Ten Thousand Books, But Only One You

08 The book Floating Lanterns, Autumn Moon

A/N: Apologies for the delay in updating. Exams are over, I am back!  And now the story continues...

Chapter 8: The book Floating Lanterns, Autumn Moon: the after story

Jumping to my feet, I stood stiffly with my hands together. A tall, young man dressed in a simple blue flowing robe stared at me from the doorway. His pale and clear skin illuminated a youthful glow, accentuated by a gentle smile on his face. If the second male lead in this story was already this good-looking, would the male protagonist have extraordinary visuals?

"Hua Ling, you may leave first." Jin Mu strode closer and stood in front of me. Suddenly, the air carried a distinct scent of medicinal herbs.

As he was towering over me, I had to lift up my head to look at him. Standing at 1.76m, Ji Kai was already considered tall to me, but Jin Mu was even taller. I took a few steps backwards to ease the strain in my neck.

Hua Ling gave a small curtsy and turned to leave but not before whispering "good luck to you" in my ear. I blinked as a wave of worried thoughts swept through my head. What was that supposed to mean?

Jin Mu faced me again.

Realising that I had been gaping, my face flushed as I quickly dropped my gaze to the jade pendant hanging from his waist. It was circular and orange in colour, with carvings of two pixius facing each other.

"I heard that you wanted to meet with me. Are you here on behalf of Ji Kai?"

"Yes. I heard that you can help to treat him. He has been affected with something called a Cold Poison and because I cannot directly take him to the hospital, I can only request that you follow me to meet with him."

"Cold Poison?" Jin Mu echoed with a tone of unfamiliarity which caused my trembling heart to beat faster.

"You have the antidote for it, right?" I inquired with insistence, suddenly feeling doubtful about what Han Dong and Pan Yi had said to assure me before I left the Garden.

He merely nodded with a soft hum and took a seat opposite me. Gesturing for me to sit down as well, his eyes narrowed as he seemed to be studying me—from my appearance, to my actions, and down to the minute changes in my expressions. "You're not that girl named Shen Yi—or was it Shen Qi—are you?"

"Qiqi?" I frowned. How did he know about Shen Qi? Unless... Ji Kai brought her up in his conversations with Jin Mu. I felt my heart suddenly chilled and my expression turned dark. "No, I'm not. Why would you think that?"

"I don't. You don't look like her from what I've seen in the photographs that Ji Kai has shown me of his friends in his world." Jin Mu shrugged and shook his head. "Her eyes are rounder and larger, and she looks tanner than you."

My considerably big and bright almond-shape eyes widened upon hearing the word 'photograph' being uttered by an ancient person as the inexplicable nagging discomfort in my chest swelled. So Qiqi, who has large and round peach blossom shaped eyes, was not just brought up casually in their conversations. She was actually a topic of their conversation.

"Trust Ji Kai not to consider me a friend," I muttered under my breath. He had shown Jin Mu images of his 'friends' but I was not included in those pictures.

"Pardon me?"

"Oh, I was saying that I doubt that Ji Kai shown you a photo of me since I must be unfamiliar to you."

"There were quite a few people that he had pointed out." After a brief pause, Jin Mu rubbed his chin and gave me a wry smile. "You don't look like that girl named Chen something something either. She's taller than Ji Kai while you're rather petite."