The next morning, Water Master woke up refreshed; she had a deep sleep without dreams or nightmares bothering her and got ready for breakfast. Yìfēi and Xiàn Fèng were already in the side hall eating breakfast while talking to each other, Yìfēi noticed ShuîYuê's presence and waved at her.

"Good morning, YueYue, did you sleep well?" Wind Master asked with a bright smile; ShuîYuê always found Yìfēi's never-ending enthusiasm amusing; she nodded at her, slowly taking a seat beside Yìfēi.

"I asked His Highness for his permission, and he said we could go to the market and have some fun," she leaned closer and whispered, "The surveillance report is not ready yet, so we'll be here for at least a day, and I want to have fun," she added the last part with her beaming smile which rivalled sunlight.

ShuîYuê squinted her eyes before humming in response and took a bite of seasoned rice balls, a light breakfast to start the day since she didn't like eating in the morning but needed the energy.

"You'll come along right?" Fire Master asked expectantly; ShuîYuê gave it a moment of thought before nodding her head, "Look Yìfēi, ShuîYuê's under a spell; she's agreed to go with us," he teased playfully while ShuîYuê slapped his shoulder.

In the early afternoon, they set out to explore the small Shaulon Town and relax a little; once they got off the carriage, a variety of scents wafted through the breeze; peanuts and watermelon seeds were being roasted with salt, fried pumpkin flowers along with lotus petals.

Yìfēi brought fresh fruits in a small leaf bowl with pepper powder mixed with sugar; ShuîYuê dipped her pineapple slice with pepper and sugar powder before biting it, and another nearby shop was selling steaming meat and vegetable buns with various fillings.

Xiàn Fèng brought some as well as they roamed around the many shops, Yìfēi stopping now and then to buy something or the other, Xiàn Fèng purchased some belt hooks saying he didn't have any new ones, but those were all lies ShuîYuê knew he couldn't resist the temptation to buy them just like Yìfēi couldn't pass by a clothing store without spending her and Water Master's unwilling money.

They stopped again saying they were just going to look at some earrings and jewellery. ShuîYuê waited next to Yìfēi, tapping her foot impatiently when she saw rice crackers. She brought some while strolling around the market not too far away from Yìfēi and Xiàn Fèng.

She saw a small shop selling trinkets, one caught her eye it was a small goldfish-shaped pendant she immediately decided to buy that for Jīnyú along with some small souvenirs for Aunt Rong Pei, Souxin, Anxi, Yu Han, a small hairpin with velvet pink rose on it reminded her of Jade, she debated whether she should buy it or not.

'Will it be weird if I give this to Jade? I just want to thank her for her help; I'll just say it's a thank you for finding out about Ghost King purchasing the hair chain he gifted me,' she thought, buying it as well.

The trio was roaming while eating something and stealing each other's snacks when they saw the Crown Prince dressed in commoner clothes along with Earth Master; they approached him and were about to greet him when he shook his head, looking around, "Just speak to me normally," he whispered.

"How are you, my friend? Let's go have some lunch shall we?" Fire Master asked with a smile as GuānYû smiled along, they found a good place to eat and sat down for lunch, all four elementals hesitating to sit beside GuānYû.

"Sit down," the Crown Prince urged, pointing to the seat on his right side. Fire Master took it gladly. Earth Master sat on the single seat to his left while Yìfēi and ShuîYuê sat across from him, "What do you want to eat?" He asked looking at all of them one by one.

"I heard their buckwheat noodles with pepper oil and soy sauce are delicious, and they have different varieties of potatoes and arrowheads and white rice wine!" Yìfēi gushed beaming with happiness. The Crown Prince smiled at her enthusiasm nodding his head.

"Let's go with that, we'll order some side dishes too," the Crown Prince replied as Xiàn Fèng gave some orders to the waiter, "Order some fried pumpkin flowers for Earth Master; she likes them," GuānYû added to Xiàn Fèng, who called the waiter again. Shù Zìrán stared at him surprised by his gesture and how he remembered her likings.

Yìfēi was gossiping about an official's affair she had found out about some days ago while ShuîYuê listened to the tea with interest, one of the perks of being Wind Master's best friend is excess to information of all sorts about literally anyone in Heaven.

