Little Purple

Hu Ye opened his eyes and saw that the woman temporarily subdued the snake by stomping on it.

That woman was a splitting image of Guang, even wearing black clothing and all, but a mature version of her, emitting the aura of a grown woman, and it made Hu Ye's heart pound.

She swam to him and brought his face closer before leaning in. Their lips touched.

Hu Ye's eyes widened. He felt the air that was entering his mouth through her own and knew that she just wanted to save him, but he still could not help but feel a weird emotion swirling inside.

-----

Hu Ye coughed. He few like he just lost his soul somewhere. "Wait…" He saw Qing Guang right in front of him. Although the two looked the same—that woman and the Qing Guang before him—it felt very different. Maybe it was because Qing Guang looked far younger? "What are you doing?"

He had sweat on his forehead since she was holding him in an awkward position. Hu Ye was laying on the bed and Qing Guang was right beside him. Her face was so close to him that their noses almost touched.

Qing Guang did not foresee that Hu Ye would wake up so suddenly. She was glad that he did not seem to realize that she had just ki—

Suddenly, she felt like something was rising in her throat and she swiftly moved from the bed and coughed tremendously.

"Guang?" Hu Ye's body was still numb but he should be able to move around a bit. He patted her back. "Something stuck in your throat?"

"Ugh…" Qing Guang coughed once more and spat out that thing that was stuck inside her throat. It was a black snake like thing that looked like it was made of jelly. Qing Guang frowned at the ominous thing that had red eyes and stomped on it a few times until it was flattened on the floor.

Hu Ye's eyes widened. "How brutal…"

"Finally, the key!" Fa Sui unlocked the door and came into the room. "Huh?!"

He dropped the key and shouted. "Fourth Young Master! You are awake, ah!" Fa Sui's eyes became wet.

"He is awake?!" Falcon, who had helped Fa Sui search for the key, jolted. "Young Mistress! Fourth Young Master is awake!"

-----

Weeks had passed after Hu Ye came back.

Hu Zi woke up a day after Hu Ye did. She was unsure what had happened to herself. She only said that she had felt something ominous when she opened the door to Hu Ye's room that night, but could not remember what it was.

Spring came and the flowers bloomed. Hu Cheng Se, Hu Ye, Qing Guang, and Qing Bo finally graduated from school. Up until then, there was nothing unordinary except for the fact that the Qing twins graduated with a perfect score.

As a matter of fact, Qing Guang actually won first place in the dancing competition. That result shocked everyone, including Qing Guang herself. She thought that there was no way she could beat Qing Li, especially without the help of the bonus points since she stopped in the middle of her dance. She still accepted the prize anyway.


Hu Cheng Se had not participated in the dancing competition because she left before it came her turn to perform. She did not try to rebuke the scorn she got from her father's rivals because she knew that even if she had participated, it would have been impossible for her to concentrate knowing that her brother's heart stopped although he was not dead. She was glad that she came home right away that night, or she might have missed the moment where her brother finally woke up after so long.

The spring air was good for training. Shou did not want to miss this chance when the river flow was raging uncontrollably so he brought Hu Zi out on another harsh journey. This time, he brought her past the city wall, but not too far from the city. They went to a small village on the other side of a river; the village was in need of help because of a drought that came after the winter ice melted.

Shou brought Fei Ying the falcon with him since his ability to locate something became very handy when outside of the city.