35 A Hut Below the Valley

BaiYing opened his eyes. Blinked several times until his vision cleared.

For a moment, he paused to see someone sitting in front of him. The face forms perfectly after he sees better. A young man, someone he was familiar with, who saw him with a big smile on his face.

"Little Ying, you awake?"

BaiYing's eyes were watery. He couldn't forget what he had just experienced, his father's face covered in blood, his mother. And all the Hua residents, everyone he knew lying stiff with their eyes wide open in horror. Again, the tears flowed down, he cried badly and raised his hand to cover his eyes while he sobbed nonstop.

"Father, Mother",

The young man took his hand off his eyes and looked at him with worried eyes.

"Hey, good boy, come here"

Bai Ying then got up and hugged the young man in front of him tightly.

"Brother, my Father, Mother, everyone, they all died, everyone that I know. This is, just a dream, right?"

The young man hugged BaiYing's trembling body. He lifted his head trying to hold back the tears that would fall if he didn't persevere. He stroked BaiYing's back trying to calm him down.

"Hey, you just awake now, calm down"

BaiYing grabs the man's arm tightly.

"Brother YiFang, what should I do now? Now I'm an orphan. Where would I go home now? Why did they kill all of my family? Why did they do that?"

YiFang, the young man who was none other than a close friend of the Hua family also burst into tears. He buried his head in BaiYing's shoulders and cried too even though he tried to smile to comfort BaiYing.

"Poor kid, just hold on there, Xiao Ying still has me, your Brother FangFang, don't forget about that, okay?"

.......

Shortly after.

BaiYing gradually calmed down. However, he still couldn't stop his tears from falling. The young man leaned back on the bed with a distant gaze toward the plunge. But it just blankly stared. His eyes were red and swollen from crying, his hands still shaking. He couldn't get rid of his parents' faces out of his head even though he tried not to think about it.

"Father"

His Father's sweet smiles with rounded cheeks like the bun, who happily spoiled him with any kind of food, and his stepmother's loud voice every time his Father did that.

"What are you doing? Are you gonna make him fat like you?"

"My dear, look at him, he is so skinny like the skeleton, let him eat more"

"No, he will be fat and ugly like you, nobody wants him later"

Both voices still echo in his head. How come all of that gone instantly from his life?

"Father, Mother" tears flow down again on those smooth cheeks.

The door opened from outside. Light steps on the wood floor approach. YiFang came with a tray with a bowl of hot porridge, put it on the bed, and sat beside the daydreaming BaiYing.

"Xiao Ying, you've been unconscious for a whole day, you must be so hungry now," said YiFang touching BaiYing's arm.

BaiYing didn't move, he couldn't feel anything now, no hunger, cold, or tired. All he can feel now is hurt in his heart like someone kept stabbing it and making his tears won't stop flowing. The hurt makes his stomach nauseous and wants to throw up. This is how heartbreak feels like. Broke to all of his veins.

YiFang reached BaiYing's hand and grasped it

"Ying, let's eat, if you don't put the food on your stomach you won't get better. I asked the physician to prescribe the medicine, so you can have it after eating and take a rest after that. No matter what you have to take care of yourself, don't be too sad"

He stroked BaiYing hair gently and grasped his cold hand again, but BaiYing didn't turn at him at all.

"I'm not hungry."

YiFang touches the kid's cheek and wipes his tears.

"Even if you are not hungry you still have to eat. How about this, if you eat, I will try to find out the news about your house .."

YiFang had not finished talking when BaiYing turned to him excitedly, he held the young man's hand.

"Brother, have you heard anything from my house? Is it, that my Father and Mother are still alive? Did Ying'er just have a dream yesterday? You want to go back to the house, can I go with you?"

YiFang is silent to see excited BaiYing, even though he knows that the young man is only trying to divert his feelings.

"Ying"

"I-I will change my clothes, and I haven't taken a bath for days so I must be so stinking now. A-and my hair, do I need to wash my hair? It is smelly? Father would be so mad if he knew I didn't take care of myself. He just bought me scented sop from out of town a few days ago and packed it along with my clothes to the Palace"

The young man rushed up from the bed but YiFang's hands held him.

"Ying'er" He smiles seeing BaiYing who now stares at him confused.

"B-Brother Fang"

Again, BaiYing couldn't hold back his tears, as he recalled what already happened, his body limp and his hands trembling. The look in YiFang's eyes certainly said it all was true. Not just a dream.

"Th-They, they died, aren't they? My Father, Mother, and all of them. I-I do what they asked me to, I've been a good boy, why does Father still go and leave me alone? Do I fail? So, why don't they kill me too?"

YiFang grasped BaiYing's trembling palms, he shifted BaiYing's shoulders and hugged him.

"Ying, don't be like this, you have to stay strong. Don't let the sadness make you weak, your parents will be so sad to see you like this"

Bai Ying's heart so ache that he can't almost let out his voice.

"But why? Why don't they kill me too? Is this all done by that pervert Crown Prince? Was he the one who did this? I begged him to take my head only, why did he have to sacrifice all of my family too? But, His Highness already promised me, he promised he won't touch them, this is not him. This is not him"

YiFang let go of his arms. Looked at BaiYing's face very closely.

"Are you sure he's not the one who did this?"

BaiYing raised his head to look at YiFang with his watering eyes.

"B-Brother, what do you mean?"

......

The Crown Prince's Residence.

LuoXiang had gathered BeiYau and several of his chosen warrior chiefs, including generals PoYang and LinMo. The assassination of the Hua family also attracted the attention of the palace made the Emperor issue orders to investigate it thoroughly. On the other hand, the Crown Prince did have strong support from several generals and division heads who were ready to help him. Now, their main goal is to save Concubine Hua and catch the perpetrators of the Hua family massacre.

Currently, the only information that LuoXiang and others knew was that the assassin group came from the Black Water Valley clan and his gang. The Black Water Valley was notorious for not wanting to deal with anything more powerful, so Luo Xiang suspected that someone in the high place might be the mastermind behind the murder of the Hua family.

On the day of the incident, according to two of BaiYing's maids, there was a guard who ran into the pavilion reporting about the incident at Hua's mansion. That made BaiYing leave quickly and go straight to his house which was not too far from the palace.

It was so strange because the kidnapper deliberately waited for BaiYing to arrive at his house and launch their action. If they wanted, they should have done it since he gets out of the palace to his house and easily takes BaiYing without anyone fighting back. Looks like, the killers deliberately destroyed BaiYing's heart when he found out that all of his family members were slaughtered. They thought of all these means just to take him.

But, what made those people put a lot of effort just to take a little useless concubine? For other people, except for LuoXiang, BaiYing might just not even be worthwhile enough as a concubine, let alone to have the great clan intervene for him at all costs.

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