Yìfēi had friends all over, and ShuîYuê exploited that to her heart's desire, gaining information on anyone and then threatening them were fine hobbies of hers; their order was served and they began to salvage themselves from hunger.

"I heard a few locals saying that there will be a tribal group performing tonight in the city's main square; we should take a look," Xiàn Fèng implored, batting his thick eyelashes at ShuîYuê, who was probably the only one to refuse and deny.

"Sure, since we are here, we should relax while we can," GuānYû remarked joyfully. ShuîYuê sighed as Xiàn Fèng did a small dance with the chopsticks in his hand. Yìfēi giggled at him while Earth Master rolled her eyes.

After finishing the delicious food they set out to explore the other side of the market to pass some time before the tribal performance in the evening, "Let's go in that shop!" Wind Master chortled as she skipped inside followed by Fire Master.

Crown Prince glanced between Earth and Water Master who didn't look like they had any intentions of going inside anytime soon, "Come on!" He urged, Earth Master followed after him, ShuîYuê glared at the shop for ten minutes under the hot sun, it wasn't sunny in Shaulon Town but the day Water Master wanted to stand outside and glare at this shop the sun was against her, she gave up fifteen minutes later and entered the shop finding a corner and sticking to it like a cat.

Wind Master brought more clothes as usual and smiled at the shopkeeper, "Hello, you see that green-robed woman in the corner?" the shopkeeper nodded his head, "She'll pay for these," Yìfēi added before leaving and walking up to ShuîYuê, "Ten silver coins," she said before disappearing, ShuîYuê furrowed her eyebrows but said nothing in response.

The Crown Prince brought himself some robes; he had more than enough, but he wanted to have something from Shaulon Town's fashion style as well; Water Master was leaving the shop when a helper of the clothing shop ran up to her.

"That miss who brought five sets of clothes said you'll pay for her," ShuîYuê stared at the young girl and sighed before nodding her head and walking over to the counter to pay off debts she didn't owe, "Ten silver coins miss," she added as ShuîYuê took out her small money pouch and began to count ten coins from it.

GuānYû noticed Water Master paying and walked up to her, "Miss what's the total amount I need to pay?" He questioned politely, the girl checked the clothes he had placed on the counter.

"Twenty silver coins," she answered.

"Twenty is cheap for such fine embroidery," he remarked.

"No sir, that's what it costs," the girl replied as ShuîYuê placed the coins on the counter, "Thank you for visiting," the girl added with a smile at ShuîYuê who gave her a small nod before walking away.

"Miss, I'll pay for her; you can return these coins," the Crown Prince said, placing thirty silver coins on the counter; the girl furrowed her eyebrows before telling another helper to return the money to ShuîYuê, who was around the door.

"Miss! Wait!" The boy called, running up to ShuîYuê, who turned around, "That sir paid for you here," he added, placing the coins in ShuîYuê's hand before running away; ShuîYuê stared at her palm before she glanced at GuānYû with furrowed eyebrows and left.

Xiàn Fèng brought a bag of roasted chestnuts to munch on as he found a drama performance starting at the centre of the market. Yìfēi joined him followed by Crown Prince and Earth Master.

GuānYû was thirsty and looked around for something to drink; usually, his servant Song Yan was always next to him and knew when the Crown Prince was thirsty or hungry, but unfortunately, Song Yan wasn't there, and GuānYû didn't know where he could get a drink from, "Is something wrong?" Earth Master asked noticing GuānYû's unsettled expression.

"I am thirsty, Earth Master," he answered, standing up and looking around to spot a tea shop, "I'll be back, stay here," he added before Shù Zìrán could speak.

"Good afternoon, I'll take a pot of tea," GuānYû said to the servant in the shop before taking a seat to quench his thirst, while the tea was being prepared he looked around the old shop, some locals were sipping tea and chatting amongst them while some were here for a short break before they went back to watching the drama performance like GuānYû.

"Sir, here's your Tienchi flower tea with green plum blossom flowers dew; it's the most expensive tea in our shop, and we hope you enjoy it," the servant added gingerly, placing the pot of tea on the table.

"I ordered simple tea," GuānYû informed with a puzzled look on his face.

"A Miss ordered this for you," that man answered looking around the tea shop,
"She was sitting here some time ago and had a variety of our tea," he added.

