Jun Mian was positioning the herbs on the racks inside his boat when he heard a voice behind him.

“Hey!”

He turned his body, seeing a good looking brat smirked at him.

“You are the gentleman my sibling wants to see.”

"Excuse me?"

“You are the gentleman my sibling wants to see.” The boy repeated, rolling his eyes. Jun Mian smiled.

“Look again. Do I look like a gentleman? I think you have the wrong man.”

He lifted the small bench he had been sitting on and placed it under the rack. He went to the back of his boat and untied the rope that was keeping his boat.

“Hey wait!”, the young man trailed behind him, “you are the herb picker, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but surely not a gentleman. So I can’t possibly be the man your sibling wants to see.”

Jun Mian moved to the front of his boat, untying another rope. The boy hopped to his side, rocking the boat slightly.

“I am not wrong. I do recognize you. You’re the man who eats flower!”

“So, what’s my name then?”

Jun Mian brows lifted.

“Who? Who am I?”

The boy was quiet for awhile.

“I don’t know. But you are the man my sibling wants to see. My sibling has been waiting for you, in the pavilion.” He insisted.

Jun Mian smirked. He got up and lifted the boy’s shoulder up, straightened him and pushed the boy out of his boat.

 “I don't think I am the man your sibling want to see. I think he mistakes me as somebody else. I never recall having interaction with you or your sibling.”

Jun Mian smiled and took his row.

“Stop bothering me. It’s the night of Lantern Festival. Go and enjoy it. And so long, young Sir!”

Shi Xun gritted his teeth. How dare this man just pushed him and called him bothersome. He had never been called like that by anyone before. How could the mortal say such thing about a dignified, ultimate skilled demon?

This human surely needed to learn something!

Shi Xun coned his mouth and blew air softly from his mouth, working on his magic. The air began to dance wildly. It formed a small tornado which made the man’s boat spinning frantically, making him scream.

“What on earth! Stop! Stop! Help!”

Shi Xun laughed, twitching his finger. He interjected his magic, making the man’s boat stop spinning. The man was looking around frantically, clearly confused to realize only his boat was spinning like cazy.

Well, that is not enough yet ....

Shi Xun made himself transparent and changed himself into his demon form. He jumped to the river and swam to the boat’s stern. His tail wiggle inside the river and he pushed the boat forward.

The man’s shriek was enough to make him smirk underwater.

“HEY, HEY, STOP! WHAT’S HAPPENING? WHY IS IT MOVING?"

The boat was moving so fast, with the man who held the boat rail with all his might shouting in panic. People on the river bank were cheering over him, clearly not noticing something weird with it. They instead thought that it was such kind of attraction.

“OH MY GOD! STOP! HELP! HELP!”

The boat kept speeding on the water. Shi Xun looked the front. His brother was already in the pavilion, smiling at him. There was a bridge before the boat leading to the pavilion. Shi Xun smirked. He stopped wiggling his tail and pushed the boat to the bridge.

“STOOOOOOPPPPPP!!!!!”
It was too late. The boat crashed to the bridge, throwing the man out of it, knocking down the bridge rail and through the river. Luckily he managed to grab the bridge foundation. The man was coughing and shivering as he pulled himself to the bridge floor.

Shi Xun whistled.

“It should have been easier. You chose the harder way.”

He swam back to the opposite direction. He tied the tip of his tail to the boat stern and continued swimming. He laughed in silent when he heard the man groaning.

“Oh no …. My boat ….”
 

Jun Mian kept groaning after some time. He was tired after an unsuccessful day selling on his boat. Only several people bought the dried herb he had been collecting for a whole week. Then, when no one took a glance on him anymore, he decided to call it a day. Just when he wanted to go home, an annoying brat came to him and started inquiring him to meet his sibling. Jun Mian was not interested, he wanted to go home. Well, he probably declined the request too rudely. He made people pissed off. And heaven punished him for it.

He was cold, shivering, and bruised.

So much for rejecting an invitation.

