As soon as they entered his private villa, Donghua sat on his divan and motioned for Feng Jiu to take a seat beside him. Even Feng Jiu, who knew next to nothing of the protocols to be followed when it comes specifically to Donghua Dijun, knew that seating on a divan with the most revered God was something that was just not done especially for a fairy maid like her. It would be better if she knelt before him to offer him her thanks for what he did for her. However, she swallowed what she was about to say and did what she knew he wanted when she saw the hard look in his eyes warning her to comply. As she sat down nervously, he turned her to face him as he examined her face gently, noting the red imprint on her cheeks and the small wound on her lips which was still slightly bleeding, His face remained expressionless, a slight twitch in the corner of his eyes the only thing marring the otherwise placid countenance. Feng Jiu tried to sit still and not fidget under his penetrating gaze and the touch of his hands on her face but she could feel her heart racing. She lowered her eyes not wanting to look at him directly, embarrassed by how disheveled she probably looked now, with her face injured and her gown dirty. When he withdrew his hand from her face, Feng Jiu looked up to see him reaching inside his sleeves to take out a handkerchief. When he moved to touch her face again, this time with the apparent intention of wiping the blood on her lips with his handkerchief, Feng Jiu could not help but jerk back, her face now even redder.

"Dijun, I can take care of it myself. I have my own handkerchief I can use, no need to use yours. I'll take care of it later." she said putting her hands on top of his to prevent him from using his own handkerchief. This is so embarrassing. Why is Dijun acting this way? Feng Jiu thought to herself recalling all the stories that she had heard about him, how he always avoided any kind of contact or conversation with the fairy maids in the Palace but he was being inordinately attentive to her now for some reason. As she worried herself over his actions, she became unmindful of her own as her thumb was now absentmindedly rubbing the back of his hands hands, tracing little circles on them. Although she did not notice what she was doing, he definitely was as he felt the warmth of her caress seeping through his skin. No one has touched his hands since he was a little child. He looked down at their almost joined hands and wondered how she would react if he lifted her hand up and gave it a kiss. However, he must have been silent for too long and she must have finally noticed what she was doing because the next thing he knew, she had snatched her hands away from him as if she had burned herself on a hot surface.

"I'm sorry for my improper action Dijun." Feng Jiu said wincing wondering how many times she can humiliate herself in front of him, her cheeks now the color of ripened tomatoes. She couldn't believe that she had been practically molesting his hand.  She wondered why he didn't immediately pull away from her.

"Is something wrong with my handkerchief? Is it dirty? Why can't you use it?" Donghua asked ignoring her apology and looking suitably puzzled but Feng Jiu could hear a slight trace of amusement in his voice. Was he teasing her?  Surely not.  Feng Jiu who had not yet recovered from her mortification at having touched his hands so inappropriately did not know what to think of this teasing God. Granted, she didn't know him that well or, really, not at all, however, this was not the Donghua Dijun that she had been expecting based on image of him in her mind honed from the many stories that have been told about him.   He was supposed to be cold, distant and apathetic but he wasn't being any of that right now and it was causing her to disassemble.

"Yes, I mean, no of course there's nothing wrong with your handkerchief. I'm sure it's very clean. I just don't want to get it dirty with my blood. I'm sure you don't want something stained with my blood. Even if I wash it for you, I would have to return it to you and ah see you again. Not that I don't want to see you again but what I mean is, I don't want to keep bothering you. " she said babbling, truly rattled now.  Donghua smiled inwardly at her fumbling shyness, adoring the way she looked as she spoke.

"You can bother me whenever you want or if you truly don't want to return it, you can take it with you and keep it as a souvenir, I won't mind at all." he said boldly, quite unlike himself for he has never, ever given out his personal possessions to anyone before.   However, he found himself oddly desirous of her having something of his.  

"That's not what I meant. I don't want to keep your handkerchief."  Feng Jiu muttered and then realized how rude she sounded.  "I  mean it would be improper for me to keep something that belongs to Dijun." she continued immediately. There was no way she would be keeping that handkerchief.  It would only remind her of this very embarrassing moment in her life.

