The Inconceivable Flame: A Fallen Angel's Disguise

’Youngest of our family?’ These words fell like lightning on Zhang Han who couldn’t believe his own ears. ’My mind must be playing tricks on me...’ He thought as he looked at Xiao Zhi Yuan’s face whose facial expressions weren’t much different from his own.

"Oi! I’m not even accepting you as my sister. Doesn’t that mean that I have no interest in your family as well? Stop spouting nonsense!" Xiao Zhi Yuan snapped at Ji Caihong making Zhang Han look at him with a new found admiration.

’Aiyah, either this classmate of mine is really amazing or perhaps, really dumb. These are the only possibilities since he dared to be peevish with the only princess of Ji Family.’ Zhang Han was wondering to himself while Ji Caihong felt downcast.

On the side, Ru appeared rather bored but in reality, she was really amused by them. But as she saw Ji Caihong losing her earlier cheery persona, she said, "Just because you don’t want to call her your sister, the fact that she and you both share the same blood won’t change."

Looking at her impassive manner, Xiao Zhi Yuan gaped at her and said, "Oniisan! Whose side are you on?"

Ru lifted her gaze and gave him a cheeky smile saying, "Little squirrel, I don’t take sides."

Before Xiao Zhi Yuan could retort, Zhang Han came between them and exclaimed, "Wait! Wait! Wait!" He shifted his gaze back to Ji Caihong and asked bemusedly, "Mind explaining to me first how he became my Uncle?"

"Oh, oh, oh... I also want to know how this teenager turned into my little squirrel’s nephew?" Ru also chimed in with excitement visible on her face.

Although Xiao Zhi Yuan didn’t show it on his face, he was also piqued to know about this. According to his understanding, his grandparents only had one son and that was his own father, Ji Yifeng. Then how did Zhang Han became their direct relative?

"It’s actually very simple... Since our grandparents always wanted a daughter, they adopted Zhang Han’s grandmother from the side branch of the family." Ji Caihong chose to answer Ru first. Then she turned to Zhang Han and said, "Little Han, what do you call Syao Ran Brother?"

"I call him, the second uncle." Zhang Han answered plainly.

"Exactly, you call Syao Ran Brother second uncle but you have never met your first uncle, have you?" Zhang Han shook his head in negation. "Well, I’m not sure when you’ll meet your first uncle but meet your third uncle," she even pointed at Xiao Zhi Yuan as she said that. "He’s my youngest brother."

First, Zhang Han gasped. Slowly, his expression turned from shock to realization and he cursed. "Oh boy! I’m so dead now!" Realizing that he had not just committed a crime but rather a sin by punching Xiao Zhi Yuan, Zhang Han really wanted to look for a hole to hide.

Trying to digest the news that his ’third uncle’ was his classmate, Zhang Han whirled his body to walk away but to his dismay, a tenacious foot came to trip him and losing his momentum, Zhang Han fell face flat on the ground. "Ouch!" He tilted his head to glare at Ru.

"Sorry, my foot really doesn’t listen to me these days." Obviously, she wasn’t apologetic at all. But she still bent her waist and offered her hand as a support to Zhang Han since the other two siblings were busy in chuckling at his misery. As she pulled him up, her face went close to his ear and she whispered, "This was just a reminder that my little squirrel might be magnanimous, but I certainly am not!"

There was a chilly aura that seemed to have penetrated through Zhang Han’s senses. Ru offered him a tissue and said, "Your nose is bleeding." Only at her reminder, Zhang Han felt a sudden pain in his face and took the tissue to wipe the blood.

"Oniisan! Why did you do it? I told you that I forgave him." Xiao Zhi Yuan wasn’t complaining but he didn’t want Ru to avenge him.

"I only did this to give a knock on his consciousness," Ru replied nonchalantly. "You young boys need to learn not to fight. Especially over some girl. This is why I always say that girls are bad news."

Ji Caihong: "..."

Xiao Zhi Yuan: "..."

Zhang Han: "..."

But these three weren’t the only ones who were dumbfounded. A fourth person who had just been walking up to their side was also left flabbergasted. Xiao Zhi Ren stared at Ru’s face from the side and didn’t make his presence known as he stood rooted with complicated thoughts running in his mind.

"As I had expected, Rong brother is surely peculiar." Ji Caihong remarked with a sigh.

