Chapter Three
Mu Fanqing
Ishove my hands into his chest hard, forcing him to release me.
I scramble to regain my footing to avoid winding up in a pile of leaves at Xiao Shu’s feet.
I hold out my hands, regaining my balance as Xiao Shu reaches out, presumably to help steady me.
I glare at his hand and take another step to the side.
“Are you really so worried about your reputation at a time like this?” he asks, quirking a brow.
He has a handsome face, I suppose it is not too much to admit that.
With straight brows over warm dark eyes, his face comes down to the narrow point of his chin.
His features are straight and masculine and accentuated by his high cheekbones.
At the very least, he will not be a pain to see for the rest of my life.
At least that is what I think before he opens his mouth. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
And then this despicable, lecherous man has the audacity to say, “Don’t worry, I won’t hold saving your life against you.”
“Scoundrel,” I mutter under my breath as I move another step away. Perhaps he is too handsome for his own good. Mine too. It seems the rumors were correct. Xiao Shu never learned his manners. I turn to him, jutting out my chin. “And what of your own reputation? Don’t you worry about your marriage?”
He pulls back, looking somewhat surprised as he rests his hands on his hips. The bottom of his robe sways above his boots. Cut short and kept trim around his arms to better suit martial arts. “My marriage is hardly a matter to concern yourself with.”
I wrinkle my nose as I reach out, adjusting my own sleeve so that it covers my whole arm.
As much as I would like that statemen to be true, unfortunately it is quite the opposite.
At just that moment, my coach driver comes rushing forward. His dark hair escapes the topknot he had tied it in and his cheeks are red as he draws to a halt. “Lady Xiao, are you all right?”
Xiao Shu has gone over to pick up his sword, he brings the blade around, ready to wipe the blood off his blade onto his sleeve which I find quite disgusting. However, he pauses and looks up.
“Who do you think you are calling Lady Xiao? There is no Lady Xiao unless you mean to insult me after I saved your life by trying to imply that’s who I am.”
“Oh, no, no, no,” the coachman gasps out as he shakes his arms emphatically in front of him. “That is…” He pauses and curls his hand so that only his index finger is directed at me. “I mean her.”
I turn my attention to straightening out my hanfu, watching him only out of the corner of my eye as Shu’s eyebrows furrow. His eyes flick back and forth as he struggles to figure it out. “Her?”
I finally pause and raise my gaze, forcing myself to look Xiao Shu dead in the eyes as the coachman bobs his head. “Yes, sir. This is Miss Mu Fanqing, of the Ministry of Justice’s Mu family. She’s to be the next Lady Xiao.”
Xiao Shu’s mouth moves to form my name, but no sound comes out. Slowly his eyes widen as realization dawns. He raises his arm to point at me, bringing the sword with it. “You,” he hisses.
I feel my own eyes round as I move back a step, startled that he would actually point the blade at me.
Xiao Shu’s gaze flicks from his sword to me and then he quickly drops it with a grimace. He switches hands, and holds up his unarmed hand, finger pointed toward me. “You—you—you.”
I fold my arms slowly, waiting for him to find the rest of that sentence.
He closes his mouth and slowly lowers his finger.
His eyes dart to the carriage driver before he clears his throat.
“Miss Mu, what a surprise to make your acquaintance in this manner. Please allow me to formally introduce myself, I am Xiao Shu of the Fourth Family.” His eyes flick over me before he purses his lips. “I believe that we are to be wed.”
I wish I could refute him, but doing so comes with refuting the emperor. And that isn’t something that a person can usually do twice. So instead, I hold my head high, fold my arms, and put on my most regal and commanding air.
“It’s Cultivator Mu,” I say with a sniff.
“Well, then Cultivator Mu, you are welcome for saving your life,” Xiao Shu says with a sweeping bow. His voice drips with sarcasm.
I swallow, glancing up at the branches above my head praying for some patience. “I thank you but that was completely unnecessary.”
Xiao Shu arches a single, straight brow. “Should I have let that wild woman just devour you and make jewelry from your bones then? Maybe you wouldn’t have minded, but I’m not sure if your coachman is of like mind.”
At this the coachman throws himself to the ground, pressing his forehead against the leaves with a bow. “Oh no! I humbly thank you, my lord!”
I flick my wrist, moving my long sleeve. “I had the situation well in hand.”
“I could see that. It was more than apparent that the wild spirit was simply playing into your hand when you fell out of that tree. It was a masterful tactic, caught even me by surprise.”
I can feel my cheeks heat up and hate that I am rising to his bait. “That’s only because you cancelled out my talismans. If you had not intervened, I would have been just fine.”
Xiao Shu bends over, picking up something off the ground.
I stare at the object in his hand until I realize that it is my talisman.
“You cultivators,” he says with a shake of his head and a click of his tongue.
“You spend so much time honing your magic and all for what? A piece of paper that is so easy to render useless.”
That is hardly fair, the ability to cancel out magic is a special skill that only his family has. It is also something that they are forbidden from using save for in their tasks to hunt spirits or in special service to the emperor.
Xiao Shu flicks the talisman. I watch it flit to the forest floor, the character flight scrawled across it, completely useless.
“But regardless of whether you needed my help, I am here. And what sort of husband-to-be would I be if I just abandoned my bride in the middle of a forest when I know that there are wild spirits about?”
The way that he says it makes it sound like he is actually contemplating doing just that.
He sighs and shakes his head, as if jarring himself out of his wishful thinking. “No, it’s getting close to sunset. There’s an inn nearby, I can escort you there.”
“That’s completely unnecessary,” I say quickly even though my coachman is already nodding.
“I am afraid it is wholly necessary,” Shu argues as he goes over picking up something off the forest floor. The sheath of his sword. He slides the blade in before turning to me.
The coachman is already nodding enthusiastically. “Oh, thank you, My Lord, thank you!”
Shu’s eyes slide to me, and his eyebrows rise a small smirk playing at the corner of his lips as he gestures to the carriage. “After you, Cultivator Mu.”