While Ru was mulling over his words, Xiao Zhi Ren's gaze was yet again stuck on her face. He seemed to be trying to search for something. As if he was looking for the soul of the person before him but in those bright green eyes laid a grandiose of wickedness but... Somewhere behind that devilry, there was the sovereignty of tenebrosity.
"We can't be sworn brothers," Ru decided on it. There was no point in dawdling over this. The end result was that she would never want to bring another person in her life to share the dark life she leads. It'd be unfair to him.
"You said you'll do whatever I'll ask for," Xiao Zhi Ren reminded her calmly. "Since you said we can't be friends, I asked to be sworn brothers." He really didn't want to give her a way out of this.
"The ones who take the oath of sworn brotherhood are also close friends." Taking a deep breath, she added, "Sworn brotherhood might lie on the border of friendship and kinship but originally it's purpose is still the intimacy among close friends."
"But since you don't want to be a friend, I want to skip one step of becoming close friends and directly move on to a mock kinship. It'll be more intimate and longer lasting. What's the harm?" What he said was not wrong. There was apparently nothing wrong with his suggestion at all.
Except for the fact that Ru never liked making relationships on impulse.
Ru straightened up and asked a single question, "Do you have the courage to entrust your life to me?"
Xiao Zhi Ren was distracted as he was about to answer her question when her figure flashed before his eyes and in the second, a gleaming silver needle was not only pointing at Xiao Zhi Ren's throat but it had also slightly been pierced through his fair skin. "Before you say anything, remember clearly... This young master might not be able to save people with this seemingly small needle but this young master surely knows how to use it as a weapon. A single push and the blood flow to your brain will stop immediately. Do you think I won't kill you?"
There wasn't a slight change in his expressions. Her threat didn't seem to have any effect on him. He was unfazed and unafraid. There was still a smile playing on his lips. Before Ru could move, Xiao Zhi Ren moved his own neck letting the needle pierce right through his skin. Ru was startled and her eyes went wide by this action. As she was stuck frozen, his body fell straight to the ground, lifelessly.
"Oh, shoot!" She hurriedly crouched down to pull out the needle stuck in his acupuncture point. Although she had lied about the part that he would die, she still chose the acupuncture point which could leave him paralyzed.
After pulling out the needle, she took some more needles out of her sleeves and pierced through his skin. Within fifteen minutes, Xiao Zhi Ren had woken up with new vigor as if someone had pumped him with exuberance.
She was holding her head in both hands when she heard him breathing in a steady manner. Without thinking, she delivered an open-handed strike straight to the back of his head saying, "Have you lost your mind? For a mere wish, you actually put your life at stake? Who does that?"
She was enraged. She hated those people who took life as a joke. No one knew what life in itself meant to her. She had seen death up close. And she actually had no desire to see it again.
She was so livid that before he could open his mouth to say something, Ru lifted her fist and landed a blow straight to his guts. "Hei! Go easy on me!" Xiao Zhi Ren scowled while he really felt wrenching pain in his guts. "I wasn't putting my life on stake. I knew you won't kill me. As you said it, I just entrusted my life to you!"
That statement quietened her up. Ru could only stare at him disbelievingly. She had no words for a lunatic like him. She didn't even trust her own shadow anymore, how could he so easily entrust her with his life?
Was he that foolish?
Or perhaps, he really had seen through her?
Ru perched down on the ground from her squatting position and sat down cross-legged in a very leisurely manner. She suddenly felt threatened by his presence.
As they say, no matter how deep a shadow is, in the end, it's still scared of the light.
"You don't even know me. Do you think whatever you see is the real me?" Ru asked with a bit of despair in her eyes while her face still stayed calm.
"I know you better than you think I do... If I have to expound you, I'd say, you are a very scared person." Ru stared at him with a skeptical look. "You're scared because you think that more people called you a monster, you'll soon turn into one." Her eyes widened but he didn't stop. "You're scared that you're too different from the rest that makes you the odd one out." Xiao Zhi Ren saw her lowering her head to look at her own empty hands as if looking for something.
