Interest

"You always use him however you want, huh?" An Rong smirked, he do not know how to express his real feeling seeing his best friend, Mang We Jing using his subordinate, Zen Ming who is also one of their friends, just for his face.

For An Rong, it is understandable that Mang We Jing feels tired and does not want to be bothered by the hassle thing because they just going through 5 years long-rough time and have not even had time to rest properly yet.

But still, An Rong pities Zen Ming. Though, deep inside, a part of him felt grateful since Mang We Jing never told him to do anything like that - a cringe-act which is over his self-boundary.

'If I'm the one who needs to do that sort of thing, I swear I will never follow him again.' Thought An Rong himself while hiding his face, giggling. He somehow felt a bit funny because of Mang We Jing's good judgment and, his friend, Zen Ming's fate.

Ignoring An Rong's teasing, Mang We Jing opened the carriage's cover beside him a little to look at how the situation outside has progressed.

Just as he flips it up, swoosh; Lightly, the wind blows the cover, making it open bigger than he wants. His eyes catch a small figure - Outside, a young boy walking casually, unaffected by the crowd situation. It looks as if he was trying to get out from there in hurry but suddenly, the boy stopped. He turned half of his body toward the scream of the sudden heat from the crowd - Mang We Jing also turned his head over.

"Ahhhh!"

"Uwahhh!"

"Wow!"

Various screams came out from the crowd when Zen Ming suddenly went near them, and almost touched one of the ladies there.

All types of noise and screaming can be heard clearly in his ear but, his ear also caught another sound. Mang We Jing glanced - The boy laughed a little while shaking his head to the left and right a few times, his face showed disbelief yet entertaining expression toward the situation.

He had a glimpse of the way that boy acted when he reacted to Zen Ming's propitious act. Mang We Jing unconsciously smiled. He felt the reaction from that young boy was cute and unexpected – which is different from others and hard to see when Zen Ming is in the act.

Mang We Jing shifted his view towards Zen Ming shortly again before turning back toward that boy. He gave him a curious stare. Usually, not only women, but men also fall into Zen Ming's charm, but the boy in front of him is absolutely different - his eyes can see that.

'Not only he did not affect by Zen Ming's, but he also had a disbelief expression,' Mang We Jing was amazed by the boy, who was not attracted by his friend's charm and beauty.

'...He had different look in his eyes,' Mang We Jing nodded lightly agreeing that was how a man should behave – not easily fall into the beauty trap.

The boy who did not realise where he was standing spoke unconsciously, "Hilarious." Then, he left the place.

After the boy left the place, Zen Ming also finished his job. The carriage took its leave from Hépíng street to the royal palace.

*****

Along the way back to the capital, Mang We Jing's mind became hectic. Again, and again, the image of the boy he saw at Hépíng street repeated and still lingers around in his mind.

He cannot understand, there was nothing that really impressive about the boy except how he acted before, which actually did not bother him that much to make his mind occupy with him. However, he realizes the boy was not a usual commoner; he was wearing a pair of low-grade cloth and had some dirt here and there all over him.

'His tidiness didn't look like one of those people,' Mang We Jing suddenly smiled while looking outside of the carriage – While thinking of it, he remembered the boy's face that was full of dirt.

Wong looked at him weirdly. On the other hand, Zen Ming and An Rong were surprised to see the prince's sudden expression.

Meanwhile, a man sitting opposite him had been quietly sitting on the couch since before, ignoring him acting crazy alone because he had noticed the prince change since earlier—the moment he lay his eyes on a shabby young man in the Hépíng street. Yan Xu Wei changed his view toward the outside too.

Yan Xu Wei has known the prince, Mang We Jing since they were little. When Mang We Jing had that expression, it only mean one thing; He had found something that caught his attention. Though he did not understand why his childhood friend was interested in someone so shabby, and a man at that, he decided to ignore it and be in his own world.

Once again, Mang We Jing's sudden expression shocked the people in the carriage, but this time, it was not only Zen Ming and An Rong, but all four of them including Wong and also Yan Xu Wei who almost fall asleep being lullaby by the soft wind coming from the forest.

Yan Xu Wei's eyes widening looked at the unforeseen behaviour his childhood friend had just made - Mang We Jing, who looked happy just now, looked sad this time. Like how a child got their sweets stolen.

'…Disgusting.' Yan Xu Wei shake his head a bit then ignored him again; He closed his eyes, landing his head on the carriage.

"Ahem!" An Rong tried to change the weird atmosphere around them. He handed Mang We Jing some water.

"Huh?" With a full of questions, Mang We Jing looked at An Rong, wondering why he give him the water out of the blue but, his hand still took the bottle of water and drank it a little. He tried to ease his emotion. He felt a bit sad and frustrated thinking about the boy from the street. Though, the reason was still unclear in his head.

'He seems smart…but there's a small chance we will meet again…' Thought him since he did not know if he will ever come back to Hépíng City.

Unpredicted by others, his expression saddened than before. An Rong gave up and looked at the rest but as he expected, both Zen Ming and Yan Xu Wei act as if nothing happened. Then, the only hope left, An Rong looked at Wong to—

"I'll ride the horse. I'm afraid the assassins still chasing after us."

Tsk. An Rong clicked his tongue – his last hope had just gone. After Wong left, he decided to turn a blind eye too even though he felt suffocated by the unfamiliar atmosphere that filling in the carriage.

For the first time in his life, only one thing An Rong desperately wishes – He hopes they will arrive quickly so he can escape the awkwardness as soon as he can.