Xiao Sha followed along with drooped ears and tail, its eyes watery.
Although amidst a cold war with He Li due to the argument, Zi Hua had still managed to notice Xiao Sha's unhappiness despite her own frustrations.
"Xiao Sha, what's wrong?" Zi Hua questioned worriedly.
She only got a down-hearted cry in return.
"What's wrong? Are you not feeling well?" He Li noticed Xiao Sha's state too after seeing that the two had stopped walking.
Xiao Sha gave another cry and then nudged Zi Hua and He Li closer together.
"Wha- Xiao Sha, what are you doing?!" Zi Hua exclaimed, alarmed.
He Li was similarly perplexed.
Xiao Sha then gave the two puppy eyes, followed by a few more cries, it didn't want to see the two being at logger-heads with each other anymore.
"Do you think..." He Li proposed.
"...it wants us to reconcile?" Zi Hua continued the sentence.
A wave of silence washed over them...
"I/I" The two simultaneously said.
"You go first/You go first"
"I'm sorry/I'm sorry" The two looked at each other's eyes then, averted eye contact.
Xiao Sha had woken them up from their anger.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what got to me, sorry for lashing out at you like that" Zi Hua apologized.
"No, I should be the one saying sorry, I shouldn't have said that either" He Li quickly denied Zi Hua's statement.
"No, it's my fault"
"No, it's mine"
The two stared at each others' eyes.
"Let's just say it's both of our fault then, shall we?"
"Both of us were at fault"
"Haha" Zi Hua suddenly broke out into light-hearted laughter, as if a load has been lifted off her chest/shoulders.
He Li followed.
"I never knew that you had that kind of attitude in you seeing your calm temperament" He Li joked.
"Neither did I, but I didn't know you could get angry seeing your quiet temperament" Zi Hua countered teasingly.
"I didn't know either, I guess we brought out a new side of each other"
The little argument was actually a blessing in disguise, it not only brought them closer together, it allowed them to not make the same mistake again and communicate in the face of trials instead, after all couples are bound to have a few quarrels, it also brought out a new side of themselves.
A side that they would only show each other...
It was the first direct emotional confrontation/conflict that they had with anyone, but it won't be the only first that they would be experiencing together, there will be many more to come...
The sound of laughter took the two artifact spirits out of their stupor, the two stared blankly at the laughing pair.
They were happy that the two reconciled but... why do they feel some discontentment in their chests?
They didn't succeed so why did Xiao Sha succeed, this is not fair!
They need to re-evaluate their plans to improve effectiveness.
However, the two didn't realize that the reason they didn't succeed was that they didn't show the degree of sadness that Xiao Sha showed.
If they had, they could've added practicing acting skills to their agenda.
The atmosphere became even better than before and now was a cheerful and joking atmosphere.
"Would you like some eye drops?" Zi Hua asked as they walked along.
"Coz this desert is supEYEsingly sandy and dry" As you can see the whole farce had also awakened Zi Hua's bad sense of humor.
"Eye drops?" He Li inquired, what were eye drops?
Being too desperate to show off her 'brilliant' joke, Zi Hua had not considered the context and whether He Li will understand it or not.
"Do you not get the joke?"
"What joke?"
"Eye, SupEYEsing?"
"What are you talking about? What are eye drops" He Li continued to question, baffled.
"*facepalm* Never mind, eye drops are a liquid which you drop into your eyes to get rid of irritation and dryness, it can also have other effects"
"Oh" He Li replied, enlightened.