A certain person with a big smile plastered on his face after yawning and stretching out the sleep.
His heart was joyful and relaxed after the hearty meal last night. After eating to his satisfaction, he crawled beside Wei Xiang and spooned him to sleep feeling content.
He was floating on clouds of rainbows with a euphoric smile on his face, thus, he couldn't hear the movement beside him or his name being called, until, he was pulled out with a hand pressing his shoulder.
" Yes." a small frown gradually replaced the smile when he saw who was it.
A cheeky lopsided grin and a lifted eyebrow.
" Gege, you know how creepy you looked?" he gave him a once-over looking for reasons and the corners of his mouth turned up " It was very creepy..." exaggeratedly holding his chest as he gasped loudly.
Shen Zhufu, " Really!!" his voice contrasting to the bland look on his face, " Come, let me you something." he beckoned him with a finger. He placed his lips near his ear as if he wanted to whisper something to him but he has something entirely different in mind revealed by an evil smirk gracing his lips.
" Gege!!!"
Shen Zhufu almost fell to the ground, holding his stomach in blissful pain, laughing wildly as tears fell from his eyes.
In a choked voice from still laughing Shen Zhufu," You deserve it— Hahaha" he made sure to laugh to his heart's content. His heart melt a little looking at the pained look on the peacock, " Come let me check it."
Cao Chang's brows drew together, doubt crossed his blanched face, usually filled with mischief. He doesn't and won't believe those words again if they are from his Gege. He can't bear to trust those words or— his head might be hurt.
Shen Zhufu let out a loud laugh, " Why are you looking at me like that?" he held out his pinky in promise, " I won't do it again..." but if you deserve it—
After a while of thinking, Cao Chang, sat beside the innocent-looking Gongzi with a trustworthy smile, despite his doubts.
Shen Zhufu did well in fulfilling his promise. A matured Gongzi must never break his promise. He gently checked his head for any bruises or cracks; if he was too harsh on him.
Thankfully, there was none of that. Just sunset-colored silk and whimpers of a peacock.
He could finally let out a sigh of relief.
He released the whimpering peacock with a serious face and his hands folded on his chest. Shen Zhufu, " See, I didn't hurt you?" his eyes hovered behind the whimpering peacock. His eyes widened.
' How long were they standing there?'
At the entrance, stood wide eyes Pu xian whose red face looks like it was about to explode from trying hard not to laugh and a shy beauty holding a cooing baby who is so busy playing with his silky hair, in his arms.
' Why do I feel like I was caught cheating?'
Shen Zhufu felt like explaining himself to those multicolored orbs without reason. He hadn't done anything wrong, right? He hoped so.
He cleared his throat to clear the awkward situation and entered his matured gongzi mode.
" How long have you two been there?"
Pu Xian, " Since when you started laughing." using his hand to cover a chuckle.
' And they did not say a word?!? I understand A-Xiao — Pu Xian should have?!?'
" Oh," he said not more than that. Seeing his reflection in the mirror sitting on a table, Shen Zhufu almost died from embarrassment. He glared at the three for not telling him what he looked like.
He still had his bed hair messy, loosed, and tangled with the ribbon on the bed, and it— he didn't look very mature. He glared at them, especially the grinning Pu Xian with hatred in his heart.
He immediately fixed it— himself up so he can look more mature. As a final touch to his maturity fix-up, he smoothed his bangs with his fingers and brushed some strands behind his ears.
' Better! Now, where was I?'
" Cao Chang, what's time?"
Cao shang stared at the now-matured-looking Gongzi as if he just asked him a difficult question " Really? You are just asking?" he snorts.
Shen Zhufu didn't have to answer as his sharp glare did the answering.
" Ahem, it's the hour of the sheep."
Shen Zhufu's senses took time to process those few words before they finally became clear as daylight.
In a panicked voice," What!!" He got up immediately and started packing his things. He stopped midway when he and the others not doing the same thing, " Why are you just staring at me? Get packing!"
