It was hours before Tian Yu would finally come home. Zhi Xun was tired of waiting, moreover for someone who was unwilling to speak.
She did not doubt the fact that Tian Yu was mad, but he hadn't been clear to her why he was angry in the first place. A number of possibilities floated in her mind. Was he angry about the man who came to see Tian Yin, or was he upset that she had slept like a log throughout the night without talking to him? Or could it even be work problems that was bothering him?
She was annoyed by the silent treatment she was getting from Tian Yu. It was bad enough that he didn't want to talk, but now he was ignoring her as well. She needed to know what was the problem. But given her personality, nothing would stop her from finding out.
Tian Yu was tired. Not only was this stubborn mule of a boy unable to absorb what he had been trying to explain to him the whole morning, he had been so insistent that he would be able to give Tian Yin happiness. He was completely oblivious to the fact that Tian Yin didn't like him at all. In fact, Tian Yu knew very well who his own sister liked. Fang Qi had been Tian Yin's best friend as they had been classmates and schoolmates for a very long time. Tian Yu knew everything of how Tian Yin loved to follow behind Fang Qi and pretended to like everything he did. But at the same time, he had his eyes and ears in the university itself as well as Tian Yin's previous high school, to know that there was zero possibility between Tian Yin and Fang Qi. And Fang Qi's taste in girls had pointed out very well that Tian Yin couldn't have been his cup of tea.
The boy had been just as naive as his own sister! How he wished he could just throw a few punches at the boy and call it a day. But violence wasn't the answer to the problem itself. This boy would need to be turned down more than just a few times for him to actually get it. He let the boy off with a warning this time.
The other matter which was really bothering him had been how Su Mo had appeared in Zhi Xun's life like that. It had just taken him a hour of browsing around at the club where he had picked up Zhi Xun and his sister, some chatting with the waitresses and the bartender, in order for him to find out that Su Mo was a regular at the club. He had later conducted some searches with the search engine Yugle, to uncover Su Mo's identity. What was really worrisome to him had been the fact that Su Mo was definitely wealthier and more attractive than he was. He saw Su Mo's existence as a threat to his relationship with Zhi Xun, and Su Mo was about to prove the same to him. Very soon, he would make his next step towards getting to know Zhi Xun and his plans of stealing her over would come to light.
........................................................................
Meanwhile, thanks to his pal Summer's leads, Su Mo found his way to the Café Ninetails Little Red, where he took a seat coolly, with a magazine in his hand. As this was the café Zhi Xun often frequented with her housemates and girlfriends, he needed to come more often so he could catch her when she was here for a coffee.
The proprietress eyed him carefully, then turned to her silvery white-haired husband. "It looks like he doesn't recognise us."
"Ahh, the power of immortal trials," her husband said. "Xiaobai, do you recall how it went for my trial? Did I recall you then?"
The proprietress pouted. "It's not like you would remember how I looked like, after only meeting me as a fox!"
Ahh yes, the proprietress of Café Ninetails Little Red was not just a fox, but a nine-tailed red fox. She was Bai Fengjiu, queen of the Qingqiu Kingdom and now a High Immortal. Her trip to the mortal realm was just child's play to her. For tens of thousands of years, the heavenly couple Bai Fengjiu and her husband the Emperor Lord Donghua, had been enjoying a carefree life in the immortal realm, alternating between living in Qingqiu and the Taichen Palace, but often went to the mortal realm to enjoy their mortal identities as the owners of the café known as Ninetails Little Red. This enabled them to have a good view of what was happening in the world. Nothing could escape their eyes. They had been interested in particular, with the lives of Aranya and Chen Ye's reincarnations.
