Lan Jing Forest (8)

"Huft…Huft…"

Jiajia was already out of breath. 

From a distance, it seemed that the figure was walking towards her. Noticing this, Jiajia's pace got slower. 

As the figure got closer, both Kou and Jiajia recognized him.

Jiajia cried out with a whisper.

"Ming…gege…"

Somehow, her voice reached Xu Ming and his dark figure could be seen running towards her. His face looked much paler than before. He looked extremely worried and full of panic.

As soon as he reached her, Jiajia stumbled forward and Xu Ming caught her in his arms.

"Why did you run off in the middle of the night? Y-you should've stayed until morning!"

And Jiajia said something.

"..."

"What?"

She was so out of breath that she couldn't hear her own voice.

Straining her throat, she tried again.

"My… village…"

Xu Ming's arm stiffened.

"...it's gone," Jiajia cried. She had tears flowing in her eyes as her arms trembled. Crying her heart out, screaming with whatever voice she had left. She wailed and wailed. Clenching on Xu Ming's shoulders.

Xu Ming was lost at what he was supposed to do.

He caressed Jiajia's head and hugged her tight.

Jiajia cried like a child. She cried after holding it out for a while.

The shock of what she saw in her village and the realization came rushing to her at that very moment.

So, she cried and cried.

She cried out loud without any restraints in her heart, without any weight.

After a while, Jiajia's cries died down to sobs.

"Gege…"

Her voice cracked.

"Help…me…"

Kou noticed that Xu Ming tightened his grip on her arms.

"They're all… Innocent…" Jiajia looked up, staring right at Xu Ming's eyes. "The sea mage purge… But they didn't do anything! I… I didn't even know there were… mages in our village… please, Gege!"

Xu Ming's face slightly frowned.

"...What?" he asked in disbelief.

Jiajia stood up on her own, clinging to Xu Ming's shoulders.

"The Tan Clan! Gege… your sect! You have to help me… please! They're innocent!"

Her hands were clawing at his robes. Partly to show how desperate she was, and partly because she didn't have any strength left in her legs from running.

"They… have to help me find them! Gege… it was horrible."

But Xu Ming broke his eye contact with her. He looked away.

Jiajia pulled at his robes again, her feet still dragging.

"There was… blood everywhere… but no one's there… no one… Gege! There was no one there! Where are they! They… Where did they take them?"

Xu Ming watched as Jiajia was talking between her sobs.

He left the residence immediately after he read the note she left in her room. However, how much time has passed since then? With the way Jiajia's legs gave up, had she been running all night?

With a quiet soothing voice, Xu Ming spoke.

"...Alright… It's okay now. It's okay. Come back with me to the residence. First, you need some sleep."

But Jiajia wailed again.

"No!" she cried as she tugged on his robes. "No! Please! Please… Gege… We have to find them now! There was so much blood!"

With a panic, Xu Ming tried to calm her down again. He caressed her cheek and wiped her tears.

"Okay! Okay. I'll tell the sect leader. We'll find them right away, but you have to rest."

"No, I have to… I have to look for them-"

"Shh. Shh. It's okay. You'll look for them, okay? You'll look for them."

"Please… right now… they could be-"

"I know. We'll do it right away. Let's go to the residence, yeah? I'll help carry you."

Then he gently took Jiajia's hands off his robes, making sure she could stand without falling. Jiajia was still crying as he turned and squatted down, offering his back to her.

Jiajia's sobs got quieter.

Xu Ming gave her time to calm herself before he felt a soft touch on his right shoulder. He could hear her crouching down.

But instead of getting on his back, Jiajia started to talk.

"Gege…"

There was a sniff. She was still crying.

"You… knew about this, didn't you?"

Xu Ming turned his head around.

Huh?

Kou was also surprised at Jiajia's words.

Xu Ming turned his whole body around, his hands were shaking.

"...What are you… saying?"

