s...o...b..ll tried reaching for Li Meirong"s face, but she took a step back to avoid his touch. Her eyes darted from side to side as she thought aloud. "What should I do now? It takes a week to brew the medicine. Maybe a mask..."
"Master." Bai Qingyue called out to her, but received no reaction. "Master!" He raised the tone of his voice, calling her attention to himself.
When she tilted her face to stare back at him, she was met with an infuriated glare. s...o...b..ll immediately stood up on his hind legs and grasped each side of her cheeks with his small paws, placing them directly onto the scarred parts of her skin.
"Do you remember what I told you before?" he asked, his golden eyes fixed on hers.
Li Meirong blinked in confusion and shook her head slowly. Her brows drew into a subtle frown as she felt her cheeks gently getting squeezed by his soft paw pads.
Strangely, it felt as if s...o...b..ll"s sharp gaze burned into hers, as if he could read her like an open book.
"I said that with or without the scars, you will always be beautiful to me." As s...o...b..ll spoke, his harsh tone softened.
For a moment, Bai Qingyue noticed Li Meirong"s almond eyes fill up with a soft light, warming his heart. ‘My words are finally getting through." he thought, pleased with himself.
But his happiness was a short-lived moment. He could tell that she had made a different a.s.sumption directly after by s.h.i.+fting her gaze downwards.
"It"s different with humans," muttered Li Meirong at length, shrugging her shoulders in resignation. She raised her hand and held it over his paw. "Thank you for trying to make me feel better, but seeing a disfigurement and knowing that it"s there are two different matters. You wouldn"t understand because you"re a fox spirit, but humans, both men and women alike, look down upon such imperfections. I just became powerful enough to keep trouble away from us. This will bring me a lot of unwanted attention, and worse yet…"
Following several moments of silence, after Li Meirong"s voice trailed off in a defeated whisper, Bai Qingyue repeated her last few words, urging her to finish her speech. "Worse yet?"
"Senior Zhu just returned, and now I look like this. What would he think of me? Maybe he"s really better off with that other guy," said Li Meirong, letting out a dry laugh. "I don"t even know why I still care."
Bai Qingyue felt the blood drain from his face for the second time that day.
A muscle twitched involuntarily at the corner of his eye as he made a low sound at the back of his throat, containing the storm of rage that instantly consumed him.
‘This is not about me." he silently told himself again and again. ‘This is about my wife and her insecurities."
Despite what Bai Qingyue told himself, he must have unconsciously squeezed harder on her cheeks, because he heard her make a small sound and felt her tap on his paw in reprimand.
"My little s...o...b..ll grew stronger. You have to be careful when you hold someone"s face, alright?" said Li Meirong. She placed his front legs back on the mattress and stepped back. Keeping her face away from view, she was trying to keep the scars away, hidden so no one could see them.
Li Meirong turned around, giving a despondent sigh as she began to collect the tossed items and neatly placed them back on the shelves and inside the cabinets where they belonged.
"Zhu Qingyue is not a man." she heard s...o...b..ll whisper quietly from behind.
A bundle of dried jasmine slipped from Li Meirong"s hands as she whirled in place to face s...o...b..ll again. This time, the Fox Spirit avoided her gaze. His little snout dropped down as his eyes were fixated on his paws, as if it was very difficult for him to say what he was about to say.
"What do you mean by that?" Li Meirong asked her suddenly shy Fox Spirit.
She heard s...o...b..ll mumble, but his voice was too low for her to understand. She went to him and sat on the bed at his side, stroking his back.
"s...o...b..ll, I couldn"t hear you," Li Meirong cooed, gently encouraging s...o...b..ll to speak to her.