"Or better," He continued. "You knew who I was despite seeing me for the first time."
They stared at each other, tense.
Bai Shuyin could feel her chest tightened in anxiety as Wu Jiangfeng stared hard enough to look through her. An immense illogical fear in Bai Shuyin made her feel like she had been read through. Perhaps, she made a mistake by directly identifying the other prince.
She had thought everyone knew who the four descendants of the auspicious beasts were, those chosen ones. If she had known, she would have pretended not to know him in the first place and just thought of him as one of the nobles.
This could be the reason why he tagged along with her, sticking so close to her. How could she be so stupid?
But rice had become porridge. Bai Shuyin tried to look innocent, harmless. When she realized he wasn't putting weight on the dagger, she slowly pushed him away on her own.
She took a step back, hands raised as she flickered her dagger away. It clattered onto the ground, lying helplessly a few feet away from her.
Bai Shuyin sighed. She saw how his violet eyes followed her hand movements as if making sure she didn't do anything, yet she didn't feel an ounce of bitterness towards him. He had all the rights to be suspicious, especially in this era of times. Poisoning someone and getting away with it wasn't an arduous task to do.
She spread her fingers to prove her point as a non-threatening human. Her lips felt dry. Bluffing her way through seemed to be the best option to do for now. Letting out a sigh, she finally gathered the courage to speak.
"Do you believe in reincarnation?"
"Are you the White Tiger?"
***
When he crept up behind her, Wu Jiangfeng never expected to be attacked head on. He was partially surprised that she even showed up. He felt astonishingly pleased and the butterflies fluttered in his stomach. His morning was awful, ruined by the shameless idiot of an eunuch. Seeing her here was invigorating.
Unconsciously to him, he had been standing there, admiring her much longer than he'd expected.
He made his first step and the playful streak in him decided to pull a prank on her. She had always been so tense around him, edgy like he was going to have her dragged away and ordered a beating.
Wu Jiangfeng, for the first time in his life, miscalculated the situation. He was caught off guard. The prince sucked in a short breath when a shine of weapon swung towards him. He saw the glinting edge of the blade moving closer and closer that he was awfully fortunate his reflexes never disappointed him. He deflected it; flawlessly, on pure instinct to protect himself in what was supposed to be safe in his mind.
The prince had come alone despite Bai Lun's insistence on accompanying. It took him a while to shake him off but Wu Jiangfeng knew he would probably be nearby.
The glow of Bai Shuyin's silver hair swished behind her as it caught the orange hue of the sunset. Her movements were on point, precise. And he was sure he didn't miss the translucent white streak of energy the blade gave off. His heart thumped in excitement.
Was she the one? Did she or did she not know about it? Had she known all along and feigned ignorance? It had been one of his goals to help the White Tiger Clan to track down their successor.
The Southern Prince wanted to hear it directly from her mouth. He stilled his facial expression as he taunted her with various questions regarding her identity. With two totally different qualities of daggers as the only barricade between them, Wu Jiangfeng could clearly see the panic in her eyes.
Ceruleans trembled, looking everywhere but him.
His eyes shifted from her eyes down towards her hand, tightly gripping the badly wrapped handle of the dagger. Wu Jiangfeng immediately decreased the pressure he had unexpectedly put. His energy must have channeled there from trying to keep his poker face intacted.
The white energy. That was the ultimate identification marker of the white tiger. Bai Lun had informed him countless times before. Besides the tattoo crafted somewhere in the body, there was another dead giveaway to identify this white tiger. The successor would possess the white light spiritual energy, it was their signature whenever they combated. Look closely and you wouldn't miss the white-like mist that followed the swung blade.
That was the message those members of the White Tiger Clan received as the last decree, a dying wish from their ruler before dispersing to different continents after their Kingdom was invaded. Find their successor and take back what was theirs. Avenge their fallen kingdom.
And Wu Jiangfeng readily agreed to assist. If it meant putting the Wang Kingdom back to their place. They had been ruling for far too long. Their greed for power was insatiable that it wouldn't be long for them to target another kingdom.
However…
That little rascal. What was he doing in here, scattering about like a little mouse around her? Shouldn't he be locked up somewhere in his own Kingdom? Like how they had been treating their holy one from the start? Who let him run loose?
The redhead gnashed his teeth in annoyance, though it appeared to have come across the other badly as the white haired girl threw her only defense away to look harmless and raised her hands.
While she did that to prove her innocence, Wu Jiangfeng feared she might just bolt any time. Yet, the more he pressed, the more perplexed Bai Shuyin appeared to be. The Southern Prince was unsure if she knew about herself.
For her to swing her dagger carelessly like that, it just proved that the other party was clueless about it.
Wu Jiangfeng spat out everything that he thought might push her spill. She gaped, her mouth open and closed as she tried to process what he said. Wu Jiangfeng was starting to feel agitated himself, until he couldn't stop himself from retorting.
"Are you the white tiger?"
"Do you believe in reincarnation?"
Absolutely dumbfounded but at that, Wu Jiangfeng was a hundred percent sure she didn't know about herself.