Xiu'er free fell for a long distance before she saw a light shone below her feet, probably indicating the ground. She orientated her body upright then looked down again to see a wooden floor revealing underneath her. She made impact with her feet, her legs curled up into a crouching position to cushion the momentum of the fall. Kun Shang landed not far from her in a similar manner.
She stood up and looked around the room. It was well lit by candle light so they could see that it was no longer made of ice. It was more civilized with wooden walls, a wooden floor, shelves, tables, and lots of dried dusty books. Surrounding on the inside of the walls were candelabras located evenly throughout.
"A person without training would've never been able to land that fall perfectly." Kun Shang's voice broke her inspection of the room. "Xiu'er, you always talk about Chun Yi but it occurred to me that you are far more interesting than I originally thought."
I can't afford to fall backwards and injure A'Li, she thought in her head.
Xiu'er approached a table and laid A'Li down on a warm spot. When she realized Kun Shang was still watching her, she rolled her eyes at him.
"Great! Now you know how magnificent I am, next time don't argue with me. If you want to beg for mercy, I accept." She did a quick sarcastic bow before searching the room for a possible door because there wasn't one to be seen. The room doesn't appear to have a door at all, other than the one from the 50 yard ceiling they fell from. After quickly circling the room and finding nothing, she realized he was still in the middle of the room, waiting for her to respond to his comment.
"Yes," she sighed. "I... have some martial arts training and I hid them from you. So what? I don't have to tell you if I don't want to. I only want to protect my brothers and find Uncle Shu, but I can't now because I have to keep you alive from Chun Yi."
"Does your brother have some training too?" He asked curiously.
"Yes, he knows some. But mostly he only knows how to screw around with girls. Don't waste your time on him."
"Is that why you could throw those knives?" Kun Shang recalled the time at the capital.
Xiu'er's eyebrows raised. "Oh that? Cool, isn't it? I may not be strong yet, but I found I'm a sharpshooter."
"If you don't mind, I've been pondering over two questions and couldn't come to a conclusion."
She stopped examining a bookshelf and leaned her weight onto one leg.
"What might that be?"
"Well, first who taught you martial arts, and second," he looked from her head to her wrist, "from whom did you steal that gem hairpin and white jade bangle from?"
Xiu'er couldn't help but smile and touched her hairpin. Who would've thought he noticed?
"It's not an entertaining story. You'll be bored" She shook her head and went back to checking the books. After pulling out a few, she found that most of them were very common and can be found in almost any library.
"Humor me." He spoke as he decided to help her find anything about the room. She was surprised by his sudden mood change, and because of that she gladly obliged.
"It was just recently, but I learned martial arts from someone I call Grandpa. He took care of us when we were in the streets and he's very sweet. But he's so old and forgetful he would often make us do hard labor for him again and again so we would try to run away. Second," she touched her hair pin again, then looked down to her bracelet, "Nuwa's Five Colored Rocks was not given to me. It was originally mine. As for Pearl Jade of Mortal Health," she paused with more softened eyes, "my mother gave it to me."
His eyebrows creased together in confusion with so many more questions than answers. He thought she was originally a farmer and then became a beggar, how does such valuable things belong to her? He opened his mouth to say something but she stopped him. "Don't ask. Please don't ask me how my mother got it or any more questions."
There was a moment of silence that was so quiet Xiu'er was convinced there was a ringing in the room. Kun Shang opened his mouth again, but to say something else this time.
"Just so you know, my skill of expertise is that I'm trained to look out for assassins, which means I haven't been acting like this because I don't know Chun Yi. I know she's trying to kill me, I'm not stupid. Who would coincidentally meet someone three times in two weeks? It's certainly not chances, if you ask me. I met her in the capital right after I left the Palace, once again in that tavern in the East, and again in the capital. I'm not doing anything because I want to find out why she wanted to kill me when we had never met before." There was a pause in Kun Shang's speech as he thought of what to say next. "What's strange is that I don't feel any hatred towards her. I don't know her but she wants to kill me. She's going to kill me but she's hesitant. She's my killer, yet I'm intrigued by her. Does any of this make sense to you?" He looked up at her for an opinion.
Of course it does. It made perfect sense because her brother was right. Kun Shang really did like Chun Yi and she liked him back. They just didn't realize it yet under the implication of their relationship. Xiu'er stood still and didn't answer him, she felt a pain in her chest. The pain was similar to when Yaoyao passed away and Chun Yi joined their group, as if Chun Yi was being rewarded for murder. Only this time, the pain was for realizing the man she had always been waiting for was in love with someone else.
"I ask that you be nicer to Chun Yi," he continued to speak. "Just a little bit would be fine. Act indifferent to her, if you couldn't be kind. I know deep down she's a good person. I just can't understand why she would want to kill me and as soon as I do the first person I tell will be you. I know you cared about me and I don't want to take that for granted. But for now, I need to confront her to see if it really was worth what she's doing."