"Does it hurt?" he asked quietly as he touch her face again. Feng Jiu shook her head mutely arrested by his gentleness.  He started to wipe her lips using his handkerchief so tenderly that she could only stare at him while he took care of her, any further protests to his actions dying on her lips. After awhile, he dropped the handkerchief but his hand remained on her, his thumb tracing her lower lips now.  She could feel herself leaning closer to him and while she knew she should be moving away from him, she found herself pressing her face closer into his hand, looking deeply into his eyes.  He was staring at her now, his eyes on hers as his touch continued to graze her lips as if she was weaving some sort of magic around him and he couldn't help himself.  They stayed that way for a few seconds, both unable to look away.  They could have stayed like that for hours if not for a strangled sound that suddenly interrupted them. Feng Jiu jumped back but Donghua remained calm and collected, only letting his hand fall to his side.

Chonglin had just come in bringing a salve for Xiao Jiu's wound when he saw the couple staring at each other, Dijun's hand on Xiao Jiu's lips. He couldn't help but make a sound of surprise as he came upon the scene . He averted his eyes immediately afraid of what he was interrupting. As far as he knew, Dijun had never seen Xiao Jiu before today so he couldn't understand how she could be sitting so close to him on the his divan and why he would have his hands on her face and lips. Even with people Dijun had known for a long time, this was something that would never have happened. Dijun protected his personal space conscientiously and never allowed anyone near him.  Even he, who had been working for Dijun for a long time, had to be mindful of keeping a certain distance from the God at all times. Definitely, Dijun would never allow any fairy maid to be this near to him.

"Did you bring the salve?" Dijun asked calmly as he looked at Chonglin. Of course, he did not share in any of the awkwardness that Chonglin was feeling now, the latter thought to himself.  This was Donghua Dijun, after all.    Chonglin quickly put the tray with the salve on the divan beside Dijun while sneaking glances at Xiao Jiu trying to figure out what was happening. However, Xiao Jiu refused to look at him. In fact, she was avoiding looking at either him or Dijun as she staunchly looked down, her posture stiff as a board. Chonglin was about to offer to hand her the salve thinking that Dijun would be giving the medicine container to her when he saw Dijun open the container himself, rub a little of the salve into his hands and carefully put it on her cheek slowly massaging it into the bruise. Xiao Jiu was staring at his master now with an awe struck look on her face. Chonglin was now experiencing under wave of shock. This was completely unprecedented. Donghua Dijun would never do something like this. Dijun would do all to save someone's life but he would never, ever tend to someone's wound with his own hands like this. At least in the past Chonglin knew he wouldn't. Today seem to be an exception to every unspoken rule Dijun had when it comes to how he dealt with people around him. And was that Dijun's handkerchief on his lap stained with blood? Did he let her use his handkerchief to wipe the blood from her face? What was happening? He had so many questions that he knew he would never dare to ask.

Chonglin could feel all the awkwardness of his presence in this room now as he observed the fairly intimate scene in front of him but he didn't know how to gracefully exit as he had not been formally dismissed. "Chonglin, you can withdraw now. I have everything in hand." Dijun suddenly said wanting to retain the privacy that he had with Xiao Jiu a few moments ago. Chonglin quickly bowed to both of them as he hurriedly exited the room. It was only when he was outside that he breathed an audible sigh of relief relieved to be excused from being a third party intruder. Because that was exactly what he felt when he was inside, like he was interrupting a private, intimate moment between a couple.

"Why did you get involved with the issue between Zhi He and the other fairy maid?" Donghua asked after Chonglin left the room.  He had finally satisfied himself that she was all right and was now wiping his hands on the handkerchief he had just use on her face.  He wondered what it was about her that made him do things he normally wouldn't. Touching her so familiarly had affected him more than he thought it would. He had felt a burning need to touch her, thus, even as he had finish wiping off the blood, his hands had remained on her face, marveling at the softness of her skin.   To distract himself, he finally ask her the question that he had been curious about as soon as he espied her involving herself into the incident with Zhi He and the other maid. Her actions unlike any he has ever witnessed from a fairy maid. He wondered what had made her do something like that knowing that she might be punished, if not for her culpability in the incident, but for her insolence in interfering, if she was found to be not culpable. He almost smiled recalling the ridiculous story she had made up as to how she, who was standing at least a meter away, could have been responsible for the tea set breaking but he schooled his features into its normal placidness. "Are you not afraid that you would be the one punished?"

