I was unable to know where I was. An ominous tranquility filled over, as well as the endless darkness of the place. There was nothing to see, and nothing to hear but a distant woman's sobbing.
"... Selfish..."
I glanced around to see who it was, but there was no one behind me. Who was that?
Who was there? I asked into the darkness. Hello, could you hear me?
"You... From the beginning until the end, you're selfish..." A faint voice came again. It was full of disappointment, anger on each word, and a deep sadness. My breath caught in my throat. Hearing her crying was like knives being plunged into my heart.
"You're... selfish." Now the voice sounded as though it was right beside my ear. I flinched and looked around in bewilderment.
Wait, who was the one you're calling selfish? Wait... Don't go, tell me...
I picked up my feet and raced toward the blackness, running as fast as I could, trying to reach that woman's voice before it disappeared into the shadows. And seconds later, I fell on my knees and quickly struggled to get up. But a strange smell in the air halted me. It was something sharp and awful—rotten.
When I lifted my hand to cover my nose, to my surprise my hand were bloodied. Then blood was spreading and pooling and soaking me. Before I could escape, I was already drowned in blood, and with a huge effort I reached out to the surface. But there was a pressure on my shoulders, as if there was someone intentionally drowned me. I began squirming uneasily, kicking, gasping out for air.
"Be gone!" The voice didn't seem like the sobbing woman, but another person—it was a man's voice from far up ahead. He wanted to drown me.
Exhaustion overpowered me, my arms and legs were tired from struggling. My brain no longer screamed for oxygen. I could almost felt waves of blood ebbed me away. And I began to fall, further and further into the darkness. Closing my eyes as I was swallowed by the darkness itself.
"Pretty soul, we meet again," another voice whispered—I recognized the voice from the same female four years ago. I tried to open my eyes, but I couldn't. I tried to move, but my whole body felt an extreme fatigue, as if I was floating underwater, a weight-less feeling.
Weird. The smell wasn't as rotten as earlier. Instead, it was subtle and sweet. I almost beguiled to sleep even longer.
"Hush, now. I see that you've encountered what you shouldn't have. It isn't time yet, pretty soul, but know that I'm here with you," she whispered again. Then it felt like a wave of water pushed me, and everything seemed to float away.
***
"Yuhua, wake up," a voice urgently whispered, his voice was getting louder every time he repeated the sentence. I coughed out some water as a start, blinked my eyes a second later. My cheeks felt dry and gritty. The cold wind blew and I shivered as I woke up.
"Awake?"
A calm and sophisticated tenor, even without looking I knew it was Jie Moshu. It almost felt like those whispers for waking me up were my own imagination. His hair was dripping wet, a few strands of hair sticking on his forehead. As he helped me up, I felt the lump and cuts on both of my arms, and the dried blood stuck on my side face.
"I'm sorry... that I was late, wife," he said, his voice almost a whisper, and his gaze were on my face, every inch of him was apologetic. He wiped the dried blood off the corner of my mouth as he smiled penitently at me. "I'm sorry, I've let you suffered."
Guilt flickered in Jie Moshu's eyes, but he composed himself quickly. But I knew it wasn't his fault. It was mine for being a meddling busybody. Okay, okay, I took myself too high, thinking that I can save a person. Instead, I was the one who needed the saving.
I let out a weak laugh at my own stupidity and nosiness. "At least, you've come."
As I about to stand up, my shaking legs almost made me stumbled. Suddenly I felt Jie Moshu's arm linked through mine, lending me support. We were both in an equally soaked state, but he was close enough that I could feel the warmth of his body. I lifted my stare into his eyes. A part of me debating whether I should kick him or not. Another part was deciding whether I should keep steady in this position—the best angle to enjoy the wonderful scenery. Instead, I found myself sinking to his dark-brown eyes. A weird circle of crimson red adorned his pupils. So dark and enchanting.
Thump! Thump! Thump! What feeling was this? My palms were sweaty, and I clenched them into fists. I could feel my cheeks were staining red. I was so afraid that my face looked like a tomato to him. Calm down my heart, hushed!
His body was so close to mine, he probably felt how fast my heart beating right now.
Breathe, Huayu, breathe.
He was just handsome. No feelings attached.
I looked away, trying to distract my thoughts about him. Instead, my gaze fell onto a dangerous area—his soaked shirt that highlighted on his muscled chest. My heart was thumping hard. Shit. Shit.
