He Smells Good

Chapter I

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

A young child's wails filled the entire room, his shameless and ear-piercing cries in front of their precious friends caused his parents' cheeks to flush red in embarrassment. His miserable, small figure frantically clung onto his father's black trousers, his tears and snot rubbing all over them.

Wei ChangZe pitifully looked at his sworn brother and just scratched his head and let out a restless laugh, coating the atmosphere with even more awkwardness. "Uh . . . I'm sorry about this. You know he's usually not like this. I really don't know what he has eaten to act like this . . . I'm sorry . . ."

"Hahahaha! Don't sweat it! Wei WuXian's a good child, I'm sure he'll calm down soon. We'll take care of him as always, don't worry. We'll make sure he's safe while you're away!"

"Many thanks, ge . . ."

A younger child looked at his cousin in astonishment, sneaking a snicker at how childish his supposed older brother was acting. A tall and petite young woman flicked away the child's mocking gaze into a frown. He looked up and saw his older sister glaring at him, her eyes scolding his mean gesture. "Jiang Cheng," she whispered, her tone deep and firm. "Please stop behaving like that! You're the sect's future leader; you should start learning how to act better, please!"

Afraid of his older sister landing another painful flick on his forehead, he swallowed down his immeasurable pride and whispered back through gritted teeth, "Please forgive me, jiejie. I promise I won't do it again."

She rubbed his forehead, attempting to sooth down the pain and flashed him a sincere smile. But she was met with the younger one sticking his tongue out with an almost inaudible "bleeeh", followed with a snicker. Jiang YanLi smacked his forehead away and crossed her arms with an annoyed expression. Jiang WanYin groaned and rubbed his red forehead.

They both lifted their attention to the boy in the middle of the hall crying himself silly, detesting the idea of letting his parents go.

Wei ChangZe was conflicted by his son's sudden outburst. His wife, CangSe SanRen, was no different. They shared a face filled with mixed emotions before they crouched down until they were in the same height with the sobbing child.

"Papa, mama, why won't you still allow me to go with you? Why are you leaving me here again? I thought we were only here to greet them and have lunch together. I want to come with you and beat up the bad monsters! Didn't you guys promise me that you'd finally take me with you in this trip? You guys promised me last time and even the time after that! Will you break your promise again? I'm already seven this year! I'm a big boy already, why can't you see that? I can protect you and myself too!"

He looked at their eyes as he tried to suppress the tears from falling but to no avail. He dropped onto the floor into another crying mess. The father chuckled before taking the child in his arms and letting him sit on his broad shoulders.

The mother sighed and tipped-toed to wipe out her son's tear-and-snot-filled face with her white handkerchief, where a beautiful chrysanthemum was embroidered in the corner. She opened his small clutched hands and handed him the cloth.

"Who says who's a big boy? You? You're a big boy? Why are you crying then? Big boys don't cry," she giggled before sneaking her hands behind the boy's body and gave him a good tickle. Loud shrieks and laughs erupted from his mouth. She stopped to let her son pant in breaths and lovingly caressed his soft hair, giving the bundle tied in a bun a squish before she retreated her hand.

After recovering his breaths, the child furrowed his brows at the familiar cloth and glared at his mother who jokingly flinched at his supposed-frightening glare. "Mama, you always give me the exact same type of cloth before leaving! I have too much already! I don't want to keep these anymore because you keep on breaking your promises! Take it back!"