Sons of Nature

4 The Last Rose of Winter (7)

That day, Fu Yun was unable to part from Yue Ji for a long time and returned to the village later than usual.

Seeing as his behavior had been odd recently, one of the others immediately walked up to him to see if he was alright. "Fu Yun! Did something happen?"

Fu Yun could only smile wryly. He also knew he hadn't done that good of a job at pretending that everything was normal but he had still hoped that he had done better than this. Now, it seemed that it was high time he gave an explanation.

He shook his head but stretched out his arm and put it around the other man's shoulders. "Happen? Not really. But there's something I have to tell you." The wry smile was still on his lips and now turned a little sheepish. He had long since decided on the story he wanted to tell but had always waited for the right time. Now, it seemed that that time had come.

The other raised his brows. "What's going on?" He couldn't help but think that even if nothing had occurred on this day, something should have happened a few weeks ago. That would be the reason for Fu Yun's odd behavior then. Maybe now, he was finally willing to talk about it.

Fu Yun cleared his throat, suddenly feeling a bit embarrassed when he thought of what he was about to say. "Well, I ... I met a girl."

The other man blinked his eyes, unable to understand what was going on. He met a girl? But what did that have to do with anything?

Fu Yun saw that he didn't catch his drift and could only continue to tell his story. "Actually, it's been a few weeks since then. I just ... I didn't think it'd lead anywhere so I didn't want to tell anyone just yet. But I've been seeing her more often lately and today, we talked for a long time, and ... well, I think I want to be with her."

Slowly, it dawned on the other man what this was really about. "So you ... have been so distracted lately because you've been thinking about this girl?" That definitely wasn't what he had expected but thinking about it now, it also seemed to make sense? Huh. Sometimes, things could really be this simple. They shouldn't have worried as much before and just waited for Fu Yun to come clean himself. All that effort had been wasted.

Fu Yun nodded, glad that his story seemed to be taken seriously. Well, save for the fact that this girl wasn't a girl at all but should be considered male and also happened to be a spirit instead of a human ... it wasn't complete bullocks so maybe that was why it seemed believable enough.

With the relief of not being suspected flooding through him, he got slightly more talkative. "Yeah, that day, I was vexed about still not finding any prey on my usual route despite being out for so long so I went deeper into the forest. That's where I saw her.

"I know it must sound ridiculous but it was love at first sight for me. At that moment, I knew I wanted to marry that girl and spend the rest of my life with her. It's just that I also know it wouldn't be a good idea so I didn't say anything back then."

The man excitedly patted his shoulder, smiling brightly. "What are you even saying! I was always wondering when you'd finally wake up and fall in love. Isn't it great to find someone you like? There's nothing ridiculous about that. You're just finally catching up to the lot of us." He laughed when he said so and almost wanted to call the others over to let them know. Seeing how secretive Fu Yun had been about this so far though, he didn't dare to overdo it. It was good enough that he had been willing to tell one of them now.

Fu Yun scratched his head. "Yeah, I guess you're not wrong. It's just that I didn't know who she was or where she came from and beauty is only skin-deep, after all. I thought it would be better to wait a while."

"Well." The other man patted him on the shoulder again. "It's good to not be too hasty but you also have to grasp an opportunity when it presents itself. You said you finally decided though?" If he remembered right, that was why Fu Yun had finally opened up, wasn't it?