Bloody Romance Chapter 34: Willing to sacrifice Part 3

It was a hot humid day. Wan Mei could feel the beads of sweat drip from her hair ornament, gently dampening her robe. Inside Zhou Xiong covered his hand over Ying Ying’s mouth whilst moving his hand down her legs, trying to part them. Outside, Fang Ge and Qiu Tie Dan were locked in bitter fighting. It was still too early to determine the victor among them. Everything was going to plan.

Ying Ying has a serious heart condition. There was no doubt that she wouldn’t survive for long under the three men’s torture. She could already forsee Fang Ge’s fury when he saw his beloved daughter’s corpse and she could envision who he would direct his anger to. Regardless of the cause, it was Qiu Tie Dan who caused his daughter to die such a horrific death. And what Wan Mei wanted his fury.

The noise inside had increased in volume. They had separated Ying Ying’s legs and her struggled cries now turned into pants. She could feel Zhou Xiong blow his hot breath against her ear. The words he panted out waere so familiar to Wan Mei, “Such good stock. The skin down there seems to glow from within and her hair is so soft and thin.”

A burning pain suddenly set into Wan Mei’s heart, as if lava was flowing onto it. She could see the despair and hopelessness within Ying YIng’s eyes. Although her time in the Gate of Ghosts had turned her heart into impenetrable stone but that look still made her heart beat something other than indifference. After all didn’t the Luo Xue from 3 years ago was forced to become the Wan Mei of now through the same way?

The memory of those hands moving around her body, the memory of the blood gushing out every time she was penetrated, all those memories, the pain and suffering remained so fresh that it felt as if they had never been buried.

“Regardless, I hope that you still have a little conscience left,” Xiao San’s words rang beside her ears. But at the same time, she could see Xiao San’s pale face with a mouthful of blood which he struggled to swallow back. However if she saved him in this way, would he be disappointed in her? What should she sacrifice, a chance to save her lover’s life or her morality and conscience? Wan Mei didn’t know.

She could only see the three men lift up Ying Ying’s dress and surround her, fighting to see the pink bud of innocence. A bead of sweat dripped down. It was hot, scorching to the skin as it reached her cold heart.

After deflecting a hundred blows, Fang Ge finally gained the upper hand. A waft of the stench of death seemed to have escaped from the back courtyard, along with some muffled human cries. Despite the fact that the cries were barely audible but he could still distinguish his daughter’s voice among the voices. That voice led him straight to the back courtyard, right into that dilapidated back room.

Blood was sprayed across the floor forming a scarlet path. On the opposite end of the path was a quivering Ying Ying, her doe eyes wide open in shock but alive.

The three young masters of Jin City had become three bodies, their heads severed from their bodies. Wan Mei stood between them, whip in hand among the sea of red.

Immediately after seeing Fang Ge, Ying Ying finally let out her tears. Her lips turned purple as she leaned her head against her father’s chest. “Just now, those three….wanted to see my parts…I-I don’t know what…..there is to see….It was this pretty girl….who came….and killed them. There was….so much blood.”

Nothing more was needed to be said. It was enough for Fang Ge to understand.

“Miss, can you forsee the future? You hid yourself inside this temple to lie in wait to save my daughter?”Fang Ge enquired as he pulled his daughter into his arms. The piercing look he gave Wan Mei felt as if he could see through straight into her heart. Wan Mei couldn’t say anything in reply, her heart was torn with indecision, her clothes soaked through.

“Who was it? Who murdered my Xiong’er?” a furious voice bellowed behind them, so filled in wrath that it seemed he could lift the roof with his voice.

“As long as this old man is dead, then I will have accomplished my mission,” Wan Mei said as she slid next to Fang Ge with a lowered head. That one phrase was enough to make Fang Ge her accomplice.

The murmuring of voices slowly increased in volume around the temple. Qiu Tie Dan’s backup had arrived as according to his plan. Regardless how bold Qiu Tie Dan was, he knew he was not made of iron. After a second of hesitation, he immediately hurried out and retreated to his men who were waiting on his orders outside.

“Surround this temple! Our traitor Fang Ge is inside with two more demonesses! Do not let any of them escape!” he ordered with a raised hand. Meanwhile, inside the temple there were three people with three dead bodies.

“You’re one of the Absolute Killers of the Gate of Ghosts, called Wan Mei. You’re nineteen years of age now and your weapon is a whip called Shen Ying.” Fang Ge glanced over at Wan Mei and slowly continued, “If I guessed correctly it was you who set us up today. You want to borrow Qiu Tie Dan’s hand to kill Ying Ying to drive an insolvable grudge between me and the rest of the Wulin Alliance so that I can become part of the Gate of Ghosts completely.”

