Two twined together on the warm and scented sheets, the room charged with a carnal atmosphere. The Scorpion was seated to one side, watching on in complete stillness like a shadow.
The two people on the bed seemed to be getting into it, their moans growing louder. If one took a closer look, the people he had chosen this time were in fact two youths; a long while later, they finally recovered from the last vestiges of ardour. Exchanging looks, they draped their clothes over themselves, and came to kneel on one knee before the Scorpion, bodies half-covered.
Pickily, the Scorpion set down his wine cup. His gaze swept over the still-flushed faces and bodies of the two youths.
At this moment, the door opened. A gust of wind curled in, and one of the youths kneeling on the floor shivered. A large man was standing at the door, his face masked.
As though he was completely unaware that someone had arrived, the Scorpion did not look up in the man's direction. He reached out to grab a youth's jaw, forcing him to lift his head, and examined his features closely--his looks seemed to be sculpted from jade and refined with powder, a shiny lustre brightening his eyes when he blinked. A pointy chin, and a petite, delicate face--he was born male, but had a feminine visage.
The Scorpion shook his head, and sighed in disappointment. "It's no good. They're too feminine, like rouge stains my hand when I grab them."
The masked man strode in like it was nothing taboo to stay away from. Hearing this, he cast a glance at that quivering pair of youths, and said, "They're but two twinks. Aren't they all this effeminate? What is so unordinary about this?"
The Scorpion waved a hand, and as though they had been relieved of a colossal burden, the two youths bowed, and scrambled out of the room. The Scorpion then slowly poured himself another cup of wine, and said, "It is precisely because it is ordinary that it is meaningless. If these men are like women, why should I whore boys? What a pity...that those two escaped the other time."
The masked man sat down without care, and asked, "Oh? These little pets you keep can escape by themselves?"
The Scorpion looked at him, smiling, and continued slowly, "They aren't mine, but two guests with dishonest intentions--speaking of which, you most probably are acquainted with one of them. Based on his manner, he looks to be a key figure on your side of things."
The masked man froze. He paused, and asked, "Is it...him?"
The Scorpion said, "Who knows?"
The masked man was silent for a long while, then stood, as though he could not stay still any longer. He paced the room with his hands clasped behind his back, murmuring to himself, "He went missing all of a sudden a while ago, and has appeared here, at this moment...he said to capture that Xue Fang and repossess the key, best without attracting the attention of those major clans, but his own movements have become difficult to predict. What does this man mean by this?"
As though it did not concern him, the Scorpion repeated, "Who knows…"
The masked man halted in his tracks abruptly, interrupting the Scorpion with a raised hand. He said, "Let's not talk about this. Have you gotten rid of Sun Ding?"
The Scorpion hummed in agreement, and extended a leg to kick a box out from under the desk, the bottom of it scraping the floor as it slid towards and stopped in front of the masked man. The man lifted the lid of the box with the tip of his shoe. In it was a human head. Despite some decay, the blood-red birthmark over his cheek was still visible. The masked man heaved a sigh of relief, and smiled as he said, "It's good that we've gotten rid of one, the others will be easy to deal with too. Haha, the Delighted Mourning Ghost…while others didn't care when Zhao Jing spread false news about Xue Fang, this fool took the bait, and allowed me to destroy him in one fell swoop."
When the Scorpion had caught the words 'the others will be easy to deal with too', a look--easily missed--flashed in his eyes. He smiled, and said meaningfully, "Yes, there is no need to rush for the others. Problems will be sorted out eventually, one by one."
Abruptly, he set the wine cup down onto the table. His gaze focused, and he said, "Let's jump straight to it--where is the real Xue Fang and your supposed 'key'? Have you collected any clues by now?"
The masked man shook his head, and returned the question, "You neither?"
The Scorpion frowned. "How strange, how odd…this person seems to have evaporated from the living world. Where can he possibly go?"
