~~~四~~~

~~~超过一个~~~

The tension between everyone was so thick that you could cut it with a knife and just as his wife was about to lash out at the younger female, Pàn Wangzhou grabbed her wrist.

"I apologize if I seemed disrespectful, I didn't mean to come off that way," he chuckled, bowing to the female properly only for her glare to intensify as the fox by her ankles fluffed up.

"Just so you know, I despise when people try to trick me by hiding their true personalities," Mei Lián stated with a frown, "I've met enough people who will try to take advantage of me on the road to know what that looks like."

While the older male was left confused and his wife enraged, the young princess turned her back to them and started walking away with the others slowly following behind.

"Jiějiě, are you sure you should have said all that?" Fei Ming questioned once they had turned to look at stalls in another street.

"I have to admit, Mei Lián, I'm not sure that was a good idea," Zhang said as he flicked his eyes back down the way they came from, "my brother is not one to just take that kind of thing lying down."

"If the fool decides to come after me, then so be it," the ravenette hissed as she picked up a hair stick from one of the stands, "After witnessing the aftermath of his actions, I would love to give him a beat down."

"What do you mean the aftermath of his actions?" the youngest member of the group asked as she turned the accessory over in her hands.

"Two months ago, Junmeng was completely burned to the ground," the princess started before looking down to the fox who sat by her feet, "Do you know by what kind of fire?"

"Pàn Clan Everblaze," Yuan answered bluntly earning a nod from the female as the male in red looked to the ground in shame.

"A-Sé and I had just arrived to the town one morning after traveling for three days only to see everything had been turned to ash," she explained, "There were no survivors, no bodies to bury, only the charred bones of men, women, and children."

"That's so brutal, no one in Junmeng cultivates either," Ming gasped with a frown, "They didn't even have a chance to defend themselves."

"Yes, and who dare stand up to the Pàn Clan controlling that territory lest they suffer the same fate?" the ravenette sighed as she set the hair stick back down on the vendor's table.

"At least one of the Pàn Clan children isn't a completely unbearable," she chuckled, latching onto Zhang's left arm, successfully pulling him put of his thoughts.

"What do you mean by 'completely'?" the male questioned with a chuckle as the female leaned more of her weight on him, "Are you calling me unbearable?"

"I mean, compared to my adorable Xiǎo Lǎoshǔ and the well behaved Second Master Kang, you would be," she mused with a small smile as she let go only to leap back as the male reached for her sleeve.

"Mei Lián, take that back!" the male whined, earning a giggle from the princess as she bounced on the balls of her feet.

"If you want me to take it back, then you're going to have to catch me first," the female mused with large smile on her face, doing a spin to her right to avoid the male once more.

"A-Sé, let's go!" she called before easily weaving through the large crowd with her fox, compared to the male in red who immediately ran off to follow her.

"Ah! Jiějiě!" Fei Ming called as he watched the female get farther and farther away before attempting to follow as well, leaving the Kang Clan member to stand by himself next to the accessory vendor.

The next six days of the Millennium Festival passed with the four children of separate clans spending more and more time with each other.

Whether they were participating in events related to the festival, walking around the markets, or just relaxing in Wǔyè Palace the four were almost always seen together.

The clan leaders were quite happy with this development as it not only meant a stronger alliance im the future, but with the youngest princess of the Long Clan being unmarried, it gave each of their sons a better chance to catch her eye.

"Those old men are disgusting, aren't they?" Wūsé commented as the ravenette began getting dressed for the banquet on the last night of the Festival, "One of them is bound to try and suggest you marry their son tonight."

"Oh I wouldn't doubt it, but their children are different from them," the princess chuckled as she put her hair up into her usual braids with her silver hair clip.

"Xiǎo Lǎoshǔ only sees me as an older sister, Zhang wouldn't take it seriously, and I don't think Yuan likes me enough to agree to a marriage even if he tolerates me enough not to straight up leave when we do dumb shit," she explained before finishing her makeup with red lipstick.

