5 Ch. 5: Miscalculation

TW: assault, attempted r*pe

The tenseness that hung in the air, accentuated by the rustle within the bushes and gusts of wind. The other man was wound up like a spring, jumping from every little sound.

Xiao Peng's dull senses somehow managed to notice his friend's unusualness, although he chalked it up to excitement.

"Are you eager to return to your old wife! Hungry after days within the woods?" he joked crudely, nudging his friend with his elbow as he clumsily referenced sex. His eyes leered up at Meifeng, who was sitting obediently in the same spot the entirety of the time Xiao Peng had returned. The other man nearly tumbled to his side from the force and rubbed his arm.

"No, Xiao Peng, just vigilant. The woods are dangerous you know. Never know what you might run into," he said sourly.

He was very indulgent of Xiao Peng, the two of them bantering as they each rolled out a thick woolen blanket and leaned against the trunk of an oak tree. On the surface, they appeared to be enjoying the simplest of joys, keeping the company of a good friend. Their laughter was honest and loud, driving off the rest of the chill that the fire failed to chase away. But underneath, neither man carried good intentions. Unfortunately, this sinister divergence can be found in any man or woman chosen at random from the street.

The crackle and pop of the fire were enough to almost lull the man to sleep, his lids heavy. But he fought against fatigue, determined to stay up past his lightweight partner, Xiao Peng, who could fall asleep faster than anyone he knew. Surprisingly, even have half an hour had passed, there were various wriggling noises as Xiao Peng kept squirming around.

Through his squinted eyes, he saw Xiao Peng sit up straight and look towards him, prompting a knee jerk reaction of closing his eyes and pretending to be asleep.

"Hey! You awake?" Xiao Peng half whispered half yelled. If the man had truly been asleep, he would've awoken just from his friend's loud calling, but instead, he let out a loud, fake snore.

"Good, good," Xiao Peng muttered gleefully to himself at the sight of his friend 'sleeping'. He tossed the blankets from himself and strode across the campfire to the other side where Meifeng had taken a page out of their book and had found a nearby tree to sleep on under the ragged fur cloak.

The flickering fire splashed Meifeng's delicate face in dappled light, her sleeping expression making her look younger than her roughly 14-year-old body. But she was very awake, unable to hold back a slight smile as she heard someone not so quietly shuffle towards her.

Sure enough, Xiao Peng did not disappoint her intentions.

Like a bloodhound sniffing at its prey, Xiao Peng drew close to her 'sleeping' figure, his heavy breath falling on her face along with the faint stench of sweat and smoke from sitting too close to the fire.

"Little girl, don't blame me, ah? After today, you will have to marry me." he said eagerly. The sound of wrestling filled Meifeng's ears along with System's yells.

"Master? Master! I know you are awake. Now is not the time to foolishly play with your life. This dog man wishes to strip you of your innocence. Run!" System yelled frantically. If System had hands, it would've dragged her away from the disgusting Xiao Peng.

Xiao Peng's friend, now that Xiao Peng was no longer looking at him or even facing his direction, was less discreet in spying on his friend, his eyes widening as he took in the scene. He shook his head in frustration, annoyed by Xiao Peng's overeager nature.

Since Xiao Peng had decided to defile this woman, there was now even more conviction in his decision to rid her of her life. He patted the crossbow that still hung on his side with a determined look. He didn't mind if his and Xiao Peng's friendship took a hit from killing Xiao Peng's beloved. His large friend had hardly known this woman for a day and he didn't mind personally traveling to Jiangnan with his savings to help Xiao Peng purchase a pretty, city-bred slave to marry as compensation.

Xiao Peng, as gently as he possibly could, in other words not very gently, tugged Meifeng from the tree to the flat ground that he had cleared of snow. Meifeng's hair got unavoidably tangled in the snarls of the tree and she winced before opening her sparkling, round eyes.

"What?" she almost whispered softly, her confused gaze sending sparks through Xiao Peng's heart. She did not offer any resistance as Xiao Peng slowly peeled away the cloak to reveal the sight he had been salivating over the greater part of the day.

"Little girl, I heard it hurts the first time, but I promise to be gentle," Xiao Peng gasped excitedly, his smile growing as he saw how the girl did not object in the slightest. Taking this as a firm yes, Xiao Peng grew greedier, bringing a strand of the long, raven hair to his nose and breathing deeply before fixing an infatuated look on Meifeng. Meifeng looked up at him dumbly as she twirled a sharpened stick in her hand with anticipation.

She could not help but slightly grin with excitement as well, but for a very different reason than Xiao Peng. Her heart shivered, eager to begin with the bloodletting. The vicious, sick emotions in Meifeng's heart, they were ready to be vented on the unsuspecting man.

A half-erect penis peeked out from Xiao Peng's pants, which he had rolled down slightly for convenience. He was already breathing heavily as lowered himself on top of Meifeng, his arms caging her in his stinking embrace. Like a viper poised for the kill, Meifeng struck.

