~First love~

'Mingxia, you taught me that there could actually be something beautiful about this ugly world so why did you leave? I'll follow you to hell and back' ~ Mu Chen

In an abandoned courtyard, the continuous sound of coughs rang in the air. In a room was a sickly pale faced young man seated on a chair, his eyes were cloudy white, and his lips were blood red, sweat dribbled from his forehead as his coughs became even louder. Using a handkerchief to wipe his lips, the faint smell of blood permeated the room.

"Master" a soft voice spoke out in panic. Behind him was an alluring woman dressed in purple, her figure enchanting enough to seduce even the most chaste of men, rushing to his side in worry, she saw the blood on the clothing and couldn't help but weep silently.

"Master..." she cried out aggrievedly "...is she worth it?"

The young man gave a gentle smile at her words as his eyes rested on the table, there lay a drawing of a little girl about the age of 5. Her black hair was tied in two cute ponytails and her obsidian eyes twinkled like bright stars; her lips were cherry pink as she gave a cute smile.

An ink brush in his hand, he used the other hand to trace an outline of the drawing. The drawing was incomplete and even after so many years he still couldn't complete it. Turning back towards the alluring woman by his side, a trickle of blood dribbled past his lips as he gave her a painful smile.

"It's time"

The woman stared at him for a while, her heart ached for her master as she watched him stretch out his pale fingers towards her. Her fingers twitched slightly as she hesitated for a moment before reaching out her hands to grab his pale ones.

Helping him off from his seat, she led him towards another room, her figure trembled with each step as silent tears escaped her eyes especially when she felt the light weight of the body by her side.

 The man gave another smile as he asked her in a daze "Ruo, Ruo are you crying?"

 The woman choked another sob when she heard his question as she stared at his cloudy white eyes.

 "Of course, not" She sniffled.

The man gave a hearty laugh at her words.

"Ruo Ruo, I might be blind but I'm not deaf, I believe I know the sounds of a person tears"

His words only made the woman weep louder as she led him to the entrance of the room. The young man stared at her in helplessness not knowing how to comfort her.

"Ruo Ruo, the young man whispered again. Don't cry ok, you're ugly when you cry."

Hearing this, the woman stared at him in helplessness, he had never seen her before so how did he know that she was ugly when she cried.

Guessing her thoughts, he smiled again before he whispered faintly "you said it before, I still remember a little fox who would always come crying and end up telling me how ugly she looked when she cried just for me to comfort her."

Hearing his words, she couldn't help but laugh, yes, she used to say it but that was all in the past.

"We're here" she whispered faintly

Patting her by the shoulder, the young man let go of her as he walked into the room, though his steps were unsteady, he still knew every nook and cranny of the corner of the room Afterall he had lived there for years.

 On the room's floor were complicated drawings of circles and various symbols around it. Different cores of beasts were laid around different corners of the array as a faint glow emanated from it.

 Holding a knife in his hands, he approached the middle of the array and sat silently on the ground. The expression on his face was peaceful at the moment, even liberating.

Looking at the knife in his hands, his eyes turned gentle as he mercilessly slit his wrists.

Drip..

Crimson blood dripped from his wrists onto the array as it started glowing red, the array's aura suddenly turned sinister as it glowed even brighter. His face became even more pale as his blood drained faster.

Turning towards the door, he gazed at the woman who stood weeping silently, a smile on his lips as he thought 'she was always such a crybaby'

"Ruo Ruo.." Hearing her name, the woman stared in horror as she watched her master's life force being drained by the sinister spell "... she's worth it and even more"

Suddenly he spat out a mouthful of blood as he held his hand over his aching heart.

It had been 12 years since he first met her, he fell into a slight daze as he remembered her smile thinking back to the past of how they first met.

A little boy of 6 years sat on the step with an ink brush and a piece of paper in his hands, his small hands traced each outline as he drew with a content expression. A small little purple fox lay on his lap yawning continuously as it brushed its little tail over his arms tickling him slightly.