"Are you sure about that, A-Lián?" the male questioned as the eighteen-year-old slipped her shoes on, "That Pàn kid is hard to read and the one from Kang will do anything his father tells him to."

"A being full of mischief and a being who's loyal to a tee... Now where have I heard that before?" the female mused before her companion rolled his eyes and transformed into a black fox.

As soon as the pair exited Yuèliàng Hall they were alerted to the arrival of guests by the maids saying, "Welcome, Your Majesty, Clan Leader Kang, and Second Young Master Kang."

'Speak of the devil,' the ravenette thought with a snicker before she bowed to the trio with a small smile on her face.

"Father, Clan Master Kang, Second Young Master Kang, what brings all of you to my palace?" she asked while scanning each of them, "The banquet is starting soon isn't it?"

"Mei Lián, you know why we're here," the king stated, watching as his daughter's smile widened by a fraction, "You've known since the first day of the festival."

"You're here to see of I approve of a marriage between Kang Yuan and I, right?" the ravenette mused as she tapped her closed fan against her chin.

Clan Leader Kang's eyes widened before he looked over at his younger son who made no movements and kept his ever straight expression.

"That is indeed the reason," Long Bai stated as he gestured to the male with his left hand, "I have already discussed this with your siblings and they all seem to approve, the only one who needs to say anything is you."

"That's wrong isn't it?" Mei Lián replied as she tilted her head to the right, "There's one more person who should have a say in this."

"I have no qualms with marrying Yuan, but what are his feelings on the matter?" she continued while nodding to the taller male in white, "I will only approve if he's comfortable with being tied to me for the remainder of his life."

"This entire week I have tried to be as true to myself as I can without embarrassing the Long Clan in public, and I wonder if he's really alright with me," the ravenette explained as the two clan leaders turned to the male.

"It's up to you at this point, Yuan," she commented with a shrug, "I won't be offended if you say no, I just hope we can continue to be friends either way."

It was silent for a few moments before the male finally spoke up and simply said, "I want to go through with the engagement."

"I completely under- wait, what?" the Second Princess asked with wide eyes as she cut off her previous statement, "I'm sorry, did I hear that right?"

"I want to go through with the engagement," the male repeated, causing the female to take a step back as she brought a hand up to her chest where her heart would be, eyeing him as if he had grown a second head.

"Are- are you sure?" the woman asked, voice going up a couple of pitches, "I mean, outside of doing your duties for your clan, do you actually want to go through with this? You do realize that you would be marrying into my family instead of the other way around, right?"

"Yes," Kang Yuan answered with a simple nod, leaving the ravenette speechless as her eyes darted around, still processing what had just happened.

"Mei Lián, do you still wish to go through with this?" her father asked while looking down at her and placing a hand on her shoulder.

"Yes, I'm just surprised that Yuan agreed is all," she chuckled before opening her fan and beginning to fan herself once more.

"Alright, then we'll have the wedding in the spring of the year Mei Lián comes of age," the king stated, earning a nod from the other Clan Leader as the black fox fumed by the woman's heels.

"You guys start going ahead to the tables," she chuckled, annoyed by the fact she could feel heat in her face and neck, "I think I need some time to process."

"Alright, don't take too long," her father chuckled with a large smile before walking off with the other clan leader, Yuan lingering a bit longer to give the female a small smile.

Once the three males were gone, the fox was surrounded in a black smoke before a male in all black stood with a silver sword drawn.

"A-Sé, what do you think you're doing?" the ravenette asked stopping the male from walking away by grabbing his elbow.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" he replied through gritted teeth as he looked down at the female with wide eyes, "I'm going to kill him."

"You can't-" "And who says I can't?!" he exclaimed, causing the woman to shrink slightly as he turned to face her fully, "They can't just do that to you!"

"A-Sé, I already agreed to the proposal, it isn't just on them," she groaned before taking a deep breath, "You can't just kill him."

"A-Lián, do you have feelings for him?" the male asked as he gestured to the exit path with the tip of his blade.

"It's only been a week, how in the fuck could I have developed feelings that quickly?" Mei Lián replied while throwing her hands in the air.