As expected of Fang Ge, everything he said was true. He was so talented that not even the merciless Gongzhi could bear to kill. “As it’s come to this, I will be frank. As you’ve seen, the Wulin Alliance of now can’t distinguish good from evil. You’ve met Master Gongzhi. Don’t you think that working for him would change the Wulian Alliance would be a better choice…..”

“I will decide on who to choose,” Fang Ge replied in a low voice and started to inspect their surroundings. “You only need to tell me why you changed your plans, why did you suddenly appear and killed them.” Wan Mei bit her tongue but could not say anything in reply.

“Don’t tell me that your conscience suddenly make you foolishly expose yourself. Do yiu think that I would fall for your ruse of inflicting injury on yourself to gain my trust?” Wan Mei could not argue against that, only raising her eyes to meet his. A hint of her internal struggle was left in her eyes, cold sweat from the pressure seeped through her thick clothing. If Fang Ge was observant, he would know that her body could not lie. After observing her for a while, the sharpness in Fang Ge’s eyes receded a little and the air between them became less tense.

Suddenly Ying Ying fell limp in his arms. Her lips turned purple as she grabbed her chest, her face as white as an alabaster sheet. Finally Fang Ge turned his attention away from Wan Mei. He quickly pressed a hand against Ying Ying’s back whilst his breathing quickened.

Outside, Qiu Tie Dan’s voice became louder and louder. “I think you should surrender yourselves to avoid another bloody conflict.” Fang Ge’s calm demeanor finally cracked. His Inner Qi reverberated the air, shaking their eardrums.

“My daughter’s heart condition has worsened, please let her out so she can be treated.” Silence fell outside. “Let her go and I will surrender myself to you.” The silence continued.

“Let that little demoness out? Who knows if that was simply a ruse? You must all remain otherwise our weapons will not show you any mercy! You must pay for Xiong’er’s life!” Qiu Tie Dan roared as he let out a cold laugh.

There was no room for discussion, but then Qiu Tie Dan had always been inflexible. Fang Ge lowered his head until his forehead rested against his daughter’s. In a blink of an eye, several of his hairs turned white. “Help me get out of here and I will swear my loyalty to your master,” he finally let out. When he raised his head, the edges of his eyes had crinkled up and his eyes filled with anguish and despair.

************

It was not difficult to fight their way out, especially when Xiao San soon joined up with them. Ying Ying managed to escape without a hair on her head harmed. But Fang Ge had used all his energy to fight his way out. His legs gave in underneath him and the two of them hit the ground. The setting sun let out it’s last brightest rays of the day when Ying Ying unexpectedly woke up, revealing a set of pearly teeth. “Father, you can’t carry me no longer right? I’m all grown up now.” Everyone could feel the ominous turn in her situation.

“Actually, I am happiest when Mother and Father were together with me,” Ying Ying sighed, screwing her nose slightly, as she stared at the sky longingly with a raised head. Her voice was so filled with yearning that there was nothing Fang Ge could say. No more words were uttered. Ying Ying’s eyes was frozen in that position of longing as she halted her breathing with regret. And the father who had no answer watched as his only daughter passed away in front of his eyes. Fang Ge fell silent, it was a silence even colder than death.

Wan Mei slowly moved, not knowing whether to move forward or closer to Fang Ge. His sword was still in his right hand. Like a trigger, he launched himself up and aimed his sword at her, determined to kill her. His grief could not be contained any longer; his intent to kill her unavoidable.

Wan Mei immediately retreated back whilst beside her, Xiao San remained where he was. It was only until she had nowhere else to retreat to, that was when he threw himself between her and used his palm to stop the force of Fang Ge’s sword. The sharp sword pierced through the skin of his palm and went straight into his shoulder and then without hesitation pierced Wan Mei’s skin, staining the three foot long sword with the blood of two people.

Fang Ge was in no better position, the deflective blow of his attack threw him back, his hair was completed stained in blood. “She’s as cold hearted as a serpent, why are you loyally protecting her for?!” he howled. Xiao San lowered his eyes and in an even tone replied, “Whether she is right or wrong, I don’t want to comment on that. But whether she is right or wrong I am willing to bear it for her.”

Fang Ge let out a laugh. After a long while, he finally pulled out his sword and stumbled back.

“Even in a corrupt place like the Gate of Ghosts, love and honor exists. Even the lotus[1] is willing to blossom there. It is a place where there is someone is willing to die for another….”he finally said as he grabbed Ying Ying’s body and flew off.

That attack had weakened Wan Mei severely, she could only stand by holding onto Xiao San’s shoulder. Under the setting sun, no words were uttered. As the sun slowly set, their shadows lengthened until they overlapped onto each other.

