Eight: Personal Trainer for a day

After being lost in the labyrinth for almost two hours, Fengjiu was finally back in her guest's chambers. She moved her fingers over her lips, thinking about the kiss that had happened between herself and the cold emperor. She recalled the taste that had lingered over her mouth before she had ran away.

The kiss had been sweet, but his lips had been so cold. Fengjiu reminded her, it was simply an accident. But it was pure truth that the kiss had her first kiss. But when their lips had touched, she felt a feeling she had not felt before. It had been a feeling of curiosity, and extreme wonder. Fengjiu was wondering if she would ever get to experience the feeling again.

"Since you are able to run and jump so agilely, your wounds must have healed already," a voice said coldly to her. She realised the emperor was now standing over her, having materialised in her room suddenly. He must have been referring to yesterday's incident, Fengjiu thought, and a wave of embarrassment gushed over her in her mind.

"You came in without knocking," Fengjiu said crossly. "You can't do that to girls! What if we were changing in the room, and you suddenly came in-"

"Then, I will close my eyes and pretend I saw nothing," the cold god said. "But since you are fine, it's time to come out of your cave." He reached for her sleeve and offered her his hand. Fengjiu smiled shyly. So the emperor was holding her hand, already? Although he was just trying to help her up.

She stood up quickly, and clumsily forgot her feet were tucked inside the folds of the blanket, and as she was still pulling on his hand, both of them tumbled into the bed, with the god crashing on top of her. The god smirked as their lips bumped against each other.

"What was that?" he asked sarcastically.

"An accident. Sorry," she said apologetically, and tried to move away from him in her embarrassment. Was he actually smiling in a weird way at her, or was he trying to act cool?

They exited her room and made their way around to the main hall of the palace. Fengjiu followed the god into a strange room, which appeared to be different from the others. With a wave of his right hand, Dong Hua magically transformed their clothes into Dry-Fit sports attire. "Exercise," he said, his eyes twinkling with delight. "We all need it."

Fengjiu watched as the room illuminated by itself, and a gigantic stereo came to life by itself upon hearing Dong Hua's voice commands. "Music," he had said. Voice recognition. By just listening to his voice, the stereo began dancing and switching to the genre of the music as he commanded. Fengjiu also realised he was wearing what looked like a mortal fitness tracker band on his wrist. "Are these all...mortal technology?"

"Correction," said the god. "These are upgraded versions of TECHnology, improved by a few thousand times than the originals. Definitely more advanced than that of the 21st century mortal realm."

Fengjiu had also heard from Cheng Yu of how Dong Hua was an expert in modifying and upgrading Liansong's magical weapons, but the fact that he had developed and made technological advances to these mortal gadgets had been so bewildering to her. She headed towards one of the treadmills and hopped on it. "How does this work? Does it start up automatically?" She recalled painfully in her mind how she had went with Xiaoni and Xiaoru to such a place and ended up falling hard when she realised the machine had an autostart function, and the speed of the machine had been way too fast for a lazy fox like herself. Fortunately, the gym's young owner, Ye Qingti, had been quite a charitable hunk, and had treated her to a protein shake in return, but she had rejected him for a further date because falling in love wasn't in her dictionary.

"Ah, it detects your immortal energy," Dong Hua said. "Syncs your vitals automatically. Here, put this on." He tossed a pink band to her. "Just shake your wrist, and you can control the speed of these things."

She did as he had told her, and was amazed to see her pulse, blood pressure and other information showing up on the digital screen as the machine calculated how long she had to exercise to be fit. As she seldom exercised, she was dismayed to realise that the machine wanted her to work out for 45 minutes. She protested, and complained that it was too long.

"Do you actually want to do it the traditional way, and run in the field?" Dong Hua asked, and she fell speechless. What was with this man, acting like he didn't care at all about everything and now he was insisting that she exercise? She wasn't even close to being fat. Apparently, immortals had a BMI of their own, and it was even more annoying than being a fat human, as Donghua had been such a strict personal trainer. Next, was the the bicycling and the push-ups, all conducted by machines. Compared to Ye Qingti's gym, she had to put in double as much effort to pedal on the sports bike and stretch herself on the auto-counting push-up machine, due to how sophisticated these machines were. Little wonder that Dong Hua was so fit. She had wondered how his abs were like under that loose sports tee, and almost salivated.

After an hour and a half had gone by and Dong Hua decided she had done ample workouts, it was time for them to hit the sauna, separately of course. Again, Dong Hua had simply wanted to go for a sauna, and because he didn't want her out of his sight, he took her along. They were separated from each other by a small partition in the sauna, and it was the only time Fengjiu had even seen him sweat, since he was as cold as ice. He hadn't seemed to even sweat in the gym, particularly as they were wearing Dry-Fit sports attire.