Cao Chang took a glance at Xiao MeiNan, wanting to catch a glimpse of his reaction. None.
But his gaze was set on something.
Cao Chang couldn't fathom what.
On the other hand, a certain person was getting annoyed with them for not doing anything.
" Ahem, sorry to disrupt but the journey ahead is a thousand miles away!!! So you better start packing!!"
The grinning Pu Xian stiffened at the sight of an angry Shen Zhufu. He was taken aback, with his body trembling. Pu Xian, " I-i will wait for out-t s-side.... c-call me when you n-need me." with that he escaped.
Cao Chang snickered as he stealthily found his way beside his fuming Gongzi. Cao Chang, " Gongzi, no need for these raging thunderstorms above your head." he collected the box that was about to be crushed from his hand with a knowing smile, " If you can see on top of your head, you would be surprised to death." he paused to check his reaction and he loved it; a deadly glare, it gave him more alibi to continue. Voice pitched with a knowing tease" Don't worry, we have since long packed our things... Just waiting for our still sleeping Gongzi, Right?" he asked the quiet man beside him.
Instead of paying attention to his incessant rambling, he took over the packing from a fuming Shen Zhufu and sat him down with a cooing baby seated on his lap.
Shen Zhufu felt so grateful to him as he paid the rambling peacock none of his attention.
He watched his beauty with full attention with smiles all over his face.
The packing was done, and in a twinkle of an eye, even Shen Zhufu was surprised.
' So fast? And the way I liked it? '
" Come here." he beckoned his beauty with a finger and it was obeyed. It took seconds to be squatting in front of him. Voice gentle, Shen Zhufu, " Good boy~" he laid gentle pats on his head with a face full of smiles.
Wei Xiang who was at a loss why his father was patting his best friend's head but still loved the idea, did the same. " Papa~"
And there was a forgotten individual, who seemed to have been drunk with vinegar, watching with contempt. Voice filled with sarcasm, Cao Chang, " Is there a wedding ceremony happening here? I thought we are preparing for a journey???"
he turned around to leave, not waiting for an answer.
' What's with him? Oh! '
" A-Xiao, let's be on our way." he patted his silky for the last time then got up to leave.
Saying their goodbyes and showing their gratitude to Pu Xian, Shen Zhufu sensed something foreboding around their benefactor. Blood, tears, joss paper, white.
' What could they mean? '
He kept it to himself, instead as a show of gratitude, he gave him a protection armlet and a bell to ring beckon on him.
The sky was honey and purple as the sun was gradually going to rest.
It was humid and still bright bustling life.
The journey was filled with chattering and giggling. Likewise, a terrible singing of a certain Gongzi.
After several hours, after the sky had darkened and the moon with her children had replaced the sun, they ended up in a glamorous city filled with lively noises.
" Jungyang."
' Befits its name, indeed. '
Shen Zhufu whose body was already sore and famished could no longer take it, but as a matured Gongzi, he must think apart from himself. In a curt voice, he offered. Shen Zhufu,
" Guys, we should stay for the night?"
Cao Chang, " Sure, as I am very tired." he lets out a big yawn.
" A-Xiao?"
"..."
"I will take that as an Ok."
They easily found an inn to rest for the night.
While eating in their shared room; was a large room with two beds and everything else, it was an exclusive room something popped into Shen Zhufu's mind. After a long day, he was only able to remember it now.
" Cao Chang, why didn't you show gratitude to him but walked off?"
"... Who?"
".... You know who?"
" He doesn't deem fit."
"..." strength has since left his body, so arguing with the grinning peacock was a death sentence. With a flat voice, " Okay." and that was all he could let out for now.
He will save it for later.
After eating to his heart's content, Shen Zhufu dragged his tired body to the biggest bed, laying Wei Xiang on his chest. He was about to close but remembered something.
" Cao Chang, please take the plates out and A-Xiao come over here."
As if it waiting for him to finish these words, a deep sleep took over him.