"Zhiquiang..." Euni whined. "When will we return to the inn? It's already evening" Euni slightly pulled Zhiquiang's sleeves.

"Why do you suddenly want to return to the inn?" Zhiquiang asked without looking at her, maintaining the famous 'Hanguang-Jun posture' of walking.

"I miss my ShingShing," Euni said pouting while moving her hands to and fro freely.

"ShingShing?!" Zhiquiang looked at her. "Who is he?"

"Aigoo, Lan er gege, ShingShing is the name of my little snake whom I already adopted as my pet," Euni said crossing her arms across her chest. "And yes, its a girl. It's a female one like me. So don't address her as 'he.' She will feel bad."

Zhiquiang's jaws dropped listening to such an amazing theory of Euni's pet and its name. He shook his head and continued walking. Euni pouted and followed Zhiquiang like a kid following its mother.

"A'Ni..." A voice spoke out and instantly Euni reacted.

She turned around to find a man wearing complete black robes was standing in the side of the street with a black flute in his hands while a beautiful smile was plastered on his face.

"Wei gege!" Euni jumped and ran towards him. "I missed you so much." Euni smiled.

"A'Ni, why did you run away with Lan Zhiquiang?" Jiang Cheng said as he appeared from behind Wei Wuxian.

"A-ah...Wanyin gege..." Euni made a 'got caught' face and looked at Wei Wuxian scratching her head.

"Perhaps they are up to something." Wei Wuxian defended her.

"Senior Wei, Clan leader Jiang." Zhiquiang bowed to the seniors and they nodded their head.

"Zhang Euni, why did you run away with this poker-faced Zhiquiang!?" Jingyi complained as he stood beside Wei Wuxian. "Do you know how worried I was." Then he looked at the remaining juniors. "Not only me, Zizhen, Sizhui and Jin Ling were worried as well."

"A-ah...sorry...actually..."

"Why are you so worried about her!?" Zhiquiang cut Euni's words while his eyes were darted towards Jingyi.

"None of your business." Jingyi arched his brow.

"Don't fight like kids," Hanguang-Jun said in his usual cold voice.

"Hanguang-Jun, Zewu Jun." Euni blurted out and both Zhiquiang and Euni bowed to show respect to the Jade twins.

"Zhang Euni, you really made us worried." Zewu Jun said in a gentle voice.

"Zewu Jun, why are you saying that? It's a common thing." Wei Wuxian crossed his arms across his chest. "How can they do something else in front of us?" Wei Wuxian smiled mischievously.

"What do you mean by something else?" Zhiquiang asked in his stoic voice.

"Something which is inappropriate to do in front of seniors." Wei Wuxian shrugged his shoulders. "Right, A'Ni?"

"Wei Wuxian! What are you saying?" Jiang Cheng gently hit his brother?

"Jiang Cheng, I am telling that truth. You can ask her." Wei Wuxian said showing his finger towards Euni.

"Euni, did you do something with Zhiquiang?" Jiang Cheng asked.

"Yeah, reply to him our little A'Ni." Wei Wuxian smiled.

'Trying to tease me, huh? Well, let's see who will win.' Euni smirked. "Yeah. I did a lot of things with Zhiquiang." Euni smiled.

"What!?" Jingyi and Jin Ling blurted out " What did you do?"

"Well..." Euni blushed. "We did a lot of things yesterday. I feel shy. Ask Zhiquiang." Euni said poking Zhiquiang's hand with her index finger.

"Why are you saying like we did something new and unusual?!" Zhiquiang looked at her while his eyes clearly showed irritation.

"Really?" Euni looked at him. "Didn't we do anything yesterday?"

Suddenly Zhiquiang remembered the kiss which they shared the previous night. His ears suddenly felt warm and his brows got knitted together while he turned his head away from her. "I don't know. I cannot say."

"What did you exactly do?" Jiang Cheng asked arching his brow while a mischievous smirk was plastered on Wei Wuxian's face and the Jade twins were looking at Euni with confused eyes for answers.

"Uh!?" A sudden realization hit Jin Ling. "Did you guys..." Jin Ling pointed his index finger towards Zhiquiang and then at Euni. "...sleep together yesterday and did something which can only be done with lovers?!"

