Author note; haha another small chapter( that mostly sets up the foundation of Sun Jiao/Xu Rong's relationship and gives a bit more insight into Sun Rong's personality. Sun Jiao is on the right track about her talking/not talking, but he isn't thinking arrogantly enough to figure it out.
Checked other chapter sizes and actually average around 1300-1400 words so this one isn't small, but I would like 2000ish if possible so lets make it that my target. You know what they say "aim for the moon so that even if you miss you end up drifting in space all alone and eventually starve to death" or something right?
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While Sun Jiao was silent the crowd had continued to roar. The violence had finished and those that survived cheered with excitement. At any moment they could all be killed by the monster Yao Mo and yet they had survived. This left them with a feeling of happiness as well as renewed outlook on life; they would face the next day with vigor.
However Sun Jiao, who had been carried away with the crowd and drunk on their excitement, sobered up and began to think about the situation.
'I didn't mind it smashing that guy, but the maid hadn't done anything wrong and didn't deserve to die. How can I possible explain that to Sun Qing without sounding weak? I need some explanation as well otherwise she'll wonder why I didn't continue laughing...'
Unable to come up with an answer Sun Jiao decided to stall for time. He lifted Xu Rong off his lap and stood, carefully taking his time so as not to appear nervous.
Without a word he began to walk to the door leaving Xu Rong and Sun Qing alone in the room with Yao Mo in front of the window.
A confused look had appeared on Sun Qing's face when she had turned around and her hair went from an excited dark red to a curious dark green with a hint of surprised yellow. When Sun Jiao began to leave her confusion was replaced with a depressed look and she began to sniff while her hair continued to shift with her emotions.
Her eyes began to tear as she spoke; "Big brother? Ar..are you mad at me? Why? I don't understand..."
Sun Jiao paused at the door.
"Come" was the only word he said followed by tapping the side of his right leg.
It took only a moment for Xu Rong to realize he was talking to her. She then happily followed, but not because she wished to be with him instead because she wanted to get as far away from Yao Mo as possible.
Seeing that her tears were being ignored Sun Qing stopped feeling sad and turned to Yao Mo.
"Bad doggy! You made him mad. Go home!"
With, what noone would consider a sad look on his disfigured face, Yao Mo sadly turned and leaped out of the opened ceiling arena landing on the outer edge and then lept away.
Now that she had properly placed blame on whom she thought was the appropriate perpetrator Sun Qing turned with a contentful look on her face and hurried to catch up to her wonderful brother.
Sun Jiao was not as pleased and was in fact still incredibly worried about his current predicament. A hush fell over those in the hall and they scurried to the edge of the walkway, but he payed no attention to them which made them sigh in relief as he passed. He was lost in thought and was going over everything he had experienced in this world trying to find something that seemed appropriately arrogant.
The fear that gripped the crowd had caused them to remain silent as a nail that sticks out will get hammered. Sun Jiao's thoughts were broken by the pitter-patter of tiny feat. Sun Jiao tensed as she approached, but Sun Qing remained silent as she fell in behind Sun Jiao.
As they neared the entrance a thin man with a thick mustache and greased back hair approached them while behind him maids were mopping up blood off the floor and wall.
"Thank you for visiting my coliseum. My name is Manager Wubei and I would be more than happy to have you come again."
Sun Jiao had a general idea of what he was going to do at this point having been inspired by Xiaobo's repeated use of the word trash. Since he just had to flush out the details of his plan for Sun Qing he could pay more attention to the mustache man's words and something about them tickled his interest.
Sun Jiao curiously looked at the man, the maids cleaning behind him, and then settled on Sun Qing. She was avoiding his gaze as she apparently found the ceiling much more interesting than the new manager's words. Noticing her sparkling clean boots Sun Jiao sighed and waved Wubei away.
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Despite the crowd they easily arrived at their carriage which hadn't moved from the middle of the street and was right where they left it causing traffic to go around and causing a disturbance. Seeing the decorated and fanciful carriage Xu Rong rushed ahead and opened the door.
Sun Jiao and Sun Qing entered the carriage followed briskly by Xu Rong who immediately realized she had a difficult decision to make. To her left was Sun Qing and her right Sun Jiao; both sat in the middle of their respective seats. There was enough space to sit to either side of Sun Qing, but Sun Jiao was larger which meant she would have to squeeze in next to him. Both options terrified her. Realizing her role was now that of a dog she reluctantly sat on the floor of the box and laid her head next to Sun Jiao's knees. She was not pleased with her new life, but it was so far better than she expected and hopefully much longer than a certain maid.
'Better a dog than a ball I suppose' she thought morosely.
Sun Jiao ignored her as he was thinking about his plan and picking the words he wanted to say carefully. So far Sun Qing hadn't said anything, but he wanted to stop her from doing something like that in the future.
Finishing his words he looked at Sun Qing and was surprised to see she was sitting with a pleasant smile neither sad nor angry. She wasn't talking however which caused Sun Jiao to suspect she was nervous. He hadn't much experience with women or girls, but in his new body Sun Jiao's mind was much clearer so he saw and remembered things significantly more vivid than he had in his past life.
This meant that when he had been thinking about the few hours he had been here, he had noticed that she talked a lot while they were alone, but remained quiet and even reluctant to speak in front of others even going so far as to whisper in front of the maids. He thought at first it was because she was shy, but she didn't mind causing a scene with the maid so he that didn't really fit. He couldn't figure out the why of it, but he knew enough by now that she enjoyed listening to herself talk while they were alone together and her lack of rambling now probably meant she was nervous.
'Perhaps it's because of Xu Rong? That can't be it as she seems fine talking to her dog and I doubt she'll be silent the entire time we walk them Sunday. Ugh. Treating her like that makes me a bit uncomfortable but I have to so I'll just have to get used to it.'
He forced himself to reach out and pet Xu Rong's head as he would a dog while Xu Rong forced herself to accept his petting with a smile; both equally displeased with the situation, both equally unable to do anything about it, and both eually unaware that they felt a bit more comfortable than they had been just moments ago.
As the carriage pulled forward Sun Jiao made a mental note to ask Xiaobo how the fuck the carriage was moving forward. It was a small thing he had overlooked during his previous contemplation, but the jolt forward had suddenly caused him to think about it and made him very curious.
He couldn't spend any more time thinking about it though so Sun Jiao decided to stopped stalling. In fact he had mostly come up with an answer to the problem when he first left the box seats but found himself wanting to take his time to make sure his audience, Sun Qing, would be happy with the answer. Any more stalling would be putting off the problem as his thinking had already taken up an entire chapter... of his life. It would be pointless to keep dragging his feet as he would have to face the problem eventually and there had to be some progress made!
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I do have a plan obviously and this chapter definitely isn't just filler! "inspired by Xiaobo's repeated use of the word trash. " see! see! A little self deprecating humor and slight 4th wall breaking at the end doesn't mean it's filler! Don't expect much 4th wall breaking, maybe a crack hear or there, but I find it's usually a cheap gimmick that gets old quick so I wont use it often. Promise.
Next chapter; The plan is put in place and... XIAOBO IS BACK BITCHES maybe that should be the chapter name? It's not arrogant enough though...