"Thank you, how much?" GuānYû asked pouring himself the expensive tea.

"It's paid," the man answered before leaving; GuānYû shook his head, enjoying the sweet aftertaste of the tea; he left the shop to return to the drama performance, where he found Earth Master returning with a wine jar for him.

"Earth Master you didn't have to," he said with a smile.

"You were thirsty, Your Highness," Earth Master put forth, holding the wine jar; GuānYû removed its cork and sniffed it, frowning at the smell.

"This is a highly acidic white wine," the Crown Prince remarked with a frown.

"We had greasy food for lunch, so I thought you'd like something to wash off the taste," Earth Master explained, looking up at the Crown Prince with knitted eyebrows.

'I just had Tienchi flower tea. It tastes minty and somewhat bitter, but with the acacia honey and green plum blossom flowers dew, it had a sweet aftertaste; why would Earth Master want to ruin that with this sour wine? Unless she wasn't the one who ordered that tea for me, that's right! She wasn't there when I reached the tea shop and that man said that the lady had been in the shop for a while. Earth Master had been beside me since the play started; it could only be Water Master then,' he thought, coming to the conclusion that ShuîYuê ordering it for him.

'It has to be her, we had greasy food and the minty flavour is refreshing on sleepy afternoons, and since it's somewhat bitter she told them to add acacia honey to make it sweet and green plum blossom dew for the floral refreshing taste, only Water Master would know so much about tea,' he thought his eyes wandering around to look for her.

"Do you not like it?" Earth Master asked worried.

"I like it, thank you," he said before walking away and finding Water Master reading some poems which were carved on the wooden columns.

"It was at a wine party—
I lay in a drowse, knowing it not.
The blown flowers fell and filled my lap.
When I arose, still drunken,
The birds had all gone to their nests,
And there remained but few of my comrades.
I went along the river—alone in the moonlight." GuānYû recited with a sigh.

"The Solitude of Night by Li Bai," Water Master mused.

"You like his poems?" He asked curiously.

"Yes, they are quite nice," she answered with a small smile.

"His poems are romantic and nostalgic," GuānYû remarked turning to ShuîYuê, "Thank you for the Tienchi flower tea, I liked it with acacia honey," he added with a smile.

"Glad that you liked it," ShuîYuê replied staring at the poem on the column.

"So do you always do this Water Master?" GuānYû asked with a serious tone.

ShuîYuê looked up at him confounded, "Your Highness?"

"Do you always pay everyone back?" He questioned as ShuîYuê realised what he was speaking about.

"Your Highness didn't have to pay for those clothes," she said, turning away from him and reading some other poems on the columns; GuānYû rounded her up before leaning against the column she was reading from.

"It was just a way to thank you. You liked those clothes, so I paid for them as a thank you," GuānYû explained, watching her curiously.

"Those are Yìfēi's clothes," ShuîYuê informed, the embarrassment settled on GuānYû's cheeks he averted his gaze, "And these are my responsibilities; I don't need or want anything in return for those; I get paid for the work I do as Water Master, and that's enough," She added curtly.

"Why did you pay for Wind Master then? Her salary is the same as yours," Crown Prince pointed out.

"Yìfēi's my best friend; I always pay for her; that's my job," Water Master said indifferently.

"Don't you buy her things or pay for her as a thank you for her help?" He asked crossing his arms.

"I buy her things or pay for her because I want to," she answered simply.

"Then I want to pay for you because I want to as well," GuānYû blurted and realised what he said a second later, "I- I mean as a thank you for catching those men," he added with flushed cheeks.

"You don't need to, I get paid for that," ShuîYuê put forth firmly.

"You are not going to accept my gift huh?" He sighed loudly with slumped shoulders.

"Your Highness may help me in the future if I am in need or help me when I am in trouble, I'll accept that willingly, but I do not like to accept gifts from anyone," ShuîYuê responded sternly.

"Why?" He inquired with an upset face. Water Master turned away from him.

'This? This is my gift?' The person asked, throwing away the tamarind cakes, which fell to the floor.

'But you like tamarind cakes, I even brought tamarind jelly for you, here,' ShuîYuê said, holding up a box of tamarind jelly, which was sweet and sour, 'Aunt Rong Pei made them; they are delicious; try it," ShuîYuê implored.

