As soon as Qi Wei left, Wan Mei took off all her clothes and lay on the bed. Although she still felt a little hot, but nethertheless managed to fall asleep and had a long beautiful dream.
Naturally, she was Bi Yao, it seemed Bi Yao with her large cleavage and seemingly little intelligence was doing splendidly well. Now, all she needed to do was rest and wrap up the net.[1]
When Qi Xin got back, he immediately came to sit beside her on the bed, watching her as she slept behind closed doors, right until sunset.
Court affairs often kept Qi Wei busy until around five in the evening. Remembering the time, Wan Mei slowly opened her eyes, grabbed the blanket and scuffled to the corner of the bed.
“It is alright.” Qi Xin told her gently. But his comfort hardly invoked any feelings of security, “You will not die. I have found a way to save you.”
Wan Mei leaned towards him, “Then who will save you Young Master? If Master is furious, then will he not kill you?”
“No.” Qi Xin pressed his lips together. His heart racing almost skipping a few beats in it’s hurry. “He will not kill me. Only… But I have always been of one heart with the general. He said there will be no second time and therefore there will not be.”
By the time he finished, he was almost incomprehensible. Wan Mei narrowed her eyes and silently laughed at him in her mind.
The first thing Qi Wei did when he returned was to look for Qi Xin. Without warning, he kicked open the door.
Seeing this, Wan Mei scrambled closer to the corner of the bed, losing the cover of the blanket with her hurry and half revealing a single pale peak.
Crash! Qi Wei overturned a stool with a kick of fury. His eyes filled with rage, disappointment and despair.
“I told you to not touch her,” he growled, anger pouring out from him, “Do you not listen to me anymore? If I asked you to kill this woman, would you continue to defy me?!”
Qi Xin widened his eyes in innocence, “But I really did not touch her, I….”
“Enough!” Qi Wei waved his hand to cut him off, “She drank an entire bottle of aphrodisiac this morning. If you did not touch her, then how can she be lying here so comfortably? I do not wish to listen to your lies. I only wish for you to kill her, you only need to tell me clearly if you are willing to or not.”
Qi Xin fell silent when he heard his words. He paced up and down the room for a long time before he pulled out a deadly thin dagger from his belt and pointed it’s shiny end at Wan Mei.
She balled herself up and slowly shuffled backwards. But in the end he still tore away her blanket and planted the dagger straight into her chest.
Blood splattered like the petals of a flower, the blade protruding from her back. There was no question that Wan Mei was dead.
It was not what Qi Wei had expected. He stood there in a daze, unable to vent his anger at anyone. Slowly he collapsed into a chair, his forehead throbbing from the leashed anger.
“Then let’s talk about what happened before.” After a moment of silence, he began, knocking his head with his fist. “Why did you give that black jade pendant to someone? And why did you pretend to obey me, only to lie with this woman as soon as my back is turned?”
Qi Xin started, unsure of what to do. But after a moment of consideration decided to move forward and pour a cup of tea to offer to Qi Wei.
The tea on the table was called Cold fragrance and had been prepared accordingly to Qi Wei’s tastes. He rested the cup in his hands and coldly humphed, “This doesn’t have poison in it does it?” And then he tossed the tea on the floor.
It was meant to be a joke but as soon as the liquid touched the carpet, a hiss pierced the room and white froth could be seen bubbling on the carpet.
Both father and son could not speak. Qi Xin because he had no explanation for it and Qi Wei his heart slowly freezing with hardness.
So the room was only filled with silence, oppressive silence, a silence that sliced through everything.
In the end, it was Qi Wei who finally broke the silence, his voice sounded as if he had aged by ten years in that short time, “This means you betrayed me. Not because of a woman, but for yourself. Then do you remember the promise you made to me? Remember the consequences for your betrayal!?” His voice rumbled in the room, covering Qi Wei’s weak no completely.
“Bring my Ta Xue over!” Qi Xin knew that his father had made the judgement already, his entire world seemed to collapse in that second.
Ta Xue, that was Qi Wei’s horse back then and even though it was the culprit for the injury, no harm was ever brought to it.
