Chapter 136 - I Want To Date You

"Are you the one in charge of tonight's rounds?" asked Feng Xuan.

Shao Fang nodded. "Yeah, you two should head back now."

Feng Xuan was about to move with Qing Chen when he suddenly spoke. "I think she has something to talk to you about. Good night, Xuan."

Feng Xuan gave him a silent glare. "Good night, Chen."

He only grinned back at her.

Qing Chen was never a fan of prolonging problems. If there was a way to solve it, do it already. He certainly did learn his lessons from the past few months. Pull it out from the root and say good bye to it.

One of the reasons why he was never fond of movies because miscommunication had always been the cause of the huge problems the character would try to solve. It was annoying for him.

It was better to get to the bottom of things. He walked past Shao Fang at the doorway and went on his way to his room.

**

"He says you wanted to talk to me?" asked Shao Fang as they were walking back to the side of dormitories.

"Are you done with your rounds?"

"I still have to make a sweep at the grounds. But I can spare a few minutes if you need to talk."

Feng Xuan slowly let a breath out. Master said it was the quickest way to make yourself calm and restore stabilization in your body. "See, Qing Chen and I are really close and I was just asking him if…" her mind was screaming that everything that was coming out of her mouth was wrong. 

Patiently, Shao Fang asked, "Yeah?"

They reached her floor and she knew she just had to let it out. She didn't want to hurt his feelings. But now that her husband was here, they could really not let a small misunderstanding get in the way of their training and the relationship that they were rebuilding.

She could not even believe she did not notice in the first place.

"What is it?"

"Right," she said and swallowed. "Do you like me?"

Shao Fang appeared confused. "Yeah, I do."

"No, I mean like… as a girl?" she cringed with her own word choice.

"Oh!" said Shao Fang. "You mean, like, if I want to date you? That kind of stuff?"

Okay, this was not going the way she expected to. She slowly nodded her head. "Something along those lines."

Shao Fang laughed. "Did I come off like that? I'm sorry," he said. "I just think you are adorable. Maybe in some other place and time. But given that I had chosen to be an assassin, personal relationsh.i.p.s had been banned to me for life. Were you worried that I'll want to start something with you?"

Feng Xuan let out a nervous laugh. "That's so great to hear!"

Shao Fang was nodding at her with a look in his eyes that suggested something else. "Do you like Qing Chen?"

Her eyes darted to Qing Chen's closed door. She knew she was not allowed to say anything about love and relationsh.i.p.s. But she found herself answering, "I do actually."

"Well, he seems like a great person and he's a good fighter. I have a question about him, can you answer?"

Her arms crossed on her chest. "Depends."

"Before I got here, I have been hearing news about some Qings. Like really wealthy people—are those boys part of that family?"

Feng Xuan laughed and patted Shao Fang on the shoulder. "We never really know. Great talk, Shao Fang. Good night."

Shao Fang looked stunned but the corners of his lips were quirked upwards. "Good night, Feng Xuan."

**

Feng Xuan waited for another half hour or so before she locked her door and went out her window. She took a peek at her destination and started scaling the wall.

Included in one of their activities was climbing a lot of things as silently and as fast as they could. Before she would be done with this training, she had to rock-climb a cliff that if she would make a mistake, she could fall to her death.

She moved upwards, feeling for crevices. When she reached the floor, Feng Xuan started to move sideways, her fingers and toes already aching. It felt like her fingers would release any second. With a last haul of her body, she was able to hold onto Qing Chen's ledge.

"Chen!" she whispered. He was reading on his bed. "Chen!"

He finally stood up and bolted to the window. He took hold of her arms and lifted her until she was inside.

"That was fun," she laughed and dropped to the bed with a sigh.

Qing Chen was smiling down at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, I just came to tell you that Shao Fang does not see me in any way like a woman. So…"

"That's good to know," he said.

"Can I stay with you for a minute?"

"Sure," Qing Chen said and sat down the bed. "I was just reading this old diary. It talked about their trainings back then."

The bed was smaller than the one they got when Qing Chen's grandmother exchanged their huge bed. They could barely fit in it. "Read some to me," she said.

Qing Chen sat with his legs stretched and Feng Xuan was on her side. She was just listening to his voice, taking in every word. A few minutes later, her eyes closed.

Suddenly, her eyes popped open. She was not meant to be here. But when she tried to move, Qing Chen's arms were already around her. HOW LONG HAD SHE SLEPT?!

"Shhh," Qing Chen whispered to her. "Go back to sleep."

"But—"

"If you're caught, I will deal with him tomorrow." 

Sleep kept on dragging her eyelids downward. She was still fighting it but she felt Qing Chen's lips on her eyebrow, pressing a kiss and down to the bridge of her nose. And sleep took over again.