"Asya?"
The hesitant sound, a low baritone, brought her attention from puzzling over the marks wrapped around her wrist, that trailed to wrap around her finger, to the owner of the sound. A figure dressed in nerves and hesitance on what to speak, Li Yu Rong stopped himself from getting closer for fear of chasing her off.
Working up his courage, he moved to speak. "I-"
Nastasia held her hand up to forestall whatever he intended to say, her sky blue eyes falling to the pair quickly closing this distance between them and Li Yu Rong. Not wanting to discuss this in front of an audience was why she had been quick to stop him. However, he didn't see it that way.
His expression twisted painfully, pulling at her heartstrings so much that she went against her original thought of ignoring him while she sorted things out in the comfort of her own mind. After all, she was still a bit miffed at being thought of as a pet all this while as well being tattooed with this thing with an unknown purpose.
Oh, Paoxiao did say something about it dealing with her protection somehow. Her brows furrowed on that thought and she almost lost herself to wondering about its mystery before she recalled her resolve to set Li Yu Rong's worries to rest. Turning her attention back to him, who had swallowed down his anguished visage a bit, she found that his eyes held the appearance of being woefully wronged.
Though it was a serious moment, with a tense atmosphere, Nastasia suddenly found it difficult not to laugh. Right now, in her mind, Li Yu Rong's appearance was tragically similar to those abused housewives in those old dramas birthed from a time women could only bite their tongues and suffer in silence. The ones that her mother enjoyed watching, though she could never quite grasp the appeal. Then again, she wasn't a film junkie like her mother.
"Let's talk about it later, when it's the two of us." She managed through a difficulty kept straight face, blue eyes lightened by her amusement.
The sight of it put Li Yu Rong's heart at ease, allowing him to let out a breath of relief. Having a sense of confidence from that response, he moved in closer, taking her hand in his to give a light squeeze. "Then, once we're settled in the village, we'll have a proper talk?" Though he meant it as a statement of fact, it came out as more of a question.
Nastasia returned his squeeze, relishing the feel of his larger hand in hers. Looking up as he slackened in relief, features relaxing from all his tense emotions, caused her to fight back a warm a smile. For it, she couldn't help giving his hand another gentle squeeze before letting go. "Of course." She affirmed with a firm nod.
Mourning the loss of her warm hand, Li Yu Rong didn't try to take it back. Instead, happy with Asya's brighter look and her promise of talking later, he immediately went back to the other matter at hand. "Drop him." He ordered to An Ying.
An Ying, taking his orders very seriously, unceremoniously dropped him like a sack of potatoes. Mouth bound as it was, Liao Xing could only make a grunt of protest to the impact of the ground to his poor old hips and throw out a vicious glare to the two culprits. Neither gave him the satisfaction of even acknowledging it; so he huffed and pouted to himself.
"Ungag him." As Li Yu Rong said so, An Ying –without the slightest care for delecacy– ripped the binding that held the stuffing in the elder's mouth, pulling his head forward with it. Liao Xing spat out the cloth that had been gagging his throat and glared balefully at the spirit for the unnecessary whiplash. "Open the way to the Village."
After having his pressure point unlocked, Elder Liao Xing slowly stood from the ground, patting the dust from his dark green robes with a light green vine and leaf pattern. "Humph, gag and toss me and now you want to order me about. I think not." He crossed his arms and sharply turned his head to the side, snubbing the Gate Guarding as if he were a hated enemy.
Li Yu Rong's face fell, but before he could utter any type of response, Paoxiao was quick to interject. "Elder! Enough of this, open the path so that my sister can finally rest!"
"Rest..." Liao Xing echoed hollowly. The cart that the other spirit had pulled along, the one he had seen Paoxiao carefully pull along carried both a box and, at one point, that red-haired girl. He hadn't paid it much mind, but now his eyes were riveted to it. Or, more specifically, the box contained within it.
Liao Xing, like the other elders, had disapproved of Paoxiao leaving the safety of the village to chase after his sister. There were too many things at stake to lose the last remaining blood relative, however, that didn't stop his heart for longing for it. For their dear sweet and innocent, yet incredibly brave, Xianmei to still be alive out there somewhere for the determined Paoxiao to find.
However, as his eyes stared and his heart dropped to the pit of his stomach, that box that could be a coffin neatly sliced any shred of hope he had managed to maintain over the years into non-existent pieces.