Fengjiu woke the next morning to the sound of her shiny new Samsung smartphone beeping. Si Ming had kept to his word, and gave her an update of the upcoming event. However, it had been pushed forward to two weeks from today's date.
She didn't waste time in reaching out to her sources to find suppliers for generic baking materials required to create the mooncakes, and with the help of her mortal friends Yi Xiaoru and Xiaoni, she was able to hire some freelancers and university student part-timers to assist with the event. Furthermore, she would get to see Dong Hua again, and she was delighted to be given that chance. She conducted some research on what were the leading mooncake designs and flavours, particularly the round biscuit-like Shanghai mooncakes, the traditional lotus-flavoured double yolk mooncakes and soft-to-the-touch snowskin mooncakes.
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Si Ming allowed her to arrange the decorations that she placed on the stage in the hall at the venue Jiuchong Group had rented. Fengjiu also came up with a few surprises for the guests. With Chong Lin's help, they had also combined forces to produce a video as a presentation to introduce the group of companies' products and how well they would shine in the industry. What Fengjiu found interesting specifically had been Dong Hua's life to present. He had been known to be cold and emotionless, caring less for the welfare of his employees or any rumours in the companies, and even had few friends. But he had made a number of great achievements for his age, even defeating many young players in the industry to become a top entrepreneur. Many of these players had depended on their family for backing, however Dong Hua was not one of them.
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Fengjiu selected a shiny exquisite-looking red flashy sequinned gown and matching earrings to wear for the event. She knew as the co-host, she would have to dress to match up to the reputation of Jiuchong Group.
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Meanwhile, Si Ming was having a few drinks with Dong Hua at the bar table in his estate.
"So, about the girl you saved, is she someone out of the ordinary?" Si Ming asked. Si Ming wasn't one who could hold his drinks very well, so he had settled for a light cocktail. There had been an incident not long ago, where he had mumbled embarassing things in his drunken stead. The next day, his colleagues had even laughed at him about it. Fortunately Chong Lin was an excellent bartender, and had ensured he didn't have too much of alcohol for him to go beyond what he could take.
Dong Hua smiled. In years of being the Emperor Lord of the Sky Kingdom, he had yet to meet someone who could touch his heart. Ten mortal years ago, he had descended to the mortal realm to handle an actual task he had assigned to himself, after the heavenly guards under his commandment had failed to complete their assignment. The unexpected meeting with the little fox had given him a strange feeling he had never realised before. His chest had felt warm and fuzzy, and he was curious why she was in the mortal realm, in the first place. On the first look, she had seemed to be an inexperienced and young immortal who didn't know how to jump away from an incoming car, but the charm and innocence that she exhibited had been a first thing to him. Perhaps it had been the fact she was a fox. Foxes had been known to have powers of bewitching anyone that they had set their eyes upon. But he knew his place, and furthermore, he was there for a purpose. He was the cold and heartless Emperor, and he wasn't about to get undone by love, after what he had seen what love had done to so many souls in the realms, to the point that it had destroyed many lives and kept many heroes from reaching their goals.
"Are you referring to the fox I saved back there and sent to Zhe Yan's clinic?" he asked Si Ming.
"Fox?" Si Ming repeated in surprise. "So is she the missing fox princess of Qingqiu that the Nine Heavens are talking about?"
Dong Hua smirked. "Not her, her niece. Though I have no idea what business she has in the mortal realm, especially in the twenty-first century."
Si Ming counted on his fingers while in deep thought, carefully considering what he had just learned from the cold god. If she was what Dong Hua had said she was, then it was unsurprising that she had appeared to be so otherworldly to him. And she had even fascinated him at first sight, that he had even blurted out that he wanted to date her. Though Si Ming was the Star Lord of Destiny in the immortal realm, due to his solemnity, no female immortal had dared to ask him out or even try to get to know him. Like Dong Hua, he had few friends, which had been Chong Lin, Lian Song and Dong Hua himself. Lian Song was the third son of the current Sky Emperor Hao De, but their characters had blended so well that they were soon known as the Gossipers of the Sky Kingdom. Since there had been nothing much to do in the Sky Kingdom, until Dong Hua brought Si Ming and Chong Lin with him to the mortal realm, Si Ming and Lian Song spent their time in the immortal realm gossiping and writing the Celestial Times. Though Si Ming was in the immortal realm with Dong Hua for ten mortal years, he had a special connecting device that would allow him to tap into the immortal realm to check up on what was happening there. Dong Hua had called it 'working remotely'.
