58 Outside the Gates to Home

After Paoxiao dropped off Cheung Fai Guang at the gate, the guards were horrified by his severely beaten appearance. Hollering for the servants, the young master was brought back to his room while others ran about to find both their master and a doctor to look over the young master.

Sometime later after his jaw had been reconnected, with much difficulty, Fai Guang had detailed his encounter with the ruffian that had injured his body to this severe degree. His father, irreconcilably unsatisfied with the state of his son, had marched his way over to the yamen in hopes of having them investigate the matter and find justice for his son.

This matter of Mencheng being turned about to find an imaginary culprit would soon die out in a few days as the Magistrate declared the suspect to have long left town. Cheung Yao Si could not give up and refused to leave it at that. He hired out a few highly intelligent martial arts experts skilled in tracking to hunt down the culprit based on his son's description.

This knowledge, though Commander Jiang personally came to tell it, Li Yu Rong chose to ignore it. If they wanted to hunt after phantoms, what did it have to do with him? However, this was at a later time.

Currently, Li Yu Rong was marching along with a belly full of anger, ignoring Asya's attempts to either get his attention or force her way out of his arms. He held her fast as his eyes remained straight ahead while he tried to calm his simmering rage.

If he looked at her face, saw her swollen cheek, then he would be unable to help the urge of wanting to deal with the scum himself. Unfortunately, there was a drawback of being half demon while holding control of the Palace of the Four Gates. Unless there was a threat to his life or it had something to do with the balance between both the Spirit and Mortal Realms, he couldn't act against humans.

With demon blood flowing through his veins the palace deemed him too op to deal with those of the Mortal Realm. So, like the contracted, he was restricted from acting in violence toward humans. However, unlike the contracted, he wasn't physically prevented from doing so. If he so wanted, without ending up like Paoxiao and the wolves, he could raze Mencheng to the ground.

Only that, afterward, the feeling of a thousand things crawling up his body to sting down would visit upon his flesh. The pain was immense and the poison from the invisible stingers would steal away his five senses. Depending on the severity of his crime his being caged in a void of nothingness could last an entire month.

This was a consequence he had discovered in his youth.

The reason he had gotten away with flinging the knife back to General Bai is that it was a counterattack. While in reality, it was nothing more than revenge, and a simple killing of the chicken to warn the rest, it had been treated as self-defense. Although a knife thrown with General Bai's flimsy strength couldn't even pierce his flesh, he had forced his fear for Asya's life to be a fear for his own life.

Being under the control of the Palace of the Four Gates for so many years he had found many of its loopholes. However, in this instant without any cracks to exploit, he could only borrow a hand to stab the knife.

So, while he was still angry enough to disregard the consequences, Li Yu Rong refused to look at Asya while he quelled his unstable emotions. As they approached the gated entrance to the Palace of the Four Gates he was finally breathing easier. Unhooking his arm from beneath Asya's knees, he carefully set her on her feet, helping to steady her as he released her completely.

Taking a moment to cup her uninjured cheek, his expression was pained as he looked at the welt marring the other. "Next time, if you want to go out, say something first. I won't stop you from going, but if you just leave without a word then how can I protect you properly?"

Though he said this, Li Yu Rong already told the spirits guarding the entrance to prevent her from leaving in the future should she try. When Paoxiao returned, he decided on the way back to give him the standing order to protect Asya by whatever means would prove necessary.

Although Paoxiao, from the times he'd seen him on the other side of the gate, had been hot-headed and acted on emotion, he was quite steady since becoming one of the contracted. Li Yu Rong felt that such an order would not be abused by the golden-eyed demon thus, for Asya's safety, he would take this risk.

As he looked at her glaring wound, Li Yu Rong leaned forward, brushing his lips across the bruising welt. His hand slid from her cheek to the back of her neck as he plundered her mouth that opened in shock over his sudden actions. His tongue dove in to ruthlessly to sample every corner a good five seconds, biting her bottom lip, before letting her go.

"Punishment," he murmured against her lips before straightening, acting as if he hadn't done anything shameless just outside his home in front of so many onlookers.

While Asya was stunned, breath a little unsteady as she processed what he had just done to her, Li Yu Rong slid his attention to the boy standing off to the side. He couldn't help feeling a little appreciative of the boy's skills. Though he hadn't gone all out when he left the Jiang Family Estate, he hadn't exactly been slow and nor did he take the normal route through the streets. Opting to jump across rooftops than to take the long way around, the boy had been able to keep a near perfect stride of him.

"You would be...?" He asked, holding the last syllable a might longer then it should in question. There was something familiar about the boy's appearance, something that hung on the edges of his memories from a long time ago.

The boy held out a gleaming silver coin and rather than answering, he said. "I need to return this since I wasn't needed to show the young lady home." He was polite, his movements refined as he held himself with a noble dignity. Though he was no different from urchins off the streets, his small and tattered clothes were kept neat. Though he couldn't help being dirty, he kept himself as well as he could, and coupled with his noble air one would take a moment or more to notice the less refined details.

Having recovered from Li Yu Rong's surprise attack, Nastasia moved forward before he could respond to the boy. Taking the boy's hand and curling his fingers over the coin, she shook her head. "You keep. Paoxiao don't know where he going, can just help next time."

Liu Yating hesitated a moment before returning the silver coin to sit beside the first one he had gotten. Then, thinking of an issue, he asked. "How will I be able to help you next time?" If they part ways here, there's no guarantee that they'd run into each other again for him to be able to help her.

Thinking about it and recalling what Li Yu Rong had said before he angrily snatched her up to march out from the estate, and the screams that tragically followed in their wake, Nastasia said. "Come back early the day after tomorrow." She would rest a day seeing as Li Yu Rong seemed rather concerned about it.

She also made a mental note to be careful when she went out next. Although that fellow that squabbled with Jiang Ya Lin was a nasty sort of guy, and while she honestly wanted to deck him after he slapped her, breaking both his hands and jaw and whatever else Paoxiao decided to do was a bit much. However, becoming even more clear that this world was of a different mindset, she could only do her best to tread carefully.

Liu Yating waited a moment, but seeing as she said nothing more, he then gave a polite nod then walked away. Before doing so, the boy gave Li Yu Rong a look full of complicated feelings as he turned to go back the way he came.