That night, Li Yue opened her eyes slowly to realise she was lying on grass. The smell of delicious food travelled into her nostrils, and the starving girl found herself almost drooling.
She looked over at the fire, then at the person roasting food. She felt as if she was back to the days during the group hunt, for at that point, it was the same person roasting delicious food for her.
Was she dreaming? Wasn’t she just at home? Li Yue was slowly drifting back into sleep but soon felt like this wasn’t a dream, she was kidnapped by this person!
She’d been here before. As a soldier, she easily recognised places- these were the grassy highlands to the north of the Imperial City.
“Ye Lang, what do you want? Why did you bring me here?” said Li Yue calmly. She was not afraid.
“You’re up. Come, drink some water, eat some meat. You must be starving.” Ye Lang did not answer her question, instead he passed a flask of water and some meat to her.
Without a thought, she started to wolf down the meat and chugged a lot of water. She did not suspect Ye Lang tampered with the food because there was no need- he had proven to be able to do whatever he wanted.
And Li Yue was hungry too. She needed sustenance, and as a soldier, she would not pass on opportunities to consume food, especially during such uncertain times.
“How long have I slept?” she asked after she had eaten enough.
“Not long, it’s only eight,” said Ye Lang.
Li Yue was surprised. “You brought me here in just an afternoon? This place is very, very far from the Imperial City.”
“Of course. I’m fast and I don’t want to waste any more time,” he said casually.
“What did you use to travel? Why isn’t there a horse nearby, just us?” Li Yue noticed there wasn’t anything as fas as she could see in this vast grassland.
This made her suspicious of how he travelled here. If this place was near the city, she would have thought he carried her here. But it was so far away.
He carried her all the way here? How was that possible? It shouldn’t be.
“I ran here! There wasn’t time to get a carriage.”
Ye Lang’s words stunned Li Yue. So he did carry her here, they were hundreds of kilometers away!
“You ran here? Then I…”
“I carried you here. Why? This isn’t the first time, do you have a problem with that?” he said casually, this wasn’t a problem to him.
“N-no!” she shook her head. What could she say? This wasn’t the first time either. Plus he had kidnapped her, it was already a good thing he didn’t just toss her over his shoulder as he ran.
“What are you going to do with me?” Li Yue looked at Ye Lang like an animal volunteering to be slaughtered.
“Lend me your Tianji armour and I’ll let you go home. Once I’m done with the armour, I’ll send someone to give it back to you. I’ll still give you the Dragon Scale battle armour- compensation for your troubles!” said Ye Lang as he poked at the fire with some wood.
Where did he get wood from? Probably from his ring.
“Compensation?! You think you can just give me some armour and be done with it?” scoffed Li Yue coldly. It was obvious she could never agree, though we don’t know why.
“You don’t agree? Think about it. I could always take the armour from you but that would mean ruining your clothes so I really don’t want to do that.” Ye Lang’s tone was very flat, he looked at Li Yue’s frown.
“You dare do such a thing?! Let me tell you this, Ye Lang, if you do it, I’ll die!” roared Li Yue and at this moment, her eyes welled up.
“I don’t, that’s why I brought you here. Or I wouldn’t have to bring you out of the city. I know that it’s inappropriate because I’m a man and you’re a lady, plus you’re not my wife so I can’t do that,” lamented Ye Lang, his brows furrowed.
“If you take the armour, you’ll toss me aside in the city, right?” Li Yue’s eyes filled with complex emotions, it would’ve taken a moment for a regular person to understand- so obviously an idiot like Ye Lang did not.
Very honestly, he nodded. “Yep! If I can, I’ll leave you in the Imperial City. Bringing you would just be a burden!”
“You! You bastard!” she bellowed pointing at Ye Lang, visibly furious.
“Me? Bastard? You’re here because I kidnapped you, Li Yue. Me tossing you back to the city will be freeing you, so you can go home! How am I a bastard? Although right now, I am being a bastard… Uh, no, I’m just a kind kidnapper, not a bastard!” Ye Lang realised he was insulting himself so he immediately switched his train of thought. It looked so dumb Li Yue laughed.
“Pfftt… You’re so stupid, you’re just very stupid!”
“You’re not angry anymore?” although Ye Lang was slow, he could still see that Li Yue’s smile was a genuine one.
“I didn’t say I wasn’t angry!” Li Yue stopped smiling. “Tell me, what do you want to do with my Tianji Armour?”
“I’m using it to save someone. The Tianju Armour has a special property and I need this property to save the person.” Ye Lang did not hide the truth either. There was no point in lying now.
“Save who?” Li Yue did not ask what property of the armour he was relying on to save the person because she might not understand if he explained.
That was why she did not ask. Now, she needed to know who was important enough for Ye Lang to risk his life entering Soaring Sky again.
“About that, you’ll have to keep it a secret. Or at least temporarily keep it a secret. Or I won’t tell you.” Ye Lang did not want Li Yue following him around, he was going to let her return. He only wanted the armour anyway, not Li Yue.
And if Li Yue told Zhao Yarou when she returned while Athena was still in the city, Ye Lang wasn’t sure if Zhao Yarou would harm Athena.
“Alright! I’ll keep your secret!” Although she didn’t know what Ye Lang was thinking, she could still keep a secret. If she didn’t promise, she wouldn’t know anything. At least she’d know something like that.
Li Yue always kept her promises, never changing her mind or breaking promises.
