Invitation

Slave Yao stared at Slave Huan for a while in confusion. He was looking at him, but he no longer knew him. It was like Slave Yao had turned a blind eye and no longer saw him. Suddenly, a deep flush rose on Slave Yao's face as he reached out and clutched Slave Huan's arm.

"What happened to me? You know. You can save me, can't you?"

"You're right," said Gu Shenwei, while he pulled away his arm stiffly, "but, first I want my white handkerchief back."

"The handkerchief, handkerchief..."

Slave Yao muttered, almost as if he had never heard those words before. Then his blush receded and his chest heaved rapidly. His arms twitched violently and he aggressively knocked on the brick bed. Slave Yao laughed again hoarsely.

Gu Shenwei anxiously reapplied pressure to Slave Yao's Tianchi acupoint. He was trying to put Internal Breath into Slave Yao's body through Yin Strength. Unfortunately, his Internal Strength was too weak to subdue the forceful and flood-like Yang Strength inside Slave Yao's body. Although Slave Huan exhausted himself trying, Slave Yao did not get any better.

Only powerful superiors, such as Mama Xue, could stop his Qigong Deviation with Internal Breath.

Gu Shenwei gave up rescuing him and tried to avoid his flailing arms. Then he searched Slave Yao's body thoroughly, even between his legs, yet he found nothing. Slave Yao must have hidden the handkerchief elsewhere.

After struggling for nearly an hour, Slave Yao had exhausted his energy and finally calmed down. He moved his arms once in a while and grunted like a someone drowning, struggling to get his last breath.

"The handkerchief! Give it to me!"

Gu Shenwei exerted all his strength while shaking Slave Yao's body, intending to squeeze the last of his vitality out of him.

Slave Yao fell into a confused state, the blush came and went, again and again. Sometimes, he would regain consciousness and chatter and babble nonsensically.

He could not recognize Slave Huan or the others. All that he said was nonsense—boasting this, cursing that, and sometimes begging as if he were a solo player, acting out several figures simultaneously.

Gu Shenwei was desperate. He had only completed half of his plan with the help of the Will of the Divine. Now, Slave Yao was dying and he did not know where to find the white handkerchief.

Slave Yao's situation was quite unstable. From early morning to sunset, neither a doctor nor Mama Xue came to treat him. This trivial thing was not worthy of notice in their eyes.

Gu Shenwei lay down, resting his head against the brick bed. It was impossible to get a clue about the handkerchief from the wheezing and nonsensical words that burst out of Slave Yao's mouth, who had completely forgotten about the handkerchief thing as well as Golden Roc Fort. All that he mentioned was past experiences.

What Gu Shenwei got from the miscellaneous murmurs was that Slave Yao's former master had been a very mean and despicable person, filling Slave Yao's heart with hatred toward the world.

However, it was strange that Gu Shenwei felt no fear sitting beside a person who was going to die soon. He focused all his attention toward his plans for the future. He would not be able to protect his life better than Slave Yao had. Sooner or later, he might be sharing the same fate.

How would he explain that to Slave Yao when they met in hell?

"Hey, it was me who led you to experience Qigong Deviation, but you also killed me by stealing that white handkerchief, so we're even."

How would Slave Yao respond? Maybe he would have found a new boss in hell, giving no concern to his soul's existence. Yet, if Slave Yao still had inordinate ambitions, Gu Shenwei made up his mind to kill him again.

"Slave Huan."

Slave Yao suddenly and calmly called his name, as if nothing had happened. Gu Shenwei's heart began to pound despite the fact he had remained calm the entire time. He turned his head and gazed at Slave Yao.

Slave Yao's eyeballs were terribly bright, almost as if they were burning. The mysterious light of a man who had returned to consciousness just before death.

"You will never be able to run away. I'll be waiting for you in hell."

Those were the last words that Slave Yao spoke. As if he had the capability to read people's minds, he read Slave Huan's. After these minacious, or maybe prophetic words, Slave Yao exhaled his last breath as his head tilted down and settled on his chest.

Gu Shenwei's heart pounded again. He knew Slave Yao was dead after he checked for his breath.

Gu Shenwei asked no one for help. Carrying the corpse, he walked out of the western gate and threw it off the end of Ghost Cliff. He felt a great relief and yet he knew there was another burden on his mind, one which he might not ever be able to cast off.

After he arrived back in the bedroom, the boys inside tried to avoid him for fear that they would be contaminated by the evil spirit of Slave Yao. So, they kept at least three feet away from him.

Gu Shenwei was too tired to care. He was too exhausted to even worry about the arrival of Han Shiqi, who would soon be arriving. So, he closed his eyes and fell asleep quickly.

