The young man lunged forward, his hand swiftly reaching to grab Yun Qingxue’s wrist. Yun Qingxue had no choice but to yank hard on the hair she was holding.
The boy gasped in pain, his movement to seize Yun Qingxue’s wrist halting abruptly. In his agony, he flailed and grabbed blindly.
“Ah!”
Yun Qingxue let out a muffled groan—the boy had also grabbed her hair.
One of the downsides of ancient people was their obsession with long hair! Sure, it looked nice, but it was such a liability in a fight!
“Let go!” Yun Qingxue snapped.
“No!” The boy refused flatly.
“Do you think it’s honorable for a grown man to pull a girl’s hair?”
“All warfare is based on deception. Strike where the enemy is unprepared, attack where he is unguarded. As long as I win, who cares?” The boy threw Yun Qingxue’s own words right back at her.
“Take this!” Yun Qingxue reached out with her other hand to scratch the boy.
Yes, scratch. The three essential moves of a catfight: hair-pulling, scratching, and lip-tearing. Yun Qingxue had already mastered two of them.
Naturally, the boy wasn’t about to let Yun Qingxue’s nails land on him. As she reached out, he dodged, inadvertently yanking her hair harder in the process.
Yun Qingxue yelped and lunged at him. Somehow, the boy lost his footing and stumbled backward, falling to the ground.
Still gripping each other’s hair, they both tumbled down, landing side by side on the cold floor, tugging and pulling.
Yun Qingxue raised a hand to swat at the boy, who lifted an arm to block haphazardly.
At some point, an elderly man had appeared at the doorway, his eyes wide as he stared dumbfounded at the two on the floor, brawling like a pair of shrews.
Was his old age finally catching up to him? Had his vision failed him?
The old man rubbed his eyes.
When he looked again, the two were still there, tangled on the ground—and one of them was their mighty… King?
No way…
He rubbed his eyes once more.
“Give up yet?” Yun Qingxue flailed at the boy.
The boy blocked clumsily, refusing to back down. “Never!”
The old man’s beard twitched…
Now he was certain his eyes weren’t deceiving him. But… what in the world was happening?
Their noble King of the Water Tribe was… was fighting… with a girl…
And not just fighting—he was shamelessly pulling her hair, and… and…
Heavens! Was His Majesty actually scratching her?!
Oh!
The Turtle Prime Minister felt his heart might give out. Their handsome, dignified King had… degenerated into the behavior of a common street brawler!
Suddenly, a terrifying thought struck him. Could the King still be suffering from lingering poison?
But the King had only been exposed to Laughing Powder—a toxin that caused itching for twelve hours at most. If washed with running water, the effects would fade in a few hours, with no lasting harm!
If it wasn’t poison, the Turtle Prime Minister had no explanation for the King’s current… unseemly conduct.
Unless… had that rascal Shui Liu mixed something else into the powder?
The more he thought about it, the more plausible it seemed. The Turtle Prime Minister’s eyes narrowed, his beard bristling. “That Shui Liu has gone too far! Challenging the King in magic and then resorting to poison? Laughing Powder alone was bad enough, but mixing in other toxins? Outrageous!”
“Oh dear… oh dear… oh dear… Your Majesty.” The Turtle Prime Minister bowed deeply to his now thoroughly undignified King. “Forgive this old servant’s impertinence.”
With that, the boy—who had been locked in fierce combat with Yun Qingxue—suddenly stiffened. When he regained his senses, he found himself standing two paces away from her.
Yun Qingxue, too, felt a gentle force lift her from the ground, inexplicably loosening her grip on the boy’s hair.
“Young lady, my apologies. Heh heh.” The Turtle Prime Minister steadied the boy and offered Yun Qingxue an awkward, conciliatory smile.
“Not at all, Elder.” Yun Qingxue smiled back but, upon meeting the boy’s gaze, huffed and turned away haughtily. Inside, however, she was stunned—had she just heard the old man address the boy as “Your Majesty”?
Your Majesty? Which tribe’s king was he?
“Young lady… heh heh.”
Seeing her reaction, the Turtle Prime Minister chuckled nervously again, eager to smooth things over before the tale of the King’s unseemly brawl spread and tarnished his reputation forever.
“I want to take her as my consort!”
Before the Turtle Prime Minister could speak, the boy blurted out, his face burning red.
Yun Qingxue gaped, certain the boy must have been kicked in the head by a donkey.
Take her as his consort? What nonsense was this?!
But the Turtle Prime Minister’s eyes gleamed as he interpreted the King’s words differently.
His Majesty, having behaved improperly under the influence of poison, now sought to preserve his dignity by marrying the sole witness to his disgrace—thus ensuring her silence as one of his own.
“Your Majesty is most wise.” The Turtle Prime Minister bowed approvingly.
The boy’s face was now scarlet. He cleared his throat, casting a shy glance at Yun Qingxue.
Yes, shy.
Yun Qingxue shuddered under the weight of that look.
“You… you’ll agree, won’t you?” The boy finally remembered to ask for her opinion.
“No!” Yun Qingxue rejected him without hesitation.
“Why not?” His eyes widened in innocent confusion.
Her lips twitched. Suppressing the urge to yell, she replied flatly, “Because I don’t like you.”
“Why don’t you like me?”
“Why should I like you?”
…
“Young lady…” The Turtle Prime Minister’s face was practically blooming with smiles. “Marrying our King is the dream of countless maidens!”
“Apologies, but I’m not one of them.” Yun Qingxue’s refusal was firm.
“Are you… angry about the hair-pulling earlier?” The boy, no longer haughty, now regarded her with cautious hopefulness.
“No. It was a fair fight. I’m not petty.”
Yun Qingxue frowned. From the start, the boy had struck her as simple-minded (or just plain foolish). Yet he was a king? How had someone so naïve held onto his throne?
“Then why won’t you marry me?” he pressed, utterly baffled.
“Because today is the first time we’ve met. You don’t know me, and I don’t know you. Marriage is a serious matter—how can it be decided so rashly?”
Tai Sui Yellow Amulet Paper FuLu Taoist Love Talisman Traditional Chinese Spiritual Charm Attracting Love Protecting Marriage