"Ruo Ruo, stop being mischievous, you'll mess up my drawing" The little boy spoke out helplessly as his cloudy white eyes stared at the little fox playing around on his lap.

In response, the little fox only used its tail to brush against his arms even wilder causing him to giggle out loudly as he shouted helplessly

"Ok, ok, you win! Stop tickling, ok" At his words, the little fox stopped playing and lay in his arms obediently.

Suddenly loud footsteps were heard, the little boy looked up startled as he sensed other children approaching his direction. He became fearful at the thought and stood up to run away only to end up tripping on a stone which made him land heavily on the ground.

"There he is..." a child suddenly screamed. "...It's the blind jinx"

Suddenly, the little boy was surrounded by children around his age and even a few older ones. Clenching his fists, he hid the little fox in his embrace but as he tried to hide his drawing, another kid suddenly snatched it from his hand. Looking at him with mocking eyes, the kid spoke angrily

"White eyed jinx, whose drawing did you steal today?" As the little boy said this, he also kicked him heavily on the arm causing him to wail out in pain.

Gritting his teeth, he looked at them in the face and spat out angrily" I didn't steal it, give it back! Its mine"

As he tried to snatch it back, another boy pushed him heavily on the ground and stepped on his head with his foot, causing his face to sink into the dirt. This time a girl spoke out mockingly.

 "Hmmph! Everyone knows that you're a blind jinx, how can a blind person draw? You obviously stole it!"

Hearing this he gritted his teeth and angrily screamed out "I didn't steal it! I didn't steal it!"

Another boy sneered at his words "Since he doesn't walk to talk, let's beat him up"

At his words, all the children attacked him together, kicking and pulling his hair out. In his arms he held the little fox closer to his chest as he received the full brunt of their attacks.

 His eyes turned red with resentment, it was always like this every day, he was always beaten by others, always called a blind jinx and always isolated from everyone, even his own family did not care, to them he was the result of a disgraceful one-night union of his drunk father and a prostitute. An extra baggage that they wanted to throw away.

Suddenly, his eyes turned sinister as he thought

He hates them all!

He wished...

He really wished...

That they would all die!

Suddenly, a soft voice called out angrily

"What are you doing?"

The little children turned their heads only to see a little girl behind them, her cheeks were puffed up as she roared angrily.

"Let him go!'

He suddenly snapped out of his sinister daze as he raised his head slightly towards the voice.

The other children stared in a daze at the cute angry little sister that arrived. A boy suddenly smiled at her before speaking happily

"Little sister, you're not from around here right, don't you know that he's a jinx?"

"Yeah" the other children chorused, "he's bad luck and that's why we beat him so that the bad luck goes away".

The little girl who appeared suddenly smiled innocently as she spoke out

"Aah! so you beat him to remove bad luck, right?"

All the other children nodded their heads together as they continued to convince her of their words.

When the little boy on the floor heard her words his eyes once again became solemn, it seemed like she believed them, so no one was going to help him after all, just as his gaze was about to become even darker, he suddenly heard several shrieks.

A growling-like sound was heard as a huge dog suddenly appeared.

The cute girl stared at the other children with a grin as she commanded

"Get em, Blackie!"

All of a sudden, the children panicked, and several screams were heard as the dog pounced towards them.

The dog had pounced on the boy who had been stepping on the beaten boy's face and the boy watched in horror as the horrid drool of the huge dog landed on his face, when he saw the huge canines of the creature, he was so afraid that he immediately pissed his pants and fainted. The dog was very huge and intimidating and scared the children to death!

So, they all ran away fearfully leaving behind the miserable beaten-up boy on the floor.

"Hmmph! Dare to bully and then Run!"

As she said this, she approached the boy who lay miserably on the ground, she watched with twinkling eyes as he raised his head and stared at her and suddenly, she fell into a daze.

The little boy could tell that she was standing in front of him and seeing that she hadn't spoken, he suddenly became a little nervous.