"Then you shouldn't be marrying him!" Wūsé retorted, "You shouldn't be marrying anyone when we both promised to be by each other's side for eternity!"

"A-Sé," the ravenette sighed as she took slow steps towards the male, reaching out to wrap her arms around his neck and press her forehead to his, "No matter anything that happens in this life or the next, I will always be by your side until you tire of me."

"You don't have a choice," she continued with a chuckle as the male sheathed his weapon and let his arms rest around the ravenette's waist, "You decided to bother me and I'll never let you go."

"A-Lián, that should be my line," the fox immortal chuckled quietly as he nuzzle his cheek against the female's hair.

When the female and fox pair arrived back to the main courtyard where the banquet would take place, they were quick to notice that the Kang male was now seated at the right side of her double table.

"Congratulations, Mei-Mei," First Prince Huǒ greeted with a nod as the ravenette took her seat at the left side of her table.

"Indeed, I'm glad you approved of the Second Young Master Kang," First Princess Kōngqì chirped before her husband gave a few words of congratulations.

"Yeah, maybe you'll spend some time at home now that you're properly engaged," Second Prince Dìqiú chuckled before drinking some wine.

"Unfortunately for all of you, me being engaged doesn't change the fact that I'm still going to be away from Guangzhou often," Mei Lián replied as she began petting the creature in her lap.

"Huh? Do you already have somewhere you plan on going, Mei-Mei?" her older sister questioned as she leaned forward to better face the younger.

"Yeah, I'm going to the Shèng Islands after the Five Clan Conference is over," the woman explained as she poured a cup of wine for herself, since Kang Clam rules prohibited them from drinking alcohol, "There's said to be a recent rise in demonic activity over there, so I want to check it out."

"Mei-Mei the Shèng Islands are outside of the continent, you really shouldn't have anything to do there," Kōngqì stated with wide eyes.

"That's right, if anything happens to you there, then it would be extremely difficult for us to help you," Dìqiú added as he looked over at his sister who was calmly drinking her wine.

"Eh, if it really gets that bad then I'll just swim back to the continent," the ravenette chuckled as she waved off their statements of worry with her left hand.

"Mei-Mei, Kōngqì and Dìqiú are right," Huǒ replied looking over at his youngest sibling with furrowed brows, "It's too dangerous for you to go on your own."

The female's eye twitched slightly as she unconsciously gripped her cup tighter before asking, "Dàgē, are you saying that I'm incapable of protecting myself?"

Before the First Prince could respond to deny her claim a deep voice from her right suddenly said, "I'll go with her."

All of the Long Clan siblings turned to Kang Yuan before the youngest shook her head and said, "Yuan, I can't ask you to do that, unlike me you have actual duties to perform within your clan."

"I'll go with you," the man in white insisted as he looked straight into the younger female's eyes who was about to protest only to be stopped by her father addressing the crowd.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming together to celebrate the Millennium Festival and to celebrate this final night I would like to offer a toast to two individuals," he stated while holding up a cup of wine as others mimicked.

"To my daughter, Princess Mei Lián, and Young Master Kang Yuan as congratulations on their engagement!" the man spoke with a large smile before downing the alcohol.

'Father, why must you make a show of this?' the ravenette internally screeched as she drank her alcohol from behind the sleeve of her robes, loud gasps of surprise and cheers erupting around her.

As Clan Leader Pàn sent a glare to his younger son, who only avoided eye contact as he stood up and made his way over to the pair.

"Congratulations, A-Lián and Kang Yuan," he greeted as he knelt right behind then and wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders, causing the female to choke on her drink.

"And who said you could call me that, you rat?" the princess asked as she attempted to battle against the heat that was crawling up the back of her neck.

"We're close enough, aren't we?" Zhang asked, a small smirk forming on his face at the pointed look the slightly taller male gave him.

'He's just like Wūsé,' the woman thought with a chuckle, already used to this kind of treatment from others as Yuan smacked the male's arm off of himself.

"What are you doing?" questioned the male in white, clenching his fist by his lap the longer the other continued to hang onto the princess.

