingy, but this is just another level of rottenness."
"Excuse me?" Ling Ling returned appalled, the man has some nerves talking to her as though she's his lover or something. A grimace found Ling Ling again, if she was to grimace at him anymore, her frown would wind up stuck on her face. "You must have mistaken me for someone else. I've never seen you before until the Lao's mansion." She blew her breath as she turned a deep shade of scarlet rising in fume.
The angrier she got, the wider his smile showed. "You're terribly cute when you're angry." He murmured teasingly not at all affected by her fury.
"Ahh, that's it!" Ling Ling threw her arms up, she stomped heavy step toward the man as she glared at him. "Who are you? You better tell me who you are because this is the fifth time I asked, and I bet you're the reason I'm stuck in this world. What did you do to me?" Her voice rose higher and higher as she continued to speak. "You need to bring me back to the human world before my body perish!"
Ling Ling panted for her breath as soon as she got done talking.
The nameless man stood calmly in front of her as he let her catch her breath. He spoke only once she had calmed down and once the redness on her cheeks faded. "I'm known by many names, but I go by Junjie these days."
"No, I want your real name!"
"I have secrets I must protect and my name is one of them." Murmured Junjie.
"Well, Junjie." Ling Ling muttered. "Did you do this to me?"
Junjie shook his head softly. "No, I would never do anything to harm you Ling Ling. I didn't do it."
"What're you doing at the Lao's mansion then?"
Junjie shifted uncomfortably and pulled his wide straw hat further down to his face. "Look, I must go. I will come back for you, but you need to stay away from trouble, stay away from the place where you came from." He reached out to grab her wrist again and slid a bracelet made of beads.
"This bracelet should hide your smell for now." He breathed. "Look, you need to trust me. I'm the only one trying to help you right now."
Ling Ling grunted. "That's because you expect a payment. I'm telling you right now, I won't taste good to eat. I'm skin and bones and I hardly get proper nutrition as it is."
Junjie laughed softly. "The last thing I want to do is eat you, I might be a monster but I'm not that kind of monster." He flicked his finger on his hat and flashed his eyes on her suddenly, it was for a split second, a tease, but Ling Ling gasped for her breath at his electric blue eyes, bluer than the summer sky and the clearest ocean. "Besides, I already knew how you taste."
His laughter echoed in the open field before he disappeared like blur.
Ling Ling snorted, she would've chased after him and taught him manners on how to speak to a woman but he was too quick on his feet. "What the hell are you?"