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TOSDAG Chapter 10: Girls Talk
🕑 Added 2024-10-23 19:29:04 +0000 UTCThird Person P.O.V
As they walked away, Ning'er couldn't help but feel nervous and more than a little embarrassed, and before passing through some bushes she took one last look at Leek, who had an expression that showed he wasn't entirely sure about what Lanruo was doing.
The girl could only gulp one last time before passing through some bushes, losing sight of Leek.
"Alright, we should be fine here." Lanruo said, letting go of the younger girl's hand and raising her hand slightly, there, a spatial ring flashed, and a blink later, a blanket appeared in the girl's hands, she spread the cloth on the floor before looking satisfied and sitting down.
"Come on, sit down and let's talk." She said smiling.
Ning'er wasn't quite sure what to do, and after a few seconds, she decided that, for the moment, she would play along.
"Then." Lanruo began, looking at the girl with a thoughtful expression as if she was deciding how she would deal with this matter. "You may begin, and to make this all more pleasant, let's share a cup of tea." She said with a smile before raising her hand once more, the ring shining and a set of tea cups along with a small box appearing on the blanket.
"Eh? Begin?" The younger girl asked, not quite understanding what the pink-haired girl wanted to hear.
"Yes, I want to know how you and Leek met, the full story, not that short summary of less than 20 words he gave me earlier"
"I… I'm not sure if I want to say it, also, is it okay for you to serve me tea?" Ning'er asked, after all, even when one was a guest in a house, it was usually the servants who served the tea, or if it was a private gathering, each one was the one who served themselves, the act of serving tea to another person of similar "status" was a sign of one of three options.
A sign of deep respect.
A sign of the desire to form a friendship.
A sign of submission and loyalty.
"No problem." Lanruo waved her hand dismissively. "As a fellow heiress of a family, it's safe to say that you have also been instilled with these annoying customs, though I suppose they have their uses as well, I think this makes my intentions pretty obvious, don't you?"
Ning'er nodded, the intentions were obvious, this girl couldn't feel any respect for her because they hadn't known each other for even 5 minutes and hadn't even had a proper conversation, while the option of submission was never considered.
Which left only one option, Ning'er looked at the teacup, the metaphorical hand that Lanruo had extended to her, if she took it, she would be saying that she was at least willing to try to befriend this girl, to have a calm conversation and come to an agreement, while if she rejected it, there would be no turning back, it would be a direct snub, she would basically be telling her that she had no intention of even listening to her and that she would be against her.
Ning'er hesitated, the image of another girl appeared in her mind, one she once called her best friend, one she once envied and resented for the simple fact that she was her, and remembering her sent a pang of pain through her chest.
Since then she had never had someone to call a friend again, she hadn't opened up emotionally to anyone else, at least until a few days ago when she let her tears flow on Leek's chest, but he had helped her, and every time she looked at him her heart beat like crazy, she wasn't an unconscious fool, so she knew very well what she was feeling, so she was willing to let him into her life and her heart.
And now, 3 days after that incident, a new person was trying to enter her life.
But could she risk trying to be friends with someone else once again? Did she want to risk it in the first place? At first glance she could see that Lanruo acted the way she did because she could, the Huyan family was well known for the impulsiveness of its members, so it was easy to imagine that this girl had the freedom to do almost anything she wanted, from what Leek said, her father seemed quite permissive with her, and the fact that he suggested a marriage with Leek showed that before the arrival of the Saiyan, she had no fiancé, or if she did, she had managed to break off their engagement.
Could she be friends with someone like that? Could she really move forward and let go of her jealousy towards the freedom this girl had compared to her? Ning'er blamed herself and felt horrible when her friendship with Ziyun ended, would Lanruo be another regret she would carry?
Ning'er gritted her teeth, she didn't want to feel that guilt again, so it wouldn't be better to reject her from the start to avoid problems in the future?
It was logical.
It was the answer that would bring the least risk, both for her and Lanruo.
It was the best answer she could choose.
And Ning'er hated that answer from the bottom of her heart.