"You know, you're quite lucky, Yuan," the male in red stated, ignoring the question as he leaned his head on top of the female's, "My father was going to propose marriage between us tonight, but it looks like you got there before him."

"What are you saying, Pàn Zhang?" the Second Prince hissed as all of the elder Long siblings turned their narrowed gazes at the youn man.

"Are you saying that you've taken interest in our Mei-Mei?" Kōngqì questioned with a condescending chuckle, "Ha! What joke. She won't be used for any of your clan's schemes."

"And what if I said that I was?" the Second Young Master replied, causing the eyes of the other teens around his age to widen.

Mei Lián looked to her right to lock gazes with her fiancé who also wore a shocked expression in his own way as she thought, 'He's telling the truth?!'

"Listen here you little shit," Dìqiú growled as his aura began to spike, pointing a finger at the male, "No one here is believing your lies so cut the crap and leave before we gut you."

"Why don't you ask your sister and her fiancé if I'm lying?" Zhang mused, looking the older male straight in the eyes, "They're known to be human lie detectors, right?"

Kōngqì slammed her hands on her table about to get up and throw the male off of her sister only for the ravenette to say, "He isn't lying."

"What?" the First Prince questioned with furrowed brows and fists clenched as he also wished for nothing more in the moment than to send the Pàn Clan representative away from his family.

"Pàn Zhang isn't lying," the male in white agreed, albeit a bit reluctantly as he looked over at the male in red, "He has taken a genuine interest in Mei Lián."

"Even more reason to-" "Jiějiě, the whole point of the Millennium Festival is to celebrate peace between the five main clans for the past thousand years," the ravenette interjected with a sigh as she pinched the bridge of her nose, "Don't let our clan be the one to break it over something so petty."

"But-" "Fuck this," the princess hissed as she removed herself from the male's hold with her fox cradled in her arms, "I'm just going to go back and head to bed, my head is hurting too much right now for me to deal with this."

Her siblings stood up to try and convince her to stay; however, just before the First Prince could reach out to her the female turned her head and her irises were a deep crimson and pupils were vertical slits.

"Dàgē, just let this go," she instructed with a soft sigh as she faced forward once more, "We'll deal with it as issues arise."

Once the female had arrived back to her Yuèliàng Hall, the first thing she did was change into her night clothes and plop down onto her bed with a book she had purchased on her travels.

"A-Lián, are you alright?" Wūsé asked as he sat at the edge of her mattress, watching as the female made her way down the page.

"A bit irritated and confused but otherwise I'm good," she replied with a shrug, "I do regret not bringing back any food though, the banquet food is the best."

"I'll just go out and bring some back then," the male replied as he stood up and began making his way to the hall's entrance.

"A-Sé, you better not be going out like that," the female warned, placing her book down on her chest to see the male give her a small wave before disappearing out the door.

Meanwhile, tension ran thick between the children of the main clans as the Long siblings glared daggers at the second Pàn child.

Across from them, Miho and Pàn Wangzhou wore smirks of satisfaction when the youngest princess retreated back into her room.

"It looks like Dìdì's personality can come in handy for this," the older male chuckled as the woman hung off of his arm.

"Dearest husband, I don't understand why that pest is needed for our future plan," Miho mused as she leaned her head onto the taller male's shoulder, "Surely we could pull it off without her."

"It is obvious you don't understand but that doesn't matter," Wangzhou stated as he fed the woman a grape, "Just know that she is quite literally the key to our success."

"As soon as she is finished serving her purpose, you can do whatever you like to her," he continued with a chuckle before clenching his right fist under the table that was enveloped in a slight red haze.

Mei Lián suddenly dropped her book as she sat up and reached down to clutch at her left side, just under her breast.

Slight panic began to flood her system as she made her way over to a mirror and ripped her robes open to see the scar that plagued her ever since her mother's death was now glowing an ominous red.

The scar was in the shape of a bird and sat under her left breast amongst many other scars that she had gained over the years.

