I looked intently at the woman whose height only reached my ears. She had a shy soft smile which invoked a sense of protectiveness over her.
That was only elevated by the vulnerable and defenseless pose she held. Her left arm lay limp whereas her right reached over to slowly rub that upper left arm.
Her movements made contact with the underside of her breasts, subtly emphasizing them and elevating their presence through soft bounces.
Eyes were the gateway to someone's soul or so they say. It's not the only way to someone's soul in this world either, but that's probably a problem for another time. Right now I saw a myriad of emotions swirling within like reluctance, joy, sadness, and appreciation
The delicate woman in front of me made me feel like I just had to do something for her. For a small moment I felt like I had gone back in time as the image of a smaller version of herself overlapped the current one.
Back then I decided to accept the little girl who tried her hardest to hide the several large fluffy tails behind her and her protruding fluffy ears as well. She looked nothing like the vixenous woman in front of me now, a part of me wonders where that seductive trait of hers even came from.
She was just a random dirty child I had found coincidentally while I happened to be scouting out the region around where I decided my sect would be located, or at the time simply a place for me and my 5 other disciples to stay and train at.
Her clothes were tattered, and covered with dirt and grime. Her tails coated in mud and her face was caked in grime as well which reminded me a little of a coal miner. It didn't help that her facial expression was one laced with worry and some fear with slightly dulled eyes. Her pose and stance were hesitant with clear signs of fright when I arrived at the time.
She looked so lost and out of place, I knew that if I had left her then and there that the chances of her surviving only decreased and ever so sharply. Of course there were certainly questions to be had and answered, but seeing the state of the girl I suppressed my curiosity and asked whether she needed help.
She was a very shy girl at the time and didn't even respond to my questions. I tried a little more to no avail before just telling her that if she wanted she could follow me back for some help. I simply turned and walked back toward where I came from, the difference was that I was on foot instead of in the air.
I didn't want to force the girl to come with me so in the end I simply hoped that she would follow behind me and after I had managed to get some distance I was about to give up when she finally started moving toward me. After making sure that she was indeed interested I came back to the cautious little fox girl who froze at my sight. I could feel a glimmer of hope in those eyes and without any words I extended my hand to her.
She took that hand and from there I decided to integrate the helpless little fox girl as my 6th disciple, that is after I figured out she could understand me. To be honest I kinda thought she couldn't understand me since she was silent for the entirety of the first 2 days.
It would be a little odd though if that were the case since most of the time in the cultivation novels I read before it just happens that everyone spoke the same language no matter what region of the universe you were from.
Somehow everyone that ever existed just decided that one language was the universal one with occasionally a different language here and there.
Back to reality as that image overlapped and a little wave of nostalgia overtook me. The current Li Daji that stood here still had a few of those traits from before, and it seemed especially so right now. The confident and active woman from the past looked like she reverted back into that lost little girl.
I watched her grow up and one of the more exuberant traits she had gained was one of a temptress. I would really like to know how that trait even came along to be honest. Was it naturally in her genes or was there some kind of event that occurred during her stay with me that made her develop it?
But right now that felt like it was nowhere to be seen, perhaps these 10 years apart from one another had changed her so or she simply had a lot on her mind.
Seeing her look so lonely I couldn't help but to revert back a little into the past too as I raised my hand up to pat and rub her head. She watched my hand approach and closed her eyes as it finally rested upon her head.
"Mmm~"
I could feel that she tried to raise her head a little into my palm. Her silky smooth hair felt a little incomplete without those fuzzy ears of hers that acted like boundary walls of her head.
This act invoked memories that I probably shouldn't have invoked since now I started to have a bias leaning toward her. But maybe that was just exactly what I needed to balance out the bias I had for Ying'er at the moment.
There hasn't been a single word spoken to one another in the last 3 minutes. One of us caressing the other on the head as they closed their eyes to enjoy it. That was my experience for the next half a minute as I stared at the woman that has been gone from my life for the past 10 years.
Finally, I released my hold on her head and audibly I could hear her disappointment at my choice of actions and asked her a simple question.
"How have you been… Little Daji?"
Her pupils shook and her eyes started becoming a little red and glossy. There was no doubt in my mind that she was currently reminiscing about what had occurred during those years.
