The Night Breeze Whispers Your Name

7. Falling Baozi

The following fifteen days were almost the same. Waking up with the sun, having breakfast, attending useless training sessions, trying not to kill any of the representatives, having dinner, trying a little bit more not to kill any of the representatives and sleeping time.

The only good things about being in ShenShan were free meals, a soft mattress and not getting beaten. If not for those, I would escape or kill them all already. No wonder the Five Alliance Army was always inefficient against the Demon Alley creatures; the training was just a waste of time. The meditation session was daydreaming, the nature session was drudgery while the martial art session was nothing more than repeating some basic moves.

Complete bullshit...

Unfortunately, other than days, nothing changed in terms of representatives as well. They all proved the accuracy of their given nicknames. No matter what Annoying did, the hostile attitude didn't change and they even schemed against each other to make each other punished. As a result, Sly was punished with starvation for two days and Noxious was beaten with a stick.

Still, the punishments couldn't be compared to Annoying's.

By the way, Annoying was still confusing me. No matter how cold I acted towards him, he was always kind to me. He even gave me a heads up when Noxious and Angry planned to scheme against me. To thank him, I pushed him hard so that they wouldn't think it was him who warned me. Thoughtful of me, right?

As everything was too monotonous, a problem had to occur.

Interestingly, it was related to Sly and somehow I got involved as well, "thanks to" Annoying.

Everything started with the news of the fourth old guy. According to the rumours, he lived secluded inside a cave and only came out once he was gifted a wonderful martial art technique. After he taught the technique, he would go back. When the old guy I told us about his arrival the next day, all the representatives, except me, brimmed with joy. I simply didn't believe the rumors, or the possibility of him being different than the other old guys.

Still, after the news, the old guy I decided to teach us a few advance moves so that we could succeed in the technique the old guy VI would teach. The moves were definitely better than those he taught before, but not that much advanced.

Well, not everyone shared my opinion...

After training half a day, the old guy I reprimanded Sly for the nth time for screwing up, and even hit him hard on the back with his wooden stick out of anger. I saw Sly's expression darkened, but he kept on trying.

When the training was finally over, we went to the hall for dinner and I saw Annoying kept throwing furtive glances towards Sly who was sitting like a statue. Not pondering on it, I continued my dinner happily and went to bed like usual.

Until it was past midnight...

"Hong Huo, wake up," I heard the voice and almost jumped out of the mattress.

"What the..." I whispered angrily, seeing Annoying was sitting on his knees, bending towards my head, his eyes sparkling like stars in the dark room.

"I am sorry to wake you up, but Hei Shui is missing," he whispered back.

"And?" I snorted as I took a sitting position as well. How come he chose me to wake? How come he thought I would help?

He looked at me, puzzled, "what and? We need to find him before dawn," he said with a dutiful tone.

"It is none of my business!" I almost yelled and wanted to go back to sleep, but Annoying grabbed my arm.

"What if something bad happens to him? This area is not safe at night," I insisted, not noticing I was on the verge of breaking his fingers.

"I hope he won't come back, one less opponent, you should be happy," I said coldly and pried his hand off me with a controlled force.

He gasped and left the room silently, dragging his baseless disappointment with him.

"Whatever," I murmured and lay down again, but my dark thoughts prevented sleep from reaching me. Although I didn't want to confess it, I didn't want anything bad to happen to Annoying, maybe it was because he was more like a puppy rather than a human being or maybe it was because he was the only one who treated me like a normal person.

Heaving a sigh, I kicked the blanket off me and went out after putting on my outer robe. As my eyesight was perfectly good in darkness as it was in daylight, I just checked around the garden from where I stood and seeing no one, I decided to leave the temple area. Witnessing the moment when the old guy III locked the heavy temple doors from inside on the first day, I moved towards the back where the outside world was separated with a high stone wall.

The weather was cold and a strong wind blew to my face as if to persuade me to go back to my warm mattress. Resisting the idea, I walked with soundless steps.

As I expected, there was a figure in white who was trying to climb on the high wall in pitch-darkness.

"He is not that talented-" to climb this wall, I wanted to say, but my voice startled Annoying and caused him to lose his footing. Instinctively, I rushed forward and caught his falling figure before he kissed the hard ground.

"Oh, Hong Huo, thanks for the catch," he said with a blush, his hands still clenched on my robe.

"Will you get off me?" I asked in between my teeth, trying hard not to smell his sweet tea-tree scent, and he jumped on his feet hastily.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, tucking a stray thread behind his ear. From his glittering eyes, I could see the question was rhetorical, he was just teasing me.

"Collecting falling baozi from the wall," I mocked him back, thinking he would be abashed, but no.

Suddenly he burst into laughter.