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"Xiya, can you make hair dye?"

Xiya nodded, then remembered Red Beard couldn't see her. "I can," she said hoarsely. "I have everything I need. It won't take long."

"Sorry for the trouble. White hair isn't such a big deal, especially when it's only silver. And who's to say which is worse, white or black?"

"Right..."

Thoroughly confused, Ye Chuqi looked between the two of them. "Care to explain?" Weren't they going to tell the person this was about?

"Xiya, you prepare the dye. I'll explain."

"All right."

Ye Chuqi had already found a stool and sat down, waiting patiently for Red Beard to fill her in. She had only just arrived in this world. There were customs she didn't know and plenty of taboos she had no idea about.

Red Beard reached out, found only empty air, then found himself a stool too. He moved so smoothly that it was hard to believe he couldn't see.

"It's not complicated. The Kabu Continent and the Raila Continent are bitter enemies. White hair is a hallmark of the Kabu Continent's royal family. If someone spots yours and you have no proof of identity, it could be troublesome."

Great. I don't have any proof of identity.

From the sound of it, they were from the Raila Continent. Was that why white hair made them so nervous? Wasn't that a bit much? Surely people outside the Kabu Continent's royal family were allowed to have white hair.

"And black eyes are a trait unique to the Jun Family and the Bai Family, two reclusive families of the Raila Continent."

"The Jun Family?" Was it the Jun she was thinking of?

Hearing her stammer, Red Beard smiled. "Jun Ruofeng's family, yes."

Ye Chuqi sucked in a breath. A reclusive family, with a unique eye color. That narrowed things down considerably.

"Jun Ruofeng's eyes aren't black."

They looked black at first glance, but up close, his dark gray pupils weren't quite the same as true black.

"You looked pretty closely?"

Ye Chuqi rolled her eyes. Was that the point?

"The purer a person's Jun bloodline, the darker their eyes."

I get it. Red Beard's hinting that Jun Ruofeng's bloodline isn't pure. Message received.

"I heard that." Jun Ruofeng pushed through the door just in time to catch Red Beard's words. A smile spread across his cool face, and the air seemed to crackle with shards of ice.

Ye Chuqi finally understood why everyone was afraid of Jun Ruofeng. It probably wasn't just because he controlled the Red Wind Mercenary Corps' finances. Who could stand it when he smiled like that?

Red Beard couldn't see him, of course. Even if he could, he probably wouldn't have been afraid.

"How did you get in?" Red Beard turned to "look" at Jun Ruofeng. If he remembered correctly, Xiya had activated the magic array when she came in.

Jun Ruofeng raised an eyebrow. "That was supposed to stop me?"

"This is Xiya's tent." And Xiya was a girl. Couldn't he at least knock?

"Aren't you in here too?" Jun Ruofeng stood at the tent entrance without taking another step inside. "What, I'm not allowed to come in? If I hadn't, how would I have heard you talking about me behind my back?"

Red Beard didn't know how much Jun Ruofeng had heard. The magic array on this Magic Tent might as well not exist as far as Jun Ruofeng was concerned. But judging by his tone and what he'd focused on, he probably hadn't heard much.

They didn't want Jun Ruofeng to know about Ye Chuqi's hair yet. The feud between the Jun Family and the Kabu Continent's royal family ran even deeper, and Jun Ruofeng's current situation had a great deal to do with it.

Red Beard didn't think Ye Chuqi had any connection to them, but when Jun Ruofeng lost control, he wasn't the type to listen to explanations.

"Xiya just wanted Yezi to take a look at my eyes."

Jun Ruofeng gave a short laugh and glanced at Ye Chuqi. The girl was curled up on a stool, wrapped so tightly in a blanket that she looked like a lifeless heap of cloth. He had nearly overlooked her.

Then a voice came from the heap. "Take them off." The poison in Red Beard's eyes had already been cleared out. Xiya had only applied more medicine because she wanted to watch his recovery for a few days.

Red Beard smiled. "All right. In a moment."

Xiya emerged with the freshly prepared dye and found the others in a strange standoff. Jun Ruofeng, in particular, looked as if everyone in the room owed him a fortune in gold coins. "What happened?" She pressed the dye into Ye Chuqi's hand. "What are you talking about?"

"Ruofeng was curious. Yezi said the bandages on my face can come off."

"Then let's take them off," Xiya said readily. She had dragged Red Beard in here mainly because she was afraid Jun Ruofeng would notice something unusual about Ye Chuqi. Now that the dye was in Ye Chuqi's hands, she relaxed at once. "Yezi, drink the medicine. I'll take off the captain's bandages."

Jun Ruofeng watched the three of them coldly. They were clearly hiding something from him and trying to bluff their way through it right in front of him. But seeing how carefully Xiya removed Red Beard's bandages, he chose to keep quiet.

The light inside the tent was dim. Xiya was worried that anything brighter might hurt Red Beard's eyes.

Once the bandages were off, Red Beard saw the girl curled up on the stool. She was just as he had pictured her: delicate and beautiful, with soft black hair falling to her shoulders like smooth satin touched by a golden glow.

She was even smaller than he had imagined.

Ye Chuqi had already drunk the dye. Xiya had clearly put thought into it; the potion tasted sweet and fruity. Only after she saw it take effect did Ye Chuqi sneak out from under the blanket, straight into Red Beard's gaze.

What eyes he had.

Ye Chuqi had known from the portrait Jun Ruofeng held that Red Beard had beautiful eyes, utterly at odds with his rugged, unshaven face. But seeing them in person was something else. His ice-blue eyes seemed to hold a vast, still ocean at its most beautiful.

Rankings

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Stories with pocket dimensions

Time-travel and rebirth romance

Dahei Loves Eating Fish