"You’re weird!" Zhang Han grumbled as he stared at Ru’s strikingly handsome face. His first impression of Ru was that the young ’man’ had a rebellious aura with sinfully stunning looks. But now, he figured that Ru wasn’t as simple as he thought earlier.

"Thanks for the compliment," Ru didn’t really mind his words.

"Err... That was not a compliment." Xiao Zhi Yuan reminded her.

Ru patted his shoulder saying, "Little squirrel, either he mentions my good traits or bad, both are still my traits. Therefore, I’ll still take it as a compliment." Saying that she winked at him playfully and turned to leave. "Don’t forget to study..." She took a pause before adding mischievously, "Uncle squirrel!" That was her last reminder to Xiao Zhi Yuan as she left him at the steps of the library.

A certain little squirrel was left livid while Ji Caihong and Zhang Han stifled their laughter, trying hard not to irk him more than this.

Ru had yet to leave the library grounds when she felt dizzy all of a sudden. She shook her head but the world seemed to have blurred for her. Taking a deep breath, with her staggering feet, she went under the shade of a tree and perched down on the grass.

She was kneading her templed with her knuckles when she felt someone sitting beside her and she heard a familiar voice, "Here, have some water." A water bottle was shoved into her hand. Ru pulled out a pill from her pocket and took it with the water.

When her mind cleared up, she stared wide-eyed at Xiao Zhi Ren curiously observing her face. She felt a bit uncomfortable as she asked, "What are you looking at?"

Xiao Zhi Ren shook his head and said, "Nothing... Are you feeling okay?"

At this question, Ru didn’t answer instantly like she always did. Instead, she went into deep thought as she couldn’t decide why he asked this question. "I’m fine." She tried to answer with as much composure as she could muster up.

"That was such an honest lie." At his remark, Ru was left dumbstruck. "But I won’t push you for you the truth either. As your friend, I’ll be understanding." For Xiao Zhi Ren, they were past the stage of acquaintances long ago. Since the way they always bickered was a clear indication that they were now friends. But Ru didn’t share his sentiments at all.

"When did we become friends?" Her tone turned a bit hostile and yet Xiao Zhi Ren could feel the torment of her heart. "Let me make one thing clear, we can never be friends."

"Why not?" His voice was still calm and collected without any hint of him being irked.

Ru stood up to leave when she said, "Because I don’t believe in friendship. What’s the use of taking a bullet for the sake of friendship and then learning that the same person has forgotten all about you?" She couldn’t forget how she was forgotten by the one friend whom she always kept on the highest pedestal in her life.

’Ah, so there is actually something that can make you act like a normal person.’ Xiao Zhi Ren thought to himself since it might be the first time he had seen a few real emotions in Ru. "Rong, wait!" He called out from behind and ran after her. After catching up with her, he pushed a paper bag towards her. "I brought some pan-fried buns for you."

Ru was pleasantly surprised as she raised her brows in question, "For me? Are you sure?"

Xiao Zhi Ren rolled his eyes at her reaction and replied, "Yes, for you. Yuan told me that you’d meet him at the library. So, I thought to bring you something to eat and since you enjoy street food the most, I picked these up on my way."

Ru didn’t dwell into his thoughtful gesture but she couldn’t possibly say no to food. That was a sin in her eyes! She took the bag from his hand and plainly showed her gratitude. "Thank you for your thoughtfulness!"

Xiao Zhi Ren smiled but didn’t say anything as he watched her taking a bite of the bun. The grease flowed down from the sides of her face and she stuck out her tongue to lick it. Xiao Zhi Ren shook his head and asked, "Do you have some kind of animosity with girls?"

"Huh?" Ru frowned in confusion at his sudden question.

"Earlier, I heard you say that girls are bad news." He explained a bit.

"Oh... I have nothing against them in particular. I was just advising them not to let their judgment be clouded by a girl." Ru didn’t say anything further and he didn’t ask anything else as well.

Xiao Zhi Ren really didn’t understand why she was so against friendship but he didn’t want to probe unnecessarily as well.

"Seems like some girl broke your heart," Xiao Zhi Ren commented gingerly but it struck Ru at her deepest wounds.

"I don’t think a girl can ever break my heart..." ’Since I’m a girl myself, no matter how much I deny it’ Taking a deep breath, she added, "But that girl surely broke my friendship."

Her last sentence cleared up everything for Xiao Zhi Ren. ’A girl came between him and his friend. That’s why he’s so against the idea of friendship.’ As the realization dawned on him, he silently accompanied Ru as they both went towards the parking lot side-by-side.

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