'Who's doing this?!' she thought, sending energy through her palms and placing them over the mark to help cool it down, 'Why now of all times?!'

After a few moments, the burning sensation finally went away and the female removed her hands to see that the scar had stopped glowing, but she still wasn't appeased in any way, shape, or form.

Before she could ponder further about what triggered the reaction her ears caught onto the sound of shoes tapping on wood and she quickly fixed her clothes before turning to see her companion walking back in with a tray of food.

"A-Lián, what happened?" the male asked, placing the tray down on a nearby table before inspecting her tense form, "Are you okay?"

"The mark started acting up just now," the ravenette explained while looking over the male's shoulder and straight at the mirror.

"Then that means the ones who killed your mother are nearby," he whispered before leading her to sit down at the table.

"Just don't think about it for now," the fox immortal said as the female cracked her knuckles, "You won't be able to sleep again if you keep stressing out about it."

"I know," she sighed, reaching out for the chopsticks to start her meal, "It's been almost ten years though, so why would it act up now?"

"Just eat, A-Lián," Wūsé whispered as he wrapped an arm around her and rubbed small circles into her skin, "Don't think about it anymore."

The next morning, Mei Lián woke up a bit earlier than usual and dragged her companion with her outside to rest by the pond, still in her night clothes.

As the sun came over the horizon the princess was humming a familiar tune with Wūsé's head in her lap, fingers running through his long hair that fell to his lower back.

"Where is that song from?" the male asked, relishing in the feeling of the female's touch, "You sing it all the time when we're sleeping out in the woods."

"It's a lullaby from where my mother comes from," she explained with a soft smile, "I know the words, but we don't need anyone to know that my mother came from somewhere outside the continent."

"Then how about you just tell it to me?" the male suggested as he opened his eyes to stare up into the woman's honey-gold irises, "Quietly."

"Alright," she chuckled leaning down to tell him only to snap her head to the entrance of the courtyard upon hearing multiple sets of footsteps.

"Your Highness, Second Young Master Kang is here to have breakfast with you today!" chirped the youngest maid to serve in the Wǔyè Palace only to gasp and block the vision of the man in white once she realized her princess was still in her night clothes.

"My apologies, Your Highness!" the maid exclaimed, the male averting his gaze as the ravenette placed her fox to her side and stood up, "I didn't realize you were still indecent!"

"Don't think too much of it, Tsubaki, it's my fault for mixing up my routine," she replied while beginning to walk up the steps to her hall, "Set out a blanket for us by the pond and bring the food over while I get dressed, please."

"Yes, Your Highness!" the maid spoke with a bow before instructing the male in white to wait by the pond while she got the blanket and the others would bring the meal out to them.

Kang Yuan had been to the female's private palace many times now and had seen the pond almost everyday, but he could not get used to the sight of a meter long betta fish swimming to the edge of the pond whenever someone walked by.

The said fish looked up at him from under the water with its glowing golden eyes as it flapped his fins at his sides and the male couldn't help but wonder where the first prince could even find such a creature.

The fish started swimming in circles while it kept its eyes on the male and he slowly backed away from the edge of the water all without losing sight of the fish.

"Yuan, are you still wary of Howl?" Mei Lián mused as she walked out of Yuèliàng Hall in her usual robes and hair up in its usual style, the maids just arriving with the blanket and food.

"You know he's a Dragonscale Betta, right?" she continued with a chuckle as the maids set everything up about a foot from the pond, "Wouldn't you say he looks like a dragon?"

The male said nothing, but narrowed his eyes down at the fish who flared his gills in response, earning a chuckle from the ravenette.

"Haven't seen that in awhile," she commented while taking a seat on the blanket and gesturing for the male to do the same across from her as Wūsé sat to her right, "He usually only flares his gills at Dìqiú."

"How are you, Mei Lián?" the nineteen-year-old asked, earning a raised brow from the woman who poured tea for them both.

"Well, I..." she started with a small smile, before remembering what happened while she was reading her book.

"I'm fine," she continued quietly, unconsciously bringing her left hand up to where her scar would be, "I just had a headache and didn't want to make it worse with how loud it would have gotten."

