Zhang Jian had never felt so ashamed and petty in his lifetime as he felt at that moment. He had been angry and stuck up over a trivial misunderstanding while Lin Xi had been braving difficulties just to come close to him.
He didn't know whether it was his guilt or how pitiful and wronged Lin Xi looked at that moment but Zhang Jian was feeling endless remorse for his previous behavior and a sea of sympathy towards her plight.
As soon as Lin Xi saw the morbid look on Zhang Jian's face, she knew that her ploy had succeeded not that she had told him any lie. Her parents had really left her at a tender age and she had brought herself up and had become stronger by braving danger and by relying on herself.
After the misunderstanding had been resolved, Lin Xi brushed off the matter as if it had been nothing pushing Zhang Jian further inside a well of remorse and guilt of being petty and narrow minded towards her.
After the misunderstanding had been cleared, Zhang Jian was invited by Lin Xi to come inside the hut, to which he obliged obediently.
She brought him to sit on a table that had a vase full of fresh flowers on top of it. The flowers were white lilies which used to be his personal favorites until the moment he had moved on to the chrysanthemums.
The fragrance refreshed his mind while he looked around the cave which looked freshly decorated. He could feel the care that had been administered in decorating the cave. The simple and elegant style definitely matched up to the grace and elegance which had been ingrained in Lin Xi's style.
Lin Xi had gone over to the kitchen in order to brew some tea after getting Zhang Jian to sit down. She felt like she had dodged a life threatening attack in the past five minutes.
Her trembling fingers were not listening to her commands but she forced them to do her bidding anyways. Her nervousness only ended up prolonging the time for the preparation of the tea.
After some time she carried over a tray towards the table that held the two cups of tea; one for herself and the other for Zhang Jian.
Since she had avoided disaster, she wanted to continue her plan of getting closer to Zhang Jian. As such, Lin Xi "accidentally" knocked over her cup while drinking tea with Zhang Jian who had barely lifted his head up from the table.
The cup ended up wetting her chest and spoiled her dress. The already loose and low hanging front of the dress had even become drenched. Zhang Jian had instinctively raised his head at the sound of the cup being knocked over but he couldn't get over the scene that he had witnessed.
Zhang Jian's face had turned blood red with shame as he stared at her chest for a while before returning to himself from his daze. He immediately looked away from her in order to avoid looking at her chest.
Seeing how flustered Zhang Jian had become, Lin Xi let out a muffled and sneaky laugh as a celebration of her victory knowing that she had succeeded in her attempt to attract his attention.
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The fox had been tasked by Ge Kai to keep a lookout on Zhang Jian. Ge Kai had long been looking out for an opportunity to get his hands on the Purple Sapphire in the hands of Zhang Jian. He couldn't wait to spoil all the carefully laid out plans of the succuba Lin Xi in order to avenge the death of his son. After being made the leader of the operation by the Demon Leader Zero, the authority at his behest had made him feel quite pleased with himself and Ge Kai wanted to keep his current position at the top of the food chain no matter what he had to do.
As the World-Serpent had already defied him once, Ge Kai was intent on accomplishing this task in order to snitch to Zero about the Serpent's disobedience. This way he wouldn't seem quite as incompetent. As it stood, he did not have the ability to rein in the World-Serpent if it wanted to disregard his orders. The two were similar in power and there was no guarantee of winning if he made a move against the World-Serpent. Ge Kai thought that it was better to ignore what World-Serpent had been doing instead of confronting it and not being able to subdue it even after he made a move himself.
As such the World-Serpent had been trying to give orders without asking Ge Kai first as a means to show off his own power and as a way to sabotage Ge Kai whose influence had been on the rise recently after Zero had apparently made him the leader for the mission.
World-Serpent had been dissatisfied with the arrangement since it had been the predecessor to that position and could not just start taking orders from someone else.
As such it didn't let go of any opportunity to undermine his authority in any way possible.
But on the surface he had to accord Ge Kai the minimum level of respect that was due to a superior which made World-Serpent cringe with fury and helplessness. After all, it couldn't just disobey him out in the open because that would be disobeying the direct order of the actual leader Zero, and doing that was akin to death.
The World-Serpent even hoped that Ge Kai would fail in its task, because that would give its struggle against him wings. If he failed in retrieving the Purple Sapphire even with the help of such a huge force that had been accorded to him, the World-Serpent could then plead his incompetency to thwart his leadership aside.
Both the World-Serpent and Ge Kai's hopes rested with this operation that would begin as soon as there was a signal from the Fox's end.
Zhang Jian had been planning to visit Lin Xi after receiving her invite through the help of the Bluebird.
He told Wu Ming that he was going out for a bit. Since Wang Yan had been antagonistic towards Lin Xi in the past, Zhang Jian didn't tell her about his intentions to visit Lin Xi. He deliberately left without telling her and entered the thatched hut that belonged to Wu Ming in order to inform him about his departure.
Wu Ming, like a good steward, only asked when he would be back instead of asking where he would be going.
Zhang Jian told him of his own volition that he was going to visit Lin Xi and would be back in a little while.
Wu Ming acknowledged by nodding his head before seeing him out respectfully.
As soon as Zhang Jian headed out, the Fox started to follow him. He had to make sure that Zhang Jian was not coming back soon otherwise it would be hard for them to carry out their operation without him noticing. Ge Kai was quite apprehensive of Zhang Jian; after all he had successfully sabotaged many of his operations before.
Therefore, the Fox had been instructed to ping back only if Zhang Jian left for a considerable period of time. After following Zhang Jian for some time, the Fox was sure that Zhang Jian had not come out for some fresh air or something trivial. He had a destination in mind which was not very close. Ge Kai and the others were good to go.