A Chat Upon the Roof

While she thought all this, a scene surprised her she almost jumped in surprise. She saw a silhouette of someone sitting on top of the roof.

A million scenarios crossed her mind when she saw this: from thoughts about an ancient way of committing suicide by falling from the top of a building, to a spy from the enemy camp that had been caught by her.

Thinking up to here her body suddenly turned cold.

She slowly retreated from the window. She didn't want to be discovered by the other party. It was dark and she couldn't make out the person's face because of the distance.

She could only hope the person hadn't seen her. She turned around and was about to hide, when she felt a gust of wind from behind her. Her body froze, she wondered if she should turn around, while holding her head.

'I'm done for!' She felt a presence, she had heard the soft sound of cloths flapping in the wind, and foot landing.

She pouted feeling it was unfair for her to be experiencing this, how could she be so unlucky?

Did the enemy change their minds, and instead chose to assassinate the Prince while he slept? If so, now that she's discovered one of them, would they kill her first?

"Zhao Xing."

'How come they even know my name?'

She looked around for anything she could use as a weapon, if the other party should attack her. But before she could find something, the intruder held her shoulder. Zhao Xing was planning to hit the person's foot the moment she had the chance, so she could run away. But she was briskly spun around by the other party.

"Zhang Zhengyang?" She faintly made out his face in the dark. She had turned off the fire in her room, and could only make use of the moonlight. She looked at him, then looked outside, she didn't see the silhouette anymore and could only guess that either that person escaped or the person was the one who stood before her right at that moment.

Zhao Xing thought about how scared she had been just now, and got angry. "You scared me! Is it pleasurable to annoy me whenever you have the chance?"

The prince didn't mind her words, "It's late, why aren't you sleeping?"

Zhao Xing wondered if something was wrong with his brain.

"What does it have to do with you? Where you the one sitting on the roof just now?"

Zhang Zhengyang turned and looked out the window, then back at her, "I went to see the view."

Zhao Xing didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She smelt something weird. The smell was familiar. She was under aged in her world and couldn't have it. But she'd met people with this smell on them.

Her face suddenly turned dark.

"Zhang Zhengyang?" She said trying her best to calm her rage and uneasiness.

"Ummh?" The other party responded.

"Get out of my room." Her voice trembled a bit. There was nothing good about the situation she was in. Before she didn't care about the boundaries between male and female, because she didn't put it in her mind. Especially because of Zhang Zhengyang's bearing. Though he looked to be a few years older than herself, she didn't think about it at all.

But now, how could it be good, a drunk man and a woman in a dark room. She suddenly felt suffocated, and couldn't breathe.

The Crown Prince didn't seem to hear her, he turned around and looked out the window from where he had entered, "Do you also want to see the view from up there?"

Zhao Xing was scared and wanted nothing but for him to leave.

"No, you go out first." She moved away from him, eyeing the door. She thought having a spy in her room was the worst case scenario, she didn't know she the worst awaited her.

Zhang Zhengyang looked at her, and frowned, "You shouldn't decline when this prince kindly invited you."

Zhao Xing's heart dropped and her eyes widened, she was just about to run, when she was suddenly grabbed by the waist.

Just as she was going to scream, a warning reached her ears, "I dare you to make a sound." She didn't dare open her mouth any longer.

She wanted to cry but had no tears. But before she knew it, they both went flying out of the window. Zhao Xing closed her eyes. She didn't die by the enemy's hands, it was the prince that she came to help that would take her life. She felt her life was too pitiful.

She didn't count how many seconds but her feet soon landed on something solid.

"What do you think?" The voice was coming from above her. She looked up and realized she was holding unto the Crown Prince's waist. She looked below her feet, when she realized she was on the roof, she didn't let go of him.

"Zh…Zhang Zhengyang, you bring me back down!"

She wasn't really scared of heights, but who wanted to be in such a situation, she didn't even know how she's going to get down!

She felt dizzy just thinking about her present predicament, she even felt nauseous. She didn't know whether it was because of the smell from the Crown Prince or not.

The Prince didn't respond, and she became more anxious.

"Zhang Zhengyang, get me down from here!"

"Are you afraid of heights?"

Zhao Xing observed her surroundings. She didn't have the time to mind his words, she wondered if she could call out to Xiao Chen, if that little faithful follower of his master would dare to rescue her. His room wasn't far from where she stood, would he hear her? Was he even inside his room? What if he wasn't?

"There's no need to be scared, since I'm here, you won't fall."

She looked up at him feeling uneasy, not at all comforted by his words. "Zhang Zhengyang…are you drunk?"

The man took his sleeve to himself and inhaled, "Maybe, maybe not, I had only a few cups, I shouldn't be drunk."

Zhao Xing looked at him and shook her head feeling he was hopeless. She dropped the idea of calling for help and decided to negotiate with this man here.

"Then do you know it isn't safe to drink and climb the roof? What if your enemies are loitering around waiting for the chance to assassinate you?"