When Xiao Peng's friend heard the first keening noise coming from the unexpected coitus within the woods, he assumed that Xiao Peng was just overexcited from sticking it in the first time and chuckled to himself. His friend was finally becoming a man, as a fellow man, he was thrilled for Xiao Peng.

But the sounds were rather strange, almost bringing a blush to a grown man like himself. One sounded like a half-wheeze, the other almost a scream. He wanted to tell his friend that usually it was the woman supposed to make noise, not the man. Unable to resist temptation, the friend flipped over abruptly to find Xiao Peng entirely slumped over Meifeng, only occasionally twitching.

It was too strange a sight, the friend began to feel an instinctive worry creep into his heart, the same one he had felt right before his mother had been struck with a stroke.

"Xiao Peng," he said in a half-chuckle in an attempt to lighten his message, "That's not how you're supposed to do it."

A hiccupy gasp noise unlike any sound Xiao Peng had ever made was the only response he got and the fledgling worry grew into a full-blown panic.

"Hey! Xiao Peng!" the friend exclaimed, disregarding the awkwardness he was about to cause as he kicked the wooly blanket off and took a few large steps to where his friend was. Xiao Peng's body was face down on top of the strange woman, with only his rear end on display. Witnessing his friend's still body up close, a bad feeling struck the friend's heart and he kicked Xiao Peng's side hard.

There was no reaction, prompting a second kick. Now the friend's brow was furrowed and he reached down to just flip Xiao Peng over without a care for his embarrassment.

"Xiao Peng! Are you okay?" the friend grunted as he bent his knees and used his full effort to turn the massive person over. After the initial difficulty of getting a grip without touching anything important, the friend managed to turn over Xiao Peng, who landed on the ground with a thud.

"Xiao Peng! Xiao Peng. T-There's blood! Peng'er talk to me!" Completely ignoring the beautiful woman who had been revealed, the friend leaped over Meifeng's small body as he rushed to Xiao Peng's side.

The man was dead. Years of hunting animals and watching the light fade from their eyes had honed his senses to the point that he could easily tell. But still his hands frantically fluttered over the body, which was relatively clean since the blood had dripped downwards off of Xiao Peng. He quickly cataloged a bloody hole in Xiao Peng's shirt, as if something slender had pierced it, and a blasphemous wound around Xiao Peng's most precious regions. He was still unsuccessfully trying to revive the deceased Xiao Peng when someone behind him spoke.

"You really are a good friend," Meifeng remarked sweetly, laying on the ground in the same position Xiao Peng had dragged her to. Her stomach and breasts were slathered in bright red blood, the fresh drops still rolling down her pale skin and onto the ground below.

"You!" the man snarled, his expression turning ugly. Glaring at the sinful beauty before him, the man was furious at how she had betrayed their agreement by killing Xiao Peng, his fury clouding the fact that she was about to be mounted like a wild animal by a strange man she had only met that day.

Watching his face, the many vissitudes of rage and sorrow dancing through faster than she could follow, Meifeng felt her chest quiver. She tried to suppress it, a small noise coming out, but eventually, she just could not keep her laughter contained. Coming to an upright position, Meifeng let out a wondrous laugh, the most joyful noise System had ever heard from her at the most horrifying of times. The fire roared beside the gruesome scene, illuminating the shadow of a girl with her head thrown back in great amusement.

The friend's hand had settled on his hip, ready to draw his crossbow and fire, paused in disbelief. His eyes narrowed as his mind processed the fact that this small girl, who he had possessed ill feelings about, laughed about killing his friend.

"You... You're laughing?" he asked incredulously, tears falling down his ruddy cheeks unhindered. He watched the girl laugh and laugh, a happy and alluring image until like a boat losing the wind in its sails, her body returned to normal and she gazed back at him.

"Ha," she said before in a movement he almost couldn't follow, the girl rolled onto her feet and darted into the dark of the forest.

The bloodthirstiness of the hunt roared in the man's ears, his adrenaline surging as his heart viciously urged him to grab her and rend her limb from limb.

"For my friend, Xiao Peng, I will make sure your death isn't easy," the man muttered feverishly as he sprang after her. With only a sentence, Meifeng had teased this man to the greatest heights of madness, his eyes bloodshot as he set off on the greatest hunt of his life. For in his mind, he was not hunting a beast, but a monster. A monster, dressed in the skin of a beautiful woman.

The section of the woods far away from the fire was dark and frightening, but the man did not notice or care, his head whipping side to side as he heard echoes of the girl's bell-like laughter.

"I'll kill you! I will skin you alive!" he said, turning around in a circle, the snow underneath his feet wearing thin as he stared in every which direction. His instincts told me that the girl was still near, as she was not yet done with her business whatever it was.

"Xiao Peng, I will avenge you!" he cried, firing his trusty weapon at a blur he saw run just outside the reach of the campfire's light. Meifeng giggled at his promise and was greeted with a second dagger inches away from her face.

"His aim is not bad," Meifeng marveled as she watched the short arrow quiver in the trunk before her.

System was petrified. "Master, we should run. Why do you toy with him?" System whined in its high pitched voice.