A Tale of Chase and Love s1

“Rise!” she commanded with a warm smile. This made Long Ren to reminisce the first day he met Theresa and sighed in defeat.

Bai Lu Chen rose from the floor and patted the creases on his clothes.

“You are more handsome than that guy and also stronger. Well, I like your child version very much though.” she heartily said.

Long Ren’s face went black. His mistress referred to him as ‘that guy’? Come on! you gotta be kidding him.

“Oh!” Bai Lu Chen changed back to his child version. “You mean this mistress?”ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Yeah! Aren’t you cute? So cute! Come, let mama give you a kiss.” said Theresa.

Bai Lu Chen was really cute in his child version and seeing that Theresa was really gonna peck his cheeks, Long Ren transformed into a 5 year old version of himself.

“What about me? Aren’t I also cute?” Long Ren asked as he walked towards Theresa.

“Hmph! Attention seeker!” Bai Lu Chen scorned through telepathy.

“So what? I’m the eldest here; so I have a right.” Long Ren telepathed back.

“Oh really? We’ll see who’s the loved one here. You? Or me? “Bai Lu Chen snorted.

“Err… Foster father?” Theresa called.

“Yes my dear!”

“Among these two, who do you think is better looking?” she asked Fu Jin.

“It’s Bai Lu Chen, of course!” he replied without needing to think twice.

“You old fart! Just you wait,” Long Ren was pissed but he still tried his best to smile. Fu Jin smiled back and replied telepathically: “I’ll wait and then see how red your butt can be if I trash you with a whip.”

“My grandson is naturally cuter. Look at him. He has such beautiful eyes and look at his lips. So red!”

“No, Theresa! It’s Bai Lu Chen who’s better looking. Look at his hair. Look at his hair that is so curly. Look at him, cutely chubby. He’s got meat unlike that skeleton over there.” Fu Jin preached.

“Hey! My grandson is better than this snake. What’s the use of been a fat meatball? Your belly is big enough to fit 16 buckets of water. Look at his eyes that remind one of a gorilla.”

“You…” Fu Jin’s chest heaved up and down.

“Theresa, this boy was indirectly from my loins and I assure you that he’s good quality.”

“Good quality?” she asked with a furrowed eyebrow. Was old man Long referring to Long Ren as goods? That’s a first!

“Yes.” Long Hua Ming turned an unhappy Long Ren around. “See? He’s good quality unlike that fish that is inferior.”

“What did you say?” Bai Lu Chen asked in a feigned shocked tone.

“Did you just call me a fish?”

Then his eyes became teary and he sniffed.

“I’m a fish? Why?”

Then he looked at Theresa pitifully.

“Mistress… he called me a fish. Am I really that ugly? Look at me!”

“It’s okay. You are the cutest meatball in the world and he…” she pointed to Long Ren ” is the the cutest scarecrow. Happy now?”

Theresa petted Bai Lu Chen’s head and he jumped about boasting about his victory over an unhappy Long Ren.

“Ha! See? We won. They say that crime doesn’t pay. Your son has committed grave sins against my daughter; it’s only right that you get punished.”Fu Jin spat.

“YOU…” old man Long was at a loss for words.

“Grandpa, don’t say anything. I truly deserve this. I was a scumbag earlier and it’s normal for her to feel upset.” Long Ren whispered to his grandpa before kneeling before Theresa with his palms pressed together.

“What is it?” she asked and before he could reply, she walked out holding Bai Lu Chen’s hand.

Bai Lu Chen stuck out his tongue at Long Ren who could only sigh. They say that it’s when you lose something that you know the value. Now that he thought about it, all this time he spent with mistress was bittersweet and she was able to open his eyes to many things but blinded by hatred and anger, he put himself in this situation.

Before, he considered his mistress annoying and wished she’d dissolve the contract but now having Bai Lu Chen as a rival, made him realize that he had been a fool. Because of this same foolishness, he’d rejected Lu Wei, his mate, just because she was a weak human.

Ye Feng, Theresa’s foster mother, had taken her away and he would not be allowed to see her for 10 years.

That felt long. If possible, he really wanna see her now. But even if he did, would she accept him?

Old man Long sighed and told Long Ren to rise and patted his back.

“Kiddo, work hard and she might forgive you. She’s very upset.” said Long Hua Ming. But Long Ren shook his head and began to cry.

“Grandpa, I’m sorry but I really…”

“Miss your mate?” Long Hua Ming asked.

Long Ren gasped. “How did you know?”

“Easy! How old am I? 10?”

“Alright! Alright! You’re the 10 thousand year old monster here. I’m just a baby” Long Ren transformed back to his adult version.

“Grandpa, I promise to win mistress’ and my mate’s heart back.” he then cupped his hands and vanished. Old Long shook his head before vanishing too. It seems vanishing has now become a trend.

