Chapter ~6~

"What-" her voice broke off when Jun Sheng turned to her.

Jun Sheng quickly pursed her lips to hide the stains of blood even though she knew that there was a good chance that Pei Yi would have already seen it, and judging by her expression, she, indeed, had already seen.

Pei Yi's mouth opened to ask but-

"Why are you here."

With receiving no response other than what Jun Sheng took as a child's feeble pride being stamped on, she turned her head back to the levitating amber things in front of her.

All Pei Yi saw was Jun Sheng closing her eyes and mumbling something under her breath. She couldn't hear what she was saying, and doubt that she was making any audible noise. She couldn't tell. All of her attention was attracted by the cracked and sickly paleness of Jun Sheng's lips.

Before she was to make anymore comments, bursts of blood exploded out of Jun Sheng.

Pei Yi's pupils narrowed to slits, fully revealing her shining, silver and clear eyes.

"What the f(13+ word)k are you doing?!"

Jun Sheng ignored her and watched coldly as her own blood splattered onto the amber seals. She watched as the red stained into the gold, somehow merging, burned into it. Droplets ceased into the surrounding barrier, making the magic shield blaze with a golden light.

Seeing this, she finally sighed out. She then tilted her head at Pei Yi and said with a slightly mocking attitude: "Saving my house. Duh."

Pei Yi rolled her eyes, but her gaze drifted to the slashes on Jun Sheng's arms. Somehow they've stopped bleeding.

Just then, a darker mist crawled up around the amber. It seemed to sizzle as it touched the surface, however it was wearing it away, bit by bit.

Jun Sheng's expression hardened. So this is the reason that the shield weakened all of a sudden.

If she had…

But there was no 'if's. She suppressed the throbbing pain of her temples and lungs, the pain from the cuts seemed to be so far away from her. She swallowed the bloody sweetness at the back of her throat.

She was starting to see double. That wasn't exactly a good sign.

A slash of new blood covered Jun Sheng's old ones.

When Jun Sheng turned around, Pei Yi still held the blade of mana in her hand, with a slashed arm holding in front of her and towards the ambers.

"Why?" Wasn't wasn't a necessary question.

"Because...I was here to prevent you from your dark deeds."

Not an answer to her question but, somehow Jun Sheng understood.

The mist dissipated under two layers of magical blood, the hole in the barrier closed and activated its self sanitising ability. All intruders were eliminated.

"Aaaand, now, we retreat." Jun Sheng winked at Pei Yi: "Wanna come in and sit for a cup of tea? Maybe a midnight snack?"

————————————————

Pei Yi blinked at the plate of peanuts for a second. But to Jun Sheng's surprise, she didn't say anything and picked up two and threw them in her mouth.

Pei Yi lifted an eyebrow in delight while crunching, and after she swallowed, she spoke.

"These taste nice!" Then she picked up another like she didn't have a care in the world.

Mei Yang had joy spread on her face as she smiled at Pei Yi's amable words, ''thank you."

Jun Sheng looked at the girl leaning back in the inn's wooden chair, the normal posture all lost.

Pei Yi had her eyes half-closed and simply focused on the slight saltiness and crunchiness of the snack. After the fight and struggle, she felt… somehow different. Maybe even a feeling which could be described as content.

'Strange,' she thought.

She didn't really want to think about anything else right now, so she closed her eyes and fumbled for the plate of roasted peanuts.

These are filling. They energise her.

Mei Yang left the room to shut the inn doors and tidy up the mess, leaving only Jun Sheng and Pei Yi in the room. Jun Sheng drew a stool and sat opposite of Pei Yi. She saw that there was obvious tiredness displayed between her brows. Pei Yi somewhat sensed the gaze and opened her eyes.

Jun Sheng awkwardly turned her head away for a moment, then she thought of something and smiled sadistically instead.

"What are you going to do?" Pei Yi was alert by the smile. There's going to be something that Jun Sheng thought to do, which normally doesn't mean Pei Yi saying: "Hey, that's awesome!", not that Pei Yi would ever say that.

Jun Sheng gave a sweet, little smile and went into the kitchen, soon returning with two clay jugs, with a red cloth covering the top of it.

Pei Yi observed her cautiously.

"Guess what this is."

Pei Yi licked her slightly dry lips and lifted a tired arm to point the bold ink writing on the cloth,;Liquer. Swiftly, Jun Sheng took two disks out, as if out of thin air, and filled them with liquid from the jug.

She handed one to Pei Yi, ''take only a sip."

She added the last sentence as a warning but, thirsty as Pei Yi (who had thought; hey, how bad is alcohol), took a not-so-big but still a little too much chug of the drink but instead was taken aback, thus she nearly spat it all out, however her upbringing forbade such a behaviour so she was forced to choke; face going a little pink and cheeks puffing to keep her from opening her mouth.

Jun Sheng looked at the 'hamster' and didn't bother hiding the laugh in her voice as she said: "A little too spicy for you?"