She didn't want to continue being the same as back then. "Move forward, improve, and never let the sadness, fears, and mistakes of the past hold us back, because otherwise, we would abandon our own life chasing what was and not what we can become." That was the phrase Leek told her when she asked him why he trained so hard and if he hadn't been afraid to embark alone on the lands plagued by demonic beasts of the divine continent.
Ning'er decided to step forward despite her fear, to overcome her old self and do everything in her power to move forward, she would be free from the chains of her family, and when she did, she would apologize to Ye Ziyun regardless of whether or not she wanted to be her friend again, and to achieve that, the first step was in front of her.
Xiao Ning'er reached out and took the teacup from Lanruo's hands, willing to risk opening her heart to the world again.
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Third Person P.O.V
Huyan Lanruo gave a faint smile and a curious look as the girl accepted her teacup.
'The heiress of the Winged Dragon Family, huh?' She thought as she watched the girl bring the teacup to her lips and take a sip.
Lanruo went over in her mind everything she knew about this family, which wasn't much really, they had been having trouble recently, and there had been mentions of the Sacred Family?
Well, wasn't that an unpleasant coincidence? Lanruo never really liked the members of the Sacred Family, especially since they seemed to look down on her own family quite a bit, and more than once she had heard her father get upset at being called a mannerless barbarian or an ill-mannered gorilla during boring parties where various noble families participated.
And on top of all that was the cherry on the cake, Shen Fei, who was a nasty bastard, the first time she saw him, she found him attractive, and being the heir of a prestigious family she approached him to introduce herself properly…
It only took 2 minutes of chatting to label him within the group of "idiots to avoid", womanizer, rude, arrogant, haughty, idiot, and many other similar negative adjectives would barely begin to describe the red-haired bastard.
So if this girl, Xiao Ning'er, and her family were supporters and allies of the Sacred Family, she might have to try to keep her away from Leek to prevent those uptight people from trying to get their claws on her future fiancé.
But, for now, she would wait and listen to this girl, she wasn't sure about the Winged Dragon family's relationship with the Sacred Family, so she was willing to give the benefit of the doubt to whoever deserved it, she would act later if her suspicions turned out to be true.
"Alright, since we're both on the same page, please begin." Lanruo said, which earned a somewhat shy expression from Ning'er, the girl blushed a little and looked away.
"I-is it really necessary?" She asked timidly before taking another sip of tea.
But showing an expression like that to someone like Huyan Lanruo was akin to throwing a juicy piece of meat to a group of sharks, and for just a second, the pink-haired girl's smile turned predatory.
'Oh, this is going to be so fun.' She thought before pressing further.
"Of course it is, I never stopped Leek from telling you everything about me, come on, come on, give me all the juicy details." She cheered with stars in her eyes.
Ning'er could only blush even more before gathering courage and starting to tell how her first meeting with Leek went.
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Third Person P.O.V
Leek was on the field continuing his training, he was upside down, with one finger keeping him balanced as he went up and down, if he was sincere, he was very curious about what Ning'er and Lanruo were talking about, but he wasn't going to spy on them, he had a bit of decency, besides, if he was discovered he would probably be in a lot of trouble, after all, there was nothing scarier than an angry woman.
Goku and Vegeta could attest to that.
So, to entertain himself and to better digest the delicious food, he decided to do an exercise he had always wanted to be able to do, one he had only seen in movies and animated series.
'I know I don't remember much about my previous life, but if I could have done this at that time, it would have been great. ' He thought as a bit of sweat fell down his forehead.
The funny thing about all this was that the most challenging part of this exercise wasn't the strength needed in the arm or the finger, but maintaining balance, which, in Leek's opinion, was the real challenge, he had already fallen 3 times before reaching the 10th push-up, but it seemed like he was starting to get used to it, and at this point he was on push-up number 12, so he wanted to get to at least push-up number 20 to feel satisfied.
13
'Although she also asked me why Lanruo came today.' He thought as he went downstairs once more.
14
'I don't think Mr. Xiong would have told her my location simply because she kept asking him, right?'
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'No, I think that's a very high possibility if I think about her behavior so far.’ Leek's mind flashed back to the time she climbed onto the same bed where he was resting and tried to kiss him, which made him lose his balance for a moment and almost fall to the ground.
