First Farewell; Long, Lonely Road Ahead...

The town is called "Flying Guillotine," which strikes me as an unusually violent name for such a peaceful, ordinary place. Its people are mostly traders and craftsmen, stopping by here on their routes between larger cities, I would guess.

Its narrow streets are clogged with horse carriages, and rickshaw drivers who barrell through the crowds of people with no concern.

I get the vibe that things are never quiet here, and it has me at constant unease.

Hum. I never much cared for city life...

The simple reason being, wealth is everything to people who fall into the trap--the very blood that pours through these peoples' sick veins--with merchants at their stalls barking at me from every direction like we're old friends, as I'm trying to stay alert for any roving pickpockets that might be seeking a firsthand look at what a cultivator can do to someone's face...

As for myself, all I need in life is a good woman and a good cave to rest my head in.

Oh, and plenty of good herbs! Hahaha!

I can sense that Su Wang, as she's walking beside me, is feeling on edge too...

She keeps brushing back her hair with her hand, looking around at everything--with this startled face like a deer caught in the moment of wondering which way to dash.

"This is...really embarrassing." She says, and it is at this point my lips form a silent "o."

It's because...

And, I've only just realized...

Su Wang is so nervous from the fact she's barefoot, and almost totally naked! Except for my robe, that hangs loosely off her, with her hair all pulled out and dirty, covered in twigs.

Not to mention, I myself am looking like a day laborer who was drinking on the job: loafing aimlessly around town, without any shirt on...

"Eh. Let's get some new clothes."

Su Wang looks at me sharply. "I'll buy."

"Milady...are you certain?"

She smiles. "Fuck chivalry; I owe it to you."

Damn!

A girl this feisty...

Really sets my ogre heart ablaze!

Perhaps I should stay with her another night as well? Hehehe.

She glances to her side--

Where her purse, containing all her money SHOULD be, but--

"Oh! Well, unfortunately, it appears that I..."

"Left my money behind, in the forest."

Hah! I've never been more proud to have been a clever, conniving ogre in my past life!

"That's quite alright.' I tell her--

Digging my hands into both of my pants pockets--

To retrieve two bulging bags of coin!

"Haha! I knew we'd been robbed of most of our things when they attacked the camp last night--so I made sure to loot the corpses of all the Cobras I killed!"

Su Wang is jumping up and down--

So incredibly relieved, and impressed by me!

She hugs unto my arm, attacking my neck with a bee swarm of kisses as we make our way to a market square, where merchants have set up their carts and tents to trade in all sorts of goods...

But really, I can't remember the last time I went shopping!

I feel like everyone's watching me--

Expecting me to steal...

So, I'm just quietly thumbing through a row of different-colored robes, wondering which will suit me best, but damn Su Wang keeps pinching at my arm to ask my opinion on every damn dress she picks out!

Until finally, I've become so annoyed that I'm yelling at her:

"Su Wang, what is it?! Just choose one!"

My reaction definitely seems to catch her off guard, as the timid little look she gives immediately leads me to feel guilty.

"Fook Yu...I just want to hear your views--"

"For deciding on what would look most beautiful, standing beside you."

Ah...so that's it.

Su Wang was just being incredibly cute.

"Fucking shit." I say to myself, under my breath, before turning back to her with an apologetic bow.

"I'm...sorry, Su Wang."

"It must be the heat that's getting to me."

No matter what, I shouldn't let any of my darkness seep through today. It needs to be absolutely perfect, so as to limit the devastation it will cause to Su Wang--who's so undeserving of what is to come...

In her mind: ours is a blossoming, young love

with only bright skies ahead.

Meanwhile...I'm "putting on" my best smile.

"Come on, then!" I say to her. "Let's find the best possible dress." But, just before we go, I glance over the robes on sale again--

Finally, deciding on one that I want to buy--

One that'll match, in color, what I've been feeling deep in my soul, ever since I'd inherited this body:

A pure black colored robe.

Along with it: a sun-shielding thatched bamboo hat...

So that I may better cling to the shadows.

...

...

Fook Yu spends the next few hours shopping and conversing with Su Wang while artfully evading any questions about his own history; as they walk together, holding hands, through the dusty streets of the bustling village.

