The Inconceivable Flame: A Fallen Angel's Disguise

At this moment, Xiao Zhiren would have described Ru as; An innocent face with a wild side. But that innocence was quite charming to him. But it also made him wonder how did she manage to preserve her childlike innocence in this polluted and corrupted world. It was rather unbelievable considering that she has enshrouded in the dark world herself.

"What are you doing here?" He heard her slightly hoarse voice after the silence got intense along with their gazes that had been clashing all this while.

Xiao Zhiren cleared his throat while trying to come up with something to say. He couldn’t just say that he was worried about her. Could he? There was nothing wrong with those words but he knew that she’d on guard again. "You’ve been avoiding me. So, I decided to look for you myself." He was gingerly trying to read her expressions but how could Ru let that happen.

Even though his words did bring a ripple of memory that had something to do with his soft, warm and moist lips on her cold ones. But even then her face didn’t even twitch and Xiao Zhiren inwardly sighed at how profound her gaze was. The depth in her eyes was truly scary sometimes. That depth shouldn’t have belonged to someone of her age.

With a blank look on her face, Ru said, "It’s not that I was avoiding you. I just had been..." she thought about how to continue and finished her sentence with, "Highly in demand recently."

She felt nothing wrong with calling her assassination attempts as ’being highly in demand’ but it certainly made Xiao Zhiren’s face twitch. Because to her, all those people coming after a single her meant that she was of real importance.

He wanted to yell but he still kept his voice down as he spoke, "I didn’t know being hunted by bounty hunters could actually be described as being highly in demand." There was sarcasm in his tone and Ru could hear it clearly. But even then, so what? It didn’t faze her at all. Neither did that fact that he was aware of her assassination attacks.

Just because she never said it out loud, it didn’t mean she didn’t know what Xiao Zhiren was capable of all on his own. It was no wonder that he knew about the bidding on Blood Pool.

"Why not?" She retorted back insistently.

Xiao Zhiren sat down cross-legged before her and said, "You tell me yourself, you’re the one facing death every day." And that was the only thing scaring him. Or one of the things that scared him about her. But currently, this one was at the top of the list without any doubt.

Ru finally moved a little as she lifted her hand which she had bitten earlier. Xiao Zhiren had already wiped her hand with his own shirt without caring for the bright crimson bloodstains.

"If death is looking for me every day, doesn’t that mean that I’m highly in demand with the King of death?" Her reply really made Xiao Zhiren speechless yet again. Would it kill her to answer like a normal person? Was this something to show-off about? He didn’t agree!

She could see that Xiao Zhiren had something to ask. Or perhaps, there were a million questions in his mind. But once again, he chose to give her space. It was like he could read her mind without trying to. It was like he could tell that she didn’t want to say out her worries.

But the conflict in his eyes wasn’t hidden from her as well. He was hurting himself inwardly as he saw her struggling alone. He was indeed struggling inside. Just the thought of how she was all alone here made him clench his hands tightly.

Ru couldn’t tell why but she knew one thing for sure, she didn’t like the look in his eyes. He was lamenting for not being there for her. And she didn’t like this itch in her heart that he was the reason for.

"Oi, Zhiren!"

"Hm..." Xiao Zhiren was a bit taken aback. It was rare for her to call him Zhiren. Or did she really call him that before?

"Are you planning on becoming an astronaut?" This out of the blue question made him furrow his brows in confusion.

"No."

"Then why are you so adamant on giving me space?" Xiao Zhiren closed his eyes trying to stifle this urge of wanting to knock her head. However, she wasn’t done yet as she continued, "Why don’t you just ask what’s on your mind? Is it that hard? I know I look like the kind of person who would bite but I assure you I won’t bite you."

Her last sentence made his lips turn upward as he asked, "What if I do want you to bite me? Bite me all you want."

Ru didn’t expect his response to be like this. He really had changed his tactic of hitting on her. He was quite audacious around her these days. But why wasn’t she able to push him away once and for all?