The masked man was silent for a beat, before he said, "There's no hurry to find him, we'll discuss it further after we get our hands on the Lapis Armour. Zhao Jing is growing more and more ambitious. He seems to be absolutely sure that I'm the one who has hidden the 'key'--I predict that his next move is to shift the blame of the missing Lapis Armour onto the Ghost Valley, follow it with a covert attack, then take the chance to consolidate his power. At present, the pugilist world of the Central Plains is a mess. No one knows what's going on, and are just following suit, adding fuel to the fire. If they hear him spurring people to action, it is very unlikely that they do not follow his directions. This is him starting with the Ghost Valley in his operation."
The masked man humphed coldly, and said, "I knew that such a day would come, working with Zhao Jing. Nothing much, just that…"
The Scorpion quirked an eyebrow and looked at him. He asked, "What, are you planning to make use of your own Valley Master?"
The masked man laughed. "He's just a madman with tough skin and some ability to fight and kill at most. Now that a moment where he's finally become of use has arrived, let him fight it out with that Zhao Jing. Since he has already arrived in Luoyang and paid you a visit, I'll have to trouble you to 'invite' him, that senior, to carry out some labour."
The Scorpion nodded and said, "Easily done."
At this moment, that group of people, which was the target of this scheming, was still at ease.
That day, Zhang Chengling found Zhou Zishu and told him of his intention to leave with Gu Xiang and the others. Zhou Zishu rolled his eyes at him, and gave him a two-word reply: "Dream on."
Zhang Chengling opened his mouth, and decided to take a leaf out of Wen Kexing's book--pestering him relentlessly, following Zhou Zishu around for a whole day, nattering at him non-stop. Right up till when Zhou Zishu returned to his room at night and was about to slam the door shut, he stuck out a foot, wedged it in between the door and leant his hand against the door frame. Raising his head to stare mulishly at his shifu, he begged, "Shifu, allow me to leave, I can't not do anything, I…"
Zhou Zishu's gaze darkened. He was not a patient person; he had been in a good mood, so he had allowed this little tyke to pester him all day, but anyone would be annoyed by now too. He lifted a foot and kicked at his chest--Zhang Chengling thought that he was testing his martial skills, and flipped backwards merrily, dodging this blow. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Zhou Zishu shut the door on him with a thump.
At some point in time, Wen Kexing had materialised behind Zhang Chengling. Sighing at his beautiful, disrupted fantasies, he said, "Great, there's no way I can enter by the door now."
Zhang Chengling's head drooped. He stood to the side like an eggplant that had been defeated by the frost; Wen Kexing's lamentful tone sounded as though he had been the cause of Wen Kexing's non-entry. Wen Kexing sighed again, and hinted, "If a man keeps empty chambers, his desires might often go unsated. When his desires go unsated, he might do some irrational things. When he loses his sense of rationality, he might…"
Although Zhang Chengling was a little slow to react, he wasn't stupid. In that instant, he sensed a killing aura rise from Wen Kexing, like a white cloud of vapour billowing from a crate of buns steaming over the fire; frightened, he leapt to his feet and scrambled away, vanishing from Wen Kexing's line of sight.
Wen Kexing watched the figure of him leave, as though he was a little perplexed and did not understand why. Lifting his hand to knock, he braced his other hand on the windowpane, preparing to break in via the window to experience the thrill of a rapist for once.
Unexpectedly, the door opened. Wen Kexing, who was preparing to commit a wicked deed, was stunned. Even when Zhou Zishu turned slightly to let him in, he was still stuck in a not-oft-seen dumbfounded manner, and said, "You're…letting me in?"
Zhou Zishu cast a glance at him, and cocked an eyebrow. "Not coming in? Forget it, then." Lifting his hand, he moved to close the door, but Wen Kexing hastily pushed his hand aside and wormed his way in, brows spread in joy.
Yet Zhou Zishu lit the candles, without the slightest sign of going to rest for the night. He bent to pour two cups of tea, and sat down by the table. Eyes lowered, he did not appear to have any intention of joking around, but seemed like he had something serious to discuss.
Wen Kexing watched him for a while with a cheeky smile, but slowly, the expression on his face faded. He picked up a teacup, but held it in his hand without drinking from it. Leaning against the backrest of his chair, he stretched out his legs, crossed them, and turned his head to the side to look at Zhou Zishu. He asked, "Why, do you have something to say to me? Have you decided to entrust yourself to me in marriage from now on, or…"
Zhou Zishu broke him off with a short laugh. Raising his gaze to observe him, he said, "Don't you have something to say to me, Valley Master Wen?"
