"I..." she hesitated for a while to come with a polite way of rejection.
"It's ok. Do I look like someone, who will force a lady to dance?" Ziran elegantly got up and dusted off his suit.
Xixi was speechless. 'You do look like that. And didn't you just force me to accompany you?' She thought herself but didn't vocalise it.
Ziran shamelessly gave her a proud cocky look.
Couples were immersed in the romantic melodies whereas Both of them stood in the sidelines sipping sparkly wine.
After a while, Ziran leaned closer to Xixi startling her, and whispered softly in her ears, "Let's go to somewhere fun, okay?"
"Fun?" she widened her eyes.
"Yeah, let's go." Ziran said.Bewildered, Xixi followed to the back entrance.
A flat plate was floating over the ground a small distance away. Ziran grabbed Xixi's wrist and helped her hop on.
"This is a flying carpet?" Xixi forgot to even blink.
"Flying carpet? What's that?" Confusion was vividly displayed by his expressions.
"Nothing...I was just mumbling nonsense. Leave it." Xixi said giving him a weird look.
Ziran turned on the switch. The surrounding slowly started to blur at a high speed and both of them could feel the adrenaline rush.
After a few minutes or so, the plate resembling vehicle landed softly inside a forest.
"Come." He jumped down and once again took hold of her hand. 'Does he have some kind of hand fetish?' Xixi felt goosebumps on her skins as the thought crossed her mind.
"This is where I used to hide whenever I felt gloomy in my childhood." His voice interrupted her thought process.
A cosy tree - house rested on the pine tree enclosed in the quiet woods. A few glowing butterflies swarm by them creating a mystic luminous atmosphere.
"What about now?" Xixi asked, entranced by how magical and surreal everything felt.
"I still do. But just not as frequently as I used to." he said and approached the pine tree.
Ziran felt an empty void in his heart was slowly filling up with her presence. A sense of peace enveloped him. He wished time could just stop right there and then.
"Shis" with a mechanical sound, the staircase to the Woodhouse dropped down. Ziran raised his brows at Xixi who was dumbly staring at him.
"You....don't wanna come up?" He asked with noticeable dejection present in his voice.
"Ah, no,no, of course not, I am coming up right away." She cautiously took the first step while lifting up the folds of the gown.
"Walk slowly, there is a slippery turn over there in fron...
Xixi slipped and fell behind with a scream before Ziran could complete his words.
He facepalmed himself in his mind. But he didn't really regret it when the soft body collided with his strong one.
After a moment of awkwardness Xixi steadied herself with the help of Ziran.
Ziran's eyes filled with humour, took in every move of her. He suppressed the urge to take her in his arms and guided her upstairs.
A small golden lock hung from the door. He pressed a small button on it and the lock opened up with a clicking sound. He pushed the door and entered.
Xixi could immediately spot a black screen in the middle of the room connected to some red and black chords. A round ivory table was placed right beside the screen.
"Water?"
"Huh?" Xixi tilted her head curiously only to find out Ziran pouring water into a glass from a transparent jar.
She indeed felt thirsty since she didn't drink even a bit with the presence of all those tempting dishes in the party. The short journey made it worse. She wanted to keep her guards on, remembering the plots of some novels where the main character got drugged by drinks mostly.
"Surely, you are not thinking that I mixed drugs in this when you never thought of that in the party?" He narrowed his eyes slightly as if reading her mind.
Xixi gulped nervously and accepted the glass. Ziran turned on the display before them and a serene image of a cherry blossom tree popped up.
"This is in the west. It's day over there currently. wonderful,no?" Ziran scrolled over, and another image of a waterfall came up. "This is right at the centre of the woods." He continued in his catchy voice.
"This...you created this device?" Xixi asked.
Ziran looked at the girl, a head shorter than him, admiringly staring at him. He has received countless appreciations and compliments over the years. Some genuine and some for show. But this was the first time, his heart almost melted.
He smiled broadly and asked in a gentle tone, "Yeah, you liked it?"
"Obviously yes, this is so genius." Xixi wanted to slap herself for not ever coming up with such a technology.
"Then, um, that, how did you create this?" She asked in an extremely cautious tone.
"That's supposed to be a secret,no?" Ziran felt satisfied with her pout as he said that.
"Well, if you become my consort though, I can share it with you." He said making Xixi give him a deathly glare.
"It's not that bad to marry me, ok?" Ziran murmured.
"Never mind." Xixi went near the window with her head drooping down.
"Create a few 360° angled drones and connect them with a single SD card. Then programme an algorithm to run with input values from origin point to the end point as described in the position system. Insert the SD card into a screen player and it will be ready."
The brief yet descriptive info made Xixi turn back and face Ziran who was standing there resembling an adorable husky waiting for compliments.
Xixi let out a hearty laughter. "I thought it was supposed to be a secret?" She questioned with ridicule evident in her voice.
"There shouldn't be any secret between a prince and his consort-to-be." Ziran said casually.