"A real soldier will never use any underhanded method!" Feng Huan seethed, laying on the ground with someone weaker than him pinning him down. 

Xiong Jingfei removed the sword away from his neck and chuckled, "Did you hit your head too hard?"

Feng Huan pulled himself up a little with his arms and appeared at a loss to her question. 

Xiong Jingfei got off from him and put one hand on her chest, "I am not a soldier but merely a maid."

Feng Huan struck with her obvious answer. He got up and dusted the dirt off his armor. Taking his sword away from her, he glared, "Cunning!"

"Thank you for the compliment, friend."

"Friend?" Feng Huan put the sword back into its home. "When did I become friends with you? I should be master to you!"

Xiong Jingfei clapped her hands together and laughed, "That means you agree to train me! Ahh, Zhao Fan's name does come in great use in time of need!"

Feng Huan's face immediately blackened. She laughs and stood next to him patting his shoulder in condolence, "Friend, you will find a person better than Zhao Fan."

Feng Huan shook her hand off his shoulders. He made his way back to everyone else, but as long as he wasn't deaf. He could still hear Xiong Jingfei laughing and running behind him, teasing him by calling him "friend" in her every sentence. 

Abruptly, he turned around. Causing Xiong Jingfei, who was skipping behind him to hit her head on his pleated chest armor. 

"It's master! Not friend!"

Xiong Jingfei rubbed her bruised forehead, "You feel more like a friend than a master... So, friend?" 

"No! Men and women cannot be friends!" Feng Huan shouted. For the first time in his life, he was yelling at someone from the opposite gender. He wasn't even this harsh to those who works for his household.

Feng Huan's soldiers sitting nearby perked up their ears. However, they refused to turn their heads in his direction. In case that "yelling" made a turn towards them.

"am I hearing things?"

"No! General Feng is yelling! You know how scary he gets when he is mad!"

All of them became silent, but have their heads arched towards Xiong Jingfei and Feng Huan's direction. Hoping to catch wind of their conversation. It was their first time seeing and hearing Feng Huan getting into an argument with someone.

"I don't have many friends, so you can have the honor of becoming my friend." Xiong Jingfei chased after Feng Huan. "It does come with many advantages!"

When she first met him, he was rather a rude person. Though she was thankful, he caught her too. Then they met again unexpectedly, and he once again saved her from harm. At that moment, she knew he would be a good friend to have. So, she didn't bother putting up the fake n.o.ble lady act for him. He already saw her without a veil, and it wasn't like she was acting ladylike when she popped down on him. 

"I do not want to have the honor of being friends with you! Can you be anymore, shameless?" Feng Huan hissed through his teeth. 

It was his first time dealing with such an unruly woman. She wasn't a girl, nor was she a woman yet. But she was at an age which was considered marriageable. She should know the differences between a man and a woman. 

Feng Huan only stopped walking when he no longer heard light skipping behind him. He turned his head to see Xiong Jingfei staring right back at him. 

"I must have gone crazy," Feng Huan mumbled, thinking he may have hurt her feelings. Making his way back to her, "Listen here-"

"More shameless?" Xiong Jingfei tapped her chin with her finger. " Let's see, we can talk more about your love affair-"

Feng Huan immediately covered her mouth, "Friend! We are friends!"

"Ys sjws woam an ma shol not b frind."

"What?" Feng Huan removed his hand away from her mouth.

"You said men and women should not be friends!" Xiong Jingfei hmphed and feigned ignorance. 

"Did I say that? I... I was wrong." Feng Huan gripped onto his sword tightly. Admitting his none existing faults was hard, real hard. It was now his turn to have his lips twitching. "We are friends, okay? Friends do not tell others their secrets!"

"You're right," Xiong Jingfei nodded at his satisfactory answer.  Meanwhile, she sanitized her lips with her dirty sleeves. Then walked past him on her way back to Xu Song.

Feng Huan's lips were now twitching nonstop. He was repeating everything Xiong Jingfei did earlier when she attempted to hold herself back. Mumbling under his breath, "She is only a little girl. Only a little girl... Do not kill her! She does not know any better!"

On the side, Feng Huan's soldiers weren't too happy with their general's answer. Love, what? What was Xiong Jingfei's maid going to say after love? Hah, their cold General Feng knows what love is? Why did General Feng refuse to let her say it! 

Feng Huan stood by himself on the small pathway, blaming himself, did he make a mistake?

***Present***

In a dimly light up room, Xiong Jingfei opened her eyes back to her present life. The sharp pain and dizziness that took over her body were no longer there. Slowly, it faded away. As if it was finished telling her that part of the story of her friend, Ai's life. 

'Friend?' Xiong Jingfei sat up from the bed and mouthed the word. She was questioning her dream, and the person she was questioning walked in. 

"How are you feeling?" Feng Huan asked, holding a tray with a steaming bowl of soup on it. His concern did not hide his usual icicle exterior.

Setting it down on his nightstand, he touched her forehead to feel if her temperature went down. He sighed out in relief. It was odd... When she collapsed, her body felt like it was on fire. Her temperature kept going up and up. There was no sign of going down. Then all the suddenly, her body temperature drop-down back to normal.

"Are you feeling uncomfortable anywhere? I can call a doctor for you. I know you feel uncomfortable going to the hospital." Feng Huan removed his hand from her face. He nervously smile, "Why do you keep staring at my face?"

Friend? Hah, friend. Xiong Jingfei reached out her hand and touched his face. 

Causing Feng Huan to be taken aback, he wasn't expecting her to be willing to touch him. It has been a long time since they last saw each other. He was putting a calm front for her but felt like a nervous wreck on the inside. Now that she was "touching" him, his heart was thumping like crazy against his chest.  

She didn't stop at just his face, she continued downward towards his chest. Placing her left hand on his chest. Exactly at the same spot where in her dream, she had touched him as Ai.

The Feng Huan in front of her may not have the armor, sword, and blood on him. But the face, the voice, and even the personality are the same as the Feng Huan in her dream. Just the younger version of him.

Why does the younger version of Feng Huan keep appearing in her dream?

Xiong Jingfei removed her hand. It was the first she woke up remembering someone's face in her reoccurring dreams.

Who are you Feng Huan? How are you related to Ai?