At this time, the Little Phoenix still doesn’t understand what steadfast loyalty and life-and-death interdependence is; nor even know that there are some things in this world that were doomed to be due to unexpected turn of events, and separation of life and death. The only thing he knows is that the little fox is dead, and the spoken words of ‘meeting each other again’ by the scholar before, had turned into an eternally unattainable promise.
The Little Phoenix wanted the little fox to cultivate into a human form, then live together with the scholar forever afterwards, instead of dying alone in a place out of the scholar’s sight. The more he thought, the sadder he became. Thus, by the time An Ying came back with a colored lantern at hand, he saw the Little Phoenix cry with glistening teardrops.
He had seen the youth’s smiling appearance, as well as his arrogant and proud appearance, but had never seen him cry. An unprecedented distress and anxiety unexpectedly surged in his chest, both his sword-like eyebrows furrowed as well, “What’s happened?”
The Little Phoenix’s eyes had completely became red from crying, but the teardrops still continued to pitter-patter down, “.…..wu, wu ……the little fox died ……”
An Ying naturally didn’t know about any whatnot fox, and can only worry helplessly deep inside. Fortunately, by relying on his keen sense of hearing, he was able to roughly understand the cause and effect from the conversation of the noisy spectators around them. He then stiffly and unskillfully started to coax: “Don’t cry. The stories in the plays are all deceptive, that fox didn’t die.”
Hearing this, the LIttle Phoenix raised his little face to look at An Ying, and asked while hiccuping: “Really?”
An Ying nodded, “The head of the fox clan has an elixir that can resurrect the dead. What’s more, the fox clan has always been united to protect their shortcomings. If it is really a demon of the fox clan, then it will definitely be saved.”
The Little Phoenix continued to sob and sniffle, “Then, then did that fox live together with the scholar afterwards?”
An Ying continued to a.s.suage: “I know the head of the fox clan. When I have time, I will take you to the Demon Realm to find and ask it. It must know.”
Although arrogant and willful, but the Little Phoenix is also extremely pure, easy to cheat, and easy to coax. Thus, his mood greatly improved in an instant. An Ying immediately raised the lantern in his hand and handed it over to him: “.……the lantern is very pretty, there’s even a phoenix on it.”
The lantern is truly pretty, the sides of the lantern were all as thin as cicada’s wings. But various colors of silks were used to embroider the phoenix’s body, and the finest quality of peac.o.c.k tail feathers were woven into it to make the phoenix’s tail, giving it a very gorgeous appearance.
The Little Phoenix took the proffered lantern, twitched the little nose and completely stopped crying. The sky had already darkened, but the Little Phoenix’s eyes under the warm lights of the colored lantern became even prettier. Looking at his tear stained face and long lashes moving with every gently blink, gave An Ying an unwarranted impulse of wanting to protect him at all times.
At this moment, the sounds of firecrackers resounded from the restaurant at the corner of the street. The Little Phoenix was caught off guard and couldn’t help but slightly tremble, a pair of large hands then covered his ears, blocking the cracks and crackle sounds for him.
The Little Phoenix had been immersed by the play before, that both his ears became slightly cold from being blown by the wind. Thus, he could clearly feel the unusually warm temperature of An Ying’s palm. At this moment, all the surrounding noise and cheers seemed to have been cut off to another s.p.a.ce. On the bustling main street, only this two people were left in the light, with the addition of the sound of their heartbeats.
The sounds of firecrackers gradually stopped, but fireworks were once again set off in the distance. The Little Phoenix looked up, and saw several blooming fireworks high above his head, showcasing incomparably dazzling shapes in succession, before turning into stars all over the sky afterwards. He couldn’t restrain from pulling on An Ying’s hand and point at the fireworks with a smile: “Quickly look over there, isn’t it pretty?”
However, An Ying’s eyes could only see the Little Phoenix’s smiling appearance. After hearing the other party’s question, did he subconsciously give a reply: “Pretty.”
But he wasn’t referring to the fireworks at all, but to the Little Phoenix happily watching the fireworks. At the moment they held hands, their hand temperature equally pa.s.sed along their palm, and the blood vessels seemed to stretch, mobilizing the whole body’s peripheral nerves, causing the sense of touch to become even sharper. An Ying felt the smooth and soft skin in his hand, causing gentle ripples in his heart. The Little Phoenix felt the slightly rough but not too hard thin callouses on An Ying’s fingertips, which felt soft and ticklish when rubbed in a person’s palm.
An Ying kept waiting for the Little Phoenix to have enough fun before bringing up their original purpose of looking for a pet. He originally planned to find those kitten and puppies, that were commonly kept as pets in the Human Realm and had yet to awaken any spiritual knowledge, for the Little Phoenix. But the other party was unexpectedly so picky, and simply rejected this proposal.
“Foster mother already has a cat, and elder brother Kong Ming has a dog. I don’t want to be like them.” The Little Phoenix thought for a while and said: “I want a little fox like in the play, I will certainly be good to it.”
An Ying ineffably felt somewhat disgruntled upon hearing this, and consequentially hated the fox clan as a whole. But since he was unwilling to dampen the Little Phoenix interest, he agreed to take the other to go search in the mountain forest of the city outskirts.
The day before yesterday, heavy snow continuously fell for several days on the outskirts of the city. Resulting to layers of snow being acc.u.mulated at the foot of the mountain, and since there was no one to clean it, it still remained there until now. Upon entering the mountain forest, the foot will be buried in an ankle deep snow. Fortunately, their boots were high enough, just to avoid the socks from being wet by the snow.
An Ying walked ahead, and steadily trod out steadfast footprints one after the other, then made the Little Phoenix step on his footprints afterwards. Thus, the Little Phoenix, like playing a game, easily followed behind An Ying, then asked while walking: “Can the little fox really be found here?”
Although foxes roam about throughout the year, but it likes to come out and hunt in the morning, and straight away return to it’s den upon nightfall. However, An Ying still nodded without batting an eye: “Um, can.”
The Little Phoenix felt relieved, and followed An Ying all the way into the depths of the mountain forest. An Ying’s foot was much larger than his. Thus, he was able to very easily step at the center of the other’s footprint, without even making contact with the slightest bit of snow.