The Inconceivable Flame: A Fallen Angel's Disguise

*Flashback Continued*

Ru’s ’As you wish’ was interpreted in a completely different way. The bright-eyed boy smiled thinking she was gonna place him back on the ground. But he wasn’t aware that this time, he was facing a devil who never did anything in a conventional way. If Ru could be defined as a normal one, wouldn’t it be an insult to her prideful self?

Sure enough, Ru didn’t place him down. She raised him over her head and overthrew his body. Where? On the ground? Naw! That might have broken his bones and she’d easily be caught for that.

So what she chose was...

"Plop!"

The sound of a heavy thing falling into the water was heard in the silence of the night. But this silence wasn’t for long since...

"Help! Save me! Help! I can’t swim!" The boy cried out for help as he frantically moved his arms and legs.

The cries of the boy fell on a deaf ear. Or perhaps, his voice got lost somewhere along the way while trying to travel out of the water well where she threw him. Well, who told him to mess with her food?

Ru jumped on the brick wall that lined the well and walked languidly in a circle. The screams of the boy continued and Ru tried to act like she couldn’t hear him but she soon realized something was wrong.

A silence had prevailed and she couldn’t even hear any movements from the water.

She plunged into the water and found the unconscious boy. She rolled her eyes since barely a minute had passed and he was out. Such a weakling! Her disdain for him increased a notch. She put him on her back, supporting his body with her one hand and held the metal hook of the rope with the other hand. It would have taken her half a minute to climb out of the well on her own but with an extra person on her back, she took 3-4 minutes.

"What does he eat? Why is he so heavy?"

Like a sack of potatoes, she threw him off of her back on the ground and took his pulse. "Still alive. Good." She mumbled to herself and continued, "For a second, I thought I went too far."

She shook him and shouted, "Oi! Wake up! Don’t be a baby." When she didn’t get any response, she started the chest compressions. He coughed out some water and Ru sat back. "You’re this big and you don’t know how to swim?" That was her first words seeing him wake up.

He was stupified by her words. Was it a crime that he didn’t know how to swim? How would he know that his luck was not on his side and he’d have to bump into a bully tonight?

"You! How can you treat me like that? Do you know who I am?" The boy screamed at her face and in response, Ru yawned like she was completely bored.

"Like this Young Master care at all," was her nonchalant reply. She lightly squeezed the water out of her clothes. "And you started it first. One you ruined my candied haws and two, you even said that it’s just candied haws. No one is allowed to insult my food."

The boy poked her head with his finger and said, "Is there a loose screw in your head? How is food more important than my life?"

Ru threw his hand away, "Hands off of me. Don’t make me break that hand of yours as well."

"How can someone be so unreasonable? You almost killed me!" He snapped at her in anger.

"Trust me, you little weakling, I don’t need a reason to kill you. Besides, don’t forget, I’m the one who saved you as well." Ru seemed aggressive and the look in her eyes was dangerous.

"I have never met a bully like you before," said the boy. "First, you did a mistake and now, you’re trying to reason with me?"

Ru kicked his knee making him hunch over to rub his knee. "You are mistaken, little weakling! I’m not a bully. This Young Master prefer the term..." She leaned close to his ear and whispered in an eerie voice, "Devilishly Handsome Genius."

The boy was spooked out of his wits because of her overwhelming sense of presence. He looked into her eyes. He felt like those black orbs didn’t match with her persona. Yes, she was wearing her colored lens as she did whenever she was out of her own state. However, he still found it hard to shift his gaze away from her.

"Should I throw you back?" The boy shook his head on instinct and turned on his heels to run away. Ru snorted seeing him running like he had seen a ghost, "Such a handsome face I have and yet I scared him away. How weird!"

Shrugging her shoulders she went back to her room.

When the morning came around and Steward Shin went to look for her, he found Ru sitting outside on the stairs. "Young Master Ru, you didn’t sleep last night?"

"Uncle Shin, let’s spend this day in silence. I really don’t want to talk." Ru replied. She didn’t plan on looking for the boy who she met last night but she still saw him. He was following Abbott Wang Xiuying. "Aye, Uncle Shin!"

"Yes, Young Master."

"Who’s the boy behind Xiuying?" Ru pointed in their direction and Steward Shin followed the direction of her finger. "You don’t know?" She asked further when she saw him silently looking at them.

"I do have some impression but I’m more curious to know why Young Master Ru is interested in that boy? Also, didn’t you just say let’s no talk?"

"Don’t pay heed to my earlier words. And who said I’m interested? That little thing ruined my candied haws last night. I just want an act of thorough revenge. This vengeance is inevitable!" Ru’s eyes burned with hatred.

"Then I’ll advise you not to touch him," said Steward Shin.

"Why?" Ru frowned at him. "It’s not like he or his family can challenge mine."

"I agree that he or his family are no match for you. But he has a very special status." Ru’s confusion was increased again.

"Don’t talk in riddles."

"That young boy is the eldest son of the Ji Family," said Steward Shin.

"One of those nine aristocrat clans?" asked Ru for confirmation.

"Why do you keep forgetting that now only six clans are left? Three clans were extincted decades ago." Ru didn’t pay attention to him since this had nothing to do with her. "However, his status is special because even though he’s the eldest son of the Ji Family, he’s chosen as the next successor of the Xiao Family which is his mother’s clan."

"Why is that so?"

"Because that’s what Master Wang Xiuying decided upon."

"This Xiuying is always up to something," said Ru nonchalantly. "Anyway, I still don’t find his status any special. In fact, my desire for vengeance has gone up a notch now."

"Young Master Ru, his mother’s status is even more special."

"What are you talking about? Uncle Shin, let’s clear this in one go."

Steward Shin sat beside her on the stairs and pointed at a woman who had joined that boy. "That woman is white clothes is his mother."

"So?"

"Her name is Xiao Zhi’er. And she’s your father’s childhood friend." Ru’s eyes widened as he elaborated.

"She’s the one Father told me about?" He nodded in response. "She is the one just like a sister to my Father?" He nodded again. "Let’s forget the revenge part. Don’t tell Father about it at all."

"If you won’t act upon your schemes, I won’t say a word to Master."

But his reassurance didn’t do any good to Ru. Especially, because she saw Abbott Wang Xiuying, Xiao Zhi’er and that young boy walking in her direction. She was reminded of how she almost really killed that boy last night. And it made her gulp visibly.

Of all the people, why did that weakling have to be the son of my Father’s best friend? If he got to know what I did last night, Father might get angry. Might? No, no. He will definitely be angry. Did that boy really tell everything? Well, he looks like a tattletale anyway.

"Young Master Ru, some events of last night has come into my attention."

Hearing Abbott Wang Xiuying’s voice, Ru cursed that boy in her mind. See, he really was a tattletale! Such a despicable weakling!