"You're lying," the male replied without hesitation, pulling a sigh from the other as he kept his gaze on her.

"I forgot that it's impossible to lie to those in the Kang Clan," the woman chuckled before taking a sip of her tea, "Your clan specialties sure are something to behold."

"But you're right," she continued with a shrug, the smile returning to her face, "I guess I was just nervous about the conference that would be starting this afternoon."

Yuan only narrowed his eyes at the ravenette before she let out a sigh and said, "Sorry, I'm just not used to being honest about things like this."

"There are a lot of people out in the world who would not hesitate in taking advantage of you if you were just honest about everything," she explained before gesturing for the male to start eating.

"Why did you start traveling the continent?" Yuan questioned after a few moments of eating their meal in silence.

"If you're marrying me, then you would find this out anyway so I might as well tell you now," the princess shrugged before taking a bite of rice into her mouth.

"I travel so I can find out more about the ones who killed my mother," she sighed, "I watched it all happen and it was way too organized just to be a normal assassination attempt... They needed something of her and I want to know what."

"You travel in search of revenge?" the male asked with no change in expression before the female shook her head from side to side.

"Not necessarily," the ravenette shrugged as the fox took a piece of meat from her plate, "I mainly just want to figure out the reason why they did it and then I'll judge my actions from there."

"They might have done it for a righteous reason in their mind and I can't really change that," she continued, "Everyone in the world has committed sins and needs to pay for them, so if my mother was one of them, then I can't do anything about it."

The female then proceeded to toss a piece of bread into the pond for her red fish before saying, "Our fates are written by the heavens and they aren't easy to change, at this point in time I just want answers."

The male nodded and they returned to eating in silence once more, just enjoying their meal and the lovely scenery that accompanied them that morning.

"Say, is it alright if I call you 'A-Yuan' from now on?" the princess muttered as she dipped her fingers into the water, drawing the attention of the largest fish.

Kang Yuan looked over at her with wide eyes as she continued tracing shapes in the water, saying, "We are getting married in the future so..."

The Second Young Master stared in silence at the woman for a few moments before he nodded and said, "Fine."

The female perked up upon hearing his reply and gave him a small smile and a chuckle before he reached into his robes to pull out a rectangular box.

"What's this?" the ravenette questioned, tilting her head to the right slightly as the male handed the box over to her.

"A gift," he answered bluntly, prompting the female to open it as she let out a gasp of surprise upon seeing what was in the silk lined box.

It was a wooden hair stick that had a flower made of white jade at the end of it, white jade drops hanging off of the main flower with small lengths of golden chain.

The look of the hair accessory was extremely familiar to the female and so was the texture; however, the energy it gave off was different.

"A-Yuan," the ravenette mused as she looked over at the male in white, allowing her furry companion to sniff the hair stick, "Is this the same hair stick I was looking at the first day of the festival?"

"Yes, you picked it up each time we passed by the vendor's stall but never bought it," Kang Yuan commented with a straight face.

"Why does it feel different than those other times I picked it up in the market?" she continued with a raised brow, running her fingers over the carved jade flower.

"I enchanted it with a barrier," the male explained, earning a chuckle from the woman, "You're siblings said you're always getting into dangerous situations."

"They wouldn't be wrong," Mei Lián chuckled before giving a small bow to the male, "Thank you for the gift. It is greatly appreciated."

The male just nodded in return and the woman removed her silver hair clip, making a small bun with the tails of her two braids and holding it in place with the hair stick.

"It doesn't look weird on me does it?" she questioned while turning her head from side to side before leaning over the edge of the pond to get a look at her reflection.

"No."

"Well, then I don't have anything prepared at the moment, but take this," the princess said as she handed the male her silver hair clip, "It's enchanted with a protection spell and a few others that you might find useful."

Kang Yuan looked down at the simple accessory and back up to the female's smiling face.

He had always seen her wearing the item and assumed it had been significant to her, so he opened his hand and graciously accepted the small gift.

~~~Fin. Chapter 4~~~