CH 14

Chapter 14: This little guy had just got into his mind, making his heart itchy.

After fooling around for the whole morning, Ke Lisi and Jing Yi went to have a nap at noon.

Qiao Xi didn’t have the same habit as them, so he decided to wander around the edge of the forest alone.

The tiger was resting in the underbrush. It yawned while rolling leisurely with its legs upright.

Hearing sounds of movement, the tiger opened its bronze eyes.

Qiao Xi pushed aside the undergrowth and happened to meet that pair of eyes. He was so startled that he almost screamed.

Fortunately, Qiao Xi was fast enough to use his wings to cover his mouth. Then he began to look at the tiger silently.

…He invariably felt that this tiger was a bit fatter than last time?

Qiao Xi was thinking seriously.

The tiger blinked but it didn’t move, just tossing its tail lazily.

Not long after Qiao Xi had started to live in the forest, Jing Yan had taken him personally to see the three beasts.

At that time, he’d held the little chicken with one hand, and solemnly gave a thumbs up to the three beasts.

Qiao Xi was stunned: “What are you doing?”

“Teaching them to recognize people.” Jing Yan spoke in a very serious manner, “This gesture means that I have brought a good person, so they can’t hunt you down when they see you. It took me a month to cultivate them!”

While talking, Jing Yan shook his thumb while staring at the beasts severely as if saying: “Do you understand?”

The three beasts nodded their heads honestly, with very pure and innocent eyes.

Later, Qiao Xi learned that the three beasts were the gifts that were given to Jing Yan by the tiger prince, the bear princess, and the python prince. Only a few of them were aware of this. The others in the wolf palace, including the wolf king, thought that Jing Yan had bought the three beasts himself, at his own expense.

Regarding the fact that these three beasts were now adapting well to that type of weird interaction, the bear princess had rolled her eyes and said on behalf of others: “Things always follow their owner, and Jing Yan is a sand sculpture1!”

When he thought about this, Qiao Xi giggled again.

Behind Qiao Xi, the python was poking at the air with its tongue while sliding down along the tree. Suddenly, it was startled by the black wolf that was hiding behind the underbush. Hence, it retreated back to the tree.

The black wolf looked at the little chicken that was not far away from him. He clutched his chest with his trembling paws.

Qiao Xi didn’t have time to laugh long enough when he heard the sounds from both the distance and nearby.

“Get used to it as soon as possible. In the future, don’t use that expression of yours in front of Jing Yan!”

“I don’t think he will notice me…Don’t you find that he disdains us as if we aren’t worthy in his eyes? Including Captain Rhine!”

Qiao Xi was startled. The tiger’s ears shook; it turned its head to look at the direction where the sounds came from.

The two guards were probably on patrol. They were walking while talking.

Not far behind Qiao Xi, the black wolf, who had been following Qiao Xi for most part of the half day, heard what those two people said, and his face sank.

“He would not attack the guards, right?”

“No, this kind of thing…”

“Your expression didn’t say so…”

The other person appeared to be hesitant: “When the incident happened three years ago, some guards were indeed harmed. But it was not His Highness Jing Yan who injured them. It was his three beasts…”

“—What’s the difference! The three beasts were raised by him, which means they are his watchdogs! Who in the entire wolf palace dared to raise such ferocious beasts in the palace? He is cruel by nature, and he might truly want to eat raw meat!”

The other person paused, lowered his voice and wanted to talk back: “Actually…”

At this moment, the owner of the indignant voice pushed aside the underbrush, turned his head and ran into the tiger and the chicken. He was so frightened that he let out a scream while staggering, and finally fell backwards on the ground.

The other person hurriedly went over to look, his expression changing when he saw Qiao Xi: “Your Royal Highness, Qiao, Qiao Xi…”

It’s fine if it was just the tiger. During the event three years ago, none of the three beasts, including the tiger, had attacked them. So, as long as it didn’t attack them, it didn’t matter if the tiger had heard them. After all, the beast couldn’t understand human language.

But the bird prince…how could he not understand?

Just thinking of this, the guard was already sweating.

Qiao Xi glanced at the guard who was splayed on the ground.

The guard quickly stood up, his eyes were drifting left and right in panic: “Your Royal Highness, I, I…”

Jing Yan, who was hiding not far away, stared coldly at the two guards. Then he turned to look at Qiao Xi’s back while feeling uneasy.

After Qiao Xi got to know them, he soon became one of them. And only at this moment did Jing Yan realise that while Qiao Xi was staying with Jing Yu before, he might have heard some rumors about Jing Yan.

Jing Yan wanted to go out and clear up a few things, but walking out now seemed to expose the fact that he was following Qiao Xi?

As soon as he tangled about this matter with himself, he had already ignored the two guards.

However, Jing Yan really didn’t want Qiao Xi to have any misunderstandings about him. He made up his mind to go out, but he suddenly heard Qiao Xi say: “Were you sent here to protect Jing Yan?”

Jing Yan halted.

The two guards were stunned.

The guard on the opposite side restrained himself while answering Qiao Xi’s question: “…Yes.”

Qiao Xi glanced at the guard who had fallen onto the ground just now and asked slowly: “You protect him while slandering him?”

The two guards’ expressions changed.

Jing Yan was also a bit surprised.

In the past, Qiao Xi didn’t even dare to publicly criticize the guards. However, the fox prince had already reminded him on behalf of his fourth brother a week ago.

What’s more, since he planned to completely change himself, he was determined to say what he wanted to say, do what he liked to do, thus no longer restricting himself like he did before.

