Chapter 52 - K-I-S-S-I-N-G

'Fei-ge and Yao-ge sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!!!!!! AAAAAHHHHHH!', was what was going on in Rui Li's brain as she stood there with an absent expression. If it weren't for Rui Fei turning around and calling out to her I am afraid she would have remained rooted on the spot like a ginkgo tree.

"Li-er! What are you doing? Come sit down," said Rui Fei successfully pulling his younger sister back to earth.

"Huh?" she responded with a dreamy expression that had Rui Fei suspicious. Nothing apart from romance novels excited this little girl. Other kids were into handbell rattles, dolls, bamboo copters or kites among other things but Rui Li was a special case.

In the past two years, she had developed an obsession with romantic novels and nothing else. Maybe it was her way of numbing the pain from her past experience in the cold dungeon with little to no sunlight.

Romantic novels were her coping mechanism just like his search for his benefactor in the past two years detached him from his past experiences like some form of distraction.

Now Rui Li was looking at them like she had just discovered a new fluffy novel. He was a little creeped out by her stare but this wasn't the time to talk about it.

"Oh.... hahaha..... I was just um... thinking that you two look cute together," she said with the latter part of her sentence said in a mosquito-like voice. Actually no, mosquitoes are not silent especially at 2 am when dreams are especially sweet. Let's say she said it in an ant-like voice. It was no surprise that the three adults didn't hear her.

"What did you say?" asked Ru Fei. He had heard something, something cute but couldn't make out the rest of the sentence.

"Oh...I said I was thinking that the story of that gemstone is cute. Let me tell you how we found it. It's a pretty cute story," she said as she sat next to Rui Fei, "Dage, please skosh over." She said this with a stern expression but her heart was overshadowed with mischief.

Rui Fei moved a little more to the side which meant his shoulder was now pressed against Ji Yao's to the point of exchanging warmth.

'What the $%$@@%#!$^!@$$#,' was the vulgar uproar happening in Ji Wen's mind as his gaze lingered on the shoulders pressed together. Yes, he wanted his son to make a friend and stop being a loner all the time.

Even if it was one friend it was better than nothing but the speed of getting along was a little too fast for this pirate king. This type of fast-paced getting along kinda reminded him of him and his wife. It was like an instantaneous connection faster than the time it takes to make a cup of instant coffee.

Ji Yao had fought with Rui Fei on the first night, spent a night in the deep caves and the next time they met this was what was happening. Shoulder to shoulder like they had known each other for decades. Heck, even if one knew Ji Yao for decades he wouldn't be rubbing shoulders with them.

Ji Yao felt his father's gaze which only made this situation awkward. He pursed his light red lips and shifted a little but Rui Fei subconsciously moved closer sticking to him like sidewalk gum stuck to a shoe.

He felt the warmth coming from the other person and felt that he didn't hate it. It's a great thing that Rui Li began to narrate her story grasping Ji Wen's attention because the awkward meter was dangerously approaching the red zone.

Rui Li was especially energetic as channelled her inner narrating skills retelling the story of the old lady's human skin. A year and a half ago the three musketeers were on the east side of the Hyesong continent hunting down a man known as the transporter.

He was a short stout tubby responsible for trafficking half Nocru girls who had been abducted from their homes usually in small villages.

He was especially good at it earning him the title of the transporter. Since he had a hand in their benefactor's transportation they hunted him down like the predator. But because of his experience as a transporter, he was a cunning slippery slug hard to find.

They could trace his seraphic energy which was like a Nocru tracking system but his ability to wear other people's skins made it very difficult. Once he wore someone else's skin no one could sense his seraphic energy till the skin was no longer fit to wear.

Even Rui Fei had a hard time sensing this man's seraphic energy so they had to rely on other means to catch him. They tracked reports on skinned corpses found all over the continent which led them to the east of Hyesong.

Two days past but they didn't find that chameleon. Maybe it was because the transporter felt corky or that he believed they would never find him that he decided to make the worst mistake of his life.

When he found out the people hunting him down were a trio of kids with the oldest barely fifteen he thought they would be easy to deal with. Besides he was tired of running and the sooner he got rid of them the sooner he could go back to his old life.

He had heard that these were Prince Rui's children that had escaped the prince's palace after burning it to the ground but he had also heard that pirate king Ji had something to do with this.

Thinking a bunch of children weren't capable of such he believed the former rumour and stole the skin of a sweet old lady that had a stall selling candy and toys. He wanted to tempt them with what other children normally liked.

On the candy and the rest of the merchandise, he had laced them with a layer of sleeping powder that would be activated three hours later. He would then sneak into these kid's rooms they were staying at a nearby inn and kill them in their sleep.. The only flaw with his plan was the fact that he had to sell to other children as he had to maintain his cover as a sweet old lady.