"What are you doing here, Mr. Sleepyhead?" Through the shadows of the tree, Yu Mei's smiling face revealed.
"Leave me alone, Yu Mei."
"You're not answering my questions..." Li Kong sensed her sharp gaze piercing through him and without any notices, she lowered her stance and taken a residence right beside him. Her eyes discerned his whole body before wandering somewhere else to the front.
She closed her eyes and supported her chin with her palm, rambling. "You know when I was walking in the village, everyone there was worrying about this person. They said this person had a pale complexion and walked like a living corpse so naturally I get curious and looked after this said person and I ended up on this place."
Li Kong peeked at her face and found her discerning eyes was staring straight at him.
Feeling uncomfortable, he immediately turned his face away from her.
"Now, Li Kong." Her calm voice rang in his ears. "Care to guess for me who this person is?"
"Go away, Yu Mei. I need sometime alone." Li Kong reached his hand toward her and shooed her away.
Yu Mei sneered. "Since when did the chatterbox of the Ruman Village, renowned even to the city folks, become this antisocial?"
"Whatever." Li Kong looked up and closed his eyes.
"Fine. If you don't want to talk, then I'll wait here until you want to talk. Hmph." Yu Mei pouted and remained steadfast on her place.
A few minutes passed by.
"You talking yet?" Yu Mei asked.
"..." Li Kong's eyes remained shut.
Another minute passed.
"Are you talking yet?" Yu Mei once again asked.
"..." Li Kong's forehead trembled as he creased his eyebrows in attempt to kept his eyes shut.
"Are you talking ye-" Right before Yu Mei able to finished her words, Li Kong jumped off from his former position and let out a scream.
"Argh!!!" Li Kong scratched his head furiously and then redirected his frustration directly to the source. "You crazy girl. You're going to drive me insane!"
Yu Mei bewilderedly stared at Li Kong before bursting into a laugh.
"Why are you laughing now?" Did this woman had finally lose her mind?
Yu Mei continued her laugh for a few more seconds before calming down her ragged breath, making a breathy sound as her chest moved up and down. Tears glistening on the corner of her eyes.
"That's more like it." She said while wiping tears off from her eyes.
"What?" Li Kong asked.
"That's the Li Kong I know." A beautiful flower blossomed on her face.
Caught off guard, Li Kong stared absentmindedly at the her.
Seemingly not noticing his stare, Yu Mei continued to open her mouth. Her voice filled with happiness and joy even as she continued to rambled on.
"The Li Kong that I know would never back down when someone was annoying him. If you weren't replying for the third time, I would already informed uncle Ye that maybe our Li Kong had been replaced by monsters of the forest and we had to save the real one."
After a long time of talking, she paused for moment and looked back at Li Kong only to found him staring at her.
"So, are you talking yet?" Yu Mei asked.
Hearing her repeated questions, Li Kong jolted out from his daze only to found a fair hand patting the ground where he once sat continuously.
Li Kong glanced on Yu Mei then sighed before he walked back to his former position and as he settled down, Yu Mei happily made way for him and after sitting properly and hugging his knees, he heard her talking again.
"So? What happened?"
"There's a problem."
"Can you tell me about it?"
Li Kong shook his head.
Yu Mei stayed silent before leaned her body against him and let out a giant deep breath.
"Here I thought that it will be something big." Her voice sounded a bit relaxed after that. "So what is the problem? Did you get a scolding by uncle Zheng? A few strike at the chrysanthemum, perhaps?" She let out a little smirk.
Li Kong shook his head once again.
"Hmm? Then are you bullied by uncle Ye during your training? You know you could always sell him out to auntie Feng right?"
Li Kong kept on shaking his head.
"Oh, I got it! Is Tang Xia making you mad again? No? Then, my father? My mother? Granny Qing? No, that's taking it too far..." Yu Mei pinched on her chin and continued to list few more people but no matter who she listed Li Kong's head was moving in almost automatic state.
Suddenly realization light up in her mind, she got up from leaning against Li Kong and asked, "Could it be related to what you wanted to tell me a month before?"
As she finished her words, Yu Mei noticed Li Kong's eyes twitched slightly and his eyes dropped down to the ground.
"You won't tell me what is it?" Her tone shifted down by the end.
"..."
Yu Mei sighed and leaned her body against Li Kong once more.
"I gave up. You win. I'll just leave it to you. I'm sure you can take care of whatever it was." Yu Mei closed her eyes and snuggled her head around, trying to find the perfect position to lied on Li Kong's shoulder.
While she still trying to look for the most comfortable position, Li Kong released his knees out of his hug and stared at the person who was in process of invading his shoulder with clear confusion.
Sensing the sudden light shift of the shoulder, the invader raised her chin up and met his gaze directly.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Yu Mei asked.
"Why?" Li Kong opened his mouth.
"Hmm?"
"Why did you trust me so much?"
Li Kong observed her complexion carefully while Yu Mei was taken aback by his question and stared at him dumbfoundedly before pulling her knees and hid half of her face deep within it, revealing only her eyes.
Li Kong looked carefully at those eyes before the gaze of the eyes gradually turned warmer.
"Do you still remember about when I was lost in the forest, Li Kong?" Yu Mei looked to somewhere faraway. Her gaze seemed fleeting and out of the present.
Li Kong leaned his body more to the tree behind and replied. "The one where you got lost and cry until your snots was everywhere on your face?"