Jun Mian watched as his boat slowly got carried away by the river. He sighed. He had to follow that boat before it was carried to the sea. If he was fast enough, probably he could just reach it from the bank of the river by wood. The people on the boat would surely help him get the boat again.

All the ideas took all his attention that he just realized that he was at the bridge leading to the pavilion that the brat mentioned. He moved his eyes to the pavilion, seeing a young man of his age leaning against the pavilion pillar, looking at the serene lake.

The sibling was a man. Oh great ….

Jun Mian looked at the man once again and then turned around. He slipped once, almost falling back to the water. He managed to stay still. Sighing, he carefully walked on the bridge, willing to run fast after he stepped on the dry land.

BRUAGGGGHHH!!!!

Jun Mian shrieked as he jumped back. He just walked for several steps when the half of the bridge before him exploded. He breathed fast, putting his hand on his chest to calm his erratic beating.

“What the –“

He didn’t have time to comment as the bridge started to explode again. He ran backward, he barely could step back in time as the bridge floor kept rioting, woods flying to the sky. He was busy saving himself and he didn’t pay attention to his back. He stumbled on the raised surface on the pavilion, falling backward before he stopped.

“Oh God …. That was close ….”

His eyes bulged when he realized that someone was practically hugging him as he was sitting on someone's lap. Jun Mian jumped and quickly bowed.

“I’m sorry! I’m really, really, really sorry! I didn’t do that on purpose!”

He was pulled down by the young man to the pavilion bench. “It’s okay. Sit down!”

Jun Mian felt uneasy. The young man was practically clinging to his arm. He tried to pry his arm off.

“I’m so sorry, Sir. This is inappropriate.”

Jun Mian was about to get off, but he was hugged instead.

“Don’t treat me as a stranger. You don’t need to be so polite.”

This time, with a quick stealthy movement, Jun Mian was able to release himself.

“No, no, no. I should go!”

He would just jump. He would just swim back to the river bank. This guy was creepy. How could a guy hug a guy with that kind of motion? The guy smelled nice and he looked half a girl, but he was still a guy. Heaven would punish both of them. However, Jun Mian halted just before he moved forward to jump.

The pavilion was in the middle of the lake already, unconsciously dragged by the water stream. It was floating serenely, probably because it lost its support from the bridge. Jun Min facepalmed himself.

“Seriously? Who built this pavilion? Come on! This is rickety! This is terrible! Terrible!”

The young man clung to Jun Mian’s arm again.

“I think it’s nice. It is also a perfect spot to see the West Lake.”

“I am afraid I am not so interested,” Jun Mian tried to pull his arm, “I just wanna go home!”

The young man’s grip was like iron. “This early? There’s a pavilion on the lake, a pavilion in the moonlight. And we are in the pavilion. Don’t you think it’s romantic?”

“I guess I am too busy for romance.”

Jun Mian pulled himself of the man again and moved to avoid him, but apparently the man was thinking it was a cat chasing a mouse game. They flip-flopped between the pillars. Jun Mian shivered when he heard the man giggling, the back of his neck's hair was standing.

“What are you avoiding? Hey! Why are you keeping such a distance from me?”     

Jun Mian leapt from the bench and headed to another pillar but suddenly two arms trapped him. He was sandwiched between the man and the pillar. He groaned, he had nowhere to escape.

“Why don’t you like me?”

The breath of the man smelled like jasmine. It was really fragrant, alluring. But he couldn't do this.

"Answer me, am I not attractive?"

Jun Min closed his eyes.

"Is there something wrong with me that you can't bring yourself to like me?"

HIs eyes tightened and he snapped.

“Someone else had already taken my heart!”

He was still tightening his eyes when Jun Mian realized that the arms were no longer locking him. He opened his eyes and saw the man slowly retreated. There was a look of betrayal on his expression. His face was torn, hurt by his words Jun Mian spoke. Jun Mian looked down, avoiding his stare.

“Sir, please forgive me. I am a very poor man. I pick herbs for my living. I’m not worthy of your affection. Besides, I am also a man, the same as you. Man and man are not supposed to be together. It defies the will of the heaven.”

