The Inconceivable Flame: A Fallen Angel's Disguise

From the Sky Building, Ru went straight back to her apartment. After seeing her rice-cake, the anticipation in her heart was gone and meeting Xiao Zhiren managed to give some rest to her restless heart.

Coming back to the silence of her apartment, she sat down cross-legged near the glass wall looking over the landscapes and closed her eyes. She needed to sort out her thoughts.

It was true that she never asked Xiao Zhiren about himself. But in her defense, she never liked asking people about themselves. She loved reading people or solving them like a mystery. At least that way she had something to do.

However, when it came to a certain Xiao Zhiren, he was the mystery she wasn’t able to solve neither did she manage to read him at all. He showed her his caring, loving, gentle side but he never showed her his worries.

He called her his idée fixe. Then how far this obsession could take him?

Annoyance, anger, vexation, all these emotions were making her mind go into a frenzy. She huffed heavily and looked through the cabinet to look for some cigarette. Following her search, she picked up a thin cigarette and placed it between her lips.

She was about to light it up when someone snatched it from her lips and she heard that familiar voice, "Stop smoking. I won’t be able to live otherwise."

Ru looked at Xiao Zhiren’s grinning face incredulously as she asked, "You won’t be able to live?"

"Yes. Don’t you know, smoking is injurious to health." Xiao Zhiren replied in an all-knowing manner.

Ru scratched the tip of her nose and said, "It’s injurious to my health since I’m the one smoking. How does it involve your life?"

With his arm around her neck, he pulled her to his side saying, "Don’t forget, you are MY LIFE. How many times should I repeat it?" He even rolled his eyes as if she really was being too forgetful as if his logic was the best one out there. "Besides, if your health will be affected, I’ll eventually be affected by it. We are connected that way."

Ru pinched his arm and he yelped while glaring at her in resentment. "I just hurt you. I don’t feel anything. Then how are we connected?" She wiggled her brows playfully while the mirthless smile on her face said otherwise.

Rubbing his arm where she pinched, Xiao Zhiren spoke with an aggrieved tone, "That’s because I’m not in your heart. But you are in mine. So, right now, the connection is one-way. I can feel your pain but mine is yet having some disturbance on the way. That’s why you can’t feel my pain."

Ru pursed her lips trying to stifle the laughter that was threatening to escape but couldn’t do so as she chuckled. His logic was exactly like him; Crazy. But she couldn’t say anything as she looked at his smiling eyes looking back at her face with a gentle look.

"What? What are you looking at?" asked Ru.

Shaking his head softly he said, "Nothing. I was just wondering how can my little chili make me feel all sweet, warm and fuzzy with her beautiful smile. Even when her words are always cutting my heart."

With a cough, she made some distance between them again and stood at the far end leaning against the kitchen island. "How did you come in?"

"Through the door," came the prompt reply in a duh tone as he took a step towards her.

"I locked the door." She replied with a frown trying to recall whether she really locked it or not.

"And I opened it with the passcode," said Xiao Zhiren with a shrug of his shoulder as he took another step close to her.

"Don’t you know how to knock? You can’t just barge into someone else’s house." Ru was trying to seem upset as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Taking another step towards her, Xiao Zhiren poked her head as he said, "I rang the bell three times but you didn’t hear it. I thought you must be avoiding me. So, I welcomed myself to your house." With both his hands on the counter behind her, he added, "Anyhow, this is my little chili’s house. So, I’m definitely welcomed here anytime."

"I did not say that," Ru argued while she pushed him back to keep him at least at an arm’s length. Meanwhile, she tried to rethink why didn’t she hear the doorbell.

"You didn’t say I’m not welcomed either." Xiao Zhiren pointed out with a sly smile.

"Don’t you just love playing with my words?" Ru was feeling terrible, hostile, indecisive but mostly helpless. How could the same person always manage to make her feel all these feelings? She had never been indecisive in her life. Not even once before he came into her life.

"There is another thing of yours I love playing with." Her brows knitted together as she saw the smirk plastered on his face and that teasing light in his eyes. What was he up to?

But she wouldn’t know what he was up to until she asked. However, if she asked then she’d certainly be left even more helpless with his answer. After all, his favorite hobby was to make her vulnerable. Ru clenched her fists hatefully as she didn’t know what to do. Ask him or not?

Let’s just take this bitter shot already! "There is something more intriguing to play with than my words? How come I don’t know-"

Her eyes widened as her words were stuck in her throat.

Why?

As she was speaking, Xiao Zhiren had taken a couple of steps to close the distance between them as his one hand coiled around her waist and the other one firmly grasped the back of her head. And what followed was... Fireworks?

There were fireworks, indeed.

With his lips firmly planted against hers, the fireworks were a must. His lips softly brushed against hers, delicately as if afraid to hurt her. She could inhale his breath and the warmth of his skin made her mind do somersaults. For the first time, she wasn’t standing like a statue whose mind had a short circuit.

Instead, her lips developed a mind of their own as they caught the rhythm of his and played along slowly and softly. That just added a whole lot of passion to Xiao Zhiren’s burning desires as his tongue darted out to pry open her lips and plunged in without warning.

Her tongue was a bit hesitant at first but then it fought for dominance as they wrestled. The earlier fireworks had already turned into flames of passion that were burning in both of their eyes.

This was what really surprised Ru the most about him. The way he managed to ignite the desires within her that was even unknown to herself all this time. It was a primal desire as she had heard before but until he walked into her life, she never understood it at all.

Her body was half laid back on the kitchen island while Xiao Zhiren ravished her like a hungry lion. As he moved away to catch his breath, he looked into her green eyes that had turned a shade darker reflecting the emotions he had in his own. And that one look was enough to take his breath away just like it had always done.

He knew she didn’t like being touched, but he really couldn’t resist her. Her scent always flooded his senses clouding his rationality. He just couldn’t fight against his thoughts whenever she was around him.

Ru was looking at him an odd way. It was neither embarrassment nor bashfulness. Rather it was her curiosity. She was wondering how far he could test her limits. The idea of intimacy that she always found ridiculous, could he really change that? The earlier flames had already combusted leaving her defenses in black flimsy ashes.

"I believe this is yours," she heard his voice and focused her eyes on the thing that was dangling before her eyes. Her eyes widened again. But this time, the reason was different.

She pushed him away as she sat on the kitchen island and snatched the pendant from his hand. That beautifully carved pendant... Encrusted with pure green jade and blood-red rubies. Even the character carved on the pendant was the same. There was no doubt, it was hers.

But how did he have it? With this question, Ru lifted her eyes to look at Xiao Zhiren. ’Was he the one who saved my life back then?’ Her heart shook at this realization.

"You had been my obsession since that time. It’s not a love of days, weeks or months. I am in love with you for years."

Ru caressed the pendant lying in her palm and mumbled, "I owe you another life-debt."

Xiao Zhiren shook his head in negation as he said, "You don’t owe me anything. Except for a chance. An opportunity to prove that my love for you had always been true."