It took him a few seconds to stabilize himself again, breathing long and slowly before continuing with the exercise.
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His whole body went down once more while his cheeks were a little red, he wasn't going to be a puritanical idiot and lie saying that if Mr. Xiong hadn't appeared he would have rejected the girl's advances, lying to himself wasn't right.
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In addition, he also felt a huge boost in his ego, having such an attractive girl try something with him was… quite energizing, to say the least.
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Before going back down, he stopped and shook his head a couple of times to concentrate on his training, if he kept thinking about that kind of situation he could lose his balance again.
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He was already so close, just one more and-
"We're back!" The sudden call took Leek by surprise, to the point where this time he completely lost his balance and fell face-first into the grass before the rest of his body followed the same path.
"Urgh." He complained, lying there, and from the direction where the girls were returning, he heard two different reactions.
The first was Ning'er's worried voice calling his name, while Lanruo let out a short laugh.
"Relax, he fought with my father, remember? I doubt he even felt that blow"
'I'm going to spank that hussy.' Leek thought as Ning'er turned him around and laid him on her lap.
"Are you okay?" The girl asked, scanning his face for injuries.
Leek smiled brightly at him. "Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine."
Ning'er blushed slightly but didn't move away, simply looking away.
Lanruo walked over, leaning in slightly as she smirked and placed her hands on her hips. "You seem pretty comfortable there, doing this in front of your future fiancée, do you want to break my heart?"
Leek gave a small snort and looked away. "I didn't do anything, if you cared more about me you would have come first, right? Besides, I haven't agreed to be your fiancé yet"
"Ho? It's more a matter of me knowing how strong you are and trusting that you'll be fine, more importantly, are you going to refuse to accept me as your fiancée? After I took care of you when you were unconscious and you snuggled into my chest? How could my heart be caught by such a cruel man?"
"I didn't say I would refuse either." Leek whispered, though Lanruo and Ning'er heard him clearly.
"Ah, so Leek does like me, that's very sweet in its own way." She said, taking Leek, lifting him from Ning'er's lap, and hugging him to her chest.
As Leek's face was crushed against Lanruo's softness and fragrance, even though a second before he had been resting on Ning'er's lap, Leek could only think of one undeniable truth.
'Oh god, I've become one of those lucky bastards'
X-X-X-X-X
And now we present an idea that may or may not be repeated, a short conversation between my protagonists!
On one hand, we have the stressed and worried Ryuichi, let's hope he doesn't suffer from baldness before he turns 20!
And on the other, the saiyan who got isekai! Leek, a lucky bastard who already has 2 girls, go and explode in a corner, riajuu!
Leek: Come on, my situation isn't that good, I almost died in that fight with the giant gorillas, does anyone want to remember that?
Ryuichi: Shut up, you lucky bastard! You're barely in chapter 10, and you already have 2 beautiful girls in love with you! In chapter 10 of my story I was having a damn existential crisis after seeing that an alternate version of the earth was devastated by damn dolls!
Plus, I already have to "chat" with 5 people from other worlds, and now also with a saiyan in a cultivation world? Does the author hate me?
Leek: Come on man, calm down a bit, since we were created by the same person that would make us kind of like brothers don't you think? Besides, I'm sure your luck will improve from now on, in the polls our author posted for your story, the harem option is winning, right? I'm sure that soon you'll have at least one girl pampering you, although not as much as they pamper me.
Ryuichi: That's it, I'm going to kick your ass! Kaio-ken!!
Leek: Hahaha come with everything you've got, I'm getting excited!
X-X-X-X-X
Well, some introspection and character development for Ning'er, as well as showing a little more in-depth how Lanruo thinks, as well as indirectly showing how that conversation ended if the way Lanruo reacted to Ning'er giving Leek a lap pillow is any indication.
I think that, at this point, you can see the difference between the 2 protagonists I created (Ryuichi and Leek), and this is because TOSDAG will be a slightly calmer story than TAMCG, Leek will also face challenges, but I think the beginnings of both stories are different enough, what do you think?
See you in the next chapter!
