Chapter 172: A different kind of opening up
Ming Tao took a pause to settle what Mira had just revealed to him in his system. His fists clenched but he tried to keep a leveled head in front of her. Mira had not yet told him what she understood about the leaves and the great use or significance of them all, but he imagined that it must be something really important for it to be exchanged with blood, or worse, lives, but if this was indeed true, it would have spread across their region like wild fire.
"Do you remember the rumour?" Mira asked, breaking Ming Tao’s reverie.
"What rumour?" Ming Tao asked.
Mira swallowed. She was not the old owner of this body but she wondered if she needed to remind Ming Tao first that she had changed before saying this. "The rumour that circulated that I ate beast people and beast cubs." Mira blurted out.
Ming Tao blinked. He knew the rumours, in fact, he thought it was true but Mira had never been punished for it. Now that he thought about it, his wife Mira got away with almost every diabolic thing she did and it made his blood boil knowing that someone must have done the same thing somewhere else.
"I do." Ming Tao uttered.
"Well, I never did it."
Ming Tao’s lashes met his lower eye lids in an instance. He looked perplexed. This made Mira frown. "You really thought me, a common fox, would feed on her own kind?" Mira question.
"Well," Ming Tao coughed, he didn’t want to wage a mini war on his wife. "You had a reputation." He cleared his throat.
Mira squinted as she stared at him. "Seriously?" She raised a brow. "You really think I would still be alive and undisciplined with all of the hatred passed my way if I ate beast people?" Mira questioned.
Ming Tao pushed his stool backwards. Mira’s eyes were intensely focused on him and he did not know a colour of danger, but he could imagine it at this moment. "I mean," Ming Tao swallowed. "There was a reason most of the population wanted you dead and why no one would have mattered if you had died. Yet, no one had the strong will to lay a hand on you and do the needful. There was a scare as well as the hate." The more Ming Tao spoke, the more he could smell the danger closing in. "I mean this with love, of course." He immediately added. There was something scary about Mira, she could be love and sweet one moment yet look like she could wound you the next.
Mira sighed. Ming Tao had a point, plus, she had the memories of the old owner of this body so she knew that he was not wrong. There were so many other factors that played into her being alive, one being who she was and the another being her mate bond with all of the rulers along with the power she held but she least expected him to voice it out, and especially now. "People did try to kill me." Mira said to Ming Tao. She had never told anyone this before.
"What do you mean?" Ming Tao asked. "Do you mean at the pride land, in the torrent plagued river?"
Mira shook her head. "Before that. Hye Yang bribed some beast men to end my life, I barely survived the attack. It was the night I met all of you by the muddy path." Mira confessed.
Ming Tao felt a part of him lose it. He remembered that day, it was the day they were alerted of a disturbance within the woods and thought to check it out. The day Jia Hao spread Mira’s legs in front of them and sniffed them talked about how she still failed to perform her duty.
They had all hated Mira Yang then, in fact, they hated her so much that if they had heard the news of her death, they would have rewarded the people who made it happen but now that Ming Tao was hearing her say this, a part of him shivered with fear.
He did not even want to imagine finding her dead one day. He had had his own traumatic experience when he nearly ended her life in the lion clan after his little charade and it was pure torture and even then, he had not fully warmed his way to Mira.
"She. . . tried to kill you not once but," his words caught in his throat. "Twice?" Ming Tao struggled to say the word.
Mira nodded. "I just never said anything about it. I mean, who did not want to kill me?" Mira stated softly.
Ming Tao sat there frozen on his stool. It was now he understood it, why Mira went to the Lion clan, she was running away from her home and from her sister who tried to end her life.
Maybe that was why Mira was running away from her old ways too as some people tried to kill her then decided to change. Ming Tao felt a lump form in his throat. He did not want to even imagine how that must have felt for her. Before he got attached to his wife, he would have said she deserved every single bit of it, but now, he could not help but worry and it made him worry if this case was something she should work on with him, the last thing he wanted was for her to relive a situation that would only bring terrible memories.
"Mira. . ." Ming Tao called softly. "If you want to back away from this, I would completely understand. I would not stop working on it and I would be sure to finish it regardless." Ming Tao said to her. This revelation made him have conflicted emotions. He still wanted to hear what she had to say but he would not mind not knowing and finding out by himself as long as she felt okay.