Chapter 548: Bonus chapter 2

The snow had fallen since last night and despite today was a shiny day, the wind was still cold.

An eight years old little girl was holding his father hand tightly while her other hand tried to secure the white fur cloak around her.

She didn't like winter as she would be easily got sick. When the wind blew on her face, she sneezed twice, before her mother picked her up and wiped her snot with brown handkerchief with named 'Qi' embedded on it.

Today was the first day the little girl entered the palace, her father had just been promoted as government officer Qi, as today there was a banquet to celebrate the Emperor's nephew birthday, the young Prince Xiao Wu Xie.

She was dressed prettily, but she still didn't like to be outside in the snowy days like this. She wanted to be in her comfortable room.

Once the three of them entered the banquet hall, both of her parents need to sit on their respective seat while Qianru needed to sit together with other officers' son and daughter who were around her age.

The little girl sat there timidly, not comfortable with her surroundings. When the loud and dignify voice of Azura's Emperor echoed inside the room, Qianru lifted her head and there, the little girl saw him for the first time.

He was scolding his little brother beside him who was frowning with annoyance. Qianru didn't know what they were arguing about, but the sight made her smile.

'It is good to have big brother' that's what all she thought at that time. At least, she has someone to talk to at time like this.

Probably, the young boy felt someone was looking at his direction when he looked at Qianru who was stunned and abruptly averted her gaze.

It wasn't appropriate to look intently at the royal family like that, thus the little girl lower her head and didn't dare to look at the platform in front of her again throughout the event, even when the party moved to the yard, she sat and ate obediently on the bench.

Later on, when the event had done and all the people were ready to leave, the little Qianru got lost when she was about to find her parents.

Her little step frantically ran around the empty corridor. She was too afraid to ask the guard as their faces were very stern.

At that time, she heard a voice of young boy. If it was someone around her age, she wouldn't be very timid. Thus, she followed the source of the voice and found him.

"Who is there?" The same boy who was scolding his brother earlier caught a sight of her.

He was standing in front of his brother who looked younger than Qianru.

"Oh, I saw you before." He exclaimed, "What are you doing here?"

"I got lost…" Qianru said timidly.

He crossed his arms and looked at her up and down, before he said. "Come here." He waved his hand. "I will help you find your parents if you help me first."

Qianru looked at him and walked over without slightest suspicion. "What can I do to help?"

"I have been teaching my little brother martial arts, but he still didn't understand my point. I will practice with you, so my brother can see the movement clearly."

"But I don't know how…" Qianru froze, she had never been taught anything about martial arts.

"It's alright, you just need to do what I said." He smiled smugly while his little brother squatted down uninterested. "If I say 'raise your hand' you have to raise your hand like this." He gave her an example.

Qianru nodded warily.

"Okay, I will start now." He took a step back. "Tianyao, stand up and watch this!"

Xiao Tianyao reluctantly stood up and looked at his brother. "Jun, you look like you are bullying her."

"I told you to call me brother." Xiao Jun grumbled and then his face turned serious. "I will start now."

Looking at how serious Xiao Jun became, Qianru gulp hard and regretted her decision to help. "Can I …" Before she could finish her words, Xiao Jun had charged toward her while yelling.

"Raise your hand!"

Instead of raising her hand, the frightened little girl squatted down and threw her arms over her head while screaming, as a result, Xiao Jun's kick landed on her shoulder that knocked her down quite hard.

Xiao Jun was still ten years old and he just started to learn martial arts, so his agility didn't develop yet.

The kick was stunned the three of them.

At first Qianru was trying to sit before she looked over at her white fur coat that now tainted with dirt. Xiao Jun's sole shoe embedded on her shoulder, ruined her beautiful dress.

A small whimper escaped her lips and later on it became a cried.

"Don't cry! Don't cry!" In panic Xiao Jun stroked her back, soothingly. "Ssstt! Don't cry."

"I told you, you bullied her." Xiao Tianyao squatted down, looking at the crying girl and his panic brother.

"Shut up!" Xiao Jun snapped at him. But, his angry voice made the Qianru cried louder. "No, no, I was angry to my brother, not you!"

Because of her crying voice was getting louder, Xiao Jun hugged her and pressed her face against his chest, trying to muffle the sound.

"Jun, are you trying to smothering her?"

After that accident, Qianru learnt that the boy was the crown prince of the Azura, she scared because she was crying in front of him.

However, because of that accident also the three of them grew closer with each other.

Sometime, Qianru would enter the palace and watched the two brothers practicing martial arts or just for chat about trivial things.

When Xiao Jun turned sixteen and finally became a disciple of the Mountain Sui Sword Sect, he would talk about how excited he was while Qianru listened to him attentively.

When he returned from the Mountain Sui Sword Sect, he looked different. He didn't talk much with Qianru or told her how was the training. Somehow, that made her sad, but she didn't say anything about it.

When another disciple from the Mountain Sui Sword Sect came for a visit, Xiao Jun became very excited, his face radiated with excitement.

Especially when he looked at his junior sister, there was something in Qianru that hate the way Xiao Jun looked at the girl…

She wanted him to look at her in the same way and smile brightly at her like the way he did when Riana was around.

That was the first time Qianru had met Riana before a big disaster hit the royal family of Azura.

On the day Xiao Jun lost both of his parents, it was her who was sitting silently next to him inside the rickety hut near the river that streaming through the backyard of An Wan palace.

Both of them sat there for entire night, she was there through the worse day in his entire life, without saying a word.

After that, Qianru never saw his bright eyes again. Someone who she has known for half of her life had changed.

She was ready to die on that faithful night when she lost all of her dignity as a woman, but Xiao Jun came and stayed with her through the worse day of her life.

It was hurt when Xiao Jun asked her hand for marriage and bluntly said; that was for political sake. He did ask her if she wanted to help him and would understand if she refused it.

As fool as she was, Qianru was willing to appease the burden on his shoulder. If by married him was all she could do to help him and to be with him, so be it.

She hoped she could be strong enough to stand by his side.

After all the hardship that had been throwing on their way and all the bloody battle that had occurred, his smile on the day he picked her up from the southern village, made everything worth it.

He brought three thousand soldiers just to pick her up.

Disregarding all people who were looking at them, Xiao Jun walked toward her with the brightest smile on his lips and hugged her tightly, carefully to not press her stomach.

"Thank you for all you have done for me…" Xiao Jun whispered, buried his face on her shoulder.

"I have done nothing…" Qianru replied softly.

But, the new Emperor of Azura shook his head, denied her statement. "I will not be here without you. I would have died long time ago."

Caressing his back, a tear of happiness escaped from her beautiful eyes.

"Thank you for stay with me." Xiao Jun kissed her tears.