Meanwhile, in Theresa’s room, Aarti opened her eyes again and it exactly at this moment that the door opened.

Theresa, Fu Jin and Bai Lu Chen, stepped inside the room slowly and saw that Aarti had just woken up and was trying to register her surrounding. Immediately, Theresa ran to her mother and knelt down with a thud.

“Mother, I greatly have sinned. It was all because of me. Mother, hit me! Hit me please!” she cried in German.

Aarti was at first stunned when she saw Theresa looking like this, but what mother wouldn’t recognize her baby? She quickly hugged Theresa.

“No, mother won’t hit you. Theresa, you are my precious baby. Why would you even think of that? My baby, don’t cry. Mama is here!” Aarti petted Theresa’s back as she fought hard to hold back her own rebelling tears.

“Mother, I’m so sorry,” Theresa muttered, her tears wet her mum’s shoulders.

Clark also woke up at this moment to see this scene.

“Theresa? My child!” Clark exclaimed in German.

“Daddy!” Theresa stopped embracing her mum and shifted towards her dad and then prostrated.

“Father, forgive me. I made a mistake. Hit me father! Hit…”

“Theresa, I am your father and you are my baby. Why will I hit you. I can’t,” Clark raised Theresa up and hugged her. Aarti also joined in the hug and kissed Theresa’s cheeks.

The other men standing, (Bai Lu Chen, Long Ren, old man Long and Fu Jin) left. None of them could understand what Theresa and co, were saying but they knew this was their private moment. Instead of being the stupid audience, why don’t they go do something else?

So they all headed to the living room and sat on chairs.

“So… what are we sitting here for?” Fu Jin asked and Long Ren felt like slapping him to death.

“We are sitting here and waiting for you to die,” said Long Hua Ming.

“YOU… forget it. Let’s not cause a commotion to my daughter’s guests,” Fu Jin calmed down immediately.

“They are her rightful parents. You were just someone that she picked up from the trash bin and labelled ‘foster father’ “said Long Ren.

“Why are the two of you intent on bullying me? I’m just an innocent man, righteous and struggling to live in peace. I’ve never offended anyone in my life.” Fu Jin complained.

“Oh, then what do you have to say about that poor old woman’s chicken that you stole last week?” old Long asked with furrowed eyebrows.

“That… that was… an accident. It was kind of a misunderstanding. There was a man trying to steal the chicken. Out of my goodwill and righteous heart, I decided to beat him up. I tried to return the chicken back to the owner but I realized that it was very big and fat and it surely had eggs. So I decided to borrow it for a while. I wanted only the eggs and the meat not the feathers. By accident the chicken died while I was trying to extract the blood, meat and eggs. I decided to return the liver, wings, head and feathers back to the woman’s cage. I also put a copper coin to show my apology.”

“Wow! You did well. But you could use some advice. You should put a goat’s head in the cage and sprinkle blood on her doorstep and place a scorpion in her restroom.” advised Bai Lu Chen.

Scoffing, Long Ren spoke: “No wonder you are old. You are indeed spicy.”

“I am and I’m proud of it. I’m not a Taipan king for nothing. Unlike you who only has the title of demon lord,”

“You stupid snake, just you wait,” Long Ren clenched his fists underneath his sleeves.

“I’ll wait till you grow as handsome as me. Ugly fox!” Bai Lu Chen retorted.

“Hey, my master isn’t ugly. You are the ugly snake here. You use evil tricks to win over our mistress,” Ju Wei who had just appeared said.

“I’m officially her pet, so it’s legal not a sin.”

“You…” Ju Wei was cut short by old man Long.

“Let’s stop fighting. I’ll be leaving soon. I wanna make sure that all is well by the time I leave,” said old man Long.

“Fine!” Long Ren and Ju Wei muttered.

Rubbing his palms together, Long Hua Ming initiated the discussion for the arrangements for Theresa and her parents. Sometimes, Long Ren and Bai Lu Chen almost killed each other especially when Ju Wei and Fu Jin fanned the flames as hard as they could.

But luckily, they had made the living room sound proof and old Long was able to tie them up with a magical rope so the meeting could go on peacefully. He then sighed.

“I hope that after I leave, this house won’t be torn down.” old Long thought.

Meanwhile, Theresa had stopped crying and was explaining important stuff to her parents who were paying rapt attention.

For some unknown reason, Marabelle was still asleep so they had put her on the bed.

“So you mean that your mom can now use magic to an extent?” Clark asked in shock.

“Yeah! But it’ll take a while. I’m so glad that you both are here. Please never leave me, okay?” Theresa said pitifully and hugged them.

Both sighed and petted her back. After 30 more minutes, Marabelle woke up and they spent 10 more minutes discussing further before leaving the room with smiles. Their destination? The living room.