The Librarian and the Fox Princess: a Donghua Dijun and Bai Fengjiu story, V.I

Chapter 36 - All Bets are Off

(Image found on Pinterest and credit belongs to the owner)

---

After Si Ming had brazenly instructed them to "proceed, proceed ..." Dong Hua turned back to look at his little fox, completely ignoring Zhong Lin and Si Ming. Feng Jiu was distracted by her teammates. There seem to be some drama unfolding with them.

"Where were you?" Dong Hua asked again. His voice startled her back to look at him. This time there was a hint of an accusation he could not hide. He looked down towards her waist and noticed that she looked like a wedding decoration. A rainbow of handkerchiefs was tied in bows around her sash. He saw that his purple handkerchief was not included in the gaudy display. He snuffed out the growing awareness of how cute she actually looked with the colorful mess of bows around her waist.

Dijun looks grumpy. Maybe he's hungry. I should have come back earlier with the snacks.

"Oh, my friends invited me out to eat at the pavil—" she was about to finish before he cut her off. 

"Let me guess, you were with Cang Yi, Shen Wu, Ling Yue, Cheng Xi, and Zhang Feng." 

Si Ming had obediently gathered the recon Dong Hua had asked. The Star Lord had found a brief opportunity to chat with the little highness about the people she'd met in the Nine Heavens, specifically the really nice people she'd eaten with. 

"Oh, and you forgot Jiang Yu." She was impressed. "Oh you know them?" she asked innocently.

He looked at her coldly. "I know everyone."

"Oh, well then it would have helped if you had introduced me around when I first got here so I could have made friends earlier ..." her voice trailed off and she realized that he was mad. She thought maybe eating too much had slowed down her reaction time. She chastised herself internally for not having caught on sooner that she was in trouble. 

He saw that she was clutching a lacquered box no doubt filled with food. "So they lured you with food, again."

"Lured?" She looked down at her food box with a confused expression. She didn't know why he used that word. "No, I came willingingly."

Both Zhong Lin and Si Ming from the sidelines winced in pain for her. If this was a game of Go, she had definitely placed her stone on the wrong intersection.

Dong Hua knew that his anger was getting the better of him. 

"Nevermind, you should retire to bed for the night. You shouldn't even be on your feet now. They still haven't fully healed. We have an early morning at court tomorrow" he said and turned to walk back to his bedroom.

She didn't want things to be left awkward between them so she blurted out after him, "they were really impressed with your bandaging skills!" 

He stopped in his tracks and stood stiff as a statue. He then turned around to face her with no expression but the gaze in his eyes could pierce through steel.

Whew. Good, I got his attention. 

She had thought to try to ease the tension by trying to make him feel better. She knew that praise always worked for her and figured he would feel good knowing others had praised him. 

She smiled sweetly. "They saw how well you bandaged my ankle and Jiang Yu said that even his grandfather the King of Medicines couldn't have done any better." 

"You showed them your ankle?" His jaw clenched and the corners around his eyes grew tight. 

"Yes, Jiang Yu gave me a physical exam. That's why he could tell your bandaging was so good. And I didn't just show them one ankle, I showed the other one too."