By the time he was done slaving for his father, he left the captain’s cabin with scrunched up brows. Just as he placed his hand on the door to his own cabin he heard a soft voice calling out to him.

From the voice alone he could tell who it was. He turned around with a blank expression and asked, “Xiaoyu, what are you doing up?”

This girl was the one he had swapped places with two years ago. She had grown up into a fine young lady with a face a smooth as jade. As to why she was still aboard Red Bane it was because her entire family was slaughtered when the traffickers raided her small fishing village.

Ji Wen had proposed for her to stay with his female acquaintance Lady Ching Sei, the overlord of the south sea. Her entire crew was comprised of women which would be better suited for Xiaoyu but she refused saying she needed to repay her debt with her life.

When it came to it the girl was as stubborn as an ox. At the end of the day, Big Hei had to give up his quarters for her. And so the Red Bane had its first female crew member not that anyone was complaining.

Xiaoyu took a glimpse of his thin robe with an open lapel and her ears turned red on cue. She looked down at her feet and said, “I, I heard a noise and….. um, I thought you needed something,” she said with her dress blowing with the cool sea breeze. She shyly tucked her beautiful green strands behind her ear as she bit her lower lip.

This action would have warmed anyone’s heart Ji Yao included but he wasn’t in the mood to deal with another person. His father had ruined his night already. “It’s nothing….. go back to sleep,” he said before opening the door in the very next second.

The door was shut without a word leaving a stunned Xiaoyu staring at the door like an abandoned kitten. Nope, an abandoned kitten would at least scratch the door to be let in so let’s say an abandoned hamster.

She clenched her fist seriously reprimanding herself for not growing up faster. Never mind, she had plenty of time to move Ji Yao’s heart. Since she was the only woman around Ji Yao then she had nothing to worry about, right?

All cheered up she left for her quarters working out a game plan for operation ‘Capture Ji Yao’s heart’. Ahem….. wait until she meets the other contender.

***

With the sun a third up the horizon, Ji Yao was knee-deep into his drawing that he didn’t even realise he missed breakfast. This often happened after having one of those disturbing dreams and no, they weren’t spring dreams. It was more like a replay of when he was drawn into the labyrinth in Prince Rui’s pavilion.

But instead of him rescuing the children held captive he was sitting opposite a faint shadowy figure that would at times ask him to tell it where he was over and over again till he woke up. He couldn’t see the face nor recognize the voice but those eyes he would never forget.

The sad part was that he couldn’t leave the dream of his own free will. It was only when the shadow was done interrogating him did he manage to wake up. It was for this reason Ji Yao didn’t step foot on the great continent of Hyesong.

His father had dismissed these occasional dreams as PTSD but only Ji Yao knew how real those dreams were. To cope with it and make the figure seem less terrifying he would draw that figure in his stories which he was currently doing on this fine morning.

Since a lot of the crew members liked his stories he would pass them down when he was done drawing. He was so focused on his work that he didn’t hear the door being knocked and the person proceeding to enter.

It was none other than Xiaoyu who had come by under Ji Wen’s order. She would have come to visit him earlier but because she didn’t want to disturb him she had restrained herself. So when Ji Wen asked she hurriedly agreed and now she had a valid excuse. She could blame it all on Ji Wen if Ji Yao gets angry.

She placed the tray with a steaming bowl of seafood congee on the side table and silently watched him work on his comic with her head propped up with her fist. With a slight tilt of her head, she studied the shadowy protagonist of Ji Yao’s stories and couldn’t help but feel wan.

Once Ji Yao had painted her portrait but it only happened that one time. The portrait didn’t even get hung. It was instead covered with a white sheet like the other canvases deserted and never to see the light of day. With that thought, her gaze glanced over at the neatly packed canvases at the corner of the room and she couldn’t help but sigh.

Ji Yao had said she could have the portrait but she refused saying he would be able to take better care of it than her. The truth though was that she hoped he would hang it in his cabin in the future. But that dream seemed far fetched considering Ji Yao’s obsession with a shadowy figure.

At some point, she thought this shadowy figure was a girl so she asked around only to have the entire crew burst out in laughter. Words like delusional, daydreaming, crazy were thrown around which meant that puff of smoke with red eyes wasn’t a girl Ji Yao was obsessed with. Regardless of gender at this stage, she couldn’t even compete with a hazy figure which frustrated her a little.

Thinking of this she sighed again only to be met with Ji Yao’s vicious glare that could slice one into pieces.

Xiaoyu, “…”

“If you can’t keep quiet then how about going somewhere else?” asked Ji Yao as he lowered his head back down to his work. He wasn’t rude or anything. It’s just that everyone knew when he shut himself like this it meant he didn’t want to be disturbed and if one does come in, absolute silence was a necessity.

She picked up the tray and showed it to him saying, “I, I didn’t mean to disturb you. It was Master Ji who sent me to give you this…..” with a smile that could have men and women kowtowing at her feet. Maybe it was the mesmerizing doe-eyes paired with the beaming smile that enchanted people. She was built like a goddess in human form.

But Ji Yao seemed immune as he didn’t even bother raising his head saying, “Mn,” while pointing at the side table which translated to ‘leave it there and take your exit’. The radiant smile remained on her face as she trotted out of the cabin like a lovestruck fool.

She gently closed the door and exhaled while slightly leaning against it. She touched her hot cheeks with a slight blush as pink bubbles surrounded her.

But the pink atmosphere collapsed immediately when Ji Wen suddenly called out, “Xiaoyu!” startling her.

Ji Wen chuckled and couldn’t wait to tease his son. “*Sigh, young love…… what can you do?”