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The event started with an opening song, presented by Fengjiu herself with a hiphop dance. Dong Hua and Si Ming watched her hopefully, but Dong Hua chose to allow his face to remain emotionless. After eons of being alone in the Sky Kingdom as its former ruler, he had been very excellent at hiding his feelings, that even the Gossipers weren't able to suspect a thing.
"She has a good voice, doesn't she?" Si Ming said.
"Ah, her singing is just normal to me," Donghua said with a cold look on his face.
"What about her dancing?" Si Ming asked. "Don't you think it's good? Her moves are very fast and smooth, like she was trained by...what's her name? Lady Gugu?"
Donghua almost choked on his avocado milkshake. "It's Lady Gaga, my dear Si Ming."
My dear? Si Ming scratched his head and tried to absorb what Dong Hua had just called him. Had he been learning and imitating the ways of the mortals too much in his attempt to blend in, that he had used a mortal term on him?
A few hours had passed, concluding the programmes arranged by Fengjiu for the event, and Fengjiu found herself walking to Dong Hua with a rabbit-shaped Shanghai mooncake in her right hand. She offered it to Dong Hua, but Dong Hua rejected her outright, saying he was unable to take sweet foods that would give him diabetes as he was already borderline prediabetic. She looked at him strangely and told him,"This is a Shanghai mooncake. It's salty, not sweet, and has salted egg yolks."
He still refused to take it, so Fengjiu placed the small plate in his hand. Finally, he looked at her coldly, "Is there something you need?"
"I just wanted to offer you my thanks for saving me from that car and offering me a chance to co-host the event," Fengjiu said warmly. Goodness, this person actually didn't know how to smile when someone approached him, she thought.
Dong Hua continued to stare at her with an icy look for a few long minutes, before saying, "Very well, I received your thanks. Now, can I have my privacy back?"
"Hey," she said, following behind him as he walked away, headed towards a quiet corner of the hall. "Is there something wrong? Or did I say something wrong?"
"No, I just don't like the noise," Dong Hua said. Why was she being so inquisitive with him? He was just disturbed by how she was messing with his emotions, and every time she looked at him, he had to fight his emotions to not look at her back or smile at her.
She continued to follow him around as he found a comfortable spot to seat himself in the corner. "Mr Dong, is there something I could help you with?"
"Yes," Dong Hua replied, "Perhaps you could sit in a corner and enjoy the food, and leave me be."
Fengjiu scowled. She just wanted to get to know him, and see if there were any opportunities for her to repay her debt to him, and now he was pushing her away. Just then, a waitress carrying a tray of drinks passed by, and not realising that there had been grease on the marbled floor, slipped and let go of the tray she was carrying. As the tray along with the glasses started flying towards Fengjiu, a quick movement of Dong Hua's hands saved her. He caught the tray neatly and set it on the ground. While Fengjiu had been shocked beyond description in her fear that the drinks splashing in her face would ruin her makeup and her dress, or that she might bleed to death from glass splinters, Dong Hua's face had remained how it was - expressionless.
"Thank you," she mouthed while falling to the ground, her legs numb. As Dong Hua helped her to her feet, he said out loud and clear in an icy tone, "You should be more aware of danger in the mortal realm."
Fengjiu concentrated on the coldness of his words. Mortal realm, she repeated to herself. Did that mean he was not from this world?
He disappeared into the crowd, as Fengjiu sat on the seat Dong Hua had sat in previously, sipping on juice in one of the glasses in the tray, that sat, still very intact, on the floor. The seat had been still very warm, but yet, the man was as cold as ice. She counted her blessings that she was able to meet him twice.
In Dong Hua's mind, he was wondering why the silly girl didn't evade the objects flying towards her. Had she been really that negligent?
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