"Shirong, try this," Lian Ru Yue held up a stick with six red glazed round balls in it. Obediently, he dropped his head to her height and ate the red ball from the stick she was holding. This was a traditional candy that even Lian Ru Yue was familiar with and loved. It was called Tanghulu.
"It's good," he replied and stared at her affectionately while she was obliviously looking at more candy in the stand.
"That's good. Ugh, I don't know which one I should get... Shirong, should I get the yellow one or the orange one?" Lian Ru Yue asked and pointed to the sweets. Chao Shirong chuckled, not expecting her to have a sweet tooth.
"Yue'er, you can get both of them. Shopkeeper, I will get these two for the lady here, he spoke and paid the shopkeeper while laughing quietly at her cute expression.
"Ah! Thank you, Shirong!" Lian Ru Yue beamed and took the sweets from the shopkeeper.
"No problem..." Chao Shirong blushed deeply and stared at her with infatuation. He swore that he would get stronger and powerful so he could meet her again and see her sweet smile.
"Shirong, let's go to the medicinal shop," She said while munching on her sweets. Crumbles adorned around her small mouth making Chao Shirong reach forward and wipe it with his thumb. Lian Ru Yue blushed lightly and thanked him.
~
"Miss, may I know what you're looking for?" A man dressed in brown asked Lian Ru Yue who was looking around the shop.
"I'm looking for Jade Flower," she answered.
"Ah, we have it. Actually, we just got it last night," he said with a pleasant smile.
"Please wait here. I will get it right away," he continued on and she nodded patiently. In less than three minutes, the worker came back holding a container in hand.
"Here it is," he offered it to Lian Ru Yue and she gently took it. Opening it, revealed a flower with five petals made of pure jade. It looked fragile and delicate.
"How much is it?"
"65000 spiritual stones," he replied with the same smile, Lian Ru Yue's eyes widened and coughed.
"Shopkeeper, is that really the only price you can give me?" She smiled playfully, making anyone's heart flutter but the shopkeeper smiled the same smile and stood like a stone.
"I'm sorry, Miss but this is the only price I can offer," he said. She frowned slightly and reached her pouch.
"Yue'er, let me pay," Chao Shirong hurriedly stopped her wrist.
"If you want to," she shrugged nonchalantly and he smiled brightly, almost blinding her and the shopkeeper.
"Wait!" A lovely voice called out when he was about to hand over the banknote. The three turned to see a pretty girl in a light blue dress with a white ribbon tied around her thin waist. Her long hair was up in a loose bun with an ornamented delicate blue butterfly hairpin stuck in the bun. She had a clean white face and soft delicate skin.
Her eyebrows were thin and shapely and eyes that resembled felines'. Small and red lips were under a thin and slender nose. Her exquisite lips were curved up in a small smile. Her face was beautiful and lovely. She was a beauty!
"I want to buy the Jade Flower too," she said with an elegant smile and walked to the baffled three. Lian Ru Yue's lips curved up into a breathtaking cold smile.
"Ah is that so?" She asked, smiling and looked at her with a glint of craftiness.
"Yes so if..." The pretty girl in blue smiled brightly and quite arrogantly when she replied and was about to tell Lian Ru Yue to give the flower to her but then Lian Ru Yue did something that baffled her.
Lian Ru Yue grabbed the banknote out of Chao Shirong's hand and thrust it into the shopkeeper's hands. While the shopkeeper was in a state of shock like the others, she grabbed the container containing the herb from his hand.
"I'm afraid you can't since I've already bought it," Lian Ru Yue said with a light laugh. The girl in blue turned from anger but calmed herself as she didn't want to lose her elegant image.
"I-I see but you shouldn't have grabbed the herb from Shopkeeper Ji. That's not respectful," she reprimanded with a kind expression making the crowd who came to see what was going on to praise her.
"As expected, Miss Nan Su is so kind!" A random person complimented making the girl in blue smile wider.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't know I was rough" She said to the shopkeeper with an embarrassed smile and everyone else felt like coughing blood from her comment. She was so shameless!
"It's alright. Um, I have other duties to attend to so thank you for coming to the store," Shopkeeper Wu bowed quickly and zoomed off from them. As Lian Ru Yue and Chao Shirong were about to leave, Nan Su stopped them.
"Please wait, Miss," she said and inside Lian Ru Yue rolled her eyes. She just wanted to get away from this fake ass bitch.
"I will pay double for the Jade Flower so could you sell it to me?" She asked with a sweet smile and looked at Lian Ru Yue with eyes that had stars in them.
"I'm afraid not. My patient needs this herb for their illness," she lied. Actually, the Jade Flower was one of the ingredients for a Grade 4 pill, Truth Pill. Truth Pill was a pill that made you tell the truth for 30 minutes. The rare ingredients for Grade 5 Pill for Wu Tao Yi, she had already sent a message to him of the ingredients she needed for the pill. He replied back that he would immediately send back the ingredients by next month.
"That's honorable of you, Miss but I need the herb for the pill I as will be of gifting it to the Emperor for his birthday on his banquet," Nan Su said, not putting Lian Ru Yue in her eyes and assumed that she was a mere doctor, not an alchemist like her.
