Isn't it Too Hot in the Morning at Sea?

It was dark all over until dots of bright red seeped into the center. The smell of smoke threaded to the nose, which made it hard for her to breathe.

Sun Yin felt hot... like she was burning. Among everything she felt, she had never tasted the kiss of fire. Yet, she was burning. The red dots were cinders turning the wood into ash. She was being burned alive?

She wanted to move, and yet her arms felt so restricted. Her fingers twitched in pain even though each was stuck in a constant battle with numbness. Soon, an arm emerged from beneath and pushed the weakened wood off of her.

It was strange: the hand was not hers. It was the arm of a small child. There were burns and bruises in his arms, and there were missing fingers. The wounds were cauterized by the fire, and so it did not bleed. However, he blackened. A child with fire-burnt skin was escaping his fate.

The child was able to move, but he was stuck under a pile of burning wood. The flames had eaten most of what was around him, but it still gave the child a window to the outside world. What was before him was a burning city, but there were no more screams. It was almost dying.

Soon, a strong gust of wind scoured the streets as if looking for life. The child's eyes closed in response, feeling the gust on his face. Before he knew it, the flames were put out by the wind. However, it was only his pyre that was cleared.

Ominous feeling conquered the chills of the night. It was as if it cried for the child. Something worse than the flames was coming to take care of him. However, the child made no sounds. At such a young age, he was ready to accept his grim fate.

The chills were right, for she had come. Dressed in her blood red hanfu, the Bride of Corpses walked the burning street. The flames that dared devour her were slapped to nothingness by a wind that followed her. Under her bird mask, her cat eyes looked around, looking for the life that the wind had told her.

It did not take long as the Bride spotted the child charred by the flames. Perhaps he looked like a small demon to her with the state of his skin. The Bride walked towards the child and bent down to see if he was respondent. She waved her hand before the child's face.

"Help me..." a small voice came from the child. "I'm stuck."

The Bride seemed to freeze before she reached out to grab the child's neck. He had neither arms to offer nor feet to be dragged by the maiden. She pulled out the child before completely leaving him to die in the empty street. After rescuing the child from the pile of wood, she left.

There was nothing to be done to him. He was too small to be killed and brought back as a fierce corpse. His lower limbs were torn from his body as they were incinerated by the fire. His arms were broken and weak. Half of his torso had given up to the fire, appearing like meat left too close to the fire at a roasting pit.

What she did not know was that an injured woman was following her. The woman staggered towards the child and opened her mouth as if whispering his name. She shook his body as if not giving up on him. However, his vision had already blurred from the moment he was taken out of the pyre. He failed to recognize the second woman until his vision had turned completely dark.

Sun Yin woke up as if someone snapped next to her ear. She scrunched her eyes before opening them that morning. To her surprise, it was not the sun that she saw first; neither was it the sea that she first smelled. Of course, it was Lu Bang.

His embrace was too warm, not to mention that his body seemed to be packed with heat. The sea breeze seeped into the room, making it rather cold. She felt like she would be sweating just from feeling what was in front of her.

Her face grew warm as she realized that Lu Bang had moved to cuddle her that night. He even had his arm around her while he slept quite deeply. Her surprise changed into mischief as she noticed that the lapels of his inner robe dropped to the side, showing her a considerate portion of his chest. As if a curious dog, she just had to lick it.

His arm fell on her head, his elbow squishing her cheek. She started to struggle, knowing that Lu Bang was already awake by then.

"What am I going to do to you?" He lifted his arm and rolled to his back. He made a big yawn and tried to stretch even though Sun Yin was still so close to him. It made the uncovered area of his lapel bigger. He was about to fix his clothes when the maiden shot up and slid her torso to cover the place. He glared at her. "It's too early to be dealing with you."

"Let me enjoy this even just once!" She whined, trying to preserve the moment. She then leaned her arms on his firm body. "Looks like you're really into training a lot."

"Leave it be. It's not even that good anymore."

"You were more sculpted than this before?"

Lu Bang just had to blush before flicking the girl's forehead. "Get off. You had ten husbands; don't act like you haven't seen a man's body before." He tried to get up, making Sun Yin fall to his legs instead.

Sun Yin rolled down as he sat up, enjoying each second for some reasons. She ended up lying on her back with her head on his legs. She then waved her limbs as if making bed sheet angels; not that her arms were actually casting a shape anywhere. "But I never slept with any of them before!"

His eyebrow rose as he decided to doubt her. "With all those talk about seduction and passion, you haven't slept with anyone before? Who are you trying to trick?"

"I swear I'm as pure as..." her words trailed. Pure? How dare she describe herself pure? She might be a virgin, but she was never pure. Her arms then rested on her chest as she stared at the ceiling.

"Your head is heavy." Lu Bang pulled on his lapel and adjusted his robe. He used to not care, but now that he was traveling outside the temple, the least he could for the sect was to look decent. He was indeed dragging Sun Yin with that ideal. "Hey, put some more clothes on. Let's get some breakfast. I'm starving."

"Lu Bang, don't you want to sleep longer?" Sun Yin asked as she sat up. With her back at him, she raised her arms and stretched as much as she could.

"I just had a nightmare. I don't want to see it again." Lu Bang sighed as he crossed his legs. Even though he was the one who wanted to eat, he did not move out of the bed fast. He only stared at her.

"May I ask what kind of nightmare it was?" Sun Yin gathered her hair from behind her. She twirled the strands by her shoulder, hoping to find her tie before leaving the bed.

"...Just a nightmare. No need to check up on it."

The maiden hummed. "You know, I just saw something earlier. You don't happen to be... well, almost dead before, right? You're one of the best so you must be pretty strong even as a child." She continued to speak, staring at the paper screen obscuring her view of the door. She ran her mouth at a soft volume as if talking about what to eat, remembering that she would see those people again.

What would she do if she saw the actress that played Wu Ming? Will she praise her acting? Will she tell her that the amount of pain she channeled through the audience was not enough?

Lu Bang, however, was not listening to her. He was just staring at her. Her bare back was too smooth for someone who had lived such a very harsh life. He imagined how many times she called for Yuanyan to fix her body for her. The play did not introduce Yuanyan at all; perhaps she was not needed in the story.

Thinking about that, he wondered how many were taken out of it.

While his mind was busy, it seemed that he was unconsciously doing something. As he thought about what was hidden from him—someone who was not there when the tale happened, he reached out to touch a delicate string on her back. The loop was unusually crooked as if she had a hard time tying it herself.

Right. He thought of fixing it for her. He pulled on the string. Then, it hit him.

Both of them froze as Sun Yin felt her dudou loosen before her. The strings dangled at the sides of the material. In a quick action, Lu Bang grabbed both ends and tied it properly behind her. She needed not to see his face as she laughed at the surprise.

"Oh, my, Bangbang!"

"No."