"That's what I was hoping would happen. I wanted to take the punishment for her." she said nonchalantly surprising him. He thought that she probably merely wanted to insert herself into the situation to diffuse it but he hadn't expect her to actually expect to be punished in place of the other fairy maid. At his inquiring look, Feng Jiu continued, "Mei Chan is very sickly and she's weak. I know the Princess would never have let her get away with breaking the tea set without the equivalent punishment as she so likes to bully Mei Chan. She wouldn't have been able to handle the 20 lashes. The last time that she was punished, the Princess had her whipped 10 times and she almost died from the wounds, she was unconscious for 2 weeks. I was the one who took care of her because she had no one. Truthfully, I was so scared that time that she would die as it took a while for the bleeding to stop. Now, she looks up to me as a sister. As an elder sister, how can I let something like that ever happen again if I can do something about it. Better the Princess have me whipped instead as I'm stronger than Mei Chan. The only reason I objected was that I knew the 100 lashes she ordered was more than the rules would allow and banishment was not one of the punishments."

"I don't know if you're very brave or very foolish. Probably a little of both." he said sighing. Looking at her stature, she was no bigger than the fairy maid she was helping. "Twenty lashes would be agonizingly painful even if you think you're strong. It would leave you with scars that would never fully heal." he murmured softly wondering how someone could be so reckless with their own self just to help someone else.  However, he could feel his estimation of her grow.  She was so unlike the other young ladies in the Realm that seems to him were mostly preoccupied with keeping themselves beautiful and rarely thought of anyone else.

She merely shrugged at his statement. "I'm not a martyr. I really don't want to get whipped either if I can help it as I know it's going to hurt but I don't think Mei Chan will be able to survive a whipping like that. I know it would hurt me, yes, but it would not kill me. I knew I would survive it. Anyway, my family has always taught me that we should always protect those weaker than us. If I can do something to help someone, I should do it because if not, how can I call myself an honorable person? I'm not some powerful being that can be the world's hero but if there's something I can do, even to help just one person, I should do it." Feng Jiu wanted to add that he actually played a larger part in this conviction of hers than even her family did but she knew it wasn't the right time.  She had been so young when she had seen him for the first time but she had never quite forgotten his heroism in saving her from the mountain beast.  She remembered the way he had gotten hurt when he blocked the beast from attacking her in her fox form.  She had just been a spiritual fox, a stranger to him but he saved her, nonetheless, just like he saved so many people before and after her, all without asking for anything in return, just because he could.  She promised herself then and there that she would do all she could to be worthy of being saved by Donghua Dijun.  She wanted to thank him for saving her life but she was afraid that he might decide to send her on her way before she could find a way to repay him.  So she resolve to say nothing yet about it.  In the meantime, she knew she had to thank him for something else.  She knew she had another debt of honor that she would need to repay.

"Dijun, I just realized that I haven't thank you for your assistance today. I know you don't really get involved in domestic issues in the Palace but you went out of your way to help Mei Chan and me. I apologize for not thanking you sooner." She quickly got off the divan and knelt in front of him, bowing, her head touching the floor. Looking at her bowed head, Donghua felt a slight shift inside of him that he could not explain. It was rare for someone as young as her to have such a deep understanding of what it takes to be an honorable person. Many people who were thousands of years older than her had not quite grasp what it was to be a good person. When she was explaining to him why she had saved the fairy maid, he could hear the sincerity in her voice. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that she had taken up the cudgel for someone, another servant at that, risk herself, not because she could gain anything, but because she was an inherently kind person who felt that it was her responsibility to do good, to help those she could.  If he knew nothing else, he knew that he wanted to get to know her more and that he wanted her in his life.

"Well, I didn't do it for free. How are you going to repay me?" he finally said.  She looked up in surprise not expecting this response from him.  She could see the slight twitch of his lips though so she knew that he was teasing her.  

"Umm, then, what can I do for you Dijun?" she asked immediately feeling lighthearted now, any tension that may have existed just melting away.

"Hmm, I haven't really thought of it yet.  I'll collect when I think of something. Don't think I'll forget."  he said.  Xiao Jiu stared at his smiling face, it made him look even younger if that was possible.  She liked it though, liked it as much as she did all of his other expressions.    

"You do that.  I won't forget either.  You can come collect at any time you want." she beamed at him not realizing that she was giving him a special smile that was only meant for him,  a smile full of admiration and of love.