Oh. My. Fate?! (BL, Volume #1)

16 True Danger

Qiu Ling sat at the table in theZhong's house and sighed heavily. After what had happened backthen, Madam Zhong was overly cautious with her son. She had strippedhim to her back and carried him whenever she went outside. If shecould, she'd probably be still doing that but Zhong Jing Yi hadalready turned four years old by now. A little too old to be stillcarried around.

Still, Madam Zhong didn't leavehim out of her sight. Most of the time, she held one of his tinyhands and had him tag along with her. The boy didn't mind. In fact,he seemed quite reliant on his mother, gripping the skirt of herdress if she ever let go of his hand.

Qiu Ling had been sulking since henoticed this for the first time. The Jing He he knew from the NineHeavens hadn't even been this close to him. How could he cling to amere human like that?!

Thankfully, Mister Zhong had talkedhis wife out of always taking the boy with her just a few weeks ago.He had understood her overprotectiveness after what happened but hewanted his son to turn into a strong man, not someone who needed tobe protected all the time. Especially by a woman. How could a boy hisage still rely on his mother this much?

As a result, he had decided to showJing Yi all the fun things to do as a young boy. Unfortunately, JingYi didn't seem as thrilled as he had hoped.

Mister Zhong looked at his sonwryly. "Jing Yi ... Don't you want to go have a look at theforest? There is a big river you can play at and if you're not tooloud, we might even see some animals!" The 'big river' MisterZhong talked about was actually a small stream but a four-year-oldchild would probably not notice.

Mister Zhong watched Jing Yiexcitedly but didn't get any response. The boy only blinked his doeeyes at his father. River? Animals? His mother had already told himto be cautious should he ever have to face something terrifying likethat! The river brought small children like him somewhere far away ifthey fell in. And those animals would swallow him whole!

Remembering all of that the boy hidbehind his mother. Madam Zhong crossed her arms and smiledtriumphantly. "See that? Jing Yi doesn't want to go! Why notlet him stay with me?"

Mister Zhong sighed and stood up. Hejust couldn't coax his son. "How can that be? He's a boy. Heshould be outside, playing in the mud, trying to catch rabbits,climbing up trees! What is it with this child? What did I do wrong ashis father that he doesn't want to go outside? He has never playedwith any of the other children!"

"What should he play with themfor? Who should he even play with? The second son of the Pans? He'sjust like his older brother! He'd bully my Jing'er!"

Qiu Ling nodded vehemently. Indeed!Even though Madam Zhong was at fault for him not having much timewith Jing He for the last four years she was a good mother. She hadrealized soon enough that all those other children in the villageweren't good enough to spend time with his Jing He! They would justbe a bad influence.

"It doesn't have to be theson of the Pans ..." Mister Zhong tried to get past his wife totry to coax his son again but Madam Zhong just turned around witheach step he took, carefully pushing Jing Yi along.

Finally, Mister Zhong threw hishands up in the air and gave up. "Fine! We won't go into theforest. Stay with your mother today. But tomorrow! Tomorrow, we'llsurely go!" With that, he threw his son a stern look, turnedaround and went to work.

Qiu Ling yawned. How many days hadMister Zhong tried and gone without having achieved anything sayingthe exact same words? "This should be ..." He looked at hishands and moved his fingers. "Day twenty?"

Madam Zhong smiled as soon as herhusband was out of the door. She turned around, squatted down andpulled her son into her arms. "You did very well! Don't letyour father talk you into anything! The forest is dangerous. We can'tlet anything happen to you."

Jing Yi nodded obediently and lookedup at his mother.

"Mn." Madam Zhong tussledhis hair and motioned to the door. Let's go. You can just followmommy to work. Today, we're doing the laundry. I'm sure theothers will bring their daughters with them. You can just play withthem. They won't do such dangerous things as the boys!"

Hmph. Thinking about it, shesometimes wished she had given birth to a daughter instead then herhusband wouldn't try to talk her child into doing all of thisnonsense all day! But then again she'd have to marry a daughter offeventually. Mn, it's still better to have a son! she thought, tookhis hand and gripped the basket with the laundry with the other.

Jing Yi tiptoed and opened the doorfor his mother and the two set out to meet with the other womenfolk.Of course, Qiu Ling was right behind them, watching out for Jing Yiso nothing would happen to him. Really, the human world was just toodangerous for a small child! What if he was attacked by a wildanimal? What if the other children tried to bully him? What if hetripped and got hurt?!

Why did he suddenly feel like thehuman realm was full of dangers lurking everywhere? Had it alwaysbeen this dangerous? And worst of all, those things weren't eventhe most dangerous things out there. Qiu Ling had discovered the mostwicked thing of them all just two weeks prior:

Small. Human. Girls.

They tried to look all innocent withthose dresses and pigtails and their big eyes and wide smiles but heknew, he just knew they were the worst possible thing out there! He'dnever let them near his Jing He! But, unfortunately, he still hadn'tfound a reliable way to counter this danger.

Mn, maybe today ...