Oh. His muscles. I unconsciously touched my nose, afraid that my high blood pressure might cause me bleeding. I peeked at my hand, a relieved sigh escaped from my mouth. Thank God, no nosebleed.
Before anything could get worse than this, I raised a hand and pushed him away. Thankfully, my trembling legs were steady enough to support me from tumbling. An awkward silence descended over us. Someone discreetly cleared his throat, and the two of us looked at the source of the sound. "Enough with all the lovey-dovey act, I really can't s'ssstand of it."
I narrowed my eyes, and my gaze fell to that person. He was drenched in his white slim fit T-shirt and ripped blue jeans, his light-blonde dreadlocks were dripping wet. Moreover, those yellow eyes looked oddly familiar.
"You're... Are you Huashe?" My floundering words made him smirked. Without his horns, I barely could recognize him as the same mythical beast earlier. He appeared like a normal human. And it was hard to notice him hissing like when I first met him. "How did you—"
"Look different?" Huashe cut me off, as he shook his head. "That is my form when I touched the water, supposedly a human like you couldn't see or notice me..." he trailed off at the expression on my face. "Even to point speaking inside my mind."
Oh, so basically Huashe was like a mermaid—I mean, merman. I simply nodded.
Well, what he pointed out was true. As a matter of fact, it was sort of rude to barge into someone's mind without permission. I fidgeted. "I, uh, didn't mean to get inside your head. Just because that octopus woman said we were bundled, so... yeah."
Then I found myself remembering about his claws. I bit my lips, feeling squeamish. I couldn't help glancing at his now human-like fingers, and his nails broken. "I'm sorry... Did it hurt?"
"Of course, they're hurting as—"
"Of course, his noble god Huashe didn't mind anything, my wife." Jie Moshu shot a sharp look at Huashe, then turned his face to me all sweetly and warm. But my detective nose smelled something fishy and suspicious about this. "A familiar like him won't dare to disobey his master's order, right?"
What was he talking about? Master? Who was Huashe's master? I did recall him talking back and forth about his master when we were back fighting with the octopus woman.
Huashe's green eyes narrowed into slits as he hissed, clearly unhappy. He crossed his arms, glared back at Jie Moshu's back, muttering, "If it wasn't because we had telepathy, I wouldn't have accepted a mere stupid mortal like her to become my master. Especially when being threatened by Sky Realm's authority."
"Noble god Huashe," Jie Moshu chastised him, "it's inappropriate talk bad things about your master. Or else, you'll be the one who backfired."
Jie Moshu looked at me, a curl of smile softening his expression. "Wife, try saying 'bow'."
"Hey, hey! Human! Don't... don't you say a word..." Huashe stuttered as he glared at me. He was looking all too prideful, but his was betrayed by his own eyes as I caught a hint him fearing me.
My eyebrow rose, as my voice faltered, "Jie Moshu... just let it be."
"Shouldn't a familiar be obedient to its master?" He furrowed. "Don't worry my wife. If he dares to do anything, I'll finish him."
My face stiffened. This kind of Jie Moshu sent chills to my bones. I thought I saw cruelty flashed through his eyes. Huashe, what on earth have you done to offend him like that?
I was feeling very apologetic towards Huashe, but I had to save my life first. Jie Moshu's aura pressured me too hard!
"Urn, bow?"
"Arrgghhh!" My heart almost stopped when I heard Huashe groaning out loud. He was clutching his head as if there was a shrill ringing in the back of his skull. Whether he liked it or not, the invisible force of my command made him knelt down before me—he even curled up to hug his body, but it was pointless.
"Now, noble god Huashe, you can give your greetings." His tone was measured, but there was a great deal of torment in his words.
Huashe body was rigid, I saw his blank look. He appeared as though he might start crying. He sniffed and ingenuously said, "I, Huashe, your humbly servant... Give my master greetings."
"Congratulations my wife, you just earned yourself a familiar."
Wait... What? A familiar. I, Liu Huayu earned what? How did I suddenly become Huashe's master? Did anything happen when I passed out?
My head started firing a series questions that sound like they came from how-to-win-a-jackpot tips.
I could feel my smile froze on my face. To be totally honest, I was utterly flabbergasted by Jie Moshu. Judging by Huashe's expression, he was pretty much gobsmacked too.
Through Jie Moshu's words, why did it seem like he was saying I just owned a mythical beast as a pet?!