Feng Yu’s Story

It’s so warm… I snuggle deeper into the plush bedding with a sigh. After two whole days of running and fighting and worrying… and not to forget inhabiting a new body, I am just so tired. This is my first proper sleep since I was whisked away by Gui and I intend to relish it. The air is warm and the only noise is soft breathing…

Wait… Breathing? I cautiously open my eyes just to be confronted with the sleeping face of Feng Yu. There are scratches on his cheek and forehead, little red streaks that only serve to make him look more beautiful. Wait. I’m not supposed to think that. For once, he’s going to be hooking up with Liu Renqing, and then… he still is Xiyang’s resident playboy.

And then, the earlier events rush back into my mind.

“Murong Zhiyu?” I whisper to myself.

No answer.

The light in the room is low and golden, the air smells sweet and slightly smoky, but in a pleasant way. The blanket above me is warm and heavy and I just want to go back to sleep. Could I just do that? Despite my location?

Just then Feng Yu mumbles something and my eyes are drawn back to him. He’s soft in sleep, his face relaxed and more childlike. One could even call him cute like this. His hair is open, falling around his face in red waves. The actor in the drama, who portrayed him, was like this all the time. Soft. Cheeky. Large eyes and always mischievous. The actual Feng Yu has many of these qualities, but he looks more mature. When he was fighting, he looked imposing. Now, however, he looks like a sleeping cat. A very cute, sleeping cat. Ah, what wouldn’t I give for someone like him to pursue me in my actual life. But I’m nothing like Murong Zhiyu, who is beautiful and accomplished. I would never draw his gaze as my actual self…

“Have you stared enough, Xiaojie?” Feng Yu smiles softly and opens his eyes, which shimmer golden in the falling light, drawing me in with their otherworldly colours. “I don’t mind you staring some more, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

I’m about to respond, when he raises his hand and lets two fingertips glide over my cheek, which immediately shuts me up. His eyes literally sparkle, which is a thing that shouldn’t be possible and when he licks his lips, my gaze is drawn to them. Feng Yu chuckles and suddenly his hand is on the back of my head. He draws me closer. Our lips meet, cautious and warm, and I close my eyes as I sink into the contact. It feels… right. It…

Feng Yu draws back, and I open my eyes to a brilliant smile.

“I love you,” he whispers.

He’s beautiful.

I can’t do this.

He can’t end up with me. Liu Renqing will be out for revenge and the infighting will destroy the city. He’s beautiful and I can’t touch him. I swallow and try to remember what I can say, when… yeah. They said that in the drama, didn’t they?

“I bet you say that to all your women,” I whisper and can see in slow motion how his face falls.

The sparkle disappears from his eyes as he draws his hand back and turns around. I watch him get up and take a moment to look at the room for the first time. It’s a small place, homely in a style I didn’t expect from what I’ve seen in the drama. A wall-sized shelf is the largest piece of furniture in the room. Scrolls, books, figures, vases with dried flowers and countless trinkets fill it up to the brim. The other walls are covered in scrolls and curtains made of warm coloured cloth. The whole room is cosy in an endearing way.

Feng Yu walks over to the shelf and picks up a cloth bag. It makes a clinking noise as he does, like many small pieces are getting jostled. He throws it onto the bed, where it lands next to me, small wooden pieces spilling out. They’re mahjong tiles! I pick one up, feeling the polished wood.

“I know your secret now, so it’s only right you know mine,” Feng Yu says and I find him standing on the other side of the room, arms crossed. “I’ve wanted to tell you for years, but I wasn’t allowed. Screw that. I can’t have you think of me this way any longer.”

“What way?”

He scoffs. “Doesn’t everyone call me Xiyang’s number one playboy?”

He is, at least in the drama. The fact that he stopped to visit the joy houses partway through the episode run, didn’t help much.

“They do…”

“I can let them think whatever they want, but you… It hurts to see you look at me like that too.”

I clutch the mahjong tile closer and Feng Yu rushes forward to snatch it out of my hand.

“Don’t press on it too much. It’s loaded.”

“Loaded?” Is it a gun or what? I add in thought.

Feng Yu balances the mahjong tile on his fingertip before drawing back his hand and snatching it out of the air.

“Do you know the Flower Garden?”

I nod. It’s the very joy house he visits regularly, staying out all night. It’s the place that gave him his reputation in the first place.

“I see. Well, then you must know about Hu Lan?”

“The Plum Blossom.”

Feng Yu nods. “She is my master.”

The shock makes me sit up properly, bending my leg and immediately regretting the decision. The pain shoots through my like lightning and I feel lightheaded, falling right back over. I clutch the blanket and my fingers cramp, until there’s a slight pressure on my leg and with the warmth, the pain lessens, fading into a dull ache. I cough, eyes closed and somehow there’s a finger on my face, brushing the tears away. I look at Feng Yu through my blurred vision, who helps me sit properly, one hand still on my leg, the other supporting my back.

“There’s some poison in the wound. You have to purge it yourself. We can’t do more than alleviate the pain. Even my mother couldn’t remove it.”

I sigh, then draw back the blanket. Under the sleeping robe, my legs are both wrapped in bindings, the one on my right leg a dark colour, with something nasty seeping through. I put my hand on it and concentrate my energy inside my palm, thinking of removing the poison. It seems to do something at least, as I feel the area getting very cold for a moment, and my hand flaring up with icy mist. Feng Yu feels my pulse and nods.

“Dragon qi really is remarkable.”

“What was that about Hu Lan?”

“She’s a relative from a distant branch of the Feng family, with diluted phoenix ancestry. But her ability to manipulate qi and create magical tools is beyond compare.”

“Then why is she working in a joy house?”

“There’s no better place to gather information than the number one establishment in the city. The Flower Garden welcomes wealthy patrons from all the important families, even the ones close to the queen. The entertainers get invited to important social gatherings as well.”

Suddenly everything falls into place.

“So you visit her so often to exchange information? That’s it?”

Feng Yu nods. “She also teaches me how to create magical tools. I’m not as good as her just yet, but I invented these ones.” He holds out the mahjong tile once more. “I don’t have a talent for cultivating, but I do need to work as a bodyguard for our merchants from time to time, as you’ve seen me do today. So I load a part of my energy into these wooden tiles in preparation, which just need a little spark to ignite. I use less power during fights this way.”

“So your fireballs…?”

“All these little things.”

Feng Yu grins and looks so much younger for a moment. Endearing.

“Wait, so your mother… when she reprimands you in public for your escapades…”

“It’s all part of the ruse. Who takes a playboy seriously, after all? No one would think I’m smuggling information.”

I stare at him. Then stare some more. So. So… oh my god! Everything I know about him is wrong! Gui must’ve been fooled by this as well, only telling the author what’s on the surface. Feng Yu is…

“You’re actually a responsible person?”