"Are you saying that a citizen's life has less worth than an Emperor's happiness that will only last less than a mere day?" Lian Ru Yue asked loudly in a righteous tone. The crowd started to murmur and glare at Nan Su after they heard what she said. The Emperor wasn't popular and liked by the commoners because of he was known to be timid and weak than other emperors of other countries and that resulted in their country losing wars or bits of land. The Lotus Palace came their side and began backing them up only recently when they found out that Yanzhi had more spiritual energy than Linkai, the previous country they supported. Only when the Lotus Palace began helping the Yanzhi, the country prospered. So of course, the commoners held no place for the Emperor in their hearts and preferred the life of an another citizen.
"I-I..." Nan Su paled and looked around at the crowd with regret. Lian Ru Yue left, leaving Nan Su glaring daggers at her back. Lian Ru Yue shuddered at Nan Sus malicious glares. Noticing that she was troubled, Chao Shirong patted her head.
"Don't worry about her, Yue'er," he said tenderly and Lian Ru Yue nodded.
"Shirong, let us go back. There's something I need to do," she smiled sweetly and he nodded with a doting smile. Lian Ru Yue smiled beautifully, making the people around her feel like it was a warm day in spring. She continued to walk not minding the people staring at her with Chao Shirong sticking close to her side until she felt something underneath her foot. Startled, Lian Ru Yue quickly removes her foot and looked at the ground. A long silver bug was laying flattened on the ground. Lian Ru Yue bent down and picked it up with her hand.
"Yue'er, what is this?" Chao Shirong asked and looked closely at the bug like Lian Ru Yue.
"It's a bug," she replied and suddenly the bugs head shot up and yelled at her to their surprise.
"I'm not a bug! I'm a dragon!" It exclaimed angrily and puffed a tiny smoke, trying to prove its point.
"Then why are you so small?" She asked with a mockingly smile.
"Something went wrong when I teleported down here from where I can from," the tiny dragon gritted out. This little dragon was actually Tian Qinglai. Tian Qinglai had transformed himself into a tiny dragon so he could be picked up by Lian Ru Yue and then protect her discreetly. Lian Ru Yue hummed and tapped her chin with her finger thoughtfully.
"Well you can stay with me until you are able to turn back into your original form if that's even true," she sniggered at the end making the little dragon fume in anger. Chao Shirong chuckled too. The only reason why Lian Ru Yue wanted to help the little dragon was because in one of the novels she was familiar with, the FL had a weak-looking pet or something like that and it turned out the pet was actually valuable and powerful.
"Hmph! Who wants your help?!" He harrumphed coldly and turned his head to the side, he needed to find Lian Ru Yue as soon as he could and didn't have time to play around with this woman. Lian Ru Yue furrowed her brows.
"Fine, you can stay in the cold streets all by yourself if that's what you wish!" She snorted and dropped the tiny dragon onto the ground and began walking away. Immediately, Tian Qinglai regretted it. He didn't know why but a strange coldness spread through him when her warm hand left him.
"Wait!" It cried out, very awkwardly. Lian Ru Yue stopped with a smile and turned around.
"What."
"I-I accept your help," the little dragon said with its teeth clenched. Whatever he could ask this woman to help him find Lian Ru Yue. Lian Ru Yue raised her head arrogantly like a peacock.
"Come here," she motioned and the tiny dragon scrambled into her slender hand. It coiled it's body and fitted perfectly in her hand.
"I'm Lian Ru Yue and that's Chao Shirong. What's your name?" She asked with a smile that blinded the little dragon. The little dragon stiffened when he heard her name and looked closely at her face. Back when his father had shown the silver mirror to everyone, he was at the back of the hall so he wasn't able to see her face and only knew she was a beauty.
She's Lian Ru Yue? The one I have to protect and Jin Zihao had fallen in love with?!
Lian Ru Yue frowned when she saw that the little dragon looked at her weirdly.
"What's wrong? You don't have a name? Then don't worry, I will give you a name. Xiao Xiao, it is!" She said with a pretty grin and Chao Shirong chuckled beside her.
"What! I have a real name! It is Qinglai!" He said angrily, not seeing anything Jin Zihao like about her.
"Too late. From now on you're Xiao Xiao," she snickered and "Xiao Xiao" regretted agreeing to protect her.
Authors Note- Ughh... There are so many love interests! (ノ_＜) I'm so jealous of Lian Ru Yue even thought I'm the author... ('°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥ω°̥̥̥̥̥̥̥̥｀)
Lian Ru Yue: It's not my fault that I'm so beautiful and charming. You made me like this, Author... -_-
Author: Hmph! Then I'm going to make you ugly as fuck in the next chapter! ٩(๑'^'๑)۶
Lian Ru Yue: What!? Nuuuu! I like my face! You can't take it away from me! How else will I be able to eat handsome men?！∑(ﾟДﾟ)
Author: Ugh! I hate youuuu!.°(ಗдಗ。)°.
Lian Ru Yue: Hohoho(((o(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)o)))
Author: I will just write myself in the story and make myself more beautiful than you and then steal all the men from you! ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
Lian Ru Yue: What no! If you do that, you will ruin the plot!( ﾟдﾟ)
Author: oh right..(/ _ ; ) I will just stay ugly my whole life then... T^T