Savage Wolf, Lotus Heart [Never Let You Go, Again: Book 4]

32: Near-Loss Never Fails To Unite

The quartet sat around a campfire, Jin Chan biting his nails, Jiang Liwei distributing endless stocks of bottles of Lotus Lure he had brought along to ease their minds.

"Jin Chan, trust me we'll be alright, goddammit, quit with the nail-biting. Have this."

"Tsk," Jin Chan snatched the bottle and downed half of it in one gulp. "Of course we'll be alright, d-uh! Not like we can't handle a lousy she-fox!"

"Then what are you worried for?" Nie Xiyuan smirked.

"I'm not freaking worried, just... just... Aish, Xuanji-shijie's letter to Jin Ling made it sound like the she-fox is invincible or something."

"Well, we can't kill her, she is immortal."

"Exactly," Jin Chan nodded. "I'm scared of that bit. I mean, we can't kill her. So what do we do? Fight a bit, know her skills, then run away? That sounds awfully cowardly."

"Ah, you're scared of the shame," Jiang Liwei chuckled.

"It's all we can do, and it's all we were given to do, so no need for feeling ashamed about it. We aren't running away, we're completing the mission: which is returning to report. There's a difference," Lan Hao grinned.

"Smart," Nie Xiyuan laughed.

"Argh, whatever," Jin Chan rolled his eyes and gulped the rest of the bottle slowly.

While Jin Chan sat on the grass opposite from Jiang Liwei, Nie Xiyuan and Lan Hao lay on the grass, staring upwards.

"So..." Xiyuan broke the silence. "What do we do now?"

"Sit around and wait for the target to show up," Jiang Liwei nodded.

"Boring," Lan Hao mumbled.

"You sounded like Hanguang-Jun," Liwei tossed his head back and laughed.

"But never mind, I'll count stars for now," Lan Hao grinned. "Ey, Xiyuan, look."

"What?"

"Up there," Lan Hao, one hand bent under his head, one hand pointing up to the midnight blue, smiled up at the sky. "Look along my finger."

Nie Xiyuan lay down properly and shuffled closer towards him. He bent his head towards Lan Hao's shoulder and looked up along his index finger.

"See what I see?"

"What?"

"Aish, such a dense idiot. Watch. That star, connected to that," he drew a line across the air, connecting two bright stars. "And then to that," he went on drawing a figure. "And that, and this one here, and that bright one... See the shape?"

"Ahhh," Xiyuan nodded. "Beast with devil's horns?"

"Yes, your Qinghe beast, haha!"

"Fascinating."

Jiang Liwei elbowed Jin Chan in the waist.

"OW! WHAT THE–"

"Sh! You're disturbing them!" Liwei grinned. "It's sinful to break such romantic and happy moments, you know."

"Tch, sinful? Then your sect leader should already be in hell by now."

"For what?"

"For barging in between Hanguang-Jun and Senior Wei all the time!"

"Hahahaha, that's true. But shhh! No shouting, keep it low, it's not everyday you get to watch something like this," Liwei grinned.

"Your Lotus Pier's full of it."