Wen Kexing's words caught in his throat. He opened his mouth, but only shook his head a long moment later. Smiling, he said, "The Great Shaman of Nanjiang is a capable figure. I am very assured if you leave with him."
Dipping the tip of his finger in tea, Zhou Zishu drew senseless patterns on the table surface. "Nothing else?"
Wen Kexing raised his head and watched him. He gazed past the handsome features of the man before him, softened by the light, and was reminded of many things--he felt as though he had known this person for a very, very long time. An emotion had stirred within him the moment he laid eyes on the bones of his back; later on, he had grown to like his identity, and had thought that…so, this was how the leader of Tian Chuang was really like as a person. All of a sudden, the other person felt to him like a kindred soul of his in this world--they were both lone wolves who had been caught in hunters' traps, struggling with all of their lives' might to free themselves to no avail, and thus, were willing to gnaw their own legs off without mercy.
He couldn't help himself from following him, from watching him. Then a revelation dawned on him--he realised, for the first time, that if Zhou Zishu could live like this, was it also a possibility for himself to live like this?
As he pondered, and pondered, the notion consumed him whole, and once it had consumed him, he could not free himself from it. Unconsciously, he reached out and caressed Zhou Zishu's face, his fingers slightly bent and brushing his cheek gently. The coarse skin of a man was cool when it came into contact with his palm, covered with calluses and scars. All of a sudden, he said, "Don't die, will you. If you die, and I live on by myself, won't I be very lonely?"
Zhou Zishu grasped his wrist, but did not throw his hand off. He smiled, and said, "As long as there is a shred of a chance at survival, I cannot die. This life is mine. This martial ability is mine. The heavens granted me this path in life--if they wish to take it away, it won't be that easy."
Wen Kexing could feel his breath on his fingers. Eyes half-lidded, he murmured, almost in a trance, "That year, an owl knocked over the bowl of red water a villager was carrying in his hands…"
Zhou Zishu gazed at him. Expression unchanging, he asked the question he had once asked, "Why was the villager carrying a bowl of red water in his hands?"
Slowly, Wen Kexing started to smile, and said, "Water is colourless, but if human blood lands in it, won't it turn red?"
Zhou Zishu looked at him, and said nothing else. Wen Kexing seemed to suddenly come back to his senses--light came back into his faraway eyes, and they curved up in a smile as he gazed at him and said, "A-Xu, sleep with me once. This way, we'd both keep each other in our hearts. You won't die that easily then, and neither will I. What do you think?"
He said it jokingly, yet Zhou Zishu did not engage, but merely looked at him with an odd gaze. A while later, he finally asked, "Are you truly sincere about this?"
Wen Kexing laughed, his entire frame tilting towards Zhou Zishu. He spoke, nearly brushing Zhou Zishu's lips, "Can't you tell if I am truly sincere or not?"
Stunned, Zhou Zishu paused slightly, and said in a low voice, "I…truly cannot tell. I have not experienced many instances of sincerity over the course of my life, and cannot identify it. Are you?"
Wen Kexing's fingers climbed up his shoulder, and tugged his hair bun loose. Dark hair cascaded down, making the tough man before his eyes look a few degrees more fragile in an instant. He dropped his cheeky grin, and said in a voice very soft, but with momentous certainty, "I am."
Then he closed his eyes and pressed his lips to Zhou Zishu's, casting his heart, affected beyond measure, to the bottommost depths of his decision beyond return, abandoning all further reservations.
Slowly, Zhou Zishu brought his hand up. A long, long while later, it finally came to rest on his shoulder, fingers grasping at the cloth over it.
Out of the blue, a yelp burst in the night. Zhou Zishu's somewhat dazed eyes cleared immediately; Wen Kexing paused in what he was doing, and in that instant when both were distracted, they crashed to the floor together in that suggestive position.
Expressionless, Wen Kexing dropped his gaze, pulled his and Zhou Zishu's open robes back closed, and asked quietly, "At this time...say, should I boil the intruder alive, or braise them with sauce?"