In their former lifetimes as Aranya and Chen Ye, Zhi Xun and Tian Yu had been spirits created out of half of Fengjiu and Donghua's shadows respectively, and had been destined to only have one chance at life. Fengjiu had loved Donghua silently even before they had formally met. When Donghua had Chen Ye formed out of his shadow and born in Fanyin Valley, Fengjiu had followed suit by having Aranya created out of her shadow and be born in Fanyin Valley as well, to fulfil Chen Ye's wishes. The two had been destined to be together, but when a passing immortal by the name of Su Moye came to Fanyin Valley, he had unintentionally caused Aranya and Chen Ye's fate to come undone when he rescued Aranya from the snake-pit she was trapped in. Originally Aranya was fated to be rescued by Chen Ye himself, but when Su Moye had rescued her, their fate had been affected. Eventually, misunderstandings arose between the couple, ending with Aranya's death on the battlefield. When Fengjiu and Donghua found about the couple's story, Donghua decided to seal the couple's primordial spirits inside a sapling to give them another chance at life. But they had not expected for the couple to take seven mortal lifetimes to actually meet each other. This time, Fengjiu was resolved that she would be involved and watch over them in the guise of the owner of the cafe, and as her husband, Donghua would support and accompany her in what she chose to do.
And now, Su Moye being in the loop was yet another concern the couple had. Although it was highly unlikely that Su Moye would retain any of his memories while undergoing his trial to ascend as a High Immortal, it was written in his fate book that his parents had some 'unfinished business' with that of Zhi Xun's. It was unknown where Si Ming, the Star Dipper of the South and the immortal in charge of writing mortal trials and fates, had obtained his ideas for creating such a complicated and dramatic background story between Su Moye and Zhi Xun's family. But what really worried Fengjiu was the chance that Su Moye might again, intentionally or not, affect Zhi Xun and Tian Yu's fate.
"What did Si Ming do to Su Moye's trial?" Fengjiu asked. "Write up some dramatic story which involves him becoming a third party or even turn into a pauper?"
Donghua smiled and shook his head. "You'll see, eventually. I know you're concerned, but Si Ming has his reasons for writing Su Moye's trial this way."
"I definitely know it's an immortal trial," Fengjiu said. "But what's going to happen to Aranya and Chen Ye this time? Are they just going to keep getting reincarnated over and over again until they have a good ending?"
"Don't worry, wifey," Donghua put his arm on her shoulder. "Fate has its ways, after all. Remember how we ended up from having no fate to having fate."
"I believe you, husband," Fengjiu smiled sweetly. "But I really hope, that nothing happens to their fate this time."
"One mocha latte please," a deep male voice called out. Apparently, Su Mo had ordered a coffee. He was carefully looking around the café, in the hopes that someone would appear.
"Right away," Fengjiu replied and repeated the order to Donghua, "Hubby, one mocha latte." After ten minutes, Su Mo promptly gave up waiting and resumed reading. The couple exchanged looks of curiosity as Su Mo turned the pages of the magazine he was reading. The words Su Vogue were printed in large, white lettering over the cover of the magazine.
"Thank you," Su Mo said, looking at her strangely for a few seconds before continuing to sift through the pages of the magazine, humming to the tune of the music that was playing in the café.
"Did he almost recognise me?" Fengjiu looked back at Donghua, who gave her a cold laugh. "There's something on your hair," he said. Fengjiu responded with a 'why didn't you tell me earlier' look.
After finishing his coffee, Su Mo went to the cashier and whispered a few words before handing her a wad of notes and subsequently left the café. Fengjiu observed for a few moments to ensure that Su Mo didn't come back, before asking the cashier what was it that he wanted her to do.
"He wants me to keep him notified on her. The girl that often comes here with her girlfriends."
"Just do as he says then. But let me know of every move he makes and anything he tells you," Fengjiu ordered. As the cashier was a fox from Qingqiu under her command while disguised as a mortal, she was very clear of her loyalty to her. But she needed to watch and see for herself if this mortal form of Su Moye would be up to any tricks. And if he was in the mortal world for a love trial of some sort, what troubled her was who he was going to hurt or be hurt by. She knew how bad those love trials had to end with. She had ended the king Song Xuanren's love trial badly, with him dying of heartbreak. What if Zhi Xun was Su Moye's love trial?
She was thinking so deeply, that she didn't hear Donghua step behind her and embrace her, gently and yet, intimately.
"Dear, it's time to go home. All the customers have left, we need to close up (the café) now."
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