And right now Qiao Xi was fed up with all kinds of slanders and speculations about Jing Yan from others.

Hearing this, the guard’s face became ugly, he immediately lowered his head. Perhaps because he was not afraid of Qiao Xi, he still whispered in a low voice: “What I said is true. What slander…”

“Stop talking!” The person beside him shouted, “Please forgive me Your Highness, Qiao Xi. I didn’t manage my subordinate well.”

“You were talking about Jing Yan with him just now.” Qiao Xi shifted his gaze to the guard that had spoken earlier, and pointed out this fact calmly.

The other party choked.

Qiao Xi said coldly: “I will inform Jing Yan about this. You can leave.”

The two guards panicked. The young and energetic one said angrily: “It’s not just the two of us who speak about this topic. If the problem didn’t occur, how could this incident have been disseminated?! You want to fawn over Jing Yan as well, right? Let’s see if he will eat you at that time—Ah!”

The tiger suddenly got up, knocking the guard a few meters away, and let out a threatening roar.

The other guard immediately pulled out his qiang2. He pointed it at the tiger and took two steps back while quivering.

In the next second, when he moved his gaze, his face instantly turned pale.

Qiao Xi heard the black wolf’s low voice from behind: “You can use this weapon and try to aim at them.”

The guard’s legs softened; he relied on a tree to support himself: “Your Royal Highness, Jing, Jing Yan!”

Qiao Xi looked back and asked in surprise: “Why are you here?”

“…Just, just happened to pass by, cough.” Jing Yan summoned up his courage and said vaguely. Seeing that Qiao Xi didn’t doubt him, he was relieved. He walked over, stood next to Qiao Xi and said to the two guards in a frosty tone: “You don’t need to stay in the guard team. Just roll back to where you came from!”

“Your Highness—” The two guards cried out anxiously.

They were sent here by the Wolf King. And being driven out by Jing Yan was equivalent to messing up the task that the Wolf King had assigned. The Wolf King would not save two weak subordinates like them!

They wanted to ask for forgiveness, yet the tiger stepped forward and stared at them.

The two guards gasped and shuddered. They didn’t have the guts to say anything more and finally looked at each other before they fled in a hurry.

Qiao Xi asked furiously: “Are there such people in the guard team?!”

“No, you don’t have to be angry.” Jing Yan raised his paws and touched Qiao Xi’s head.

He knew clearly about the situation in the guard team. Some senior people were afraid of him and dared not to say those rumors. It would be the newcomers who talked a lot, but if they didn’t talk, he wouldn’t know about these matters either. It was not that Jing Yan didn’t mind, it was that he just didn’t want to waste his time on them—because those guards were sent by his father. There were some people that were also left by his mother, and he often used the latter.

What happened earlier made Jing Yan really nervous. Although it was easy to explain, it would be very painful if Qiao Xi revealed even a little look of fear when seeing him!

Yet, Qiao Xi’s reaction just now gave him great reassurance. It was actually beyond what he had expected.

“Qiao Xi, are you really not afraid of me?” Jing Yan asked while looking at Qiao Xi tenderly.

“Of course!” Qiao Xi thought for a while and said seriously, “I don’t believe what they said, you are not that kind of person! And—”

Qiao Xi said solemnly: “And your heart must be in pain!”

Jing Yan: “…?”

Qiao Xi imagined a lot. He even felt a bit distressed: “You have suffered a lot! But don’t worry, I understand you! Even if you don’t say it, I still understand! You have endured for too long. Sometimes you accidentally lose control, hence you get misunderstood by others. But you are very handsome when you dare to fight against an unfair fate! You are really cool, Jing Yan!”

Jing Yan: “…”

Qiao Xiaoxi, what are you talking about???

Jing Yan stood stiffly on the side. And when Qiao Xi looked at him expectantly, he became silent for a second, decided to swallow all the explanations back into his stomach, and said defeatedly: “You are right…”

Qiao Xi nodded his head with bright eyes, he knew that he was right!

Jing Yan quietly wiped his face with his paws. What should he do? He didn’t know what Qiao Xi had imagined. Wouldn’t it break his image in Qiao Xi’s heart if he gave an explanation???

Jing Yan raised the deepest and most perplexing question in his heart.

But……

Jing Yan lifted his eyes, looking at the little chicken in front of him.

He admitted that he had been first emotionally affected when he saw Qiao Xi’s human form on the day they met. However, he had always been in a daze while following the little chicken today.

Whether it was the Beauty Qiao Xi or the little chicken Qiao Xi. He liked them all! Both were adorable!

This little guy had just got into his mind, making his heart itchy.

“Qiao Xi…” Jing Yan finally tasted this feeling for the first time now. He was shy and his heart was pounding, his voice was also sweet.

Qiao Xi and the tiger blinked, looking at Jing Yan suspiciously.

Jing Yan stared at him fixedly and promised: “I will definitely become more handsome!”

Even though Qiao Xi had been surprised when finding out that he liked men, and had had a somewhat indistinct attitude toward him; it was not enough to make Jing Yan lose hope.

He would try to persuade Qiao Xi in an even more handsome manner!

That night, after taking a bath, Jing Yan sat at the desk and lit a joss stick.

A sketchbook was opened and placed on the desk. Holding a pencil, Jing Yan concentrated on drawing on the paper.

It was no longer the anime style like before.

A realistic chicken slowly appeared, stroke by stroke of his pencil.

On the other side, Qiao Xi received a call from his whale race friend. He asked in surprise: “…Eh? You are going to visit the wolf palace? You want to meet? Ah…”

He thought for a while, wagging his tail, and said, “It should be no problem!”