The Dead Groom's Bride

I'm so hungry, I could eat a cow

Ling Ling might be away from immediate danger but that didn't change the fact that she's still lost and she's still hungry.

She moved toward back to where she came from. She wanted nothing but to find her way back home.

Her stomach grumbled in pain reminded of her hunger.

"Oh crap." Ling  Ling hugged her stomach.

Ling Ling took shelter beneath the tall grass as she waited for time to pass when she felt a slight movement nearby. She lifted her head as she surveyed the area of vegetation finding no one. She thought that it might've been a lizard or something crawling in between the bed of grass.

By the time she whipped her head back around, the same man who wore the wide brim hat at the Lao's mansion crouched in front of her, so familiarly close that Ling Ling jerked at the suddenness of his appearance and almost fell back.

The man took her wrist again balancing her. The way his touch was so smooth and so gentle that she hardly felt him at all. 

Ling Ling slapped his unfamiliar hand away, she doesn't like being touch, especially by a man she doesn't know.

The nameless man let go.

She waited for him to say something, but the man seemed content just staring at her.

"Who are you?" Ling Ling asked a little sharply, a little unfriendly. She didn't appreciate being stalked and she knew that man followed her.

The man's shapely mouth remained pressed denying her of an answer, he reached for a bundle of food wrapped around a cloth instead. He unraveled it and revealed two pieces of sweet steamed bun. He picked one up and shoved her in her mouth before she can murmur something in protest.

Ling Ling chewed on the food. Once she's done and swallowed, the strange man fed her the other bun. Ling Ling couldn't help but chew.

Any other time she would had protested but the man seemed to have a genuine concern for her that he bothered fetching her human food that he managed to sneak from the human world.

"Feel better?" Said the man in his handsome melodic voice. This was the first time she paid attention to his voice and she had not anticipated him to sound the way he did. His voice was smooth as silk. 

Ling Ling leaned over as to get a glimpse of his face, but he had anticipated this and leaned back in tune with her movement. He pulled on the tip of his hat lowering it more to hide his face. "You don't want to do that."

"Why not?" She scowled. 

"Because I'm not prepared to deal with the effect it would create."

All her initial enchantment over the nameless man vanished. A man can be as handsome as he wants  but none of that mattered if paired with arrogance and she could tell very well, this man brimmed with self confidence. "Oh, so you think you're some kind of stud?"

"No ma'am, just confident."

Ling Ling noticed the perfect symmetry of his chin and the plumped shape of his mouth that looked as tasty as the sweetest apple in the garden of Eden. She knew she had betrayed herself just by looking at them. 

For a few seconds she was stranded at his mouth until a cocky tug on his lip distracted her attention. The nameless man smiled, his smile was strikingly devilish that Ling Ling could only imagine how he looked like behind his hat. 

"I do accept kisses as payment." Said the man in a lover's purr. 

Ling Ling grimaced as arrogant as he was. "What would I want to kiss you?"

"Because you were just thinking about it."

"I doubt that."

The man pulled his gorgeous smile out again. "It doesn't help to lie, miss."

"I'll have you know I'm engaged to someone."

Something with what she said struck the man like lightning, Ling Ling clearly saw the distraught in him even if she couldn't see his face. 

The man cleared his throat, his voice dipped into something quiet with a hint of sadness in it. Ling Ling felt bad suddenly but she wasn't going to let him know about it. 

"I saved your life." The nameless man said. "I will collect my payment eventually."

It was Ling Ling's turn to swallow. "What kind of payment?"

"That'll be for me to decide when the day comes."