From where she sat, all she could see was his body up to his shoulders followed by his thighs down to his feet, as his chest was hidden from view by the partition. She watched him flip his long white hair and lean on the wall on his back in a relaxed manner as he read one of the mangas he had brought with him. His otherworldly looks had been so appetizing to feast her eyes on, but at the same time, he had been so cold to her and everyone else. There must be a way that she could melt all that ice around him, she told herself. Which woman would want to date an iceberg? She laughed. Hearing her laugh, he shot her an annoyed glare and continued reading.

She was burning, not just from the heat of the sauna itself but simply by watching the parts of his bare body that was within her view. He had pearly white skin, which shimmered under the sunlight. She played with her braids, watching him and imagining him dance under the moonlight. It had be so sexy. The thought of that, along with the heat, was already making her breathless. "Hey, how long do we have to stay in here?" she shouted at him. The god ignored her and continued reading. After fifteen minutes, the magic sauna promptly dressed them in bathrobes and evicted them.

"What now?" she asked.

"Shower," Dong Hua said, without a single change in his facial expression. How did he maintain the same expression throughout the entire time she was with him? The question popped up in her mind. He must be a single-minded cold person who doesn't care for anyone! Fengjiu thought. As if he could magically read her mind like the X-Men, he sneered.

"Hurry up and hit the showers," he said, and she humphed back at him, before striding quickly into the bathroom. She wondered what was next in his plan for her. The answer came to her mind suddenly. Food! After exercising, the regulars at the gym would rush into the canteen for food. You consume calories and you burn them with exercise! She gloated at the thought that a brunch fit for a princess would be awaiting her.

While she was right, she was dumbfounded by the plate before her.

"Healthy meal," Dong Hua said with a smile. While it was a smile, it was an icy-cold, mean-looking smile. "As your personal trainer for a day, I've got to remind you that you need to eat healthily."

Ugh, Fengjiu thought. What was with the glass of water, salad and the roasted plain chicken breast in front of her? She was a sweet-loving person. Chocolate, ice-cream and fries were life for her! She took one bite of the food and realised how bland it was. Did Dong Hua have diabetes and high blood pressure? She then vaguely remembered him saying to her during the event in the mortal world, "I have pre-diabetes." Was that why he was making her work out and eat healthy food?

He frowned upon seeing that she was hesitating in eating the food. "I prepared the food myself. Are you not eating?"

She quickly took a large mouthful of the dish and downed it all with the glass of water. "Delicious, indeed. Thank you, Dijun."

He seemed pleased as he indulged in his dish, which was exactly like what was on her plate. "Good. After the meal, Si Ming will give you a tour of the facilities. I have a conference to attend."

"A conference in the Sky Kingdom?" Fengjiu asked. While this god had been eccentric, she had to admit he had been intriguing. From his white hair to his purple robe and the cold atmosphere about him, he was one in a kind.

"Definitely," the god replied. "Meetings still need to be held in the Nine Heavens, law and order still needs to be maintained and the newly ascended immortals still need to receive their appointments."

"Seems like a lot of work," Fengjiu commented.

"Definitely. Did you think everything comes easily in the Sky Kingdom? Or would you like to take over my duties for a day and see how it would be like to feel what it's like to be in my shoes?"

Fengjiu shook her head. "No more questions, Dijun. I'll just go with Star Lord Si Ming." She looked downwards, averting his gaze before he changed his mind and asked her to go along with him. "You just go on. I'll just um, read the book you've asked me to read."

"Good," Dong Hua said. "I suppose you're now getting to realise how crucial books are for your knowledge?"

Ugh, don't get started now, Dijun, Fengjiu said in her mind. Since young, she often fell asleep while reading. She would make excuses to skip classes and struggled in studying. She didn't want to be reminded that she should be preparing to be a high immortal. Hopefully, this wouldn't happen for another twenty thousand years, she hoped. Dong Hua, however, loved books and had a few libraries of his own. She assumed that they probably needed to have a common language between them, and it wasn't C++. Perhaps if she started loving books, he would be easier to convince to come out of his shell? And maybe, this way, she would be closer to achieving her goal of repaying his gratitude when he found his true love. He would be extremely thankful to her for it, she thought and smiled to herself again. What was reading a book to her? She had spent so much time in the mortal realms, almost got run down by a car and attacked by a tiger demon once when hiking, and she was undaunted. She reminded herself that she was after all, a future queen, and a fearless nine-tailed fox.