After leaving the Ji Family Mansion, Ru went straight to the house in the mountains. And the first thing she did was...
"Ahh! Master, why are you pulling my ear?"
Oh, yes! She was pulling Jack's ear while smacking his butt with the bamboo stick in her hand. Her hand had been itching to do that since the time he screamed that 'mission accomplished' in her ear. The poor guy was screaming for mercy now but who would listen? Certainly, she won't!
"Why am I doing this? What exactly does 'mission accomplished' means? Did this lord give you such bad training?" Ru rebuked him while glaring at him.
Jack lowered his head as he trying hard to fight the urge to rub his poor rear that had been hit badly. "Master, I was trying to act sagaciously." He bit down his grief and voiced out.
"Don't bother doing so next time. Otherwise..." She left her words hanging which made Jack gulp visibly at the million possibilities. "Now, kkeojyeo![1]" As if receiving a second chance at life, Jack ran for his life.
On the sideline, Lilith was laughing silently to herself. The way Ru thrashed Jack was too amusing for her. Ru looked at her inquiringly and she replied, "You are really adorable."
"Me?" Ru pointed at her nose and Lilith nodded her head. "Woah! That's the second time someone called me adorable. I don't know what to say."
Ru felt a tap at her shoulder and looked at Lilith who asked, "Who was the first one to call you adorable?"
Ru pressed her lips together at the memory of being called 'adorable'.
*Flashback*
"Look that girl is wearing a black and white striped dress," Ru said with a huge grin on her face while her mouth was filled with spicy crayfish that she'd been munching on with zeal.
"And what's wrong with that?" He frowned as he questioned while peeling the crayfish for her and placing it in her plate one by one.
"Aiyoh! Jie duffer doesn't she look like that animal who seems like a donkey but wears a sweater?" Hearing Ru's words his frown deepened.
Suddenly at the realization, he said, "You mean a Zebra?"
"Duh!" Ru exclaimed in a dramatic manner.
He facepalmed himself and stifled his laughter before pinching her nose with his hands filled with sauce. "Aiyoh, my Ru'er! Why are you so adorable?"
Ru swatted his hand away, rubbed her nose clean and said, "My brother from another mother, I'm not adorable." She puffed up her cheeks like a kid. She could only act like that before him. He was the only one who knew her. The real her.
"You're right. Our Ru'er is not adorable." Ru smiled in satisfaction but it stiffened as he added, "She's just adorkable." He burst out laughing while Ru punched him in the guts.
*End of Flashback*
Ru had a ghostly smile on her face at the memory from a few years back. She suddenly saw Lilith waving her hand before her eyes as if saying, 'Earth to master'.
"Yeah, what?" Ru came back to being impassive.
"You didn't tell me? Who called you adorable?" Lilith asked again.
"He was my brother..."
"Really?" Lilith seemed surprised since she heard that Ru didn't like talking about her family at all.
"Yup! But from another mother." Ru finished her sentence and Lilith's mouth opened up in the shape of 'o'.
Ru didn't explain anything further. She left Lilith hanging but Lilith figured one thing for sure; the said person was very important to her master. Just the memory of him made her master smile so fascinatingly. There was no doubt that the said person was held in high regards.
Meanwhile, for the first time since she came back to Imperial, she felt like talking to her soul brother. Yes! Soul brother! That's what Zhu Jie was for her. Xiao Zhi Ren was her sworn brother but Zhu Jie... he had been her soul brother since she was five. Her only escape to the world outside her clan was him.
She called him soul brother since she couldn't think of anyone who knew her better than him. If there was one person outside of her clan who knew that she was a girl, it was Zhu Jie. And he was the only one who would treat her as a girl. He knew her thoughts, her schemes, her habits. Also, he was the only one who actually understood her nonsensical jokes.
He always called her Ru'er and only he was allowed to call her that. In fact, he could call her anything... Because if there was one person she couldn't stay mad at, it had to be that duffer soul brother of hers.
[1] 'kkeojyeo': Get Lost!