Zhang Zhengyang frowned, he still held on to her, and hadn't let go yet. "They won't."

Zhao Xing was speechless. Being full of yourself even when you're drunk. She really wanted to roll her eyes at him.

"Ok, they won't, they won't. But you should still consider the fact that you can slip and fall, right?"

"I won't."

"…"

Never mind, she surrenders she can't talk with him like this. She wondered why he would suddenly drink, from the time she had spent with him, she didn't think he was one to drink. He always had tea whenever they met. Even at the banquet, people had come to have a toast with him, he would mostly decline. She thought of recent happenings. What could have happened in the capital or out here that would worry the Crown Prince?

"Zhang Zhengyang, you don't normally drink, did something good happen?"

Zhang Zhengyang looked at her, he signaled for her to let go of him.

Zhao Xing shook her head. "How can I let go? If I fall what will I do?"

"I already told you that you won't fall, this prince wants to take a seat, aren't you tired from standing?"

So she reluctantly let go. He helped her seat down and sat beside her. He turned to her, "Do you have rulers in your world as well?"

Zhao Xing thought for a few seconds and nodded. "We do."

"How are they like?" He rested his head on his hand.

"Mmh…I don't really know." The rulers from her world, no one could really tell how they actually are. There could be many debates, but wasn't one to read news, so she couldn't say.

Zhang Zhnegyang nodded, "You must be a commoner in your world then, not a noble?"

Zhao Xing felt like she'd been called out for being poor, and got irritated, "Tch what nonsense, there's nothing like that in my world! They are no commoners or nobles, anyone can become what they want, and everyone is respected, we aren't restricted by your silly rules."

Her words seemed to have fascinated him, as he kept silent and stared at her.

By now Zhao Xing had calmed down a bit. She saw Zhang Zhengyang was listening carefully and continued explaining, "In my world, the people's opinion is respected, people vote for the person they want to rule over them."

Zhang Zhengyang was even more speechless, but he smiled, "That would mean the son doesn't succeed the father to rule the nation."

Zhao Xing nodded. "Exactly."

"It's one of the weirdest things I've ever heard." He had heard a lot of strange things from her, concerning her world. He felt it was quite bizarre to live in such a world, he couldn't imagine what it would be like.

Zhao Xing chuckled, placing her hands beside her and leaning her weight on them in a relaxed manner. "Well, it is weird to someone who has never been there. I also thought your world was weird." But she could now imagine how it would be like to live in the past. No Wi-Fi, no phones, no computers nothing. It was boring. But she had so many things to care about, even though the prince was no good and locked her up wherever they went, not allowing her to explore her environment, she was sure that if she had the freedom, living here wouldn't be boring at all.

Zhang Zhengyang agreed with her.

"If I visited your world one day, you should show me all the things you talked about when we were in Reddened City."

Zhao Xing looked at him, and realized he was referring to the time she had told him about phones and computers, huge buildings that reached the heavens and so on.

"If you ever visit…" She thought about where a lavish prince like himself would stay if he really came to her world. How would her mother let a strange man live in her house? The thought of what her mother would do if she brought a strange man to the house made her shiver. "Maybe you should wait till I'm living alone and have my own house, by then if you visit, I'll surely have the freedom to show you around."

"Why wait till then?"

"You won't understand even if I explained it, so never mind."

She was unwilling to say it, so he didn't ask any further.

"I just wondered if the rulers in your world treated their children well." He said as he looked into the distance.

Zhao Xing shrugged. "They should, shouldn't they? Why won't they?"

"If I didn't have to succeed my Imperial father I wondered if he would have treated us differently."

Zhao Xing thought about it, and saw where he was coming from, "Families are different, so we can't say for sure if he'd treat you differently." Zhao Xing didn't know what had happened between him and his father to make him want to kill him. Before things such as a son killing his father to take the throne or even siblings, were normal and didn't need a deep explanation. I mean, if the emperor's days are coming to an end, why not take the chance and be the ruler instead? Especially when you have brothers that also had their eyes on the throne.

But now she wondered what deeper reason was behind it this time. She wanted to ask, but seeing the Prince's downcast expression, she decided against it.

Zhang Zhengyang turned to her, "What about your father? Does he treat you and your mother well?"

The question stunned her, she smiled awkwardly. Some memories of the times her father was with them came to her mind. "He...wasn't bad…"

She stopped there, and didn't continue. She turned to look at the view below, the little city was asleep and everything seemed calm.

Zhang Zhengyang wanted to ask more about her father, but he saw that Zhao Xing's expression didn't seem right. "Are you really that afraid of heights?"

Zhao Xing turned to him puzzled.

"Should I take you down? It's getting late." He decided he should let her go rest instead of engaging her in this meaningless discussion.

Zhao Xing: "??"

"Ok…"

In her mind she thought the same as the Crown Prince. There was no need to continue with this discussion, it's not like it was helping anybody.