2 Chapter 2: Xiu'er

Kun Shang: Kun Shang is a 22 years old Palace bodyguard who is on a mission from the Emperor to find three important things. He is the male lead who used to be one of the Emperor's Six Golden Bodyguards. He does not get along very well with his father, thus he had been living in the Palace most of his life. He currently possesses the fire element to the Sword of the Millennial Gods that he currently carries and has incredible martial art skills.

Xiu'er: Xiu'er is a 17 years old beggar who lived on the streets with her older brother and her monkey. She is the female lead who recently moved from the Kingdom of Yanwei, north of China, in search of her only living relative. She now lived in a tiny shed with five other beggar families.

A'Li: A'Li is a five years old monkey (langur) owned by Xiu'er. She raised him from a baby so they are very close. He only eats desserts and sweets and does not like fruits at all. Xiu'er considered him her younger brother and treats him indifferent from how she treats her older brother.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her expression froze and her heart stopped to a pace so slow she could hear every thumping in her ear. Her gaze froze on his face. A million scenes ran through her head: his amusing smirk, sitting under the First Heavenly Tree next to each other, his hand embracing hers, chasing each other around the Tree, him patting her on the head, and taking naps on his lap.

Her hand squeezed the orange tighter and tighter until it was bruised. The images rushing into her head were so vivid and surreal she couldn't take it anymore and started to topple. She's lost all sense of her surroundings. There were words coming at her from him but they were slurred in her head.

It's him, the corner of her lips ever so slowly curled up. She couldn't believe he was actually standing before her. She terribly pushed back the tears in her eyes to the best of her abilities, tried to make her eye sockets larger to hold the tears and not let it slip out. She put the bruised orange with the rest of the oranges on her pulled-out pocket and slapped herself.

Ouch! That hurts. It's real. He's real. And he's standing right in front of her. She gave a rough exhale.

"I'll just... go around, I guess." She finally heard what he was saying. She held out her arm to stop him.

She was not going to let him go this time. How long had she been dreaming for this day to come? How long had she waited for him? And he's just going to leave just like that?

She wanted to test him. She needed to test him. That was the only way for her to know if it really was him, and if she was dreaming. Who knows how long it had been since they had seen each other. For sure, he was going to be more rusty than before, but she just needed to know.

She blinked and faced him straight on, her posture a little taller, her chin a little higher, and her acting mask fell on. She opened her mouth and proudly insulted him for being one of those rich bullies in town, carrying a cowardly sword to scare people but probably a sissy pants behind closed doors. How dare he try to take over her territory, the orange tree. Do those people think they can just own anything they see without any regard for the homeless?

He took a deep breath of surprise, not sure where she was trying to go with this conversation.

"Little Miss, must you go this far for an orange?" Kun Shang knew he was a mature man who wouldn't take this insult literally.

"You don't believe me? Only gay men would wear scarves." She pointed at his maroon scarf, then grabbed an orange from the pocket in her hand. "Let's make a trade. If you can get this orange from my hand and into yours, I'll climb the tree and empty all the oranges for you. If you can't, you have to leave your sword behind." Her chin was high as she looked at him with large eyes.

He blinked down once before getting down from the horse and came up a full head taller than her, but sizes are irrelevant and had nothing to do with skills. His bow towards her was consent that he'd approved.

I'm not going to hurt her, I'm simply going to teach her a lesson and I'll be on my way. Kun Shang had a deep urge to discipline this reckless child who had crossed paths with him. How dare she mock his masculinity.

He put one hand on the small of his back. "I'll use one hand in respect for you."

Xiu'er looked down at how one of her hand was occupied so she made a face that said, "Suit yourself."

He reached out for the orange. As he did so, she leaned towards him and his hand missed the distance. He grabbed it again with the same hand but she dropped her wrist and reversed up so her hand landed on top of his. He went for her hand this time but she stepped back so he kicked the back of her hand, making the orange fly into the air. While Kun Shang had his eyes occupied above, she headbutt him in the chest which made him fall back a couple of steps. Then she measured the fruit to land perfectly on top of her head. When he reached for it again, which was at his eye level now, she curved her back backwards and the orange fell behind her but she caught it with her hand before twirling her body away from him.

Kun Shang had tried to get it once more as it fell behind her but failed. He stared at his hand to see that it was still empty. Xiu'er pulled out her hand with the orange on it. She sneered at him with a hint of humor.

He's definitely more rusty in this lifetime.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath of frustration. He'd been studying her moves and realized that she was no one extraordinary. Her moves didn't imply she knew kung fu but the way she was fast with her hands, she was probably a thief on the street. A thief who was really starting to get on his nerves which made his plan of 'teaching her a lesson' only made him start to embarrass himself.

He advanced forward but as he grabbed to the right, she moved to the left. He grabbed to the left, she swiftly maneuvered to the right. Finally, he was able to make contact with her hand. As soon as their wrists touched, he circled their arms around in large circles then seized hold of the hand with the orange and twisted it to her back.

She squeezed her eyes in the pain that shot from her hand up her arm. The orange dropped to the ground with a soft thud.

"Miss, are you going to be so stubborn as to not give up?"

Kun Shang heard her quickly yell something to her monkey, who had been sitting on the sidelines this whole time watching them. The tiny monkey suddenly came charging at Kun Shang on the ground, baring his teeth and ready to bite. Kun Shang had no choice but to let go of his grip on her and create space between them. He did not have any plans of being bitten by any animal while on his mission. Severely injured in a sword fight? Sure. But being mauled by a baby monkey? No.

A'Li growled at him before climbing onto her shoulder.

He sighed in disbelief. What is going on with these two? So wild and barbaric.

Keeping his virtue, he straightened out his clothes and returned to his horse. With a smooth swing of his leg, he settled on the saddle. "I apologize, Miss. I didn't realize that this was your territory. I'll be on my way now."

To save the future world, he added in his head. He collected the reins of the horse and rode to the east.

The corner of Xiu'er's lips curled up as she watched his back. Don't worry, I'll see you again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first thing Kun Shang wanted to do before he officially set out to accomplish his missions was return home for the first time in five years and bid farewell to his father, whom they had a rough relationship with. Upon returning home, he met their teenage errand boy Sher Tu, who practically had taken the role of caring for his father's health in his place. Kun Shang felt guilty for not being there to take care of his father, but at the same time his father had not been supportive of his life decisions.

Lord Kun was Kun Shang's father who owned a large fishing business in Yu Chi Village. A lot of the villagers were fishermen and worked for Lord Kun whilst growing up there and had slowly turned this into a commercial village.

The problem with this father-son relationship was that Kun Shang's mother, who grew up in the capital, wanted him to become a strong, capable man who could protect the country just like she did, and therefore she sent her son to train in the Palace. As the only son of Lord Kun, he disagreed with the decisions of his late wife until the day she died, believing that Kun Shang should take over the family business. To this day, Kun Shang visited his father less and less to avoid confrontations. However, it seemed that this time he cannot avoid his father any longer. For this time, he may or may not come back alive.