Jun Mian lifted his head, only to see tears were about to fall from the man’s eyes. He didn't know why, but Jun Mian started to feel that something squeezed his chest. The man's face was just killing him, he didn't know why. He wanted to cast his eyes elsewhere, but he couldn't. He had to witness the pain on the man's face that in turn made him pained too.

The man bit his lip as he spoke.

“Then …, tell me about that person. What kind of person that could take your heart?”

Jun Mian gulped. He so did not want to tell him anything, but the man’s gaze was so sadly piercing, making him unable to contain his secret. Unble to control his mouth, Jun Mian revealed the lump in his heart.

“Well, I know almost nothing about her. I can’t even recall her face. All I know is the fact that she saved my life. It was on the day I fell into the lake in Mount Er Mei. I drowned. I didn't realize that. When I opened my eyes, I was underwater. She was there before me. I guess she had been giving air to me. She rescued me, she saved me ….”

He jumped a bit when seeing the young man was already by his side. The weird thing was, the man no longer had a hurt face, he was beaming instead.

“If she saved your life, you owe her a lot then.”

“Yeah …. But when I revived, she was gone already. My friends said that I just imagined her. But I am quite sure that she was real …. Because she kissed me so deeply …. That kissed …, saved my life ….”

Jun Mian closed his eyes.

“In a way, it also took my life ….”

There was a whisper on his ear.

“What if you could kiss her again? Would you remember her this time?”

“Yes ….”

Jun Mian’s eyes were wide awake. He felt pushed to the front. He screamed as he lost his balance and fell to the lake. Different from the river, this lake was so deep. Jun Mian had been really tired after today’s events. He tried to swim up but he felt like being dragged inside the lake. He screamed, stupidly wasting away the precious air he should have kept. This was it, the end of him. No one would save him again. He probably was destined to die under water, drowning ….

And then he saw someone in white attire came to him. It was the young man. He swam to him in such a speed. Jun Mian struggled as the man approached him. They wouldn't make it. It was way too far from the surface. He could never help him. They both would just end up dead in the bottom of the lake.

And the man kissed him!

Jun Mian stopped struggling. He was stunned when a strange feeling was flowing. It was warm, energizing, beautiful, flowing through a pair of lips that were kissing him. His need of fresh air vanished, he was able to contain his breath again. Jun Mian observed the face before him. He felt dizzy for a while, when a beautiful memory punched his mind, clearing all the clouds that had been covering his consciousness.

He was his savior ….

The young man broke the kiss. A very beautiful smile was apparent on his face. Jun Mian was stunned. His savior was never a girl. He was mistaken him as a girl for the beautiful face he possessed. There was a pang of guilt in his heart but Jun Mian didn’t care that since his heart was filled with tremendous happiness for seeing the face that had been haunting him appeared before his very own eyes.

Jun Mian blinked and lifted his hand to caress the man’s cheek. He smiled after the sensation. The young man was beaming. He swayed his head, letting his cheek rubbed by Jun Mian’s hand.

And Jun Mian hugged the man. Tightly. Pouring all the longing he had been bottling. This was his savior. A real one. He was not imaginary. He was damn real. Jun Mian was beaming with happiness as his hug returned by the man.

He was in paradise.

Before he realized that they were still underwater.

Jun Mian coughed, big bubbles of air were out of his nose and mouth. He flinched as he began to suffocate. He started to lose his consciousness. All he remembered was he was being dragged away, hugged really tightly by his savior. It was very warm. The cold water that used to be freezing before was no longer strangling. He was really comfortable, drifting to serene solitude.

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2014/05/06

Hi all! Sorry for taking ages to update! Gosh! My laptop crashed and I couldn't open it for a while. I was almost wailing, my precious novel and stories draft!! But then it was managed to be fixed! Hoooray!!! I will try to be more careful in the future. All files would be kept in several discs to make none of my masterpiece (meeeehhhhhh) get lost.

Enoy the chap! Do comment! Subscribe and upvote are always appreciated!

Phewwwhhhhh ......

Schandelierre