Suddenly, he felt a pair of soft hands hold his cheeks and a visional image suddenly appeared in his mind; a little girl with black hair tied in two cute ponytails as her obsidian eyes twinkled like bright stars, her lips were cherry pink as she gave him a cute smile.

He was struck dumb at the sight in his mind, all his life he had been blind and even his drawings were based on the descriptions that people gave of things. But for the first time in his life, he actually saw a real picture, not one that he just imagined but a real picture and it was of the little sister in front of him!

"So pretty"

He snapped out of his daze at her words as she said again with a smile

'Your eyes are so pretty, little brother"

Hearing her words, a slight blush appeared on his dirt-stained face.

"I'm not a little brother, I obviously senior you!"

 As he said this, the blush on his cheeks spread slowly to his neck as he bowed his head down in embarrassment not daring to meet her gaze any longer.

The girl only giggled at his words as she said

'What's your name, big brother?"

"it's Mu Chen"

"Ok I'm Mingxia! let's be friends, ok"

"En"

 Ever since that day, the two little children met together for several days at the same spot. He would show her his several drawings and she would always praise him. It was the happiest moment of his life and he wished sincerely for the feeling to last forever.

The other children who used to bully him didn't dare to disturb him again because she was always with him as well as the scary looking Dog.

Only they knew how frightened they were when such a big dog pounced on them!

But strangely a month later, she suddenly disappeared, he waited at the same spot for several days, but she never appeared again.

However, although she never appeared again, he never forgot her, as he grew older, he gradually tracked her down and found out that she was a daughter of the prestigious Wang family and that she was even engaged!

His heart had felt hurt then, but he didn't mind.

He was content with watching her from afar but in the following years his health also detoriated rapidly and he had to go and seek treatment in another kingdom for an entire year.

Who knew that what awaited him when he returned was the devastating news of the death of the one whom he longed for?

He sent his shadow guards to investigate only to find out that her stepsister and fiancé were responsible for her death!

The first thing that he did was to cast a spell to try and summon her soul but when he realized that her soul was trapped in a dark abyss, he finally grew extremely fearful.

It took him several days to finally set up this array. He was ready to journey to the dark abyss to call out her soul, if not her soul would be devoured!

Even though he knew that it would be at the cost of his life, he didn't care.

That was just how much he loved her.

"Mingxia, I'm coming for you"

As he travelled through a dark void, he saw a figure tangled in the darkness, it was her soul!

"Mingxia!" He called out in panic.

"Wake up! Don't give in to the darkness!" Remembering the person whom she hated the most, he created an image and planted it in her mind in hopes that it would stimulate her to wake up and fight!

Ever so slowly, he watched as a bloody tear escaped her eyes and his heart ached at her pain but at this, he also breathed a sigh in relief, she was safe.

Watching as she fought the darkness , he smiled as he spoke gently

"I'll send you out now, as he said this the light from his body increased and suddenly turned blinding, he watched as she closed her eyes and couldn't help but smile, shattering a part of his soul he used the power to finally send her out of the Abyss.

The other part of his soul lay there, injured and weak as he felt the darkness close in on him. He felt the pain as the darkness slowly covered him like a blanket as he thought finally.

"Mingxia, I hope we meet again"

Saying this, he finally gave in to the darkness, a contented smile on his lips

Ruo Ruo watched with shaky hands as the sinister aura of the array finally disappeared. Rushing frantically towards the man's body, she held him in her hands as she wept silently. His body was ice cold, and she couldn't help but bury him more into her bosom.

'Foolish Master' she thought aloud 'did you honestly think I'd let you abandon me?' With a smile, she couldn't help but speak

"Have you forgotten? I'm your contracted beast, the day you picked me up was the day I swore to follow you to death"

Resting her head on his chest, she whispered lightly

"Master, wait for me"

And with that she transformed into a beautiful six tailed fox, her tails curled around her master's body, and she lay peacefully by his side till she breathed her last.

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Author : *Sniffles lightly* I'm not crying, I just have sand in my eyes.

Audience : "....."

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