The Dead Groom's Bride

Damsel in distress

Ling Ling felt the sensation of being rocked gingerly. She dosed in and out of consciousness. Falling inside a deep well was quite traumatic to her and her body.

The entire time she felt like she was inside a very long dream, and all she remembered was falling endlessly until she had fallen in an impossible dream that lasted longer than her entire lifetime in the world of the living.

She came back into consciousness again, her eyelids fluttered open. She saw the image of the wide brim hat again. She knew it was Junjie, his arms held the smalls of her back carefully. He must've already realized her injuries since he had not moved her at all.

"Ling Ling," He crooned, a relieved smile fell on his face. Even in the twilight darkness she sensed the smile that dawned up on his face.

His touch seemed somehow familiar to her now. The distant affection she recognized, and yet, couldn't quite understand where it's coming from.

She groaned in obvious pain.

"Don't move Ling Ling. I still have some ointment with me."

She flicked her eyes; Ling Ling was lost with what he's saying until some of her memories came back to her. Ling Ling felt dizzy as if a hundred years' worth of memory was taken from her, missing from her brain. As if a blank slate suddenly left empty in her mind and she couldn't recall anything.

It's strange and she couldn't even begin to decipher how she's feeling.

She remembered Junjie and his jar of ointment in the grass field. How he spread the salve on her injuries and healed her like it was nothing.

"But I need to make sure you can hold yourself steady, okay?"

Ling Ling held on to his arm. "My leg hurt." She groaned.

"I know, you have a broken leg. You must've broken it during your fall. It was a long fall." Junjie craned his head up to the rim of the well. The moonlight shone giving light in an otherwise very dark place.

"What about the Lao's?" Ling Ling asked. "Wouldn't they find us here?"

"Don't worry about them, I put them all to sleep, no one is going to find us here."

Ling Ling gripped into his robe harder, trying to pull herself up. She didn't care about the pain at the time, she wanted to get closer to him, get a better sense of Junjie. "I was falling, Junjie. All I remember was falling endlessly."

"That's probably a good thing, did you feel your fall?"

She blinked, Ling Ling was lost for reaction or a response. She didn't remember hitting the ground, she didn't remember anything at all until waking up moments ago. "No, I didn't feel my fall."

Junjie smiled and stole a peck on her cheek. It was uninvited and it took her a bit of a surprise, but that was the least of her worry right now. A stolen kiss on a cheek was a welcome treat after what she'd been through.

"What was that?" She asked.

"A payment." Murmured Junjie casually, "This is the fourth time I'm saving your ass tonight."

When did she became so helpless? She thought. But then again, being in the spirit world and dodging demons who wanted to eat her isn't something someone normally faces every day.

"You got to give me some credit. I did survive getting killed multiple times."