The Dragon's Flower

XH 103 

One of the good traits Le Xiao Ting possesses was waking up with a working mind, as long as she's not exhausted the day before. But that was not the same for her boss.

There was this one time when she dropped by her boss' house before work to pick up an important document. Her boss could easily bring the document himself but because her boss refused to arrive at work before ten o'clock in the morning, she had to pick it up as the document was needed before ten o'clock.

To her surprise, she saw her boss' handsome financial advisor, opening the door shirtless with wet hair that's obviously indicated he just showered. The financial advisor helpfully located the urgent document instead of waking up the sleeping tiger that hated mornings.

The sight of a shirtless man should have distracted her, but Le Xiao Ting at that time was busy searching for more clues between them to fuel her Danmei mind. That day just so happened to fall on the period where her Danmei fanatic was at its peak.

The handsome financial advisor – "The financial advisor!"

Xiao Hua's eyes immediately sprang open when she finally figured out the nagging familiarity when she saw the 2nd prince's face. But the beautiful sight in front of her had abruptly stepped onto the brake to her thoughts. 

(⁄ ⁄>⁄ ▽ ⁄<⁄ ⁄) Oh my~

The Third Prince was sleeping soundly despite her sudden exclamation. His eyelashes were beautifully curled and tempted her to touch it. His sleeping face that was peaceful and relaxing made Xiao Hua loath to wake him up.

The curtains around the bed were down, but she could see the sun had risen from the way the curtain was brighter than before.

He had wrapped his arms around her waist loosely as if he was unsure whether to hug her or not. Xiao Hua smiled with affection in her eyes and carefully shifted herself closer to him, as her nose caught the smell of trees coming from his body. With a satisfied smile when she finally accomplishes her goal, she closed her eyes and returning back to her previous thoughts.

It was no wonder she has difficulty in placing the hero's face! Her boss' handsome financial advisor was a mixed-blood heritage, half Chinese and half British! But the hero, Long Shan, was a completely Chinese looking guy!

One has dark blonde hair and the other has pure black hair. There were hardly similarities of their personality either. But Le Xiao Ting thinks that the financial advisor was the better-looking guy.

Xiao Hua jerked in surprise when she heard the door slammed open and a masculine voice fiercely called out, "Long Zhu! Get your lazy ass up!"

Before Xiao Hua could do anything, the curtain that was hiding the bed from view was pushed apart by a huge man with a body shape that immediately made her think of a tiger. It was clearly seen from the huge man's expression that he did not expect to see Xiao Hua on the bed with the person he was screaming for.

"Who are you?" The tiger guy demanded dangerously, half growling. "Scheming against Long Zhu?!"

"What-"

"Die!" The tiger guy roared. 

Before the tiger guy's bare big palm could crush Xiao Hua's tiny head, the Third Prince quickly called out. "Stop, Qiang Laohu! She's mine."

The tiger guy stopped his hand. "What? Are you finally growing hormones?"

The Third Prince sighed tiredly before sitting up and with both his arms still around Xiao Hua, she was pulled along as well. She did not make a move to move away and plastered to his side in fear. Her training was literally useless in the face of this great intimidation that brought out her fear that easily paralyzed her limbs.

"I'm awake now," the Third Prince announced, his eyes telling Qiang Laohu to leave.

"You are the last one up. Be quick about it. No funny business," Qiang Laohu said warningly as his eyes flickered to Xiao Hua before back to the Third Prince.

"There's no need for you to make my relationship with her sounds dirty," The Third Prince said coldly. "Leave."

Qiang Laohu bared his surprisingly white and well-maintained teeth. "Then don't make us wait." With that, he marched out of the room without closing the door.

Should she ask who was that 'I can kill you with just one move' guy?

"Are you alright?" The Third Prince stared at her worriedly as he rubbed one of his palms over her back up and down as if trying to ease her fear.

"I'm fine. Who is that man?"

The Third Prince frowned in distaste. "He's the Eighteenth Prince of Bai Hu Kingdom, the white tiger's next guardian."

"He's from the future as well?"

The Third Prince nodded. "Come, let's wash up and meet them."

Xiao Hua returned to the girls' temporary dormitory and An Wan went to help the Third Prince to prepare for his morning ritual, leaving Duan Xi Ying to help Xiao Hua to fix her hair and dress up before meeting up with the Third Prince.

There was no servant around to guide them but the Third Prince seems to know where he's going as if he was familiar with the place. Without knocking, the Third Prince pushed open a door and entered with Xiao Hua behind him.

Mingzhi and Qiang Laohu were seated inside, along with someone Xiao Hua did not expect to see.

Feng Jiu's smiled brightly when she saw her. "Xiao Hua. I should have expected Long Zhu to bring you along as well." With how protective he was towards his personal maid, it was not strange that he will bring her along on this trip.