'Are you stupid? Don't you get it I don't want these things! I want gold, rubies, that's what I want,' the person told their wishes.

ShuîYuê lowered her head, 'I am sorry, I don't have those now,' she looked up with a smile, 'But I'll work hard and buy them for you,' she added softly.

'Stay the fuck away from me! Don't come here again unless you bring me gold and rubies; I don't want to speak with you; go away!' The person snapped, slamming their door shut in ShuîYuê's face, who walked away with slumped shoulders.

"Water Master?" GuānYû called as ShuîYuê blinked her eyes.

"I don't like gifts," she mumbled before walking away and plopping beside Xiàn Fèng and stealing some of his roasted chestnuts.

The play ended, and with it, the sunset as well, Yìfēi was gushing with excitement for the tribal performance, and they had left to reach Shaulon Town's main square to watch it; it was quite crowded since the tribal group was said to be coming from one of the bordering towns of Hell.

They were harmless but not in appearance; their faces were painted with bright colours, and they wore a lot of garments made from feathers; their drum was made from the skull of an elephant, and they wore bones on their necks; in ShuîYuê's opinion, they looked more like occultists than performers.

Yìfēi wanted to see their performance, so Water Master was standing beside her unwillingly but still there like a good best friend; they began to dance with the loud rolling of the drums and conch shells.

It was a dance to show the fierceness of their tribe while hunting as they made wide gestures with spears, bows and arrows, as the hunt group killed the man pretending to be a tiger who had painted his body with stripes they began to celebrate and the woman threw red powder of hibiscus in the air to welcome them and celebrate their victory, the red powder coloured most of the audience who were locals and Crown Prince with elemental masters.

ShuîYuê wiped the side of her face and stared at the red powder on her fingers; her eyes widened as her head started to spin; Water Master blinked her eyes rapidly while holding her head, the loud sound from the drums rolling and the cheers of the crowd were making her head spin.

"Yìf-" Water Master stumbled backwards as the crowd pushed through to see the main part of the performance, "Yìfēi," Water Master called breathlessly as she fell to the ground; her eyes were blurry as she stared up at the night sky with black spots clouding her vision before she lost consciousness.

Fire soared high with red powder as the leader killed the beast who was scaring his tribe, loud drums rolled with cheers and squeals along with claps rang the air as the performance came to an end.

Xiàn Fèng clapped enthusiastically, bumping shoulders with a local and apologising before his eyes looked to Yìfēi's left; he looked around a little to find the Crown Prince and Earth Master standing a little further ahead, clapping as well.

"Yìfēi, Where's ShuîYuê?" Xiàn Fèng asked loudly since his voice was drowning with the cheers of the locals.

Wind Master furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding what Fire Master was saying; he pulled her closer, "WHERE'S SHUÎYUÊ?" He asked louder.

Yìfēi looked around, "She was with me just a minute ago," she said forgetting about the performance and focusing on finding her best friend.

Earth Master noticed Wind Master and Fire Master appearing to be troubled and frantically looking around themselves, "Your Highness," she called; GuānYû leaned his head down to hear what she was saying, "I think something happened; Wind and Fire Master look so worried," she added, flustered at the proximity between them.

The Crown Prince strained his neck to see Wind Master and Fire Master speaking to some people while shouting something, "Let's go over there," he told walking towards them, once they reached he immediately got hold of Fire Master who turned around hoping it was Water Master, "What's the matter?" The Crown Prince inquired.

Xiàn Fèng took a deep breath, " We can't find ShuîYuê, she was with us just a while ago, but we can't spot her now," he explained anxiously.

"Calm down, she's bound to be here somewhere, we'll find her," the Crown Prince assured leaving to look for Water Master in a different direction while Earth Master went in the opposite direction.

Earth Master stood still observing the people around her, "She's not one to wander away without informing first, nor is she irresponsible, so where exactly did Water Master disappear to?" Earth Master mused frowning her face in concentration.

"Water Master would either be at Lord Ping's house, which is an hour of carriage ride, or she's somewhere on the quieter side of this main square," she rambled to herself before looking around the farther area of the main square.

