~ Xiao Bai warming up to Chun Hua ~
Synopsis:
In Xiao Bai’s room, Liu Feng reveals that he’s here to avoid a marriage his father had arranged for him. Xiao Bai then agrees to let him stay at Feng Ming Manor if he helped him to investigate / get more clues on Chun Hua’s identity.
Liu Feng then goes off in search of Chun Hua and finds her washing clothes. They then striked up a conversation, with Chun Hua asking him about Xiao Bai’s likes, dislikes and information regarding his former fiance. Liu Feng tells her that Hua Xiao Lei died mysteriously before she could even meet Xiao Bai. The house she was in had burned down completely and even her body couldn’t be found. Before he left, Liu Feng invited Chun Hua to a lunch with Xiao Bai and himself the next day.
Back at Qian Yue Cave, Ye Xing Zhu passes Heng Shan Sect’s Xin Fa to Qiu Yue and he orders her to pass it to Mr Shi to sell it on the market because he doesn’t care for their Kungfu and just wanted to make something they treasured, useless.
The next day, Xiao Bai and Liu Feng reach the lunch venue before Chun Hua and after exchanging a few words, Xiao Bai starts attacking Liu Feng. Xiao Bai mimics his theory about the Medical Sage’s murder attack and realises that he must’ve been attacked with a wood axe, telling Liu Feng that when he had checked the Medical Sage’s body, he had discovered a palm mark on his chest. He hypothesized that this strike caused stasis in the Medical Sage’s blood vessels, causing his death.
Chun Hua then arrives, interrupting their conversation. She had made soup for Xiao Bai and presented it proudly. Continuing their previous discussion, Liu Feng shoves Chun Hua and comments that if someone you were familiar with suddenly attacked you, the person’s gaze and limbs would be similar to Chun Hua’s (being caught unaware). Xiao Bai had quickly caught her and she looked at him with a smile as she rejoiced that he finally knew how things worked. Liu Feng finishes his sentence, concluding that the criminal must be an acquaintance of the Medical Sage. Flustered by the look Chun Hua was shooting him, Xiao Bai dropped her and hurried to keep his distance.
They then continued with the lunch meeting, which was actually a test set up by Liu Feng to investigate where she had come from. The first test was a fish and according to him, if she liked the tail, it meant that she came from a poor family. If she liked the belly, it meant that she was the youngest in her family and if she liked the gills, it meant that she came from a rich family. Chun Hua went for the gills first but commented that the best part of a fish was the stomach. Xiao Bai and Liu Feng shared confused gazes before they went on to the second test. If she liked sweet food, she came from the south. Salty if she came from the North, Spicy if she came from the East and Sour if she came from the West. Chun Hua first took a bite of the spicy food, then sweet, trying everything.
After the lunch, Liu Feng deduced that she had really lost her memories and was harmless. Xiao Bai then questioned the existence of the Longevity Fruit because news of the fruit was first spread by a certain Mr Shi, who was a mysterious figure that no one had seen before.
Back at Chuan Qi Valley, Fu Lou kills a maidservant in his wife’s room as she rested. It turns out that that maidservant was a spy sent by Qian Yue Cave. Fu Lou then went to Qian Yue Cave to thrash things out with Qiu Yue. Confronted with Fu Lou’s accusation, Qiu Yue lazily comments that they had had the same teacher and he was just showing concern by putting one of his people in Chuan Qi Valley. Qiu Yue then replies to Fu Lou’s anger by saying that they shouldn’t keep up this internal fight and let Feng Ming Manor rule. Before Qiu Yue left, he taunts Fu Lou, saying that he had to seek an audience with him and if he was so powerful, he should just barge straight into Qian Yue Cave to look for him.
Night fell and back at Feng Ming Manor, a dirty faced Chun Hua chances upon an open pool. After checking that the coast was clear, she slips in for a bath and before she was done, Xiao Bai enters and the both of them stood stunned as the reality of the situation they were in dawned on them. Xiao Bai’s eyes caught onto a petal shaped mark on her collarbone and seeing that he was staring at her, Chun Hua screams at him to look away. Her scream alerts Lu Xiu, who quickly came to usher her away and before she leaves, Chun Hua scolded him for not putting up a sign saying that it was his private pool. After Chun Hua had left, Xiao Bai looks at the sign, muttering to himself that he did have a sign up. He then sat down as he reminisced a moment from his childhood with Hua Xiao Lei. They were flying a kite when she had slipped and sustained an injury on her collarbone.