Qi Wei had told him before, this horse stopped him from being a man but if Qi Xin ever betrayed him, he would suffer an even graver consequence.
The horse was soon brought over and Qi Wei tied it to the door of the room before feeding it an aphrodisiac pill.
This was not the first time Qi Xin had experienced this. Back then, he had attempted to secretly let a female attendant out and to scare him, Qi Wei had grabbed the animal’s formidable cock and rubbed it against hi arsehole. Although there was no penetration but Qi Wei still felt fear shake him to the core as he thought back to the harrowing memory.
The nightmare would soon repeat itself. Qi Wei grabbed a fistful of his hair, slammed his head onto the south facing wall and tore down his undergarment.
As if he was m led by some sort of dream,Qi Xin felt his hand reach for the knife hanging on his waist, feeling for the second hidden blade inside the sheath. Yesterday’s events unraveled in front of him, after that sharp knife penetrated his chest, he woke up soon after fainting and could still move freely around afterwards.
The swordsman told him that he was an assassin before and knew the feeling of being forced to kill someone. What he did was simply stab him in the area half an inch below his heart, in an area known as the blank acupoint. It was an area that would look like a fatal wound but in fact less severe than it actually was. At most, the victim would only be unconscious for a short while.
He asked Qi Xin if he wanted to learn of which the latter could not deny. So after a night of practise, the swordsman gifted him a knife.
“This is a knife with two blades, “he told Qi Xin, “the blade is extremely thin so after you stab the victim with it, they will be fine.” Those were the last words he left Qi Xin before sweeping away.
And now the blade was in his hands. He had already used one of the blades so only one remained.
His first thought was to drive the knife into Qi Wei’s blank acupoint which would diffuse his situation and not hurt his life.
But what about the future? What about after this hurdle when the misunderstanding was cleared? Qi Wei would still remain suspicious of him and he would not meet a good end.
“Why don’t I die? Why don’t we die together?” That thought overcame everything, coercing all the injustice he had felt in the past, becoming an unremovable thought.
He heard Ta Xue scream, knew it had lifted its front hoofs up and that it was time to make the difficult decision.
The knife was pulled out, he remembered Qi Wei was as tall as him, making note of the position, he turned and drove the sharp point into his chest.
The knife did not even manage to go further than an inch into Qi Wei’s chest and was not fatal but it sparked the rage in Qi Wei. He hit Qi Xin’s back with his palm, cracking his spine.
He collapsed to the ground with a moan, blood poured out from his nose and mouth, his long eyelashes fluttered. A look of peace overtook his features.
It was in that moment that Qi Wei lost his sanity. He clutched his wound and when he heard Ta Xue’s screams, he realized what he had lost.
In a daze, he reached over and killed Ta Xue with the palm of his hand before slowly bending down to feel Qi Xin’s breath. Unbeknownst to him, Wan Mei had silently sat up and was slowly making her way towards him, knife in hand.
And so Qi Wei lost his life. Lost his life through a cut in his throat.
Taking the red parasol that was leaning against the wall, Wan Mei opened it and waited for it to finish sucking the blood out of Qi Wei’s body until it became an empty husk.
On the floor, Qi Xin was still alive. He watched fixated before a smile ghosted his lips towards the end.
She bent down and leaned towards him, “It is a pity you are called Qi Xin. And you even swore that you would never betray your adopted father. In the end he died because of you.”
He blinked, his smile broadened, “Actually it is better that this occurred. He should not have lived like that. The Dragon Tiger General Qi Wei should be honest and honorable.”
“Thank you for helping me realize that.” He lifted his head weakly to glance at her, “I will now follow him in death. Miss, you are ruthless and calculating I hope one day an infatuated man would be one of heart with you.”
He was smiling when he spoke the final words. It was a curse that was had more venom in than most and one that hit true and accurately at Wan Mei’s weakness. In a fit a rage, she lifted her blade and cut open his throat.
Blood seeped out and the corpse flower removed it’s stigma and everything was finally done.
But Wan Mei was not happy. In a place like the Gate of Ghosts what infatuated man would be one of heart with her?
There was no question to the answer.
