A Broken Heart Still Beats.

Chapter XLIV

"Okay, seriously, we need to talk." Shang Qinghua grunted, making himself at home in the meeting hall. Purposefully draping his legs on Shen Yuan's waist, not surprised when the other growled at him. "You've been pouting since I got here."

"No, I haven't."

"Bullshit." Shang Qinghua kicked his thigh, shrieking when sharp claws responded by digging into his calf. "OW! Fuck! Yuan!"

"Don't kick me!" Shen Yuan hissed, grumbling further when he realized he shifted again without his knowing. His eyes burned the second he opened them again, and only burned worse as he glared at the glowing silhouette of Shang Qinghua.

Everything was too bright, and he had half a find to tie a blindfold around his eyes to keep out the light, though he knew that he'd be questioned for it. He didn't need his Shixiong or Shijie questioning him, and he'd feel like shit if his disciples worried over him.

Speaking of them, they were loud as well. He could hear them outside, playing in the field with the Ferret-Hares. They weren't being overly loud or rude, hell, they were likely being quiet compared to how they normally were. It was just his damned over-sensitive senses fucking with him again and amplifying every sound in a few-mile radius.

So, he was in no mood for Shang Qinghua's bullshit.

"Get the fuck out, already." Shen Yuan growled. Today was not the day, and he was not the one, come back when his head wasn't kicking his ass! "I thought you came over because you needed help with your paperwork. You're just being a nuisance!" With that, he shoved Shang Qinghua's legs off of him. He still had to look over the next lesson plan for his disciples. How gifted they all were, they were learning his lesson plans too quickly, and he was scrambling to make sure they were properly challenged without overbearing them with unnecessary assignments and homework.

It did not help that listening to the reports from his Shixiong and Shijie about their lessons and homework left him with a throbbing headache.

He did not remember being a Shifu to be this hard.

Then again, he had been a shitty Shifu in the first place back then. And he did not want to fuck up with his disciples now as he did before with Luo Binghe back then.

"Ouch," Shang Qinghua mocked, falling dramatically onto the placemat he should have been sitting on, pressing the heel of his hand to his forehead as he bemoaned his sorrows. "How could my darling wife be so cruel to me? His beloved husband? Wife, you wound me so!"

Shen Yuan tensed at the term 'wife' his brows furrowing deeply before he snarled. "I'm going to kill you..."

"Be a little more original than that, wife."

Shen Yuan felt his eye twitch, slamming his hand on the table; he shouted, "Do you want to die?!"

"Only on Wednesdays and Saturdays!"

"...What?"

Shang Qinghua grinned at the stupefied expression on Shen Yuan's face, sitting up enough to lean closer as he purred. "See? So much easier when you calm down!" He pointedly poked Shen Yuan's nose, reveling as that stupefied expression morphed once again into blatant annoyance. "Now, are you going to tell me why you've been bitchy recent—? OW!"

As he had teased, Shen Yuan grabbed one of the ink quills next to him and curled his wrist back before flicking the hilt directly at Shang Qinghua's forehead with a fair amount of spiritual energy, leaving the An Ding Peak Lord's forehead with a bright red mark.

Cupping his forehead, Shang Qinghua screeched. "What the fuck, bro!?"

"I warned you!"

"Bullshit! You said you would kill me! Not assault me with a fucking ink quill!"