The Phantom Princess

The door closed behind him, and Xu Rouguang wore a rather dejected look. He didn't know why he felt like this, but perhaps it was because of how contented Lai Mingjie when he fell asleep. The demon king didn't even take the time to get upset at him. For some reason, Xu Rouguang's heart was swelling in jealousy. Did that demon empress come earlier?

"Rouguang," Liu Qiu called out as she waved a hand before his face, "hello?"

His cold eyes cast on Liu Qiu's face, which caused her to freeze for a second. What happened here? Why was Xu Rouguang acting like an angry wife? The secretary held her tongue and turned to the old director who came with them. Even Director Cheng was getting cold sweat from the freezing gaze of the general.

Xu Rouguang took a deep breath and tried to work on his mood. A feigned smile curled his lips as he tried to coax Liu Qiu into talking to him again. "I'm sorry, what is it?"

"Ah, is he awake? I was here earlier, but he didn't even budge." Liu Qiu hummed as she patted her chest. She was too scared to think that someone was getting in their way to happiness.

"...He's not." Xu Rouguang lied and shook his head. His eyes then narrowed and sharpened. "Auntie Qiu, you're watching him the longest, right? Did you notice anyone visiting him? Like a venomous-looking woman with very long hair and walks around with four bodyguards?"

"Huh? Uhm, no, no woman." Liu Qiu was shocked upon hearing such a vile description. He didn't call the woman pretty or slim like how people would describe others. Venomous? Why would he call her like that? Did she do something awful to Lai Mingjie? Much worse, was she seducing their boss?

Confusion and shock were written in Liu Qiu's face, but Director Cheng could only sigh. Of course, he knew who this venomous woman was.

"The venomous woman hasn't arrived until now, though." A voice echoed in the hallway of the hospital along with the loud clicking of her heels against the tiles of the floor.

"Oh, my God..." Liu Qiu could only cover her mouth with her fingers. Indeed, she was a venomous woman. With a beauty to make cities fall and those eyes that suggested her cunning nature, this woman waltzing towards them was what exactly Xu Rouguang was describing. Four bodyguards walked around her, and they were all equally dashing. However, they looked so inferior towards Xu Rouguang... as Liu Qiu said in her head.

"Miss Bo..." Director Cheng chuckled as he greeted her. He then turned to Liu Qiu, "Secretary Liu, this is Miss Bo from the Bloodvein Café. Jie had been a regular for years, and he invested so much in her business." Then came the introduction for the secretary. "Miss Bo, this is Jie's first secretary, Liu Qiu."

"It's nice to meet you. Jie mentioned a lot about you. Thanks for taking care of such a sickly man. He's too reckless for his own good most of the time as well." Botangca smiled at the old lady, gauging her impression on her. She then turned to Xu Rouguang who was visibly upset that she was present. "Don't be like that, Little Xu. You know that Jie and I are only business partners, nothing more.

"But it's alarming..." She left them all of a sudden before taking a peek through the small glass on the door. She could barely see the bed from there. "Who would have done this to Jie?"

"Miss Qiu, could you get us something to drink? I'm pretty sure Rouguang needed something to cool his head." Director Cheng asked Liu Qiu to fetch them drinks, which she readily agreed to. Even if she didn't like this Miss Bo, she believed Director Cheng would be able to mediate between them properly.

After Liu Qiu left, Botangca faced the two males. "There were too many immortals in the scene. Even if I wanted to see what was happening, I had to prioritize Emodao. Can someone help me understand what happened there?" Her sharp eyes landed on Xu Rouguang who was looking at the floor so he wouldn't kill Botangca with his eyes. "Xu Rouguang, you fought with Dunzhao?"

He glanced at the woman once before looking down again. "I don't know who that guy is, but he knew Emodao... and me. He's a lot stronger than you... and there's something wrong with his body. It's not made of... what demons are made of."

Botangca bit her red lip. She then crossed her arms on her chest. "We can't leave Emodao to be on his own. If it really was Dunzhao, then more of them might appear looking for him." She shook her head. "Those sentinels of Emodao's army didn't know he turned into a human. Now that they do, they might try to kill him instead. He knew so much about them and their weaknesses."

"No one can do this to him again." Xu Rouguang balled his fist enough to make his palm bleed. Thinking about his weird reaction was painful already; throwing Dunzhao into the mix was like asking Xu Rouguang to wreck an entire city in anger. He then glared at the woman before them. "You sure you haven't gone here yet?"

"Little boy, you're such a grown man on the battlefield, but you're quite a baby in other things." Botangca sighed. "You think I'm that close to Emodao? You think Emodao had feelings?" She shook her head. "What we do are only out of necessity. I need his money to run my restaurant; he needs my home-baked cake. If you're getting upset about our closeness, you might want to turn your eyes on your own goddess."

"Goddess Nuwa?" Director Cheng frowned in his stead. He heard Emodao cursing Nuwa most of the time, and even back in his first life as Emodao. This was the first time he heard that they were close. Even Xu Rouguang doubted her words.

"Hmm, of course, you wouldn't know. Nuwa's eyes were always on Emodao ever since she first made contact with the demon king Emodao." Botangca waved her hand like she was debunking a gossip. "It was as if she found her favorite toy and had been playing with him since then. Why else would she send him to the mortal realm instead of the Abyss? She grew bored without Emodao so she kept on designing life after life for him. I wouldn't doubt it if she threw General Xu into the Abyss for fun of seeing Emodao deal with him.

"Moreover, out of all the demons, only Emodao knew Nuwa personally. None of us ever had the chance to see her in the flesh." She shook her head. "If you think that someone visited him earlier, it must probably be Nuwa."

It was Xu Rouguang's turn to sigh. "I doubt she could incite such a reaction from him. It must be someone else." His cold gaze mellowed into dejection. For someone else to make Lai Mingjie react like that.

"...Oh, wait, it must be that phantom princess." Botangca hummed as she placed a hand on her chin. "She's nothing but a memory Emodao couldn't recall where he had. Might as well be a spell or a buried feeling. Immortal princesses could easily wreck any male's heart open anyway."

"Phantom princess?"

"Ah, yeah. Ask him about her sometimes." Botangca sighed before massaging her forehead. "No, no, you have to explain what happened to him first. Let's chatter later." Her eyes retained its sharpness, but she was a little curious at the shift of Xu Rouguang's expression. He still looked like an angry wife, but at least he wasn't glaring at her anymore.