XH 260 – Jing Ke's story

After a while with still no sight of Yu Zheng's other half, Xiao Hua asked, "Uncle Yu Zheng, where is Uncle Bai?"

Occasionally, Xiao Hua would call them as uncles, rather than fathers. She could not bring herself to call them 'father' without feeling embarrassed. The best she could do was treat them as her own uncles, even if she was actually treating them as if they were her own fathers.

Xiao Hua was not a child that could easily call her adopted fathers as daddies. Especially when they know she was actually a twenty-eight-year-old woman!

However, her ruse was easily seen through by two experienced old men but chose to let her protect her thin-skinned face.

"Your Papa Bai is with Jing Ke. It won't be long before he will come back home. Tomorrow will be the earliest he could return."

"How is Jing Ke? Is he badly injured?"

If Doctor Bai needed to stay behind, it means Jing Ke was injured quite badly. Xiao Hua assumed Jing Ke's strength would not be bad since he could live as normal as he could with his obviously painfully burned body. But fighting using his current body was definitely dangerous.

"He will be fine after a few days of bed rest." Yu Zheng chewed a pineapple tart in sunflower shape, looking so unconcerned that it made her believe Jing Ke will be fine. "Your Papa Bai is only staying there so that he can ask about Jing Ke's past story."

"Jing Ke's story?" Xiao Hua's eyes lit in interest. "We can finally figure out who he really is, and what happened between him and the dark beauty!"

"Hmm? You want to know?" Yu Zheng unwrapped a new bag of snacks, the potato chips. It was given to Xiao Hua by Doctor Bai, which was collected from one of his previous world-hopping trips.

Xiao Hua wondered what was the requirement that allowed Doctor Bai to bring potato chips and the vampire coffin to different worlds with him. Novels had told her that the players usually could not carry anything with them when they leave or were only allowed to choose one item per world to bring along. Obviously, Bai Chuan's experience would be different from the author's fictional fantasies, but after Xiao Hua managed to shoot a ten out of ten point at Bai Chuan and Yu Zheng's love summary, she started to view the novels she read in a different light.

Bai Chuan may not share his love life, but Yu Zheng was happy to tell her all about it.

"Of course!" Xiao Hua quickly grabbed the bag of potato chips from Yu Zheng's hand. "It's the last bag of potato chips! Have mercy, my lord!"

Yu Zheng and Bai Chuan will certainly be able to taste potato chips in future worlds, but not Xiao Hua that will die in this world.

"Your friend might be able to create potato chips soon."

"How would it be the same!" Xiao Hua cried out mournfully, clutching the potato chips in her embrace lovingly. "Healthy versions of potato chips do not taste as good!"

Unlike Xiao Hua's letters to Long Zhu that were filled with words of fresh spring of romance or the letters to Long Lian filled with words of comfort and gossip, her letter to Duan XiYing was all about food!

With eighty percent of Xiao Hua's treasures used as the initial investment, Duan XiYing started a small store with the mission to generate profit! They planned to use the money to increase Xiao Hua's dowry, shutting people's mouths about her being unworthy of their Third Prince!

The location of the shop was in between Bai land and the Guilin Kingdom, but Xiao Hua had never set foot to that place yet. She was unable to go because Doctor Bai refused to go easy on her lessons, but Yu Zheng had gone there to take a look on her behalf and said it was doing well.

When the news of Xiao Hua planning to open a store reached Heise's ears, he gave her a talented Imperial Chef to help her recreate recipes, as long as he got to eat the food for free. The latest product that Xiao Hua wanted the chef to recreate was potato chips. She would not have craved for it if Doctor Bai had not given it to her!

Yu Zheng did not try to snitch some potato chips for himself after seeing her pitiful face. She eats the potato chips at a snail's pace, savoring the taste as long as possible.

"Coming back to the story..." Yu Zheng took a sip of Xiao Hua's tea from her cup. "Jing Ke has a wife and a daughter. Shen Ruyi, the wife, went berserk after her husband's clan killed her daughter and retaliated by massacring the whole Jing clan."

"Just like Itachi-sama!" Xiao Hua looked scandalized like she was being told that her idol was tarnished by an act of a copycat.

"Itachi? A Japanese person?" Yu Zheng clearly does not know Uchiha Itachi, a character from Naruto manga.