Things did not go as people wished. The next day, Slave Ji woke the boys with a rosewood stick by knocking it on the edge of brick bed. He announced that they did not have to pay respects to the Eighth Young Mistress because she believed that they had acquired evil spirits. They were left to clean up Firewood Yard, since "Third Brother" would come and rest here tonight.

This surprised Gu Shenwei and he was not sure how to handle it. He thought he might need another fight.

However, Slave Ji solved this problem for him temporarily. Even though his eyes were full of hatred, the target had been another boy. He asked Slave Huan, "Is that guy dead?"

Gu Shenwei nodded.

"Clean?"

Gu Shenwei nodded again.

"Take off your clothes, let the others burn them. You're not allowed to cross the threshold for three days."

Gu Shenwei finally felt at ease. He did not care about being possessed by an evil spirit. Instead, he thought that Han Shiqi would not trouble himself to look for him for a while.

He had dodged getting the rap for the disaster, but someone had to be his whipping boy. Slave Ji pointed to Slave Qi and Slave Xie and ordered them. "Come here."

The other boys left the room in a hurry as nobody wanted to be in the same room with Slave Huan.

Gu Shenwei took off his clothes and tossed them out of the room. Soon afterward, someone took them away and then a new set was thrown into the room.

Gu Shenwei dressed himself neatly and then searched the whole room carefully. He looked in corners and behind the stone bricks that could be moved.

Slave Yao had hidden the handkerchief very well and Gu Shenwei could not seem to find it anywhere. He doubted that it had been destroyed by Slave Yao. However, since he had already memorized every word, there had been no need for him to keep it.

The boys would not dare to return, except for the brothers Slave Qi and Slave Xie. They had been exempted from the labor and were waiting for Han Shiqi's "favor".

The three boys awkwardly kept silent in the room.

They would have become friends if they were not ignoring each other over a misunderstanding that Gu Shenwei just could not explain.

In the past, the brothers had been ashamed of being "favored". However, they had calmed down. Even the young one, Slave Xie, did not weep or wail endlessly like he used to.

After a while, Slave Qi asked straightforwardly, "Did you kill Slave Yao?"

Slave Qi could not speak Central Plain Chinese very well, but he was sure about what he had asked. However, Gu Shenwei failed to understand his intention, so he remained silent.

"We need you to kill another."

He sounded certain and Gu Shenwei could tell that Slave Qi was looking for his help.

"Who?"

"That man."

Gu Shenwei understood who he was talking about. Out of the three boys, only he knew the name "Han Shiqi", while Slave Ji called the man "Third Brother". He was not sure whether that was the killer's real name or not.

Gu Shenwei did not doubt the brother's determination to kill Han Shiqi, but he decided not to answer immediately since they were not actually friends.

"We want our humiliation wiped out. I know you don't want it either. Would you like to join us?"

Speaking in a non-native tongue, Slave Qi's tone sounded crude. However, amidst his eyes, right under his thick eyebrows, Gu Shenwei could see his honesty and sincerity, which was rare among the slaves of Golden Roc Fort.

"I'm in," Gu Shenwei replied.

There was no need to refuse their help and he had no reason to play a trick on Slave Qi.

Slave Xie stepped forward as well. The three boys held each other's arms to express their trust. They had observed each other for so long that they could treat each other sincerely.

Slave Qi was tall, half a head higher than Gu Shenwei, and had a wild and prideful temperament. He acted like an animal cub that stood in the bustling world of humankind, incompatible and despised.

The younger one, Slave Xie, was more like a reticent child that had not outgrown their childhood yet. He followed his brother all the time everywhere. He could not seem to adjust to his current position or to his life as a slave. He acted more like a child from a wealthy family than Gu Shenwei did.

Obviously, these two brothers could not win anyone's heart with such characters. They were treated like toys by Han Shiqi, gifts and competitors by Slave Ji, and disobedient boys by Mama Xue. Anyway, they were punished far more often than the others, especially Slave Qi.

After several months living as a slave, there had been a visible change to him. No trace of immaturity could be found on his face. There was only a pair of vigilant eyes and a tight-lipped mouth, which was far from pleasing.

Gu Shenwei was the exception. He saw the same anger, hatred, and fright in the brothers. That killer from the faraway snow mountain also had the same bitter experience as they had.

Neither of them mentioned their past since there was no point in doing so. The pain would not be reduced or released. Instead, the weakness and fragility of the survivors would be revealed.

Now they were faced with the same predicament, the same danger, and the same enemy. Violence had to be met with violence, so they decided to seek revenge. But Han Shiqi was not Slave Yao, who knew nothing about martial arts. He was a killer of Golden Roc Fort, and even if he was not the strongest, he could destroy these three boys easily.

"I've got a plan," Slave Qi said.

He had been waiting for this moment for ages and was willing to take any risk to defeat the villain.