Temple of Truth

Chapter 94

That made – pretty much sense – Wu Xie had to admit that. But the whole argument of 'don't't get it infected, that will be problematic' sounded oddly familiar to him.

Hadn't he said something similar, when he had made a point of bandaging Qilings slashing wound, the one on his hand. He could still remember the horror when he saw him cut himself again – and for what?

It had turned the sting of those ants was nothing other than painful.

And even though the wound should have already healed completely by now – Wu Xie could still see the white of the bandage on Qilings hand.

Frowning with slight worry he could feel Qiling shift. When he looked up into his eyes again, it was as if his worrie had mirrored on to him, they looked somewhat even more attentive, observing maybe? But Wu Xie had no idea what. Had he noticed something amiss?

How should he describe it?

Then suddenly Qilings fingers moved ever so slightly. It almost felt like a caress, it felt like – calming, exiting – something?

God, he wished he had more time to understand, but Fatty decided that that was the right moment to interrupt. He cleared his throat so loudly that Wu Xie could swear that even the mercenaries, as far away as they might hopefully be at the moment flinched at the sudden sound.

"Zhang Qiling, as much as I hate to interrupt. Wu Xie won't understand anything like that. And you really should close that evil scrape now or who knows what might happen." Wu Xie expected the second part to sound more sarcastic. But it didn't, instead his tone just sounded odd – like he had tried to make it sound sarcastic but it just came out more like a truthfully blunt statement.

"You still have to explain that whole poison thing to him, and I mean really explain. Or he's go'nna panic on both of us. By the way can you tell me about that memory part again – I still don't quite understand that." Again Fattys tone somewhat puzzled Wu Xie.

That whole thing sounded way more truthful than Fattys excuses normally did. Sometimes they were on a – my gareden gnomes suddenly decided to go to war with each other, I had to sort that stuff out first, what did I miss – kind of level. The thing was that his apartment didn't even have a garden.

At that time though Fatty seemed to have too much time on his hand. So after Wu Xie gave him the 'are you serious' eyes he received a message later that day.

A picture of two small garden gnomes sitting beside a mess on what little balcony Fatty had. 'I call them Gnomeo and Juliette. I was quite a messy breakup this morning, some misunderstanding about family and a beautiful neighbor. '

It had been a really tense day for him. That message was the first thing that had made him laugh that day.

The thing was Fatty didn't do excuses when they didn't have a purpose. But that was one. The whole you meant to do this and by the way I still don't quite understand part, even though it sounded truthful. But what was it an excuse for?

What happened was that Qiling pulled back from him. Wu Xie could still feel the spot his finger had been on his lips, missing the warmth of it.

Qiling fiddled with his hands, pulling the hem of the jacked over his own bandage. Effectively hiding it behind as much as possible, while still holding on to Wu Xie's wrist and now really starting to put a bandage on.

After a moment he could hear Qiling say "I will explain the poison properly to both of you."