"Actually, I...want to join the theater." Su Wang mentions to him shyly.

"Theater?" Fook Yu's eyebrow raised.

"Mhm. A troupe used to passes through here in the summer, that mother and father used to take us to see. I've been singing since I was little, and everyone in the village says I have the voice for it."

She frowns. "Except brother Wu Wang."

"He would always tell me, "get your head out of the clouds, Su Wang!""

Fook Yu doesn't want to say anything negative; however, he can't deny to himself that Wu Wang's words held reason, and so wanted to share his thoughts with Su Wang out of his sincere concern for her:

"What will you do in the meantime?" He asks seriously.

"Where will you stay?"

"How shall you earn a living?"

"If the troupe doesn't arrive, or if they do but don't accept you--"

"What shall you do₩0 then?"

"Now that I've brought you this far, to where the only way back to your old life is through a dangerous forest path: still crawling with cobras?"

Faced with these dire questions, Su Wang simply laughed.

"Oh, Fook Yu!" She flirtingly says.

"You're sounding more and more like my brother!"

She pats Fook Yu on the face.

"It'll be fine~~~"

"I have complete faith in heaven's plan!"

"After all, it's the same destiny that brought us together, isn't it?"

With this, she continues on without worry--leaving Fook Yu behind as he stands still, silently devastated, pausing to think deeply on what his next actions shall be; whether:

'To speak to her with brutal honesty?'

'Thereby, potentially sparing her future hardship?'

Or,

'To allow her to continue on, in this wistful delusion?'

'Albeit at her potential peril.'

After some tense consideration...

With a deep breath, he's made his choice:

"Su Wang...wait." He calls after her quietly--biting his lip, as he abruptly passes in front of Su Wang to force her to stop.

"What is it, Fook Yu?" She innocently asks.

He freezes instantly, under the weight of her expectant gaze.

His lip trembles, as he tries to muster words--

However, his courage is gone.

He'd killed many innocents before--

Even looked some straight in the eye before he did so--

But previously, it had always been a stranger:

Never had it been Su Wang.

"It's...nothing." Is all he manages, to which Su Wang shrugs then resumes her walk.

Fook Yu...couldn't bring himself to do it.

He couldn't bear to break her while they stood face-to-face.

'Not with so many people around...'

'Although, would it really be any better if we were alone?'

'If I wait until we're alone...'

'She'd probably react even more extremely.'

'Su Wang is going to be crushed, no matter which way I approach this...'

However--

While Fook Yu is standing still again, allowing her to unknowingly walk further and further away from him, becoming more and more lost from his eye among the throngs of people as his deviously cunning, conniving ogre brain hatches an alternative plan.

A truly sickening, cowardly plan--

A plan that would, solely due to this distinction, provide the benefit of not requiring him to face Su Wang at all...

Thus, for his first pale orchid, he chooses it:

An option, that is, of simply...

Walking away.

Walking away from Su Wang, without her even knowing--

Walking away, through the crappy town and its noisy crowds of nondistinct faces, until he's beyond the outer walls at which point he starts to run, across rolling sparsely populated hills of rocks and dirt, with shallow streams ran through ditches.

He runs tirelessly, in fear of Su Wang--

As if she'd grow wings out of sheer wrath just to fly after him.

How would he know if it had worked, though?

What if, for all his grief--

He hadn't actually broken her heart at all?

Fook Yu's answer comes when he is finally stopping to rest--paying for a room at an inn, in a city far, far away from Flying Guillotine, on one stormy night some days after he'd seperated from Su Wang.

"What name shall it be under?" The keeper asks, when he was paying for the room.

"Han Yu," he answers, with a serious glare--the new name he has chosen to adopt, to befot his new identity. And as he does, he rubs a space on the back of his neck where, earlier, he thought he felt a bee sting.

After recieving the key to his room, he enters into it: a modest affair, comprised of just a basic steelframe mattress bed with plain sheets and a dresser, with only a small slit for a window placed high on the wall. And immediately, Fook Yu went to check the spot on his neck where he'd felt a sting on his neck, through a mirror that was on the wall...

And it was shown to him, there--

Staring back at him, through his reflection--

The snarling face of a black dragoon, tattooed unto the side of his neck.