"What!?" Zhiquiang and Euni blurted out in confusion while Wei Wuxian burst into laughter.

"We didn't do anything like that!" Euni made a panicked face. "I just wore a girl's dress yesterday and roamed in the streets with Zhiquiang. That's it!" Euni said shrugging her shoulders. "Why are you so pervert minded Jin Ling!?"

"I knew it...haha..." Wei Wuxian continued laughing putting his hands on his stomach. "I knew that they won't do anything else." Wei Wuxian tried to control his laughter. "Zhiquiang is so unromantic that no girl will want him."

"You said the same to me." Lan Wangji looked at laughing Wei Wuxian.

"Yeah. Did I say wrong?" Wei Wuxian leaned towards Wangji. "If I weren't here as your husband, then you would  as single."

"Wei Ying!" Lan Wangji looked at his husband sharply.

"A-ah, Hanguang-Jun, it's okay." Euni tried to control the awkward situation. "And what Wei gege said is right. Zhiquiang is really not a romantic person. Even you are more romantic than him."

"See," Wangji said proudly.

"By the way, A'Ni, why are you wearing men's clothes?" Jiang Cheng arched his brow.

"Oh! Zhiquiang bought me this." Euni smiled holding her lower garments.

"She forced me to." Zhiquiang rolled his eyes.

"Hey! Zhiquiang! What's wrong with you?" Euni crossed her arms across her chest "why do you always wanna pick a fight with me?"

"Stop!" Wei Wuxian stood between Euni and Zhiquiang. "Let's go to a nearby inn and tell me why you called us here urgently."

Zhiquiang nodded and took all of them to the inn where they stayed the previous day. It was about 8 pm so they ordered meals for everyone. There Euni explained about the sudden emergence of snake at Lin City. But she didn't tell her seniors about the snake which she captured and adopted as a pet.

"So, tomorrow we have to leave for Lin City." Wei Wuxian said drinking his wine.

"I think we should retire to our beds early. How about all of us share single rooms?" Jiang Cheng said.

"Well...I want to share my room with Zhiquiang." Euni said hesitatingly. "Yesterday we shared the same room."

"Same bed as well?" Jingyi smirked.

"No!" Euni snapped. "There are two beds. So we slept on our own beds."

"Okay okay." Wei Wuxian smiled. "Retire to the rooms. Hanguang-Jun has already paid for the rooms. Two members will be sharing a room. Okay?"

All of them agreed and returned to their respective rooms. On arriving at her room, Euni ran to her pet and held it in her hands.

"Shing, how are you? Are you hungry?" Euni said touching the little snake's head with her finger to which the snake nodded its head. "What should I feed you?" Euni looked at Zhiquiang and suddenly she remembered that she bought fish cakes that morning. "Here." She smiled as she took out a fish cake and fed it to the snake. "ShingShing, I am going to set you free okay? Don't forget me. Mn?" Euni smiled as she freed the snake and put it at the window. "Go now."

The snake looked at Euni and then transformed into a normal green snake. Then it bowed its head to Euni and then went away.

"You are treating it like it is your sister," Zhiquiang said getting into his bed.

"It's like my kid." Euni smiled. "It's so cute. I hope she will come to me again."

"You are really something Zhang Euni." Zhiquiang shook his head. "Now sleep. We have to go to Lin City tomorrow."

Euni sticks her tongue out and then crawled into the bed, pulling the sheets over her to feel comfortable. Soon the sleep conquered both of them.

The next morning Zhiquiang woke up when he felt a cold breeze hit his body. He quickly sat up on his bed and looked at Euni's bed. His blood froze on finding the bed empty. Euni was not there! He searched for her in the entire room but there was no trace of her.

"Euni! Where did you go? Where are you now?!" Zhiquiang's brows got knitted together

_____________________

My lovelies,

You know, the cover of my book THE MISSION won 3rd position in The Romanz Awards 2020.

I really feel so so so happy that I wanted to share this news with you.

I hope you will spare your little time to check that book too. It's Xue Yang X Reader story where Xue Yang (I changed his name as Xue Hao Xuan) is a general Qin dynasty and the Reader is from present-day got transported to the timeline where Xue Yang is general. They together will discover a truth about themselves through adventures.

.