Back in her room, Chun Hua calls for water as she lay in bed. Qiu Yue comes in and felt her forehead, asking if she had caught a cold. Without a word, Chun Hua hugs Qiu Yue and refuses to let go, saying that she’ll only do so if he lets her behave frivolously with him. Qiu Yue replies that he would let her, if she lay down to rest. Shocked, she quickly refused, saying that she was almost fully recovered already. Qiu Yue brings it up again, asking if she didn’t want to behave frivolously towards him anymore. Confused by his interactions with her, Chun Hua questioned if they were really siblings and if they interacted like that in the past. Qiu Yue replies that she was braver in the past because ever since their parents died, they had always eaten and slept together. Qiu Yue looks at her with amusement as she darted her eyes around the room nervously.
The next morning, Chun Hua crept up on Xiao Bai as he was practicing his martial arts and after a short exchange, Xiao Bai turns to leave but Chun Hua hollered after him, saying that it was alright that he had seen her at the bath since he was her husband. A frantic Xiao Bai then comes up to her and asked if she would like to fly a kite with him.
As she held the kite’s reel, she made an observation that it was very old and asked why he didn’t throw it away. Xiao Bai then asked her if she remembered their first meeting and her calling him “hubby”. She becomes shy and pretends not to remember. Xiao Bai’s grip on his sword started to shake and he quickly steadied it with his other hand. She then replies that it could be because he looked familiar, like they had met before. Xiao Bai pushes on, telling her that she could tell him anything and vowed to protect her. Elated, Chun Hua grins, saying that as long as he was with her, she won’t be afraid, to which Xiao Bai replies with a smile.
Chun Hua returns to her room in a good mood as she tried on a new hairpin in front of a mirror, exclaiming to herself that Xiao Bai had finally matured. Qiu Yue suddenly appears, questioning her previous sentence. Chun Hua asked him why he had come and he replies with: “Since there is such a luxuriously huge mirror here, can’t I come to take a look?” Qiu Yue notices her new hairpin and Chun Hua exitedly asked if it was pretty. With a lazy gaze, he removed it and threw it on the floor, much to her dismay. She moves to retrieve it but he pulled her back before removing his own to give to her. Qiu Yue’s up do came apart with the removal of his hair stick and Chun Hua looked on in awe as his hair cascaded around his face. He then holds out the stick to her but she refuses, saying that it was too valuable and instead requests that he made her happy, by barking like a dog…
Thoughts:
Firstly, I’d like to say that I really enjoy Xiao Bai & Liu Feng’s interactions. Xiao Bai’s character is usually really stoic and expressionless but Liu Feng’s easy going and playful personality brings out a different side of him.
Next, the progress between Chun Hua and Xiao Bai. So far, Chun Hua has been the one actively pursuing Xiao Bai, to the point that he once called her an “indecent lady” for directly asking him if there was anyone he liked. It’s really cute to see Xiao Bai being proactive for once, even asking her out on a date…to fly a kite. Hey, it’s progress right? The only thing that worries me is that Xiao Bai is only acting differently because of his suspicion that Chun Hua is Hua Xiao Lei. As we all know, Chun Hua isn’t Hua Xiao Lei – even if they share the same body – because Chun Hua comes from the future. My only hope is that he would slowly fall for her as Chun Hua, not because of her identity as Hua Xiao Lei.
I was internally hyperventilating when Chun Hua held Qiu Yue’s hairstick, anticipating the moment she recognises it but no…she doesn’t. I’m disappointed, but I guess it’s too soon for her to realise her mistake…Pshh. Chun Hua, as per usual, has no awareness of the situation. I mean, asking your brother, the evil leader, to bark? Just to make you happy? That is just asking for a beating 😂 Qiu Yue’s expression says it all.
On to Qiu Yue. So far, even though I had always known that Qiu Yue is evil, this fact had never really registered in my mind because he had always been playful with Chun Hua and even with his subordinates, he had just been firm and serious. Even his “evil” actions of stealing the different Sect’s Xin Fa turns out to be nothing because he just sold it! However, in this episode we were shown a different side to him, as he taunts Fu Lou before leaving with an evil laughter. It’s nothing major but that scene has planted doubts in my mind about his true intentions. That is because even though it has been made known since the start that he was just using Chun Hua to obtain the Xiao Family’s Xin Fa, he had never done anything to solidify his position in my mind as evil. It had always been all talk and no action so I must say that that scene got me a little shook.
Anyway, Qiu Yue’s reaction towards the hairpin has confused me a little. It wasn’t even something that had been given by Xiao Bai, which if it were, I would be able to understand his reaction as jealousy but it was just a random hairstick? His action of throwing it on the floor is kind of extreme, although I have to admit that I enjoyed the scene of him removing his own hairstick and his hair cascading down beautifully.
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♢ Lyrics for “Unfinished Moment” ♢
☆ Novel ~ Chapter 7 ☆
of Nutmegs and Kookies 