Disclaimer: I do not own love like the galaxy nor any of its characters.

Chap. 3

Looking down into a village, Ling Buyi watched as a young woman was escorted into a carriage looking frail as she held the hand on her maid, while behind him A'Qi and A'Fi argued if the woman was old or young. Turing his horse, he led the way to the intersection that would allow him and his men to cut them off before they left the village. A lead on an escaping criminal had lead him to this village, and the crime committed, embezzlement. So he waited as the travelers made their way towards him at their slow pace, wondering if they would cooperate or not. What he was not expecting was for the carriage to be housing Shoushang, and that the criminal he was looking for would be a relative of her's. So when he rode his horse up to the window for her to speak to him, he looked forward to being next to her again even if they were not allowed to see each other face to face due to her being an unwed lady.

"General, it is no fun just checking a simple carriage. The haystack next to my father's house may hide all kinds of interesting things."

His feelings of happiness however turned from playful to angry when he watched her dirty pale too thin hand come into view and point back to the village she was being taken from. To stop him from turning on the old woman that was clearly in charge of bringing her somewhere, Buyi gripped the rains in his hands tighter as she kept talking to him.

"The weather has been really dry lately, if the hay were to accidentally catch fire, you might be able to even catch a living man. Things would become way more interesting in this little village my father grew up in."

Understanding what it was she was trying to tell him, his eyes snapped to the small village where her family had been hiding his and ignored the old woman behind him as she screeched that Shoushang had no idea what she was saying. What did catch his attention was when it was said Shoushang had a serious illness, which had affected her for a month before she just now started to get over it.

"You'll find out if I'm telling the truth or not, after burning the haystack. Although we are not a rich family, we can bare to lose a single haystack. And as to my illness with a high fever, having enough food to not starve would have helped in prevented it. If you were worried about the food being tampered with, you would only need to show the token I created to let me know of it's safety."

Full blown anger erupted from within his chest, the excitement of finding some members of his family gone as the old woman's screeching took on a tone of pure panic as she yelled there was never a token made for something so stupid. When his men quieted the old woman up by putting a hand over her mouth, Ling Buyi stopped A'Fei from moving the carriages curtain and forcing Shoushang from her transport. With enough force to make his horse shift, he slammed his sword back into its holder on his saddle and turned his head to a man behind him. What fallowed was a tense minute as his man rode a horse with a burning torch, and lit the haystack on fire before waiting for the criminal to come out crying as he tried to put out the flames attached to his body.

Telling his men to let them go, he almost smiled as he heard Shoushang take a verbal shot at the old housemaid who was crying about the family member being found. As the captured man was brought before him, Shoushang discreetly dropped a wooden token she had carved to the ground on the far side of her carriage while one of the black guards watched, who then picked it up after she passed.

As the carriage continued moving away, Shoushang's grate uncle continued to beg for freedom and dropping his nephews name. Asking for forgiveness and saying he new nothing, that he was being framed. A'Fi, putting together everything that had just happened asked if the criminal was really Shoushang's family member, and received a yes in return.

"Cheng Shoushang, that little brat grew up parentless and has become an uncultured troublemaker. What does she know about family! I… General, can you spare me this one time for Coronal Cheng's sake?"

Once again the man was crying and begging to be let free, staying quiet he only looked down at the man in hardness. Beside him, one of his men stepped up and handed him the token Shoushang had dropped for him. Looking at it as his men tied and dragged the sobbing man away, A'Qi joined them while he thought about what the token meant. 'A curled tiger, surrounded by a wall and gate. The Huo clan's guardian is a tiger. But what is the wall?' Looking towards the village he thought over everything Shoushang had said, then kicked his horse into moving forward, telling his two commanders to stay put.