"A lot- a lot has happened, but I'm fine…. Master I've, I've missed you."
Tears were starting to swell up in her eyes and I couldn't bear to see it anymore. Without even giving it a second thought I stepped up and gave her a hug and started stroking her hair like I had to occasionally when she was younger. She returned the hug, but her hands which gripped onto the back of my robes shook quite frequently.
"Master… is here for you… Little Daji."
I felt my heartstrings being tugged, by her display and my bias towards her shot up. Memories of our past together started surging in and suddenly my mind came to the thoughts of having to choose either Ying'er or my Little Daji.
I couldn't make that choice. If I hadn't had this resurgence of memories I felt like I would have chosen Ying'er's side 100% of the time. Now it was different already and I haven't even heard Li Daji's side of the story yet.
I was already starting to dread the moment I knew would come eventually. I was even starting to become a little scared of what Li Daji had to say, if it was what I might have thought then I felt like the woman I knew for the past 10 years as my wife may unravel into a stranger that I just thought I knew.
But that stranger has been nothing, but kind and caring towards me. For the past 10 years she was as best a wife as I thought she could be. I didn't want to think about this, but now a few of these thoughts had made themselves a home in the deep recesses of my consciousness.
She silently weeped into my robes as I gave her soft reassuring pats on her back. Her arms wrapped themselves around my waist as I heard her sniffles and started to feel a small damp spot on my chest.
I could have easily made it so her tears wouldn't wet my clothes and instead slid off, but I felt if I did so she might think I was rejecting her feelings so I didn't. The wet spot would probably stay for a small period of time on my robes since the only things I knew were preventive measures for getting wet.
"Master…"
"Yes? What is it, Little Daji?"
"When will you have time for us to sit down and talk?"
I thought for a moment about the workload I had and came up with a day. It was actually a couple days more than I needed without even having to work too hard, but it was always better to over prepare than to under prepare right?
"In 8 days I should be completely free, I'll come and find you then."
"En, okay. I'll see you then."
Reluctantly, she willingly freed herself from my embrace and took a step back. There was a sad smile across her face which partially made me want to stay with her for longer, but I knew she was probably letting me go for my own good.
If I took too long to come back to work Ying'er would probably be suspicious and the last thing I would want her to know about right now was that Little Daji was here in our very own sect. Their enmity between one another is quite high, though I don't even know what caused it in the first place.
I walked away, but I increased my hearing sensitivity incase she said something and that she did.
She said softly, perhaps not even thinking that I would hear it.
"Master, be safe…"
'Silly girl, your master is the strongest person here. Besides this is our very own sect, who would dare to attack here?'
I softly chuckled at her farewell before truly departing this time.
..
When I approached the grand hall a thought finally hit me.
'Wait, I just fully embraced Li Daji! Her scent must be all over me, what am I going to do? I guess I could change robes, but Ying'er would probably notice that my outfit changed. I can't just do nothing though right? Whatever, I'll just change and say I got wet.'
I went to a secluded section of the grand hall where I changed my current gray robes with a black set instead.
..
I opened the door to our office and she greeted me like normal, except for the end.
"Welcome back darling! Wait, didn't you wear gray robes when you left this morning? What happened?"
She asked exactly what I thought she would and a moment of panic set in before I calmed myself down.
"Don't worry Ying'er it's nothing, really. Someone just happened to fall with a drink when I was in front of him. There's no need to walk around in a wet robe, right?"
She stood up out of her seat and walked up towards me with a little pout.
"These people really have to watch where they're going. Even a pebble could be dangerous if they're too careless. Here let me help straighten out your robes."
She came close and started patting out several of the wrinkles I had left in my hasty attempt to put on new robes.
I watched her face closely, a little scared that she would find out. With her oddly strong sense of smell I was a little fearful that she would find out it was Li Daji.
Her brows furrowed a little as she went past my hand and she looked at me.
"Did you hold some girl's hand?! What made you do such a thing? You probably made up getting wet too didn't you?"
"*Sigh* I'm serious that I did get wet though!"
'Just not the way I said I did.'
I sighed in relief that it seemed like she didn't find out that it was directly Li Daji. I could handle her outrage at other girls, but I felt like if she knew it was Li Daji she might even turn the sect upside down to find her.