"Well... I have an idea," Pan Tian said. She took out a fireblood pill and placed it in the mouth of one of the male students. He was muscular and his face was twisted with anger with his mouth partly open as though hurling some vicious insult and his finger accusing someone.

The fireblood pill melted in his frozen mouth and the ice covering him grew wet and started to drip and melt off his body. The ice covering him melted away, but he remained unmoving.

"Well... I guess that's that. It was worth a try," Pan Tian said, "not that I'm that upset... he's from the Chen family."

"I thought you said he was the nicest of them?" Jie said.

"Well... yeah... but he's still part of the Chen family," Pan Tian said.

The boy suddenly thrust out his finger. "--ought you could trick her? Are you an idiot? Wait... what the... where am I?" he asked.

Pan Tian looked disappointed. "You got yourself frozen and we saved you. Even though you're from the Chen family, Chen Jingren," she said.

Chen Jingren stood up and dusted himself off. "Wait... I know you... you're Pan Tian... but you're... oh no... how long was I frozen?" he asked. He shivered and his teeth chattered as he spoke.

"Your group went missing two years ago," Pan Tian said.

"Oh... well... things could be worse, I guess," Chen Jingren said. He gave a respectful bow to them, even though he was shivering badly. "Thank you. All of you," he said.

"Are you sure he's from the Chen family? Maybe he was adopted?" Jie suggested.

The boy looked at her with a confused expression. "I don't know you," he said.

"I'm Liu Jie," Jie said.

"Nice to meet you," Chen Jingren said, "thank you again for freeing me. Could you please help my friends?"

"Why couldn't you be like the rest of your family so I could leave you for dead," Pan Tian muttered as she placed a fireblood pill into the mouths of the other three.

"Come now, I know our families have had disagreements in the past, but that doesn't mean we have to be enemies," Chen Jingren said.

"Your family tried to kill us," Pan Tian said.

"It seems that... things have worsened while I've been gone. I'm sorry. I obviously had no part in any of that," Chen Jingren said.

"Whatever. Just stop talking, okay?" Pan Tian snapped.

Chen Jingren looked equally confused and offended, but he nodded and kept his lips sealed as he watched his friends thaw with nervousness in his eyes.

The two other boys were the first to defrost and they both came to life almost at the same time. Each of them yelling about how anyone could be so selfish and stupid before realizing they were somewhere completely different. Chen Jingren took them aside and explained what he knew to them and they embraced one another. Jie shared a look with Pan Tian and Ithilix at how different Chen Jingren was from everyone else she'd ever met from the Chen family.

"We should leave her for dead," said one of the boys as he glared at the girl in their group.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Or kill her ourselves," said the other.

"Nobody is killing anyone," Chen Jingren said, "but we won't take her with us."

The girl thawed and dusted flakes of ice off herself. She looked at everyone around her and smiled innocently. "See? It wasn't a big deal anyway," she said.

"You got us frozen for two years," said one of the boys, "we could've been stuck like that forever if they hadn't helped us." He then took a step forward as qi gathered into a sword in his hand, only for Chen Jingren to hold his shoulder.

"We're still students. If you kill her, you'll be expelled. She's cost us two years, but it could've been worse. Let's just go. We have catching up to do," he said. Though his teeth were still chattering.

"Yeah," said the girl, "don't even worry about it. Let's go."

"You're not coming with us," Chen Jingren said. He bowed to Jie and her friends once more, as did his friends, and then walked away... still shivering.

The girl looked angry with them as though she'd somehow been the one that'd been betrayed and looked at Jie and her friends expectantly.

"You're not coming with us either," Pan Tian said, "nobody wants a greedy idiot like you betraying everyone over some little bauble."

"It wasn't some bauble!" said the girl, "it's a priceless treasure. And, I bet we would've been frozen even if I'd handed it over."

"Nobody else was that year," Pan Tian said, "now get lost."

"Don't act like any of you are better than me. Come, let me join your girls team," said the girl.

"We're not an all girls team. We have Xue," Pan Tian said bitterly, "and what part of we don't want you in our group don't you get? Be grateful we saved you and get the hell out of our sight. You were in a group with someone from the Chen family and managed to be the worst person in it. That's just... bad."

The girl snorted and looked at the others. "So you just let her talk for you, is that it?" she asked.

"This one thinks she is right. Someone like you is too selfish and dangerous to any group," said Ithilix.

"You're also a massive bitch," Jie said.

The woman gasped like she'd been slapped and stomped her foot like she was about to have a tantrum.

Xue gave an exaggerated yawn and stretched.

"You'll regret this. I'm part of the Irontree family and we--" the girl began.

"The Irontree family was wiped out six months ago," Pan Tian said.

The girl's eyes widened and her mouth moved up and down but no sound came out of it.

"The Chen family head hired a seer who said it was your fault his son didn't return and they killed your entire family. I thought it was just another one of their lies, but it turns out he was telling the truth for once," Pan Tian said.

"My family is... dead?" said the girl.

"Yup, and it's your fault," Pan Tian said.

"But... I..." said the girl.

"We have things to do... bye. Try not to die or betray anyone else. Maybe all this will teach you a lesson," Pan Tian said.

With that, she led Jie and the others away as they fell back into their formation, leaving the girl standing in the clearing with a look of blank horror on her face.

"Did the Chen family really kill her whole family over that?" Jie asked.

"Oh, no I don't think it was because of that. If a seer had found out what happened, the Chen family could've got someone to come here and save him. The Irontree family had resources that the Chen family had been after for ages. I'm pretty sure the Chen family head lied. But, if she hadn't stabbed her group in the back, it might not have happened. It doesn't really matter if it was her fault or not though. She needed her eyes opened," Pan Tian said.

"I'm kind of surprised you were so angry with her... you hate the Chen family so much you didn't even want to save him," Jie said.

"I do... but Chen Jingren is... ugh... I hate to say it, but he's a really sweet guy. He couldn't be more different from everyone else in his family. He didn't deserve to be stuck like that and the girl was an idiot anyway. And a backstabber. I hate people like that," Pan Tian said.

"I hope you don't hate me... I... it was hard for me to hand over my treasure," Jie said.

"You mean the treasure that made you bleed from the eyeballs when you tried to give it up, wipes people's memories, and terrified that woman so much she took a blood oath even though she was stronger than you? That you still tried to hand over, so we could all get out of there alive?" Pan Tian asked, "Was that the treasure you meant?"

"Well... yeah..." Jie said, "I still can't believe how hard it was to hand over..."

"Sometimes I don't know whether to hug you or strangle you," Pan Tian said, "This is one of those times. It was hard enough handing over my weapons. I don't know how many people could hand over a treasure with mental power like that... that it made you bleed from your eyes... I can't imagine how difficult that was. Though... it's a little creepy not to remember... you know if you're secretly a hidden expert and you killed her yourself, you could tell me."

"I'm not a hidden expert," Jie said.