“I swear, if you don’t stop pestering me, I’m going to burn your eyebrows off,” Su Ling said dangerously.

“Ha! Such spirit! It seems you truly are ‘fine’, Su Ling,” Gan Guangli said serenely. He rested his chin on his hand, like a sage deeply in thought.

Su Ling Squinted at him, her eyes narrowed to slits. Sitting on the bed in the medicine hall, with the sheets kicked into a crumpled ball at the foot of the bed, her tails lashed violently behind her, and she strongly considered smacking him with a pillow again. Gods damn it all her arms itched so badly. Both limbs were still wrapped in heavy, stiff medicinal casts. She couldn’t even bend her elbows or wiggle her fingers.

“You like living dangerously, don’t you Gan Guangli,” she said dully.

“A hero must always be ready to brave deadly dangers to rescue the lost and suffering,” Gan Guangli said with a grin. He sat beside her bed on a reinforced camp chair he’d dragged in himself after the flimsy little visitors seat had buckled under his bulk. He’d been bullied out of full armor by the staff thankfully enough.

“I ain’t lost or suffering. Unless you count the fuckin itches,” Su Ling scowled.

“You’ve been alone and overthinking. So I disagree,” he replied.

She hunched her shoulders. “It’s been three days, people are busy. You’re busy. I ain’t some infant that needs coddling.”

“Indeed, you are far more adorable,” Gan Guangli said sagely.

Her pillow struck him across the face, and slid down his stoic features, and flopped onto the floor. Bastard didn’t even blink.

“If you truly can't speak to me of what troubles you, then tell me who I must fetch,” Gan Guangli said. Much more seriously than his little joke. “Because you need to speak to someone. That I can see.”

She glared at him from under her bangs, but couldn’t hold his gaze. Fuckin- Why did he have to make her feel all squirmy like this?

“There ain’t no call for dragging anyone else in, “ Su Ling said grudgingly, after a long moments silence. “I’m too selfish, alright.”

He didn’t reply right away, nor did she look at him. “Where the hell do I get off trying to act righteous, when I’m just stomping on looking for my own revenge, huh? I ain’t stupid, I knew I wasn’t the only one. I coulda done something before. I could have-”

She squeezed her eyes shut, recalling to clearly the vanishing weight of a crumbling ghost. “And that’s just the big thing. Hells, I know even our thing is making trouble for you.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

His boss had him making nice with a bunch of hoity-toity types that Ling Qi’s weird as hell charm would bounce off of. She knew they didn’t like her, especially that tutor of his.

There was a creak, the sound of straining wood and though she didn’t look up, she could hear the shift that came with him leaning back in his chair. “Your word choice does you ill, Su Ling.”

“That’s your takeaway?” she growled, finally raising her head. She looked up at him, seeing his expression fixed in a frown.

“Words and their choosing are important,” he replied.

“That’s weasel talk,” she said without heat. It was an old argument.

“Then I am glad this weasel entertains you so!” Gan Guangli said, grinning shamelessly.

That fuckin smile. Like a big friendly dog, till you really looked at his eyes. Saw it was a challenge. ‘Come have a go, wipe me away if you think you can.’ Su Ling scowled as she felt her heartbeat pick up. Dammit, why did she have to have it so bad.

“You’re shameless,” she grumbled.

“I feel shame only in failure. I do not count you among them,” Gan Guangli said serenely.

She hunched her shoulders. “You tryin to redirect me, after all this effort getting me to talk?”

“No, I merely refuse to stand for slander, even that which you speak yourself,” Gan Guangli replied.

She squeezed her eyes shut again. Why the hell had she gotten herself involved with him?

Because she’d been lonely, she knew. She’d let herself get soft, first with Suyin, and then caving to Ling Qi’s pestering. Even the twins, after. When the Ma’s had gotten hurt in the attack, it wasn’t just Lu Feng’s lurking goons that had pushed her into Gan Guangli’s circle.

The difference was she supposed. That Gan Guangli didn’t take her shit. She knew she was prickly, that she shoved reflexively at people who tried to get close. Other’s endured it. He called her on it.

She opened her eyes glancing up at him, tall and broad shouldered, built like a brick outhouse . She wasn’t Ling Qi or Suyin, caught up in their own head. She knew what she liked.

Course, that was part of the problem.

“I am selfish. Been swaggering around, thinking myself righteous, just cause I was gonna go kill that monster one day. Who cares what happens between now and then, huh?”

“There are too many evils in the world for one person to shoulder them all. You seek vengeance for yourself, but more than that, because you hate the idea of another suffering as you have. This I know.”

Su Ling straightened up, swinging her legs off the bed to face him. “You gonna tell me you know me better than I do?”

He leaned forward, looming over her by a good bit. “I know the thing which pollutes your thoughts. That makes you search for vice in every action. It is not true.”

She glared, he smiled.

“Su Ling. Your quest is righteous. You have merely discovered its true scope. It is daunting, but can you really say you will give up?”

She maintained her glare for long few moments. One of her tails snaked out grasping the pillow on the floor and tossing it back onto the bed.

“Help me up. I wanna take my walk.”