She saw a group of people crowding in a corner, and with knitted eyebrows, she walked in that direction to find some people crouching around Water Master, who was probably unconscious.

"Excuse me, please move," she said, pushing those people away to reach Water Master; she shook ShuîYuê's shoulders, trying to wake her up, "Move away, please," she added, picking Water Master up in her arms and looking for Crown Prince or her fellow elementals.

She huffed in annoyance as all the locals kept crowding around the tribal group to talk to them, leaving no space for walking freely definitely no place for walking while carrying someone, and as if the world was against her she couldn't spot Crown Prince at all, he's tall and easy to find but this crowd was something else.

She somehow manoeuvred from the group and got to an open space where she spotted Xiàn Fèng, He noticed her too and rushed towards her, "What happened to ShuîYuê?" He asked, looking at Water Master, who was unconscious.

"I don't know, I'll have to check," Earth Master muttered as Xiàn Fèng took her to a quieter place where she laid Water Master on the floor checking her pulse.

"What's wrong?" Xiàn Fèng asked, looking around, hoping to spot Yìfēi.

"It's weakness; it hasn't been long since she was injured, and constantly working while getting injured didn't do her body good," Earth Master answered, pressing the back of her hand to Water Master's forehead, " She's got a fever too."

"We'll have to take her back to Lord Ping's house, but where are Yìfēi and Crown Prince?" Xiàn Fèng wondered out loud.

"I'll take her back first; you find them and return later," Earth Master proposed, even though Xiàn Fèng wasn't on board with the idea of sending ShuîYuê with Earth Master. He nodded his head reluctantly; he watched as Earth Master took a carriage and left.

Lord Ping's house

Yinsu was sitting on the swing staring up at the night sky when she was Earth Master entering the house from the main gate and rushing inside with someone in her arms. She stood up and hurried towards them, "Earth Master?" She called softly, Shù Zìrán turned around with an unconscious Water Master in her arms,
"What happened to Water Master?"

"She'll be fine, don't worry, just call some maids over and, if possible, the Town's physician," Earth Master answered before leaving. Yinsu ran away to inform her father.

Shù Zìrán pushed open the Water Master's room door, laying her on the divan carefully. ShuîYuê's clothes were soiled with dust and mud from falling to the ground, so Earth Master took off some of her outer robes; she grabbed her wrist, checking her pulse again; her emerald eyes darted back and forth before she shifted Water Master to the bed her fingers pressing against something hard.

Earth Master furrowed her eyebrows lifting Water Master's inner robes to find a silver chain being the cause of the sudden hardness she felt, she shook her head just about to pull the top to its place when she saw a scar, it was lighter than Water Master's pale skin almost highlighting itself for attention, it was long and deep as Earth Master traced her finger over the scar.

'This isn't from a dagger or sword, those scars are wider, this scar is probably from a sharp object which is also extremely thin in width, and it seems to be long,' she thought and before she could investigate any further she heard rushing footsteps and immediately covered Water Master's waist with her top and pulled her blanket up to her waist.

"This is the Town's physician, Earth Master," Yinsu informed panting.

Shù Zìrán nodded her head; the physician checked ShuîYuê's pulse, telling them she fainted from weakness and the fever was from exhaustion; he prescribed some medicines before leaving; as soon as the physician left, Yìfēi arrived out of breath with her hair sticking in all directions.

"What happened to YueYue?" She questioned, reaching Water Master and grabbing hold of her hand, which was burning, " She has a fever!"

"Physician said it's from exhaustion and she fainted from weakness, he's prescribed some medicine, I'll brew them and bring them to you in a while," Earth Master responded walking away, Xiàn Fèng stopped her once she was out of the room where he and Crown Prince stood with worried faces, she assured them before leaving.

Yìfēi gripped ShuîYuê's hand taking a relieved breath, "Why do you always have to scare me YueYue? Haven't I had enough of those already!" She fumed, glaring at her unconscious best friend before she lowered her head, wetting Water Master's hand with droplets.

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Authors note: Hey!! How is it going? Is the story getting boring or what? These are not filler chapters guys all of these tie up in the later chapters, so more drama is awaiting you lot, Water Master doesn't seem to get a break as they return to the capital city again!! See you next chapter take care bye bye

Bunbun, the bad bunny

Word count:4200