An Bing Qing raised her head and looked at him waiting for a positive answer. She dared to move as Wang Shu had only said her to not get up. As he hadn't told her anything regarding that or about speaking, she assumed it was alright. She wasn't sure how he was doing to keep them out of their radar but she remembered that in the past there had been a similar situation, though they had been standing but still very close to each other so she kept lying there with him without a protest till now.
Wang Shu heard her question but didn't reply immediately.
'It truly fits well but why does it feel somewhat like... is it familiarity?' he had been wondering this all this time. In point of fact, he was going to say she could get up seconds after he had said she couldn't as he had expanded the barrier he had made with his soul force but he suddenly got such a feeling and ended not saying anything to meditate on it. That familiar sentiment was more persistent when he saw her smiling at him with his encompassing soul sense and it only increased as time passed from that moment.
At length, he opened his deep black eyes, looked at her from his lower position and replied with a question, "Have we met before?"
An Bing Qing didn't expect him to ask that; the shock in her eyes was evident. It was so much that her mind went into chaos with the several memories she had shared with him in her past life.
Wang Shu looked at her reaction in wonder, 'Could it be... that we not only meet but know each other?'
Even though her reaction had somewhat put her on evidence, it had given her time to think straight after she had put in order her turbulent remembrances.
Holding back the sad emotion of not being remembered, she answered the best she could as she supported with her hands to sit, "But what is young master Wang asking; of course, we have met before. Or could it be that the young master, wanting to be polite, has decided to forget the unpleasant looks and behaviour this young miss had on our first meeting on the lake ahead?"
Wang Shu had also taken seat at this point on the verdant ground and when he heard her response, he was out of words.
He wasn't the only one speechless, An Bing Qing was too; because of a different reason, though.
She wasn't shaken because of her speech and tone like Wang Shu, she had learnt to speak smart and proper, after all; but due to the alienate feeling she got, it wasn't good at all. Thus, she lowered her line of sight and pressed her lips, as though she regretted it.
'I can't possibly tell him the truth, or should I?' she was debating in her mind with complex feelings.
Wang Shu, who was trying to put in the same picture the girl who had run and hide away from him with the one who had spoken indifferent, noted her action.
'That can't be true. Moreover, I think I heard an angry and kind of a cynic undertone hidden in her cold reply but... why does she look feeble now?' He found that he couldn't asses this girl conduct. If it were to be another lady, he might have thought it was a trick to entice him. He was pretty sensitive and smart enough to find out people's true intentions but with her, he always was left in wonder.
This quietness only lasted a couple of seconds, though it felt like an eternity to An Bing Qing; hence, she was the first to break the silence. She didn't speak but tried to get up.
Her attempt drove him out of his thoughts and said with his usual tone but with her same way of addressing, "Young miss An, this young master doesn't recommend you to stand up. My barrier isn't that big".
She halted her move and went back to sit.
"Are those people still around?" she asked while avoiding his gaze.
"They should be", he gave her a simple reply without much detail.
The topic had been changed but that didn't make them talk much.
An Bing Qing, knowing him from the past, didn't ask the many more questions she had. She knew he was a man of little words; someone who didn't like to explain things, though he got talkative after their interaction grew. But thinking back, they reached a point where he went back to keep the things to himself.