Watching Ling Buyi continue forward, A'Fi whispered to his brother, asking if the young forth lady of the Chang family was really young lady Shoushang and received a nod of confirmation to his question. As the village came closer and finally he was within its walls, he looked around trying to see if he recognized any of the faces. Seeing an elderly couple sitting by a house and shifting through some wheat, he got off his horse and made his way over to them. He could see their weariness, and cautiously broached the topic of if they were his lost family, handing them the token Shoushang had dropped for him.

What fallowed was a quiet happy reunion, that brought the knowledge of even though his re-found family was a branch line of only four, he was not the last of his family. It would be decided in the end that to keep them safe, his re-found family would stay hidden within this secluded village that had been their safe harbor for the last fifteen years.

When Shoushang first saw her parents as they made their way to her tired form, she felt embarrassed at her dirty, disheveled appearance. This was not how she wanted them to see her, calling their name again she felt relived when instead of pulling away from her, they reached out to her as if they to could not believe their daughter was in such a state. It was after she joked weakly that she had lived long enough to finally see them, that a cough squeezed her chest and her body lost some strength as her muscles contracted. She could hear her father berating her aunt and grandmother as her mother rubbed her back, her eyes red with unshed tears.

When her grandmother started wailing that her father no longer care for his aging mother, Shoushang felt anger that the reunion she had always thought about was being ruined by the very people who had always treated her like a throw away. Wanting to have her father and mother to herself, Shoushang overplayed her own sickness and when her father rushed to pick her up she felt happiness at their concern. With her father caring her away, she cracked open an eye to see if her mother would come with her to stay by her side.

The commotion only continued when she was resting in her sparsely decorated room, she listened as her father reviled that her parents had not left her behind willingly. That it was her grandmother and aunt who had forced their hand to do so, and from that moment on she was determined to get back at her aunt as well as her grandmother for everything they had done to her. And so she started formulating a ruff plan that would cause havoc for her two relatives, sadly part of her act was not all acting as she was still weak. But she used her tiredness and exaggerated it to her benefit, bring along with it her parents ire towards her two relatives and bringing more chaos to the situation.

When it was announced that the court yard was filled with black armored guards, Shoushang almost had a smile come to her face and as her family rushed to find out what the intrusion was about, she snuck out onto the pouch to watch what would happen. The first glance she got of Ling Buyi made her smile, thinking about how he had become an even better looking young man, but that his personality had not changed with his directness and abrasiveness. Peeking around the corner of the pillar again, she caught the eye of A'Fei and A'Qi and gave a little wave. It was when Zishang started to praise her that she felt her mouth drop ever so slightly and her face look on in comic disbelief. Down below A'Qi silently sighed at the impending war that was sure to happen between his young master and Shoushang, while beside him A'Fei smothered a smile as he could see Shoushang's face.

When Shoushang's parents welcomed Ling Buyi into their home, he took in everything that he saw and heard. 'So these are Shoushang's parents, let's see how alike their daughter they are. Let's see if they will finally take care of their daughter.' He listened as they condemned their family for embezzlement, and when shown who it was he had arrested. Their surprise was genuine, which brought relief to his being, as he would not have to arrest Shoushang and her family due to being involved. When Shoushang's maid walked into the room caring a tray of hot soup, which was promptly dropped all over the weeping criminal on the floor. Ling Buyi almost cracked a smile on the schemes Shoushang could pull off without even being in the room. 'Looking for information is she'

Looking back to Shoushang's father, he gave a warning of how no mater a persons standing in society, they would be held accountable and that he wanted to pass along his gratitude to Shoushang. Knowing that in someway it would allow him to get back at her for being mischievous, and just plain fun for him to see her reaction and as a parting gift, he compared her to the ministry of justice, that she had a bright life ahead of her. Looking one last time to the porch above, he only spotted Shoushang's maid and a portion of Shoushang's covered bent knee. He had hoped to see her while he was here, but it seemed that it was not meant to be. So giving his good bye to her parents, he glanced one last time to where Shoushang was hiding and turned to leave.

Up on the porch, Shoushang was cursing Ling Buyi, saying how dare he repay her kindness with evil and how immortal he had been.