"Yup, Itachi-sama massacred his whole clan in one night, just to prevent a coup! Even if it was rather a cold-hearted thing to do, some still view him as a hero to be respected! A true ninja! Better than a loud-mouthed ninja, or one dressed in bright red clothing ninja. Well, it's focused on comedy and friendship themed, so they can be excused..."

"...What does that have to do with Shen Ruyi, other than committing the same act as this Japanese man?" Yu Zheng asked in bewilderment.

"Only that. I just want to spread the tale of Uchiha Itachi, a great ninja! Silent, powerful, handsome, and mysterious!" Then Xiao Hua grinned, her eyes danced with mischief. "By the way, it's a manga."

Yu Zheng had met otaku before, thanks to one of Bai Chuan's characters being one. But at least he could still understand what Bai Chuan was saying then.

At Xiao Hua's sincere appreciation towards a 2D man, Yu Zheng decided to look the other way. "...Back to the story, Jing Ke happens to be out of town that day. When he finally returned, it's too late to save anyone. He tried to stop his wife, only to suffer a great injury at the expense of sealing her. The demonized Shen Ruyi is rather strong."

"So Jing Ke was the one that sealed her in Liu Chu Chu's bracelet?"

"She chose to seal herself in that bracelet," Yu Zheng corrected. "She managed to escape a part of Jing Ke's seal, which was only to change the location where she will be sealed. Jing Ke does not know where she went then, only know that the sealing won't last forever."

"Why did the Jing clan kill their daughter? Is she evil?" Xiao Hua asked.

"Even if the Jing clan was not superstitious, they end up believing it after experiencing a series of bad luck. When the girl was born, the afternoon sky was dark as night for a few minutes."

"Eclipse!"

Yu Zheng nodded. "Those that do not know about it will believe it's a bad omen. If that was the only thing that happened, it would be fine, but that girl was truly unlucky. She was like a walking disaster, bringing death and misfortune to her family. When she finally reached her fifth birthday, Jing clan decided enough was enough."

The Jing family decided to throw the girl at the 'Pond of Lingering Death' to send her back to where she belonged.

With the Death.

"Oh my God. Just because of that?" Xiao Hua's face paled, and the half-eaten potato chip slipped from her fingers. "They could have just sent her far away."

Yu Zheng slowly smiled like a devil. "How do you know if they had not tried that?"

"Did they?" Xiao Hua whispered, like one asking a secret.

"Who knows?" Yu Zheng tossed Xiao Hua a bag of new potato chips that appeared out of nowhere with a snap of his fingers.

"What? You have potato chips!"

At Xiao Hua's accusing gaze, he laughed indolently. "Just finish that opened bag of potato chips normally. I gave you a new one because of how pitiful you looked."

"Then you should have eaten yours at the beginning! You opened mine!" Xiao Hua accused angrily.

Since what Xiao Hua said was right, Yu Zheng apologized by giving her another bag of potato chips. "Here, here. I'm sorry."

Xiao Hua accepted his apology with a nod after placing the new potato chips at a safe place and then eat the opened bag at a normal pace. "So what happened then?"

"You already know what happened next."

Xiao Hua paused in biting a piece of potato chips. "Right. Wow, you know so much, as if you are right there looking when it happened!"

"Learning the truth is just a small matter."

"Then why did Uncle Bai still need to stay behind? Don't you already know the truth?"

Yu Zheng shrugged elegantly. "That's his choice." His lover had not asked him and wanted to find the truth by himself, so Yu Zheng abided by his wish.

"By the way, Jing Ke's burned body... did his wife set him on fire?" Xiao Hua asked the horrifying question that she does not want to ask, but still asked for the sake of curiosity.

"The demon has the power to corrode things, including Jing Ke."

"C-Corrode?!"

"Lucky for him, it was just one side of his thigh. But then he jumped into a burning house accidentally when he tried to dodge the demon's attack. If not for Bai Chuan encountering him by chance, he would have died."

Xiao Hua suddenly does not feel like eating, so she ties up the packet with the remaining potato chips for later to enjoy. As she drank her tea, she thought that she had to make sure her eyes did not stare at Jing Ke's thigh the next time she met him.

The next day, Doctor Bai returned late at night and finally found out that Yu Zheng knew about Jing Ke's history thanks to Xiao Hua's unnatural reaction of being astonished when he graciously told her what he managed to find out.

It was funny to see Doctor Bai give Yu Zheng a cold treatment and the latter do his best to coax his angry lover.

Xiao Hua knew better than to pick sides and keep herself out of their argument that will definitely have wild reconciliation later.