"You're scared of the fact that you know too much and yet you feel that it's still not enough. It feels like you know nothing in the end." Ru snorted at this statement.
"You're scared that the time in your hand is slipping away like sand."
"You're scared of every single moment of your life because you're not sure whether the next breath will be yours or not. And most of all, you have the fear of your own self. You have made yourself loathe your own very self." He enunciated each word as if he was reading an open book before his eyes.
And that fact alone was enough to scare her even more. "And right at this moment, you are scared to let me be a part of your life. Because you think your presence can only bring me doom."
Xiao Zhi Ren placed one hand on her shoulder as he added, "Rong, you need to learn that to live again, one has to die once. Just because one of your experiences in life wasn't good that doesn't mean the rest will also follow suit. Even our heartbeat is not straight, how can life be fun without some hurdles?"
Ru took a deep breath and pondered his words before smiling to herself as if mocking her own self. She actually learned to live life after she faced death. It reminded her of what she had said a long time ago,
*Flashback*
"Don't give up on life just yet," she heard that mellow and charismatic voice right beside her.
"I'm not giving up on life. I finally learned what life is, why would I give up on it just yet?" She answered in a soft voice.
"You seem very positive for someone who just woke up from a long term state of unconsciousness," she had a feeling that he was smiling as he spoke.
"Only despair can teach us optimism..."
*End of Flashback*
Inhaling a sharp breath, Ru shot up from the ground and stood up to brush away the dust on her clothes. She took the bottle of water from her bicycle and twisted the cap.
Scratching her thumb against the bark of the tree, she slashed a cut on her thumb and dripped the blood in the water. Then she pushed the bottle towards him. "If I'm making an oath, I'll only make a blood oath. It's extreme. Are you up for it?"
Without a word, Xiao Zhi Ren took the bottle and made a gash through his thumb to drip his blood in as well.
After that, she placed the bottle on the ground and got on her knees and gave him a look before saying, "Are you waiting for heavenly decree now?"
A bit startled, Xiao Zhi Ren got down on his knees as well right beside her.
"Repeat after me..." Ru said and added, "Let heaven and earth be my witness. I, Xie Rong, am willing to vow here to take Xiao Zhi Ren as my sworn brother."
As she finished, Xiao Zhi Ren also followed, "I, Xiao Zhi Ren, take Xie Rong as my sworn brother."
"Sharing joys and sorrows, prosperity and misfortune. If I violate this oath, heaven, and earth will punish me." Both of them finished simultaneously and took the bottle of water to drink the water which had their blood drops in it.
This was a small ritual and Ru only chose heaven as a witness, she didn't want a third person to get involved.
"Hey, little brother! Welcome to the family." Xiao Zhi Ren playfully punched her chest making her purse her lips trying hard to endure.
'Can't you be nice? That's a sensitive spot.' Of course, she couldn't voice that out. Instead, she reciprocated his actions and punched his chest as well saying, "You better not call me little brother."
Xiao Zhi Ren was amused by her scowl as he ruffled her fluffy hair. He put his arm around her shoulder and said, "Let's go now."
As both of them were making their way back towards the inner Jingshen city, Xiao Zhi Ren suddenly recalled something and said, "You called me foolish earlier."
"Didn't I explained myself as well? You could think big or wisely but in the end, you chose foolishly."
"Actually, I did not only think big but I also thought very wisely." At Ru's inquisitive gaze, he added, "Having Chairman Xie Rong as my backer is surely a very wise decision and having Rong as my brother is me thinking about the big picture."
Ru knew he was trying to lighten up the mood but she still punched the side of his stomach saying, "Don't test me again."
At her warning, Xiao Zhi Ren could only laugh.
He didn't need a backer like her. He was already backed up by The FireBenders Tower. Why would he need a person like her to back him up? But he certainly was an amusing person in her life now. And she couldn't deny the fact that this new bond was indeed intriguing to herself.