An Bing Qing was flustered, the words 'back to your team' meant she will be back to her eldest brother, the same brother which she had lied again. She was empty handed right now and even if she were to bring some token cards in her return, she knew her end won't be much better than if she didn't; her heart wasn't prepared for that yet.
She had prepared some excuses to lessen the nagging she will get but in her stupor, she had forgotten them all; the only thing she was sure about was that if she laid her hands on some token cards her excuses might be more effective.
Without thinking about anything else, she took back her hands from Wang Shu's robes to rub her forehead and got immersed in her thoughts.
Wang Shu who had his eyes fixed on her turned his body around to be in a more comfortable position as he contemplated her exalted reaction.
Minutes passed and he had seen her tilt her head from right to left, nod it and shake it, and also walk a meter in distance from its beginning to its end over and over again.
"She first is all quiet and nervous around me and now she seems to have forgotten my existence..." he thought before realizing, "That's not the problem here".
Therefore, instead of pondering about her actions, he finally asked, "Why can't we?"
Even though An Bing Qing was in her own world at the moment, she heard him; whenever he talked, his words seemed to resound in her ears.
She had almost jumped from the shock when she heard his voice; she was more than awoke now and after having processed his question, she had reluctantly turned her head towards him and stuttered while her eyes looked everything but not him, "Ah... that... It's just..."
"What should I tell him?" she wondered.
"And now, she is conscious of me again", his eyes wavered at his thought but his passive semblance didn't change, "Again, that's not what matters". He stopped thinking and quietly waited for her reply that will likely be a lie as she was taking so long.
"... I can't say that I slipped away from my team and don't want to go back to see my eldest brother's angry face and listen to his scolding so..." she was debating on how to respond when she tilted her head, "Huh! Bing Qing, you already remembered the excuses you had prepared before to tell your eldest brother, hence... It will be alright to go back, but... Will they work?" The word hesitation was written all over her face at that thought.
At long last, she opened her rosy lips to reply but before she could do it, she got dragged yet again to a good few of bamboos growing together.
This time they were standing; there was no room for them to lie down on the grass or to even sit as these bamboos were closer to each other.
Both of them were way closer than the bamboos. Wang Shu's right hand was tightly embracing her tiny waist to the point where no air could pass between them. He wasn't doing it because he wanted; he had to make sure that none of them were to get in contact with the bamboos that surrounded them. Less than a breath ago, an instant before this situation came to be, he had noticed the red-robed people coming their way and they had to hide in a stretch place. Even though he had learnt to form a barrier that made them invisible to the eyes, ears and soul sense, it wasn't intangible; if because of bad luck those people chose to land where they were, they would be discovered and if in that circumstance, they were to move, the air movement would make them spot them because of how close they would be. Therefore, he was given no choice.
Though this had happened before, An Bing Qing still got a bit shaken. Even so, she didn't move as she knew she mustn't. As she was almost glued to his chest, she could hear the steady throbbing of his heart and his calm breathing; they were contrary to her turbulent heart and her hold up breath.
She was starting to relax with the echoing of his heartbeats when she heard a cold and grumpy voice, "Old man, I hope this time is true and not like the one before where we lost time looking in vain".
"Hah, It wasn't that I was wrong but you all were the ones who were slow", a rough and old voice rebuked.
"Huh? The same people as before", she recognized the voices but they contained a highlighted hostile tone within them.