The Yin Manor at Jin City

When she saw Fang Ge holding Ying Ying’s body in his arms, Yin Lan halted in her tracks. Almost instinctively she screamed, “Gu dear…..Gu dear….”her voice echoed across the whole building. As the manor of a well to do household had at least ten corridors and nine outbuildings so the person she called was unable to hear her. This was her family home before marriage. As the only daughter of the Yin family in Jin City, noble blood ran through her body so since birth she had been doted and spoiled.

After Fang Ge was found guilty to be a traitor, her first instinct was to cut off all possible relations with that defector and she took her daughter back with her to her family home. Fang Ge did not disagree with her decision. After all, he had always tolerated whatever she did. Even after marriage when she carried on her affair with her old lover Mister Gu, he pretended to not know.

But today, for the first time he repeated aggressively, “Ying Ying hopes that the three of us can be together. You must bury her with me.”

“When did you ask Ying Ying to meet you? You know that will kill her…” Yin Lan screeched.

“Every month at the Temple of Lord Yuefei at 3pm, she will meet me there. As her mother, how could you not know?”

“But as her mother I won’t cause her to die!”

The two of them faced each other in a stalemate, Fang Ge expressionless whereas tears streamed down Yin Lan’s face but both of them were equally distraught inside. That was the scene that Mister Gu saw when he finally arrived, sword in hand, his face pale with fear.

“You can get yourself another hundred swords if you like and turn it into an armor. You can have weapons protruding from every inch of your body like a hedgehog but you can bet that I can still kill you in one blow,” Fang Ge scoffed as he glanced sideways at him. That Mister Gu shook, the sword in his hand shaking as well as he heard the threat lacing Fang Ge’s voice.

“Give me my daughter back! After that you can scram!” Yin Lan screamed as she snatched the sword from her lover and then slowly approached Fang Ge until she was standing right in front of him.

“I told you, you and I must bury Ying Ying together!”

“I said, return my daughter to me!”

Once again they were at each other’s throats again. In the fourteen years of living together, there were endless arguments, countless times when they were at each other’s throats. Yin Lan started to lose control. Her face which was the exact replicate of Ying Ying’s only more mature was covered with tears. “You married me only for the power and wealth of the Yin family. You have already ruined half of my life, what else do you want?!” Her anger and resentment spiraled out of control and the hand that controlled the sword lost control as well, inserting itself straight into Fang’s Ge’s chest.

Blood splattered everywhere, staining the side of Ying Ying’s face, the only thing left that bound the two of them together.

“I tolerated your behavior and you call it ruining your life. What about you then? You have married me for fourteen years but have you ever been sincere and faithful to me? Do you know what it is like to love someone so deeply you are willing to die for them?” Fang Ge retorted quietly with his head lowered. Knowing that Fang Ge was now injured, Mister Gu finally had the courage to speak up. “A traitor like you does not have the right to talk about love and honor!” he retaliated.

Outside the manor, they could hear the stomping of footsteps and the banging of the two metal galls that belonged to Qiu Tiedan, announcing his presence before his arrival. By this time, knowing full well of the reinforcements outside, the last shred of fear disappeared from Mister Gu as he stepped back and gloated, “This time you will not be able to escape even if you had wings….” Before he could even finish, Fang Ge had raised his hand, removed the sword sticking out from his chest and inserted it straight into Mister Gu’s throat, eternally sealing the words from his mouth.

“The ones who know what is right and wrong, where love and honor exists is at the Gate of Ghosts. The ones who twist the truth and wrongly accuse innocents without even a fair trial are the so called “good” side. Now it is so difficult to distinguish the good and the bad,” Fang Ge snorted. After killing Mister Gu he clutched Ying Ying even closer to his body.

“Come,” he told them as he stood up from the pool of blood, “I want to see if you can stop me from leaving now that I have cut all ties from you and will no longer show any mercy!”

“Miss, please wait.”

At the same time in Jin city, someone stopped Wan Mei on the street.

She stared surprised when she realised it was a beggar, curled up against her feet, their hair in a long mess flapping against their face, the bones on their legs smashed up, scars marred their face, making them look even more terrifying. Wan Mei was not someone with kindness to spare, so she raised her leg in order to escape their grasp.

“Miss, have you ever heard of the wind at Luoya?” The beggar continued, tightening their grip against Wan Mei’s ankle.

That caught Wan Mei’s attention. Slowly she lowered down and pulled some silver from her pocket.

“The wind at Luoya is the wind that blows against your ear when you jump off the abyss.” The beggar sat up to whisper against her ear when she bent down. “It is the sound of freedom….”

[1] Lotus: In chinese culture, the lotus is a symbol of purity, innocence and righteousness. This is why a lot of Chinese Bodhisattvas and deities are pictured sitting on lotuses or carrying lotuses.