Xiao Hua curtsied towards the beautiful woman. "Hello, Feng Jiu." She was dressed in another beautiful red dress, this time without feathers at the ends of her dress, but wearing a red fur coat instead.

"Long Zhu," Qiang Laohu growled dangerously, his short beard makes him look even scary. "Why are you bringing her here? Sent her back to her duties!"

"Laohu," Feng Jiu chastised with a scowl. She agreed that this conversation should not include Xiao Hua, but his words were rather degrading!

Long Zhu pulled Xiao Hua closer until her side was pressed onto his, and one of his hands rested on her other side of her hip. "This is Xiao Hua."

With a blush, she shot him a questioning gaze as she wondered where he had learned this position from. In the Chinese dramas, she had only seen lustful men in this position towards hookers and no proper couples had ever done that publically.

"Feng Jiu is Vermillion Bird's guardian. Qiang Laohu is-" Long Zhu reacted quickly and wrapped them inside his Qi to protect them from Qiang Laohu's roar that shakes right down to their soul. Her body trembles and she was unable to control her body's reaction.

"- White Tiger's guardian. Prince Mingzhi is Black Turtle's guardian."

Prince Mingzhi just sighed and Feng Jiu stared at him as if the Third Prince had just killed her whole family. Qiang Laohu no longer restricted himself with just roaring and moved to attack the idiot brat.

"You stinky brat!" Qiang Laohu's speed was worthy of being the 7th ranked cultivator. But the Third Prince was surprisingly able to keep up with his speed, with Xiao Hua pushed away to the side from the fight.

Each of their blows shakes the ground and she could see their Qi with naked eyes. Qiang Laohu's was white, almost blinding to her eyes, and the Third Prince was more like Tiffany blue, soothing to her eyes.

"Just because she saved your life you treated her as if she's your bloody mother?" Qiang Laohu roared. "Damn it stinky brat, that isn't something you can bloody tell that servant!"

The Third Prince received few heavy punches and finally, he showed an opening under the continuous attacks, which the tiger man immediately took advantage of it. A powerful punch landed onto the Third Prince's torso, and a thin line of blood flowed out from Long Zhu's mouth.

The strong urge to protect the Third Prince was the key to break Xiao Hua from being only a spectator.

"Don't Xiao Hua!" Feng Jiu called out when she saw movements from Xiao Hua.

But Xiao Hua ignored her and throws as many knives as she could, despite her knives just bounced away from Qiang Laohu's skin. Even when she had coated her knives with her inner energy, they could not injure him!

"You want to bloody die?" Qiang Laohu growled.

When facing Laohu, the Third Prince was not afraid even when their strength has a large gap despite it was just one rank difference. But surprisingly, his eyes showed panic when Laohu's attention shifted to Xiao Hua. The tiles on the ground cracked as thick plants grow out from the soil under the ground and formed a protective barrier between Xiao Hua and Qiang Laohu.

"You ungrateful brat!" Qiang Laohu roared murderously. "Is that servant more important than millions of lives?!"

"I may be a servant, but I'm a human first!" Xiao Hua screamed angrily, successfully getting Qiang Laohu's attention. She rather his attention stayed on her than the injured Third Prince.

"I'm not the original Xiao Hua," she continued on. "I'm not from this world and I never saved the Third Prince's life before but he told me about your identity because I have the right to know!"

"What nonsense are you babbling about?!"

"She's a soul from another world," Mingzhi explained calmly.

"What?" Feng Jiu asked in shock. "Why aren't we informed about it?"

"I kept silent because it's not my secret, but it seems that Long Zhu does not share the same belief."

"I apologize," Long Zhu said towards Mingzhi as he wiped his blood from his mouth using his sleeve. That sight hurt Xiao Hua's heart.

"That does not bloody matter!" Qiang Laohu snapped. "Even if she's not from this world, she's not entitled to know about us!"

"Why not?" Xiao Hua snapped. "I have every bloody right to know!" Thank you for teaching me how to say 'bloody', you King Kong!

"What right do you have?" Mingzhi asked hesitantly and was only able to push aside his fear due to curiosity.

"I am his future wife. That certainly gave me the right to know about my fiancée's business, isn't it?" Xiao Hua sneered in an arrogant manner, something that Le Xiao Ting had learned from her boss. "I should also be on guard against those people that want to use him as well."

Feng Jiu and Mingzhi blinked dazedly at her bold declaration, but it goaded Qiang Laohu's anger.

"You whore-" He suddenly collapsed with a loud bang as he hit the floor and no longer moved.

"Laohu!" Feng Jiu exclaimed in worry and dashed to the fainted guy's side. After checking that he was just asleep, she shot Long Zhu a glare, but he did not even notice it.

Long Zhu was too busy smiling happily at the blushing Xiao Hua, who refused to meet his eyes.