Drunken Lotus: Fated With The Rogue Hidden Dragon.

Feelings, New Faces (3rd)

After calming Fan Zhu Xia down, Fan Hui Zhong ended up having her curled on his lap like a kitten, fast asleep. Looking down at her, a small doting smile slowly showed on his face as he thought of how Zhu Xia was acting.

It was times like these that really made Fan Hui Zhong look at Fan Zhu Xia like she was still a little girl despite her age and it wasn't entirely because she wasn't acting her age but it was more of how she expressed her feelings, especially when she cries.

When Fan Zhu Xia fully lets go of her control over her emotions and actually lets herself cry, the way she does it isn't like how most peoply her age cry. Whenever Fan Hui Zhong sees or even just hears her crying like that, it was as if he was listening to a child crying.

Maybe it was because she went through an extremely traumatic event at such a young age that when she cries, it was especially heartwrenching to hear and extremely hard to watch.

She just exuded a desolate sadness and vulnerability, as if her innocence was broken and destroyed in just a blink of the eye and in a way, that was exactly how it happened.

The very first time she cried like that changed the whole way Fan Hui Zhong looked at her.

It wasn't because he was judging her but it made him look at Fan Zhu Xia in a whole new perspective.

The first time she cried like that was when she finally opened up and told him what had happened to her that caused her to be swept away by the raging waters and end up by the riverbank where he found her.

Everything he heard and saw that day really just made Fan Hui Zhong want to take in and just protect that broken young girl with a body covered in bruises, looking black and blue all over with tears overflowing in her big pale blue eyes that looked so haunted and empty.

The way Zhu Xia looked back then had always plagued him and Hui Zhong swore to himself that no matter what happens, he will do whatever it takes to keep that haunted look away. That he will do everything that he could to keep the life and vitality that slowly blossomed within the young girl's uniquely colored ice blue eyes.

Time passed and slowly, Fan Hui Zhong started to look and treat Zhu Xia as he would his own daughter. He didn't even notice that his previously reclusive and stringent behavior slowly changed into a somewhat gentler yet definitely fatherly demeanor towards the young girl.

A lot of people in the small town located near the borders of Thunder Vale Country had even noticed the change in his behavior and even his brother, Hui Liang said the same thing when they had talked after dinner last night and that was saying something since his brother was there and witnessed how badly he spiralled down to rock-bottom when his wife, Yue Wan suffered a complication during childbirth and died along with their newborn son.

Hui Zhong was so lost back then, just a shell of who he was which was why he decided to retire and leave despite of so many people trying to convince him of otherwise.

He was in such a dark place back then that there were times where he just wanted to join his beloved wife and deceased son in the afterlife that drove him to the brink of insanity at times. It was what made him venture into the Abyss Valley Mountain Range.

From the moment he left the capital, Fan Hui Zhong knew that he was being followed by numerous people sent by different individuals and he could vaguely sense how many they were and where they were at. Their presence was what motivated him to go deeper and deeper into the dark forest despite the perilous nature of that mountain range until finally they lost his trail and he was finally alone.