14 One's True Face

"Shuyun?"

He was suddenly startled awake, awkwardly standing in front of the Mother and Daughter duo. The sudden shock left him in a temporarily state of confusion.

What had just happened?

He brought his hand up to his face as he felt gatherings of sweat at the rim of his hairline. He remembered the events vividly.

He then brought his hand to his neck.

It was still there, perfectly attached.

He couldn't have hallucinated the events before... right?

He looked over at the cause of his 'hallucination'.

Nothing had changed from mere moments before, her indifferent eyes toward him didn't lessen a bit.

While he preformed these strange actions of contemplation, Meiying felt even more confused as to what he was doing.

Was he possibly thinking playing stupid would fool her mother? She knew he wasn't that stupid... or at least, she thought him not to be?

It was only after the period through the stare from Meiying, who didn't know what to do, and her mother, whose name he still didn't know did her snap out of it. While he may have died once, it doesn't completely remove the fright one felt. He was shot dead before, but to die in such a gruesome way as to loose ones head? His two 'deaths' were not comparible.

He quickly figure the events were a trick played by that mischievous mother of Meiying's. Given her lack of reaction, and her status in Meiying's head, Shuyun didn't believe she would kill him.

So far, all words that came out of Meiying's mouth over her mother were nothing other than of praise. It was so much so, that even Shuyun felt jealous, not having similar experiences with his mother in his previous life. Would she risk that image, built since Meiying's birth, to kill him?

Given Meiying's clear priority within her heart, there was no way she would do such a thing. As he had calmed down and viewed his situation at hand logically, he felt more at ease.

"It is as Meiying has said, I have no idea how I ended in your private forest as I possess no memories prior to her care"

The mothers eyes suddenly widened. It sort of shocked him, as it was the first reaction besides the eerie stare of indifference she had been giving him before.

She immediately turned around as she pick up her daughter into the air. Despite her slender figure, it seemed picking up someone nearly that of her own weight was not more than a thought to her.

"When had Nature granted you your name? You should've told me!"

The mother possessed a great smile on her face. Maybe it was one of relief, no one beside her would know.

Meiying's eyes slightly flinched at her mothers sudden excitement, and it didn't escape her mothers eyes.

She couldn't lie to her, her own mother. Having already felt she had greatly disrespected her by directly disobeying the only thing she had ever asked of her, she felt terrible, but to deceive her on top of it, and to her face, was something she couldn't do. But she was already determined to make sure nothing happened to Shuyun. She had already planted seeds to hopefully appease her mothers mind. After she had clearly stated that she had saved Shuyun, she, taking into account her mothers usual personality, would not go out of her way to hurt someone she just cured. Though, she couldn't say anything for sure, as she too felt she didn't know the whole of her mother.

"Nature never named me"

"What?"

For the first time, those knowledgeable, infinite green eyes seemed to finally front something they possessed no knowledge of.

"Shuyun named me"