Me and the devil

四

To the side, Mu Qing smirked. "Yes, yes, he's adored and appreciated by all."

Xie Lian hesitated, "But I just have a question. But I don't know if it is..."

Mu Qing rolled his eyes. "If you're going to say 'I don't know if it's appropriate' then just don't say anything."

No, I was going to say "don't know if anyone has the answer. But he let it slide.

At that moment, the girl finished praying, she stood and reached for the incense, then turned around.

Xie Lian nudged the two next to him. They were already very annoyed, so when he nudged them they turned around ready to yell, when suddenly their faces dropped.

"Ugly!" Mu Qing exclaimed.

Xie Lian choked. "Mu Qing," He admonished. "That is no way to speak about women."

The girl's face was incomparably flat and uninteresting. Almost like someone had leveled it with a hit. To say her features were plain was an understatement.

However, that had not been what Xie Lian had noticed. When she had turned around, her skirt revealed a huge tear on the back of her skirt and he couldn't just stand there and let the girl parade around like that.

Mu Qing looked startled at first, but quickly regained his composure. The popped veins on Feng Xin's forehead and arms quickly vanished at the sight. Instead his face started turning all different shades of colors.

Seeing the colors that Feng Xin was turning, Xie Lian quickly rushed to soothe him. "Don't be anxious, don't be anxious."

As he spoke, the girl continued in her prayers. She was devout and honest in her prayers and didn't sense anything strange going on at all.

Xie Lian worried. "What do we do? We can't let her walk out like that. Everyone on the road would see."

Also, judging by the tear in the back of her skirt, someone had purposely slashed it with a sharp object. So, not only would she be stared at, she would be laughed at and publicly humiliated. She would probably be teased about it for years to come.

Mu Qing didn't look concerned in the slightest. "Don't ask me. She's not praying to me, 'Don't look at what is improper.' I saw nothing."

Feng Xin remained mute. His face was slowly draining of color as time passed. And so Xie Lian was forced to take action, he removed his outer robe and threw it down. The robe drifted in the air for a moment before coming to a rest over the girl's unsightly tear.

Xie Lian swore he saw silver butterflies guiding the robe, but he figured it was probably just his imagination playing tricks on him. There was no way San Lang was here, he had business elsewhere.

However, the breeze seemed to have startled the girl. She hesitantly looked around, then removed the robe and folded and placed it gently on the altar. Then she stood and made to walk out. If she walked out now, the girl probably wouldn't dare to look anyone in the eye ever again. The two next to him were frozen and dumb as statues, completely useless. So Xie Lian jumped down, having already taken form.

The lamplight was dim and Xie Lian's leap made the firelight flicker. So the young maiden only saw a young man appearing out of the darkness with his upper body bare, reaching out to her.

Naturally, she screamed and blindly struck out with a hand. "Harassment!"

Xie Lian didn't seem mad about the strike at all however, and instead forced his outer robe into her hands and swiftly whispered something in her ear. The girl flushed a bright red, felt her skirt behind her and turned an even brighter shade. Tears welled up in her eyes and she swiftly ran out of the temple, pressing the robe to her face, leaving Xie Lian standing there half-bare. Now that she had left, the temple was deserted, a cool breeze drifted in from outside and he shivered, it was quite cold.