Being the Queen of Qingqiu, there was one thing Fengjiu always adhered to, that is to keep Qingqiu's face at all time, no matter what happens she must never have Qingqiu's name soiled.
What Donghua said really hurt her pride. She suddenly regained her spirit and used sophistry to respond: “This is how Qingqiu people react in such times. I don't need an ignorant person like you to criticize me!”
When things like this happen, what exactly was her Qingqiu's customs? She was only 30,000 yrs old, she was but a cub. She saw things but never really understood them. She found out today for the first time that not only lips were used in kissing, but that tongues could also be used. She had always thought kissing only involved touching lips and nothing else, and that the more love there was, the longer they must stay attached. For example, she had pressed her lips onto Dijun's for so long, her love must have reached the depth of sea. It turned out there were many gray areas in between she did not know, there was so much more she needed to learn.
However, if even she didn't know about this custom as a native of Qingqiu, how would Dijun know any better. She thought it'd be good to deceive Dijun with this excuse.
Hearing no response from Dijun, she added: “Weren't you breathing just now?” Her expression turned solemn: “This is a taboo in Qingqiu. There is a gray wolf fellow who lives next door to us. Because of this, his fiancée's family revoked the engagement; people look down on things like this.”
After hearing her, Donghua indeed seemed to be in thought.
She praised herself for fabricating this nonsense so well, as expected of Xiao Feng.
But she had accidentally forgotten one thing: sometimes Dijun was a deity with an immense sense of curiosity.
Indeed, Dijun's curiosity led him to think a while before he offered this conclusion: “How interesting this custom is. Since I haven't tried it yet, trying your Qingqiu's custom now isn't a bad idea.”
Fengjiu stayed motionless in Dijun's chest, her face blushed pink as a peach: “How can you utter such a shameless thing?!”
In truth Dijun was merely speaking casually, but he didn't know his listener would not think of them as casual words. He reminded her: “Who was the one to start it, do you remember?”
Fengjiu's raging fire instantly flamed out; this was a question of pride.
She thought for a long time before she was emboldened enough to reply: “I admit it was I who started it.” She rubbed her nose and started to defend herself with sophistry: “But this is my dream, so I could do whatever I want.” Here, she suddenly realized. Yes, this was her dream, Donghua was created from her imagination. Usually she never won against him in an argument, how could he still be so arrogant even in her dream. He was really disregarding the dream's owner!
She looked at Donghua fearlessly with newfound bravado: “You, you are merely created from my imagination. In my own dream, I can take advantage of you all I want to, however I want to. But you can't do the same to me.” She barreled on now that her mind was clearing: “You don't have to counter what I said with reason, because there are no reasons in this dream, my words are the only reason!” Her speech was akin to the sound of broken gold and jade. When she finished she herself was a little awed. She quietly watched Dijun.
Dijun was rendered blank for a long while.
She wondered if Dijun might have been intimidated. She waved her hand in front of him. Dijun grabbed onto her waving hand. He was clearly looking at her, but his words seemed directed to himself: “So I'm dreaming.” A pause. “I was wondering why you suddenly became so relaxed, and you're not even angry.”
Fengjiu heard each word from Dijun's two sentences clearly, but she didn't quite understand his meaning. “What are you talking about, you're dreaming?” Utterly lost, she went on: “Isn't this my dream? If it's not my dream, then where did you come from?” So very confused now, she added: “Why should I be angry at you?” She startled when her eyes took a glimpse of his red lips; her face blanched as she said, “It was so difficult for me to take ad...” She couldn't say the word advantage. Her free hand which wasn't held by Donghua began to quietly pull up the blanket in front of her chest in an attempt to cover up her head as well. Reality was a bit cruel.
Dijun caught a corner of the blanket mid-air, her hand was held back in his. He focused his gaze on her for a long while, then at last asked: “Do you remember what you did before you fell asleep, Xiao Bai?”
What was she doing before she fell asleep? Fengjiu found she had absolutely no impression. Her brain was thrown to the wind. A fogginess of forgotten memories about a tragic past was carried away by the light breeze. Suddenly half of her heart went cold. Did this symptom mean she had lost her memory?
Sorrow gave birth to coldness. When this thought came to her, Fengjiu's limbs stiffened cold. At this very moment, her freezing hand was being held even tighter, and next to her ear was Dijun's serene voice: “I'm here, don't be afraid. You're just drowsy from your sleep, that's all.”
