Fooled

Both Madame Lei and Ming were wide-eyed as they stared at each other and to the shining ring. Then hurried to the yard and looked around, but... not a soul was present. Ming jumped up the roof to check if anyone was within the area, at the bamboo thicket, at the brook (hoping she was there again playing with the fish), at the pathway to the main residences… and to the wide entrance of the woodlands. His eyes dazzled in elation... because there... he spotted a girl walking into the trees.

"Ma, over there." He shouted with exhilaration as he darted ahead while his mom followed suit. But midway on the trail before they would enter the forest entrance, "Ming 'er, it stopped shining," cried Madame Lei. It didn't stop Ming, rather, he zoomed in and used his ability to quicken his feet to where he had seen the girl he believed was Xinyi. He had to locate her, regardless.

He set his mind on bringing Xinyi back. Even if she had no connection to the sorceress or the fairy. Ming never cared about such things. If she was, the better so he could protect her. Yet, if not, it didn't matter. What mattered were those sad eyes. He also knew she didn't deserve what he did and yearned to right his wrong. Also, as a man of principle, his honest self would not allow him to let her go.

As for Madame Lei, she stayed and investigated the surroundings. She recalled her grandma's notes mentioning that the original disciple, Madame Lei's great matriarch, claimed that the Sorceress' power would manifest in the woods where she lived. However, nothing looked extraordinary or anything worth noticing. She directed her attention to where Ming was, but he was nowhere in sight. Hence, turned back to Anjing.

Just as she was about to run, someone jumped on her path, startling her to leap yards further from the man. "Damn!" she swore. She didn't notice this guy's presence, and it's possible there could be over one around her. "Who are you? Why are you here?" The man didn't say a word.

Madame Lei observed he bore a black suit and a grim mask on his face. He remained unmoving, but she saw the persistence of a seasoned warrior. She felt pressure on the way he stood like a master in disguise, but uncertain if he was an enemy or not. Somehow, the man didn't leak any sense of danger toward her, but she couldn't be foolish to trust a masked man stopping in her tracks amid the darkness.

While talking, her mind calculated the gap if she could make a run to the pavilion. Her feet moved, but her attention was on him. She was careful not to give a hint where she planned to go. Anjing pavilion was a bedraggled residence, but she knew there's more in it than meets the eye.

As she entered Anjing earlier, she senses the ring echoed to the painting and to every corner of the room. Aside from the painting, the objects at the corners resembled an attack formation in one of her grandmother's notes. She could use that formation to trap the enemies, the same as she used to do in her house back in the Lei clan's ancestral lands.

Madame Lei's eyes were at the forest, but her feet moved step by step, implying she would attack anytime. Yet, none of those were her plans. "Speak, are you an enemy or not?" she asked, but the man didn't reply. He remained steadfast while his eyes firmly fixed on her.

Then in a blink of an eye, the man sprinted toward the forest, leaving her behind and completely gone from her sight. Madame Lei was stunned at first but as a veteran fighter, she didn't remain in that state for long and the first thing which came to her mind was, "MING, RUN!?!" She shouted with all her might… and prayed with all sincerity that he heard her.

In haste, she ran, fearing Ming's life was in danger as he followed the man's route. Without a doubt, that guy was way more powerful than her son. Oh, how she wished at this very moment that she had powers too. Madame Lei felt helpless to witness such lightning speed, making her gasped in fear as the hairs on her neck and nape bristled.

She was too stressed for having too much self-confidence and not reading the man well. It never occurred to her he was after Ming all this time. She thought of fooling the guy, but he outsmarted her instead. "Curse you, whoever you are. Don't you dare touch my son!?!" she shrieked. "Ming, be safe," she prayed again as she jumped and ran on trees.

----- o -----

As for Ming, he ran around in a frenzy trying to track the lady he saw when he stood on the rooftop... but same as this morning, he couldn't see where Xinyi went. Ming rounded the forest again and used the wind to move the bushes and every shrub just to make certain she was not hiding behind it.

Then later... he saw a tree with white markings of an animal and ceased running. He held on to a tree with his chest rising and falling as sweat ran down his forehead, down to his chin.

"I've been here three times," he said between breaths, fearing the unavoidable.

Ming grew weary as he looked around. He suspected he was in the center of an illusion trap right now.