Lunar New Year (VII)
It was a bothersome moment,
To let in the indulge of the repent,
I was not in trouble at the start,
But I let myself in the restart.
***
THE YEAR 1904, a century away from the present time.
He held the Jian a little bit tighter on his side while the Crown Prince bowed and dragged Althea out of that wrecked house. Emperor Li Jing was left alone with Zhu Xiaojun. Qing Long concealed himself in the dark as he doesn't want to get caught. Althea was watching the people get inside, still grabbing an opportunity to see the face of the destined Queen, and she felt guilty.
She was being dragged by the Crown Prince on the crowd and Zhu Xiaojun saw it. He was going to stop the Crown Prince but the Emperor just ordered him to be at his place. He smirked a little as he whispered, "I think the two needed to talk while they are in that state."
Althea let her body be dragged on the place while the people were still staring at her beautiful face. Her azure eyes lighted up a little as Qing Long stood up from the bushes and perfectly concealed himself on the bark of the tree. He saw that the Crown Prince was starting to walk on the other pathway that Althea didn't know.
Qing Long was not the one who should interfere with the Crown Prince and just followed them.
Li Lie Jie gripped her wrist as Althea turned her head back and was searching for Qing Long. She was whispering on her mind to save him, and Qing Long stopped in the middle of the crowd, surprised when he heard Althea's voice on his head. Althea wished it over and over again as Qing Long opened his mouth slightly.
He was right. His eyes were full of worry as Althea walked on the corner of the street and disappeared through a sauna. Qing Long swallowed as he tried to regain his balance, but he was astonished by the one he just found out.
"If I could hear her voice, that means that she was the last," Qing Long whispered anxiously as he closed his eyes and he was still hearing it. He knuckled his fists on the Jian sword that was hiding on as he followed them swiftly.
At the same time, Althea tried to wriggle out her hand from Li Lei Jie, but he was too strong. He opened a cabin door and unclasped his palms from Althea, and she massaged it underneath the robes. Li Lei Jie closed the cabin door, and the darkness splitter upon them once again. The moonlight was peeking over the gap of the woods that served as the walls of the cabin as Lei Jie locked the cabin door with the padlock full of rust.
He hid the key on his robes, deep on his pockets, as Althea cried out, "What are you doing? I don't want to be dragged like this..."
Lei Jie turned to him and asked, "Where have you been? It's Lunar New Year and you chose to show up on this day of the feast?"
He asked it while he was still facing the cabin door. Althea swallowed as she doesn't know what she would answer since it was that time that Fang Ying Yue's body had accompanied her soul. Lei Jie turned to her while his face was wearing a mocking emotion. He put his hands behind his back as Althea looked at him.
The azure to cerulean eyes, the linkage of their connection, it felt Althea's heart was bumping even though it was not hers. It was Fang Ying Yue's body, and her soul was on the present timeline. Althea swallowed as she looked down and shook her head.
"You did not know? Or you had been sent to assassinate one of the knights on the Huiyan Fortress?" Lei Jie asked it as a matter-of-fact and Althea just tilted her head to one side. She was puzzled by what he was saying as Lei Jie chuckled and didn't know what to do. He darted his eyes everywhere as he licked his lip and bit the bottom part.
"I don't know if I can still believe you, but... I think this will be the most important conversation that we need to convey to each other," Li Lei Jie said as Qing Long stopped at the side of the cabin, picked up his pace, and stopped by the corner, where a hole could be seen. He looked inside and gripped the handle of the Jian sword. Lei Jie and Althea were talking to each other in a serious and monotonous tone.
Althea didn't have time to respond as Lei Jie mumbled, "Your family is killers, Ying Yue. And... I don't know how I can resolve this kind of revelation not until now."
Qing Long was not astonished by that fact. He was spying on the Fang Clan for several years now, in fact, they were the longest clan to be ever established since the start of China's dynasties. At King Wang Qing Long's time, before he had been cursed, the Fang Clan had been his enemy.
The Zhaochong Empire could not fall off with his curse, but rather, because of the Fang Clan. Qing Long sighed as he knew that the Zhaochong dynasty a thousand years back had belonged to him by his title, but he had been controlled by the Fang Clan over and over again.
And here they were, him listening to the conversation of the Crown Prince and his destined Queen, and he did not know what to feel.
Althea Xi had accompanied the body of Fang Ying Yue, and she was a rebellious archer.
Lei Jie shook his head as he indicated, "No wonder you were so good with a bow and an arrow."
Althea didn't even know how to handle a knife, but a bow and an arrow? It was not her, it was Fang Ying Yue. Li Lei Jie looked at her eyes with pity on his pupils, and he clenched his jaw rigidly. His face became softer as Althea looked at him, and she was surprised when Lei Jie walked a little closer to her.