"I’ve killed 18 people tonight. Do you think I can’t add another on the list?"

"I don’t think that at all. However, I know for a fact that the next person on that list won’t be me." His cocky expression was supposed to irk her and yet she was being amused. When did that change conspire? Even she wasn’t too sure about that.

They both didn’t speak for a while again and this time, Xiao Zhiren chose to break the silence as he said, "Do you want something? I can bring it to you."

Ru looked into his eyes and a sly smile emerged on her face as she said, "I want snowman blood. Can you bring me some?"

"Of course, I ca-" Xiao Zhiren stopped mid-sentence as he felt like something was wrong with her request. "Snowman blood?" He repeated uncertainly.

Ru shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly as she answered, "Yup." Seeing his deep frown she languidly added, "I’m a bloodthirsty person. It’s a very normal request on my part. But... Sigh! You certainly can’t fulfill it."

"Who said I can’t?" Xiao Zhiren spoke in defiance as he said, "I can fulfill each and every request of yours." Then he gave a thoughtful look and went on, "Let me first figure out what snowman blood is."

Ru didn’t interrupt him and let him figure it out himself while she felt like her earlier dark aura was all gone. His presence had made her forget the surge of anger and rage and a will to kill everything in sight. He was like she said; a bright light. But what if his light was too much for her dark heart?

Xiao Zhiren kept mumbling incoherently, "What could be snowman blood made of?"

Ru shook her head at him while thinking, "You dumb bachelor! No wonder it was your first kiss. If it’s snowman blood. Isn’t it obviously made of snowman itself? With this IQ level, how will you get a girlfriend?"

She was forgetting that IQ had nothing to do with having a girlfriend. A relationship only needed a sincere heart and even she couldn’t argue with that fact that Xiao Zhiren had the sincerest heart she had ever come across.

’It was your first kiss as well, Ms. Smartypants!’ Her subconscious reminded her almost instantly.

’If you keep quiet trust me nobody will miss you.’ Ru retorted back.

Xiao Zhiren was tired of thinking as he exasperatedly scratched his head and asked, "Can you speak like a normal person? What really is snowman blood?"

"Bottled water," Ru answered blandly while Xiao Zhiren’s teeth gnashed in fury.

"Can’t you stop with your lame jokes?" He snapped at her but couldn’t bring himself to do it harshly.

"Aiyo! Dear Zhiren, it’s not that my jokes are lame. It’s just that people are not smart enough to understand them. What can I say... Even I’m very distressed about it. It’s hard for a cream of a crop like me to live between ordinary people. How troublesome!" Her haughty arrogance and narcissism were beyond words. However, Xiao Zhiren seemed to have not heard anything except for one thing; Dear Zhiren.

’Dear Zhiren? Dear Zhiren!’ Xiao Zhiren kept repeating in his mind and thought that his name had never sounded this good before. Unexpectedly, Ru had dropped her deep voice and used her real feminine voice while talking which made the moment even more mesmerizing for him.

’Who am I? Where am I?’ Xiao Zhiren felt like dreaming as he tugged at her sleeve and asked, "Is this heaven?"

Ru didn’t get his meaning but she still responded in her peculiar manner, "Nope! This place is called Earth and trust me, it’s worse than hell."

Xiao Zhiren gave a short chuckle surprising her even more. He ignored her answer completely as he said, "If this is not heaven, then why is an angel sitting before me?"

Ru widened her eyes. "Huh? There is an angel here? Where?" She even craned her neck to look around while he held her hand and pointed it towards herself.

"Angel is right here hiding behind her pitch-dark disguise."

Ru gave him a dumbfounded look while he stood up and tousled her hair saying, "I’ll being your snowman blood to you."

Ru was left to watch his disappearing back with a blurred vision. Suddenly, she felt her vision brightening up; all the colors of this world were back to her life.