The Inconceivable Flame: A Fallen Angel's Disguise

Back on the cruise ship...

Xiao Zhiren was still in shock at the fact that Ru left just like that. It hurt to know that she didn't even look back once but he was somewhat familiar with her nature by now and knew how much of a one-tracked person she was. If something got stuck in her mind, she won't look back at another thing until or unless she had dealt with the first thing.

However, he really was irked by the fact that she left with someone who seemed closer to her than he ever felt. He really thought he was close to Ru by now but the first person to make him question that was, Jie. Still, Ru's mannerisms with Jie assured him that they were just best friends who could tease each other and all.

Nonetheless, it was completely different this time around. That person around Ru seemed nothing different than Jie and yet it seemed awfully different.

"Why is everyone gathered here? Did the meeting started already?"

When Xiao Zhiren heard that question, he turned to look at Jie who was rubbing his eyes and kept yawning. It seemed like while all that drama was being unfolded, he was sleeping. Xiao Zhiren could only think of one thing, 'Birds of feathers flock together. No wonder Ru and Jie were so close. They both were eccentric in their own way.'

As for why he thought that way was simple; a huge scene had unfolded before everyone on the deck but Jie had no clue about it. He was lost in dreamland for far too long.

"Your best friend left," informed Xiao Zhiren. Jie didn't even flinch when he learned that instead, he looked like he was expecting it and that's why Xiao Zhiren added, "You don't seem surprised."

"Well, Ru is like the wind. You never know where she'd end up," said Jie nonchalantly while shrugging his shoulders languidly. He'd have been more surprised if she had actually managed to stay on this cruise till the end. Her leaving was inevitable in his opinion.

"She left with a guy," added Xiao Zhiren putting emphasis on 'guy' showing how annoyed he was.

However, Jie's reaction baffled him even more because he replied with, "Now, I'd be more surprised if she left with a girl. Because let's get this out of our way, Ru hates interacting with girls."

Ji Caihong came up to tug at Zhiren's arm and whined, "Bro, why did your girlfriend took my fiance with her? Where did she take him? Why is she stealing my fiance when she has you?"

Now that sentence caught Jie's attention. He, who was languidly looking for something to eat stopped and turned back as he asked, "She stole someone's fiance?" Zhiren looked at Jie's face and instead of finding shock, he found amusement. And most certainly, Jie was awfully amused at this point, "Wow! She really is my Ru."

"Is it really that amusing, Mr. Zhu?" questioned Zhiren as he tried to stare down Jie while the latter was unfazed. How could he not be unfazed? He had dealt with Ru's glares that can make people go on their knees asking for mercy. How could merely Zhiren affect him?

Jie shrugged his shoulders and replied, "It's amusing to me for sure." He moved closer to Zhiren and asked with a straight face which was a striking contrast to his earlier carefree look, "Are you questioning my Ru's loyalty? Or her feelings for you?"

Zhiren was taken aback by his question and flinched a bit, "I'm not questioning anything. I just don't find it okay that she left me here without even looking back or saying a word of goodbye."

Jie tilted his head sideways and asked, "Did you tell her that she was supposed to tell you goodbye?"

"What?"

Jie shook his head at Zhiren and answered, "Mr. Xiao Zhiren, I don't know what image you have of Ru in your mind but let me enlighten you. She is a very simple person. People tend to only find her complicated. But she isn't complicated at all." Zhiren frowned at Jie's words since he didn't know where this was going. "Her level of simplicity is that if you won't tell her something, she won't do it." Zhiren's eyes went round while Jie continued, "Ru had a very different lifestyle than you. If it took a million years to realize her feelings for you, do you think it'll take her a day to realize how to act with those feelings? No, of course not!" Jie placed his hand on Zhiren's shoulder, "You're the first person in her life for whom she has those romantic feelings. But you can't expect a 'dating illiterate' person to know that she was supposed to say goodbye to you before leaving."

Zhiren was speechlessly glancing at Jie. "As for why she didn't tell you where she is going... Sigh! You're crazy if you think she'd do that. Let me tell you one secret, the person whom Ru loves the most in her life is her father. But even then she never told her father what she was doing, where she was going and with whom she was going. That's not a habit. That's her nature. You can't expect a person to change her nature. At least, not so easily."

Hearing Jie talk about Ru's nature and her father made Zhiren feel uncomfortable for some reason. He knew nothing about Ru's family. At least, not the way Jie did. And it was his intuition but he felt like the person Ru left with also knew her family. Zhiren was really frustrated now. But now, his frustration was directed at himself.

Jie picked up a muffin from the table and took a bite saying, "Man, you're attitude is making me so curious to know the guy she 'ran off' with." The way Jie air quoted 'ran off' told how much amused he was on his own.

Ji Syaoran passed his phone to Jie and said, "This video of their fight might help."

Jie raised a brow at Ji Syaoran and asked, "You even recorded a video?"

Ji Syaoran shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly as he answered, "Couldn't help it. I have never seen two martial arts masters going at each other. I hardly could see their moves. It was fascinating."

Seeing Ji Syaoran's daydreaming look, Jie was even more curious now as he took the phone and played the video. Only 10 seconds through the video, Jie's eyes went wide and his jaw dropped to the floor.

"What the hell! Rong! That dumbass is alive?" The three people around him including Zhiren, Ji Syaoran and Ji Caihong heard his voice but they couldn't understand what he said because just like Ru, he spoke a foreign language which they couldn't recognize at all.