The Wolf and the Lily of the Valley

Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Ignoring Chen Xiao's endless grouse while they tread along the corridor, Ruyi swore he would break his neck trying to turn his head around, so he could get another glance of Wu Xing's master. His eyes would never deceive him, although he entered the academy under questionable pretences.

"Ruyi..." Chen Xiao finally settled down. "Are you here to deceive us?"

"Huh?" His question took him back to his senses.

"You said you have not acquired formal education, and yet you flawlessly explained the phrase!" They stopped right in front of a room in the scholars' headquarters, each scholar given their own space to sleep and study. "Are you really a doctor's apprentice?" Chen Xiao's one eyebrow reached his hairline.

Ruyi stiffly nodded.

"Not a noble man's son?"

"Chen Xiao, with a face like this, any noble man would despise to have a son like me!" he blurted out following a subdued laugh.

"How come you've explained the phrase so well?"

Ruyi took a few steps back to avoid Chen Xiao. "I told you, I am fond of reading. I basically live in between pages of a book, Chen Xiao!"

"I'll keep my eye on you!" declared Chen Xiao with his arms across his chest and his eyes glowered at Ruyi.

Ruyi walk past him and grabbed hold of the knob when he said to Chen Xiao, "That man, who is he?"

"Who?"

"The one who you called Master?"

"Do you not know a single thing about Wu Xing?"

Ruyi shrugged his shoulders and answered, "I am from Chongmin, I only know a little about the capital." He crossed the doorway and tossed his rucksack to the barren floor. The room was quite spacious for its little size. There was only a plain bed, a little table where he is supposed to study his lessons, and a few drawers where he can keep his belongings in which he found of little use as he only brought with him a few.

"You have to change into your uniforms," said Chen Xiao as he pointed at the folded set of clothing laid on top of the bed. "I do not know where you'll start considering you were brilliant in front of the Headmaster, and even Hui Ji An! Maybe you'll have to see the Lone Wolf first, so you could discuss with him your ambitions." Bitterness reverberated from his speech.

"The Lone Wolf?" Ruyi's voice broke. "He's the Lone Wolf?"

"I can't understand how ignorant you are on so many things, and yet you managed to talk about a Confusian principle," mumbled Chen Xiao as he turned on his heels, and left Ruyi to be alone in his room. His voice started to fade, although his reasonable protestation still remarkably perceptible in the empty hallway.

Ruyi shut the door behind him.

Finally, he was alone.

The uproar in his chest even more become vehemently untameable when he recalled the face of the man who let him in the academy.

Regardless of successfully entering the academy without being caught and single-handedly outsmarting half the population of scholars, he did not think it was right to celebrate.

He reached for his rucksack and rummaged through it until he found a small golden case in a shape of a flower. He held it with his hands, and realized the danger he's gotten himself to, especially now that the Lone Wolf is not the man he knew he could trick so easily.