Yu Mei lifted her head up and glared Li Kong with dissatisfaction. "Did you really have to mention that?"
Li Kong shrugged which prompted even stronger glare staring out of Yu Mei but she decided to not chase the issue any further and buried her face deep inside of her knees again.
"I was so scared at that time you know? It seemed like I was stuck in a never-ending maze and I've wandered for a long time until my legs gave up. I cried and I cried until suddenly a hand reached out to me and would you kindly guess it for me about who was it."
Li Kong answered, "It was me."
"Yes. It was you." Her eyes smiled. "It was you who rescued me. It was you who found me at the time where no one could. After you returned to the village with me, I heard from my mother that you endured a punishment from uncle Zheng because you went deep inside of the forest. She even said you received a spanking until you could no longer cry and your bum completely cherry-red."
After Yu Mei finished his sentences, Li Kong unknowingly slightly opened his mouth and looked at her with a "Did you really have to include that little pieces of information at the end?" look in his eyes.
"That's my payback to you." Yu Mei stuck out her tongue at him.
After that, she shifted her head a little to the side until a smile could be seen peeking at the corner of her mouth. "And that's why I trusted you because since that day, no matter how stupid you may be. Because since that day, you've become—" A smile fully blossomed as her eyes. "—my hero."
"My sole hero. My most stupid hero. It's silly really." She let out a little chuckle.
"And so that's why, cheer up won't you? Didn't you said that you would a brave young warrior not long ago? Would a brave warrior really stuck up in place like this? Stand up and do what you should do!"
Then she took both of his hand and enveloped them in her warm embrace. "And always remember that I'm always here for you." She opened up his palms and traced her fingers on top of them before she looked back at him, smile never once leaving her face.
She retracted her hand back and after a moment processing what she had done, realization struck her on the face as her complexion immediately becoming steaming hot.
Out of a blue, she suddenly stood up and fanned herself with both of her hand rapidly.
"Ooh. The weather outside is so hot, don't you also think so, Li Kong? I'm practically burning right here. Haha." Her face facing miles away from Li Kong.
Shortly after, she shifted back her focus at Li Kong and although Li Kong still remained silent, she could see the usual luster coming back to his eyes and she silently took a breath of relief.
She wanted to remain by his side but the embarrassment had caught up to her and it was honestly too much for her to bear so without any choices left, she hurriedly bid farewell to Li Kong and instantly vanished from the place. An inaudible screech could be heard from afar.
"Hero..." Li Kong muttered.
After watching dumbfoundedly at the flickering figure, Li Kong turned his head down to looked at his palm and faintly he could still felt the warm feeling of another finger caressing it.
He recalled what the girl had told him before and grasped his hand tightly. He stood up and looked at the direction of the forest. His gaze was resolute.
I've decided. I will become a hero! The young lad had got rid of his fear and to achieve this newfound dream of him, there were only one way.
Like a flying dagger, Li Kong immediately departed and darted through the village with a breeze.
At the village, An Yan was loading his cart with his chubby son before he saw something coming from the distance in an unprecedented speed.
"What is that?" His son, An Lihan, tried to made sense of what was coming.
"Uh." An Yan squinted his eyes hard. He focused his sight at the coming figure and after a moment, the image became clearer and by the time they realized it was Li Kong, Li Kong had already blitzed through them but before passing by he greeted An Yan with, "Hello, uncle!" Unfortunately, his words was carried by the passing wind and failed to enter An Yan's ears/
"L-Li Kong?"
After a set of nonstop sprint, Li Kong had arrived at the terrace of his house. He quickly took off his shoes and slammed open the bedroom door.
"White!" Li Kong said.
Having noticed the commotion since afar, White slowly floated to his direction.
"It seems like you've gat–" His words was cut off short as Li Kong snatched him mid-air.
"White!" Li Kong shouted.
"What?" White replied, annoyed.
"I've decided!" White listened and raised his nonexistent eyebrows.
"I will become a hero!"
White froze for a moment before replying, "Hmm?"
"Since the talk I have with Yu Mei before, I've decided I will be a hero and solved whatever problem the village has so to achieve that I decided that I will train even harder from now on! I'll train so hard so when I see the sick bastard who made that altar, I will instantly kick his ass." Burning passion ablaze in his eyes.
"I don't really get it but it's good that you've regained your spirit. Good. Good. That's how youth should be! We shall continue our cultivation session this day." White, seemingly infected by Li Kong, exclaimed in passionate voice.
Without anyone noticing, the teacher-student duo together burned their passions underneath the unsuspecting wooden roof.
"You better not cry to me when it get too hard, okay?"
"Yes, I won't."
"Alright. Tomorrow, we'll travel the mountain up and down three times in a row!"
"Are you trying to kill me, White?"
"You said you won't cry about it."
"I don't want to die!"
"You're overexaggerating."
"You're underexaggerating!"
The pair argued continuously and without finding any middle ground, the pair refused to see each other but still continuing their usual activities.
'A hero, huh?' White thought to himself while watching the numerous amount of Qi being absorbed in by Li Kong.
'That's not a bad dream, Li Kong.' White's lips began to curve as he recalled the memories of the past.
He recalled that there was someone there too like Li Kong dreaming to be a hero and to that person, White only had sincere admiration for him.
'Just you wait Li Kong.' The figure inside of the bead smiled at the youthful figure.
'I'll make you into the greatest hero this world, no, the universe ever seen!'