205 chapter 20The modern world:
Xia and Long Aotian lounged on a leaning seat outside the mansion. The climate had turned cold, making their breath poof out a small ball of fog. “Do you think she is okay now?” he whispered, holding out a small bowl of sugar-coated cherries.
Long took it from his hands and picked some out. “Don’t know... I heard she has to recuperate for a long time,” he whispered, glancing at the high windows of the mansion. The demon Bao was running around frantically with a nurse in tow, followed by a downcast looking butler. “I hope she gets better soon.... things are not looking up,” he mumbled.
“what doo yoeu meon (what do you mean?)” Xia said chewing some cherries. Red juice rolled down the sides of his mouth, dying his chin red.
Long leaned over and wiped his chin clean with a kerchief. “Look at that guy...” he gestured to the butler. “He looks lovelorn....”
“Lovelorn? But I don’t think he has a lover though,” Xia mumbled leaning back against his chest.
For which the dragon remained silent for a while. He glanced up above at the two demons and sighed. “it’s a matter of heart. No one can understand what’s within,” he whispered softly.
There was small yip from below. The little fox had somehow run over with a small ball in its mouth and was jumping against the chair. Little Sheng tossed the ball to their lap and wagged his tail.
“Oh, does Little Sheng want to play?” Xia cooed and picked the little pup up. The little pup yipped again. “Long, let’s play!” Xia pulled the lazy dragon to the grassland. Sun was high, and the three played until their heart’s content until the fox’s stomach and Xia’s stomach growled loudly.
.....
The dragon held them both to the kitchen and ate some food that was leftover from the morning’s breakfast. The bread was stale, and the soup was cold, but the two in love enjoyed it till their stomachs were full.
Little Sheng who was still in his fox form was also fed on the table. His meal was quite special, known as wangyu beef. He gnawed on it with his little shark teeth, tearing it to pieces.
“waa, Sheng has a good apatite,” Xia praised him, patting his little red head.
The little fox’s ears went high and his tail started wagging so fast that only a shadow remained. But soon its ears went down and Sheng started whimpering.
“What is wrong?” Long whispered, lifting him over to his lap.
Little Sheng glanced at the direction of his mother’s room and whined even more. ‘ I want to see my mother...I want my mother,’ he cried internally.
Even thought Xia could not understand his whines, but he was able to gauge his feelings. “You want to see your mother?” he whispered.
The fox nodded with tears in his eyes. ‘It was my fault.... my fault that mom is sick...’ he cried and nuzzled against him
Xia caressed the pitiful little kid’s head. “Sheng, your mother will definitely be fine. And don’t blame yourself. What happened was an accident got it?”
Little Sheng’s ears went high and his tears rolled down. He sniffed and sobbed while nodding.
Both Xia and Ling along with little Sheng walked over to the Sheng’s mother’s room. The room was warm and pleasant, with a lot of flowers along the hallway of the room. It led to another luxurious room where she was recuperating.
Sheng’s mother did not gain consciousness even after three days. But her conditions were improving. Her head injury was healing rapidly that the doctors were pleasantly surprised. Soon curious doctors even wanted to do some experiments and research from her blood. Scared of this, Bao destroyed all of her blood samples from the hospital and moved her over to his private mansion to keep her safe as well as to keep her blood safe. After some research it was discovered that Sheng’s mother’s blood had surprisingly blended together with the dragon’s blood, making her blood into a ‘walking panacea,’
It was not good for humans to discover the dragon’s blood that was running in her veins, or else it might cause rapid changes in this plane. Anytime a heavenly individual come to the lower realms, their cultivation is lowered and their weapons and artifacts lose some of their powers. This is done naturally by the realm to protect itself from the higher force. If in case the heavenly personnel make some drastic changes in the realm, the realm will try to protect itself by self-destructing.
Saving Sheng’s mother would not implicate a lot of effect on the realm, but if Long’s bloods effects are researched and replicated, then it would cause a major change in human lifestyle. The realm might self destruct on its own.
Bao naturally knew of this, so only these many thousands of years he kept his cultivating a secret and lived as a normal human.
Sheng’s mom named Gillian laid on the pure white bed. Her face was white without any blood and her lips were pale. Her eyes were closed tightly, but one could see some eye movements under her closed lid.
Walking into the room, Xia and Long placed the red fox on the bed. The little red fox, Sheng, crawled closer to her and laid on her chest he whined and licked her chin to wake her up. Unknown to them, the woman’s hands twitched.
The fox took notice of this and started licking his mom all over her face. surprisingly, his mother woke up. He howled in joy and jumped on the side of the bed.
First thing Gillian felt was a soft and wet feeling to her chin. ‘Why is my face so wet?’ she tried wiping it but only her fingers twitched. ‘Eh, why can’t I move?’ she thought, blinking her heavy eyes open. A little red pup came into her view. ‘Why is a puppy here? Wait...have I seen this puppy somewhere?’
She opened her mouth to speak, but only air escaped. All of a sudden two strangers leaned over and whispered, “Do you want some water?”
She nodded. The strangers did not look like bad people. They both had a clean appearance, which made her trust them at first sight. One of the strangers with beautiful feminine look fed her a spoon full of crushed ice. She lapped it slowly and drank the cold liquid soothing her aching throat.
“Feeling better?” the feminine man whispered.
“mnn,” Gilian murmured. All of a sudden, something crossed her mind. Dread filled her heart. “Wh—ere is my son? He....he was with me...in the car!!” she said with her hoarse voice. “Where?” she shouted, glancing around the posh looking room. She was not able to see her son anywhere.
Xia immediately held her wavering hands. “Miss...don’t worry. Your son is safe. He is with our friend. He is taking care of him,” he lied, throwing sorry glances at the little red fox.
Gilllian started crying immediately. The Sheng’s perked up ears drooped low. He snuggled against his mother’s hands and whined. ‘Mommy, I’m here. I’m safe, mommy. Please don’t cry,’
Feeling the warmth next to her, Gillian hugged the little whining puppy to her chest. The pup was weirdly coloured with red head and tail and rest of the body pitch black. Dying dog’s was in trend these days so she did not suspect the pup’s lineage at all. “Where is my son? Can I see him?” she whispered, glancing at the two men.
Both of them looked at each other. “Little Sheng is asleep. Can I bring him in later?”
“y—yes let him sleep. He has not been sleeping well lately. And sirs, can you please ask the doctors to give him a body check? He has been complaining about body pains these days.. poor kid did not sleep properly last night as well,” she whispered, wiping her tears away.
Xia nodded with a small smile. He knew that Sheng’s pains were caused by his shifting bones. Usually when a beast is born they are in their beast form. But rarely they are born in human form. These children grow up as normal humans until one day their real beast form takes over. That was what had happened to poor Sheng. His father being a demon fox, naturally he inherited the strong genes of the fox demon. Slowly, as he grew stronger, the fox gens took over.
Now he was fully a fox. But it was not a permanent change. These shifts last for three or four days per year. When Sheng is old enough, he might be able to control his shift and change whenever he wants. As of now, he needs his father’s spiritual energy to transform him back to his human form.
Bao was working hard, injecting little of his energy at a time. If too much is introduced at once, Sheng might face some mishaps, so Bao was taking things slow.
Xia sighed, thinking back to all of this. He softly patted Sheng’s head. “Let’s meet your dad. You need constant ‘food’a,” he chuckled dryly and dashed over to Bao.