14.)Bath

The steam rose and Li Wei suddenly fell into thought,

'Should i tell him all of what happened to me?'

Suddenly Li Wei became very conscious of Qiangs gentle hands and comb moving through his damp hair. As well as the undisguised concern in his eyes.

"It was after the banquet..."

After that Li Wei explained the whole thing to Qiang , except for some reason he didn't mention the fact that the person who made the contract was his aunt or the fact that the design had been carved into his body while he didn't have any spiritual power. His mentality was similar to wanted to lie to hide the pain he had gone through in order to make the person he cared about worry less.

Instead he just mentioned it was a woman who wanted the Tiger seal and had painted on a seal on his back that came from his ego in and he couldn't resist because they were stronger. He didn't want to mention that he suffered a gruesome couple hours as a mortal while getting his back carved up.

Qiang hadn't stoped moving his hands from the moment that Li Wei started his story. When it was over he simply handed Li Wei a towel and helped him out of the bath. After drying Li Weis hair and handing him a white robe,one of his own spare robes, he brought Li Wei to the room next door and said good night. A gentle smile on his face the whole time.

He didn't tell Li Wei that he realized that the other was lying. He decided that he would wait until Li Wei eaither spoke up himself or he guilted Li Wei into it.

At this moment a odd feeling came over Qiang Lu, it was a strange anger. A anger that Qiang wasn't sure wether it was directed at himself for not protecting Meigui or at Meigui for lying to him or at the woman who hurt Meigui. Pushing down the anger he disappeared into his room, deciding that he would think about it the next day.

When Li Wei woke up he was in a unfamiliar room, the sun outside was somewhere around mid day. It seemed that he slept much longer than he expected. He slowly made his way to his cloths pushing them on stiffly, trying not to move his arms more than necessary. Any big movements caused a twinge of pain to shoot down his back.

After walking out he stoped abruptly when he saw Qiang sitting at the stone table in the shared courtyard with food. When Qiang looked up he had recovered his shock but still spoke tentatively,

"Mas- Qiang, sorry, Are we... eating outside today?"

Qiang smiled, his heart suddenly happy,

'Now he's saying my name, and using a 'we'. Surprised by his thoughts he wondered, 'this for some reason makes me happy? I wonder why?'

Shaking away the random thoughts Qiang Lu quickly invited the other over and the two sat down. The meal was pleasant, they talked quietly most of Li Wei's attention was on the food though. He had a new respect for food after being deprived of it for so many days, forced to survive off of nuts and stream water would make anyone appreciate a good meal.

After the meal Qiang suddenly spoke,

"I'm sure your wondering on how long your going to stay here? Well i would like it if you stayed here until your wounds are all healed, and after that as well because i'd like to try and remove the contract, to do that i'm going to need to study it. It will probably be most of the year, and after that as well. We need to be prepared for side affects after the spiritual power disappears."

Li Wei only nodded his head, there was one more thing he hadn't told Qiang,

It was the fact that because it marking was carved into his flesh and that the marking would stay even after the spiritual power was gone.

He wasn't sure if it was because he thought that the other might be disgusted with the carving or perhaps it was a instinct to keep the fact hidden otherwise something bad would happen. And so a month went by in a smilair fashion.

The longer Li Wei spent with Qiang Lu the more and more he relaxed his guard.

It's not that he didn't trust his master, but for a person who knew the future he couldn't bring himself to put any deep feelings into anything the pain he would suffer if something did happen…he didn't want to go through that again.

For the purpose of studying to get rid of the curse he often spent time with Qiang and Qiang only ever stayed inside the courtyard with just the two of them. This little world for the two of them was just heat Li Wei needed to relax.

It was a little after noon and Qiang had yet to come out of his room that day, Li Wei was worried after all, they spent almost everyday with each other.

When Qiang finally left he came back he was drunk. He hadn't even said hello and went straight to the courtyard.

Li Wei was very confused but while supporting Qiang into his room his smelled a subtle smell of flower perfume. Woman.

'He was drinking with a woman. No maybe even several different woman. Is that where he went? After spending every day with me he got bored and went to drink with some woman?'

Thought after thought, the rational part of his brain told him that he probably was with a guest, after all this was the Sect master, he wouldn't just go find a woman to drink at random.

But then another thought overwhelmed that thought,

'It's because he's the sect master or course he could call upon any woman. They would practically be jumping at the chance to drink or go to bed with him.'

And oh, how that thought burned, it burned up any other thought that said, 'ask him he'll tell you', or 'don't just make assumptions', and 'it might not be true.' At the time it seemed like a irrational anger, not sadness, just anger. Like he wanted Qiangs Lus attention only to be on him.

His chest burned and overwhelmed by the sudden emotions he couldn't describe he dropped Qiang roughly on the bed and left the room like he was being chase by a terrible monster.

Sitting on a chair in his room he slowly came to a realization.

'I like him, I like Qiang Lu, my master, the sect master.'

The thought made him ecstatic, he realized that he now had something that he didn't have before, a crush. It was so novel, such a great feeling. Wanting to be liked by the same person, the feeling that you get just by thinking about them.

But these sweet feelings only lasted a moment.

He figured out the second thing he felt. Jealousy. A burning Jealousy, one deep in his gut. It seemed that he liked Qiang more than he thought. But it wasn't just that, there was a subtle feeling buried deeper in his heart, a need to control and need to be wanted. And a feeling he recognized as, obsession.

Suddenly he panicked, this was his master! Besides how old was he? He wasn't a child who thought love would always be ok. That it would end in rainbows and sunshine. No, he was with both lifetimes added together 50, 21 here and 29 in the other world. He needed to calm down. Although in books others often said that the book characters obsession made there hearts flutter he wasn't sure weather this was a feel that should be squashed or encouraged.

What if he grew too obsessed and Qiang pushed him away? Would he have to live with that feeling of being rejected for 300 or more years? What if he let his feelings flow freely and Qiang left him?

Not just as Qiang but also as his master? Should he tell him his feelings? Wasn't he his master, not a love interest? Would he feel disgusted? Should he try to make these feelings disappear?

Even if he and Qiang got together what if Qiang wanted a child? Or maybe a another person? Another man or woman? After all this was a person who was born and grew up in this world, he wouldn't find this idea wrong. If a time like that came...What would he do?

If he let the feelings grow not just the desire to control but also the obsession, what if one day he did something bad, because he couldn't control himself?

'What do i do? What do i do?'

As the night wore on Li Wei finally came to a decision.