The following morning was a beautiful day. The sun barely reaching over the horizon, casting warm yellow light and long shadows over the Sky Pavilion. Birds were chirping among the eaves and insects were buzzing among the dewy, green grass.
"Jun Xi!" Ming Yue's panicked and very loud voice bounced back and forth among the hallways and buildings in the courtyard. "Jun Xi! Help!"
A thick eye brow twitched. Jun Xi who was sitting on a rock in the backyard cultivating suddenly disappeared. A moment later he appeared in Ming Yue's room.
"What's wrong?" He looked around the room, but she was nowhere to be seen. "Ming Yue?"
"I'm over here! Bohoo!" Ming Yue cried.
Jun Xi looked over at the bed and among the folds of the bed sheets he found a plum-sized, purple fruit.
"Why did you turn back into a fruit?" Jun Xi asked.
"I didn't. When I woke up, I was already like this. Jun Xi, what do I do? I've tried everything but I can't turn back into human form."
Jun Xi picked up the fruit and held it up to his face. Definitely more manageable at this size, he thought while gently poking at it.
"W-where are you touching me?" Ming Yue stuttered as she let out a low gasp and her fruity form turned a few shades of red.
Jun Xi's poking froze suddenly as he awkwardly cleared his throat. Then he said, "Maybe think back to when you first turned human. What did you do?"
Ming Yue thought really hard. To the point the little fruit was shaking in Jun Xi's palm.
"Ah! I can't think of anything! Everything was so new and confusing back then." Ming Yue began sobbing. "Jun Xi, what do I do if I can't turn back into human again?"
"Don't worry. I'm sure we'll think of something. In any case, you're pretty good this way." Jun Xi said.
"You think I'm pretty as a fruit as well?" If Ming Yue had eye lashes right now, they'd be flirtatiously flapping like a pair of butterfly wings.
"I mean your size is pretty good now that I can keep you under control and I don't have to worry about you running off and accidentally killing yourself and me in the process." Jun Xi explained.
"Jun Xi!" Ming Yue scowled.
"Oh, right. Did you find any information on breaking the life and death contract in the library yesterday? So many things happened yesterday, I forgot to ask." Ming Yue said.
"No. I could only find brief mentions that I already knew. But don't worry, I'll continue searching." Jun Xi said. For a moment he lost himself in thought as he was reminded of his little meeting with the Patriarch. What's going on in that old foggy's head? He frowned.
"Oh..." Ming Yue sighed. Though, she didn't really care that much about the life and death contract, after all, from her understanding of Jun Xi, a planet would have to crash into him for him to get hurt. Her more pressing concern was the fact she was currently in her fruit form.
"Um? Jun Xi? What are you doing? Why are you putting me in a box!?" Ming Yue asked as the world suddenly began to darken.
"For your protection." Jun Xi reassuringly said, but it didn't sound like he truly ment it.
The lid closed and everything turned dark for Ming Yue.
Several angry, muffled sounds came from the box, but Jun Xi only shrugged as he walked back into his room and placed the box in a secret compartment. Then he left to attend some sect business.
***
Later that day when the sun had begun coloring the sky in hues of red, Jun Xi returned to his room and opened the secret compartment. Taking out and opening the small box. Ming Yue, still in the form of a fruit, was snoring loudly and happily. Shaking his head, he brought her to another building which had a wooden bathtub filled with hot water and threw her inside.
Ming Yue woke up with a start. She couldn't breathe!
"I'm drowning! Huh? How did I end up in a bathtub? Wait! That's not important, I'm drowning!"
Ming Yue thrashed about, at least as much as a fruit could do.
"Must get to the surface!"
Suddenly water began splashing out of the tub in big waves.
"I'm drowning! I'm drowning!"
Suddenly she felt someone take a firm hold of her and pulled her out. As she opened her eyes she found herself being carried like a bride by Jun Xi.
"Jun Xi..." Ming Yue sighed, warm feelings bubbling up in her heart. "You saved me." She reached her arms around his neck and embraced him.
It was about then, she felt a cool breeze.
"Huh?" She looked down at herself and saw all her naked glory, yet again, in Jun Xi's arms.
In the backyard of the Sky Pavilion grew a rather unremarkable tree. If there was anything to say about it was that inside the trunk of the tree lived an old squirrel. The squirrel had been living there for many years as it enjoyed the calm and quietness not to mention the safety from predators it got by living near a cultivator. At this moment, it was doing what it found most enjoyable in its life, counting the nuts in its cache. When suddenly there was a high pitched scream which caused the whole trunk to tremble and the piles of nuts it had spent hours upon hours counting and organizing to fall into a random mess.
The squirrel's face turned fierce and quickly scuttered to a small hole in the trunk, from where it hissed angrily at the building where the scream came from.
Splash!
Jun Xi dropped Ming Yue into the bathtub again and turned to leave.
Ming Yue watched him leaving, half her face hiding in the water, blowing bubbles. Steam from embarrassment seemed to be rising from the top of her head.