After she returned to the Gate of Ghosts, Wan Mei called for a swing to be placed in her courtyard. The frame was extremely tall so when she swung herself on it she would slowly climb closer and closer above the walls. The summer wind caressed her dress, revealing the beautiful sight underneath from time to time. Someone quickly halted outside the walls, she laughed and pushed herself in the direction of the wind. When the swing reached it’s highest, she let go, her body launching into the air.
Immediately a familiar figure cut through the air and flew closer and closer to the ground. Xiao San raised his head and after catching her the two of them rolled a short distance to break the force of the fall before coming to a halt in a heap.
Summer’s plants were the most fragrant. When they were safe, Wan Mei wrapped her arm around Xiao San’s waist and laughed when she saw his pale face.
“Let’s go on the swing together.”, She grabbed his hand as her laughter died and led him to the swing. “It feels so good, as if you are flying.”
With a cold expression hanging on his face, Xiao San allowed himself to be led into the swing. Wan Mei lifted her skirts, climbed on top of him and then used her tiptoes to push the swing back into the air.
It really resembled the feeling of flying. The wind lifted her long hair, she opened her arms, it was as if she had grown a pair of wings.
“Are you earnest about me?” she whispered into his ear as she nibbled on his earlobe.
Xiao San wrapped his arm around her waist, afraid that she would fall and leaving him unable to stop her. She nibbled his earlobe and then afterwards, nipped her way down his neck and in the end, he felt his manhood respond to her. Feeling his response, she reached over and pushed it into her body.
So the two of them made love in the air, swinging backwards in forwards in time with each stroke. Night gradually fell. A firefly flew past and Wan Mei reached over and caught it in her hand.
“Are you earnest about me?” She shifted in his lap as she asked again, not forgetting to pump her body up and down his length, “tell me. Up here, I doubt the Ghost eyes will be able to hear you.”
“I will never disappoint you regardless.” Xiao San finally answered this time. His voice low but firm.
Wan Mei frowned and opened her palm, “Do you hear that darling? He said he will not disappoint me. Do you believe him? If you do, then do not fly away.”
The firefly finally gaining freedom, fluttered it’s wings but in the end did not fly away, instead landed on Wan Mei’s front, flicking it’s light in time with her breaths.
Wan Mei and Xiao San stared at each other for a while before Wan Mei finally lowered her head and rested it against Xiao San’s shoulder.
“Then let’s be of one heart. If we are of one heart, we can even tear gold apart [2]. You get avengement and I will try and get my freedom and then we will fly away from this place together.”
As she uttered the last words, she straightened and moaned writhering her body on top of Xiao San like a snake in water.
“Do not worry I will not disappoint you.” Xiao San told her. He arched forward and felt himself reach the peak of excitement, his eyes shone brightly in the darkness.
Panting, Wan Mei used her strength to push the swing up again, so high that they flew higher than the walls of the courtyard as if they were really flying.
“You are in such s good mood, little sister,” someone said just as they were enjoying the benefits of a swing. It was the delicate beauty Wan Xiang who was watching them and applauding from below.
The swing quickly swung to the ground again. Xiao San bowed to her as soon as he removed himself from the swing, before disappearing from sight.
Wan Xiang wrapped her arm in a friendly manner round hers and with a bright smile told her,”I do not know if you have heard but elder sister Hong Xing has died. We are missing a Heavenly Slayer so one is picked from amongst us Earth Slayers to replace her.”
Wan Mei smiled back at her, “Then I believe congratulations are needed sister, you are the one who is truly capable of it.”
“You may also have the competence too.” Wan Xiang halted her steps to look at her, she still looked naive and sweet, “although you have only been with us for less than a year but Master/Gongzi said, he is willing to break a rule for you so you may enter the competition too.”
Notes:
1) Wrap up the net 收网: chinese saying meaning when the prey was caught in the net and now the hunter only needed to close the holes in the net to secure the trap and prevent the situation from going out of hand
2) When you are one of heart with someone even gold can be torn apart. 齐心断金 The original saying which can be found in ancient texts is 兄弟同心 其利断金 which roughly translates to when brothers unite, their unity is sharper than a knife and can even slice apart gold. So this has a similar meaning.