Chapter 44: Framing

There was still a little time before the attack descended, and Xiao Kaitian couldn’t help but laugh.

“Close your eyes and hold me tight, will you?” His forehead brushed gently against Jiang Churan’s. She responded softly and weakly, and he scooped her up in his arms.

The sound of the boomerang grew louder and louder, but Xiao Kaitian seemed not to hear it at all; it was as if all the attacks simply didn’t exist. Holding Jiang Churan tightly, their figures traced a breathtaking arc through the night.

With her eyes closed, Jiang Churan felt as if she were riding clouds and mist, tossed up and down in the strong, steady embrace. She couldn’t help but laugh.

She hadn’t really kept count of how long she’d suppressed her laughter. Perhaps it began when “Father” Xiao Zhengze adopted her, or maybe when she met the absent-minded Xiao Kaitian, or perhaps when Xiao Kaitian stepped into the heart of the swirling conflict.

But everything, as she nestled in Xiao Kaitian’s arms, experiencing the constant sensation of weightlessness, made her laugh with pure happiness.

“Hahaha.” Her clear, ringing laughter was startlingly loud in the tranquil night.

The pursuing boomerangs, ever just a hair’s breadth away, missed their targets and embedded themselves in the buildings behind Xiao Kaitian, making soft, staccato noises. Yet, all of this, the smiling Xiao Kaitian ignored completely.

In his eyes, there was only Jiang Churan, nuzzling against his chest.

Their figures soared higher and higher in the night. The attacks that tried to strike Xiao Kaitian shifted from boomerangs to poisoned darts and kunai, weapons favored by island ninjas.

From afar, their combined silhouette seemed to streak through the sky like a meteor, leaving a trail of missed attacks in their wake.

In retrospect, it was always just that tiny chance, always missing by that narrow margin.

He didn’t know how many were chasing him, but Xiao Kaitian, holding Jiang Churan, hovered lightly, freely, utterly unrestrained in the air.

“Hahaha.” Jiang Churan’s laughter, intoxicated and joyful, seeped into Xiao Kaitian’s heart. So this was what low-dimensional emotion felt like.

With Jiang Churan in his arms, he landed in front of her apartment like a great bird spreading its wings, his gaze cold and deep as he looked back into the darkness, watching the ninjas who had ambushed him.

“Don’t make me angry again.” His tone brimmed with a hint of pent-up frustration, as if he were speaking to himself. As his words spread, the surroundings instantly fell silent.

Ninjas are creatures of the shadows; when conflict spills into the visible world, they promptly halt their actions.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Churan opened her beautiful eyes, still a little dazed, which made her shed some of her goddess-like aloofness and appear rather adorable.

“It’s nothing,” Xiao Kaitian gently patted her back. He dismissed the clownish attacks; he was well aware that his opponents were merely probing. But after the probing, the true battle would begin. “When are you planning to go back?”

“Sometime soon,” Jiang Churan wriggled, and he set her down—her legs nearly gave way and she barely kept her balance. “This time, barring any surprises, I don’t intend to return, so I need to settle some things first. It’ll take a bit more time. Is there a problem?”

Xiao Kaitian’s gaze lingered on the distant darkness. She seemed to realize something. “Will I be causing you trouble?”

“No matter what you do, you’ll never be trouble to me,” Xiao Kaitian turned back, answering with sincerity.

The apartment required a password to unlock. Xiao Kaitian entered it, holding Jiang Churan, and stepped inside. As he opened the door, a seductive figure appeared—it was Yang Mengqi.

Yang Mengqi’s eyes widened at their intimacy, her mouth slightly agape in astonishment for a full ten seconds before Xiao Kaitian shut the door, snapping her back to reality. “Churan, she…”

“She’s drunk,” Xiao Kaitian looked helplessly at the drowsy Jiang Churan in his arms, setting her bag on the table. “Which room is hers?”

“Over…there,” Yang Mengqi, curiosity mingling with confusion, hurriedly opened the door. Inside was a simple yet warm decor, filled with Jiang Churan’s unique scent.

Xiao Kaitian gently laid Jiang Churan on the bed and nodded to Yang Mengqi. “I’ll leave her to you.”

Yang Mengqi nodded, carefully helped Jiang Churan change her clothes, wiped the sweat from her forehead when finished, closed the door, and saw Xiao Kaitian standing on the small balcony.

His tall, imposing figure was hard to reconcile with Jiang Churan’s description of him as her “foolish little brother.” Considering their surnames—Xiao and Jiang—and their closeness that evening, the word “fool” suddenly took on a more ambiguous meaning.

Yang Mengqi couldn’t help but lower her head and smile.

Late at night, not far from Jiang Churan’s apartment, four dark figures gathered swiftly beside a sandbox in a small neighborhood park where children usually played.

“Captain, the mission failed.” Three figures knelt, reporting their findings. “It’s confirmed—Xiao Kaitian is a martial cultivator, at least at the Profound Realm.”

The standing figure, barely visible in the moonlight, was a middle-aged ninja. His right sleeve bore the Takeda clan’s emblem, the “Wind, Forest, Fire, Mountain” crest, glowing with a faint, proud light.

“Xiao Kaitian didn’t retaliate?” he asked coldly.

“Yes, perhaps because Miss Jiang was present, he didn’t make a move.”

“A martial cultivator…” The middle-aged ninja exhaled in frustration. The turn of events had exceeded his expectations; he’d thought Xiao Kaitian merely had a protector, not that he himself was a martial cultivator. “Report this to the Young Lord immediately.”

“Yes!” The three received their orders and were about to leave when, from the shadowy side of the sandbox, something slithered—a snake-like creature twisted and stretched.

“Who’s there!” one ninja barked, but the serpent ignored them, suddenly transforming into a black shadow that lunged at the three ninjas.

“Careful!” The trio leapt to evade, but the serpent moved faster, circling around them. In an instant, their movements froze.

A thin line of blood opened on each of their necks. Staring in disbelief, they slowly collapsed.

The serpent landed on the ground, wriggled again, and turned into a human figure standing before the middle-aged ninja.

“Are you a bounty hunter?” The ninja was wary, a shuriken quietly poised in his hand.

“You’re Takeda clan ninjas, sent to assassinate Xiao Kaitian, aren’t you?” the shadow that had been the serpent spoke, its voice metallic, cold as steel. “Then you must die.”

“What’s your purpose?” The middle-aged ninja’s forehead was beaded with sweat.

“Simple. To frame Xiao Kaitian,” the shadow licked his lips. “Remember my name—Viper!”

With that, he transformed again into a serpent and lunged at the middle-aged ninja.

Under the moonlight, the ninja’s expression twisted into a fierce grimace.