She looked to Dijun uncertainly.
Dijun wiped the sweats on her forehead then composedly said: “Sometimes we can become this way after sleeping for too long. It's alright if we can't remember the things before we fell asleep. You still remember the most recent things so there's nothing to worry about.” A soft flash appeared in his eyes. “Truthfully I don't think it matters if you can't remember certain things.”
Although Dijun's words couldn't be counted as comforting consolation, when she heard them she actually felt greatly assured.
Only now could Fengjiu see clearly. Although she was not dreaming, she was indeed lying on a spacious bed. But it wasn't a wedding wed. Under her body was a mattress, before her eyes was draping gossamer, all in the same deep indigo color. Beyond the curtain wasn't a pair of burning dragon-phoenix candles (used for wedding night). Rather, floating above the bed canopy was a night pearl as large as a goose egg.
Through the thin gossamer curtain she could see a white forest outside. She could sense fairy energy gathering around here. Of course, the spot radiating the strongest energy came from Dijun who was sitting in front of her.
Dijun said 'the most recent things'. The most recent things, Fengjiu thought for a moment, recalled something, and whispered to Donghua: “If you're not a dream, then... my wedding with Cang'yi Shenjun before you appeared... that must've been the dream.”
She wondered about the origin of this dream. With a confused face she said, “Two months ago my old man, I mean, my father forced me to marry Cang'yi Shenjun of Mount Zhiyue. On the wedding night, I did all I could to wreck Cangyi's palace. This marriage went down the drain. I heard the reparation of the palace cost him a fortune that year. But Cang'yi Shenjun didn't mind that I had turned it into rubble. He even spoke on my behalf when my father reprimanded me.”
She concluded in a lowered voice: “He had made this gesture, but I had thought since his sovereignty on earth was too expanssive, he already had many troubles to worry about and his mind already too exhausted, but then he spoke on my behalf. I was grateful to him, and feel somewhat guilty about destroying his palace. I'm a bit ashamed. I reckon this is why I dreamt such a bizarre dream today.”
Fengjiu's hair became tangled during her nap; Wordlessly, Dijun helped her smooth it out. He thought about her incoherent summary. Siming said her awful forced marriage to Mount Zhiyue happened seventy years ago, but Fengjiu insisted it had only been two months. It seemed when she was seriously injured, she did not have enough fairy energy and her memory had been slightly muddled by Aranya's Dream.
Her memory had stopped at seventy years ago. This was why she did not question in anger why he had given the Saha fruit to Jiheng.
Dijun felt that the ability to addle one's memory inside the Aranya Dream was quite a blessing.
Fengjiu pondered for a while. In the end there were a couple of things that were still puzzling to her. Doubt surfaced her face as she nervously said, “Actually, I had felt something wasn't right the moment I opened my eyes.” She looked at Dijun as distress started to surface in her eyes. “If I was dreaming back then, and now I'm not dreaming anymore, then where is this place, Your Majesty... why are you here? And whose bed is this?”
Dijun looked at her for a moment, it seemed at this time Xiao Bai's memory only included the times she spent on Jiuchongtian as a fox. This was going to be much easier. With a sincere expression he started his hogwash: “This is the Wicked Lotus Sphere. Yan Chiwu trapped me in here. You worry for me so, thus you hurried here to save me.”
Fengjiu's mouth widened into the shape of a salted egg, one could fit an entire fist into it: “Is Yan Chiwu that incredible? He could trap you twice?!”
Dijun retained his composed look: “Not only did he trap me, he trapped you too. That's why we can't leave this place, we are stuck in here.”
“That villian Yan Chiwu!” Fengjiu indignantly exclaimed. But then she became puzzled: “Why is it that Yan Chiwu again trapped you here, and I rushed to save you, but I don't remember any of this?”
“Because you've been sleeping for too long,” Dijun calmly replied. Seeing that there was still doubt in her eyes, he caressed her face, determinedly looked into her eyes and lowered his voice: “Xiao Bai, haven't you always saved me when I was trapped?”
Haven't you always saved me when I was trapped?
Fengjiu stiffened.
Tonight her mind was indeed upside down. She constantly felt an enchantment that she could not explain. But when Donghua say this, like a delicate snowflake landing on her lashes, her mind swept past this unfortunate time.
She felt som