On their way back Ming Yue playfully reinacted Yao Yao's action as she punched the bad man and laughed loudly. "You're so aweseome, Yao Yao. I wished I had your courage and was as strong as you."
Yao Yao smiled. "Don't worry, with me around you too will become strong and brave soon!" She said and patted Ming Yue's shoulder with a little bit too much force.
"En!" Ming Yue smiled happily as she rubbed her aching shoulder. "Mr. Panda, back to the sect!" She commanded and pointed toward the sky.
And thus the two began their very, very slow journey back to the sect.
It was already night time when Ming Yue came back to the Sky Pavilion. She had dropped off Yao Yao earlier and let the panda go back into the bamboo forest.
When she entered the courtyard she found Jun Xi sitting under the small octagonal pavilion drinking warm wine and reading a bamboo scroll.
"I'm back!" She shouted and ran up to Jun Xi, feeling excited from having finished her first mission and meeting a new friend.
"En." Jun Xi quietly uttered without looking back up from the bamboo scroll.
Ming Yue frowned at his lack of response. Was he not worried about her at all? So she sat down with a little force and grabbed his cup and downed the wine in a single gulp in a fit of anger. Then she refilled the cup and downed another. After that cup her face flushed from heat and she began to feel a buzz. She sneakily glanced at Jun Xi who was still ignoring her. She harumphed and then poured another cup and downed it with a single gulp. This time the world really began spinning.
Tears began to well up in her eyes. "Weren't you worried at all? Do you know we met a very bad man who'd done something cruel to a young girl." She slurred and sniffled as she tried to contain her tears. "Luckily, Yao Yao was with me or I wouldn't know what to do or what might've happened. It was really scary."
She poured another cup and was about to down that one as well when a hand suddenly grabbed the cup.
Jun Xi had at some point stood up and moved around the table and was now standing beside her.
He put the cup down on the table and then put a hand on her head. "It's been hard on you."
"En." Ming Yue sobbed as she leaned her head against his muscly abdomen and wrapped her arms around him. "Yao Yao said the bad man was a disciple from our sect. Are there more bad men like him in our sect?" She asked as she rubbed her face against the cool fabric of his robe.
Jun Xi sighed and embraced her head and pushed her closer to him and began to gently stroke her hair. He'd never met such an innocent girl before, who seemingly seemed to have never encountered any darkness of the world. Though he looked no more than a man in his twenties, he had lived for hundreds of years and had seen so much evil he'd become immune to it. He no longer felt indignation the same way as when he was young and had long forgotten about it.
"It's late. You should go to bed." He said quietly.
Ming Yue shook her head. "Can't we stay like this for a bit longer." She said and hugged him tighter.
Jun Xi sighed quietly again and then looked up the full moon. It was especially clear this night and the stars were twinkling brightly.
After a few moments he felt Ming Yue's arms around him relax. He looked down and saw that she had fallen asleep and thus he picked her up and carried her inside where he put her to bed and gently tucked her in. He stayed by her side for a while as he looked at her sleeping face. She seemed exceptionally pretty this night. Her long, thick eyelashes looked like strands of a brush and her cheeks were slightly flushed from the wine. He brushed a few strands of hair away from her face and tucked them behind her ear before he quietly left.
The next morning Ming Yue woke up and stretched her arms into the air. She felt extraordinarily refreshed from last night's sleep with no sign of a hangover. The wine she drank last night must've had some magical properties, she thought.
She quickly got up and did her morning routine before she walked out to find breakfast had been served under the small octagonal pavilion. However, Jun Xi was nowhere to be seen.
She sat down and began gobbling up the various dishes when a thought occurred to her. Who prepared their food? The Sky Pavilion didn't have any servants and she had never seen Jun Xi prepare any food. This was a mystery she had to solve, she decided.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Ming Yue looked up from the table, her mouth stuffed with food as she heard someone pounding on the gate to the courtyard. Who was knocking so loudly?
She swallowed the food in her mouth and walked over to the gate and called out, "Who is it?"
"It's me!" Yao Yao called back.
Ming Yue quickly opened the door and ran up to Yao Yao and grabbed her hand. "You're here." She said as she happily swayed Yao Yao's arm. "Let's go inside I was just finishing breakfast."
The two of them walked back to the octagonal pavilion and sat down.
"Have you eaten?" Ming Yue asked.
Yao Yao looked down at the numerous dishes and her eyes sparkled. She's never seen so many delicious dishes in her life. She lived in the dorms and was only provided the standard meals which was basically only good for filling your stomach.
Not being polite at all, she immediately dug in and the two of them ate happily.