When he looked at Jiajia's face, he saw that she was still crying.

Her eyes were puffy and red, her hair was a mess. She was also still sobbing and her breath was still heavy from exhaustion.

But her eyes seemed to have cleared up.

"You took me… to the residence… so that I'm spared."

Xu Ming's eyes widened.

Jiajia formed a twisted smile on her lips for a short moment before it fell and trembled again. As if she was about to cry again.

"Gege, you… saved my life."

The way she had said it sounded like gratitude. That was what Xu Ming probably thought. It was probably what Jiajia believed herself to feel as well.

But Kou knew that there was a black stain in her heart that shot up to her brain, making it throb like a headache.

Jiajia surprised herself when the words fell out naturally.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Even with her crying, her voice trembled in a different way. It was more demanding.

There was a glare in her eyes.

She was angry.

"Why didn't you warn the village?"

Deep down, Jiajia knew that Xu Ming was most likely silenced. That he probably risked his own life by protecting her.

But she couldn't help it.

It was painful. It was bitter.

"What about my sister?!"

Why did Meimei die? Why did Meimei have to die?

Why did the purge happen on the day they were switching?

Why did Jiajia live instead of Meimei?

Why did they have to switch today?

Jiajia unknowingly started crying again.

Xu Ming lost his words.

"Meimei… I…"

And as if those words had pulled the last of her strings. Jiajia snapped as she cried harder.

"I'M NOT MEIMEI!"

Her voice rang to Xu Ming's ears and her own. It took a while before Xu Ming realized what it meant, but Jiajia didn't care anymore.

She started to scream.

"ALL THIS TIME AND YOU DIDN'T KNOW? NOT EVEN A SINGLE DOUBT! DID YOU EVEN KNOW MEIMEI AT ALL?"

Jiajia knew it wasn't his fault.

It was their own. Her and her sister's.

"MEIMEI IS DEAD!"

Jiajia cried and pushed Xu Ming with her weak arms.

"SHE'S GONE!"

She pushed him again, and as if Xu Ming was slapped by his own conclusion and reality, he fell to the grass.

The crying girl in front of him was not the girl he wanted to save.

He wasn't sure what to do with that information.

But he didn't have any loathing for the girl in front of him. He knew that he was in the wrong to make the decision of letting her die.

And perhaps, this switch was the cost of his sin.

By letting a whole village die and sparing only one girl...

That girl he wanted to save died anyway.

Before Xu Ming could even come to terms with what had happened, he heard someone speak from not far behind him.

"What's with all the shouting? It's still dark."

And to his horror, he recognized the voice.

Jiajia noticed the change of expression in his face and looked at the newcomer.

"Xu Ming? What are you doing here? And who is this young maiden?"

An old man approached them. He had white hair and was wearing white and green robes. An elder of the Tan Academy.

Xu Ming held Jiajia's wrist and greeted him.

"Grandfather-"

But Jiajia had moved on her own.

"You…"

She half crawled towards the elderly.

"A mage. Please, help me-"

"Jiajia, wait-"

"No! My village, Xiao Xi… was purged by the prohibition act… But, it was wrong! They were innocent! I can prove it… Most of us didn't even understand magic! Please!"

The old man stood firm.

As he listened to Jiajia, he frowned a bit. But there was no remorse.

Kou was digging his head inside.

Come on! As a mage clan you can propose an investigation!

Although he knew nothing could change the storyline of this memory remnant, it was still frustrating.

Could the Tan Clan really be this ignorant about the injustice of the sea mage purge? If so, then I've judged them wrong. They're no better than the Chen Clan.

And as if to prove his disappointment, the old man replied.

"Xiao Xi? You're a survivor? That's not good."

In that instant, Jiajia's heart fell and cold sweats started to form.

Xu Ming yanked her back and hid her behind him.

Jiajia didn't notice before, but on Xu Ming's side, there was a scabbard. He brought his sword with him.

The old man didn't look pleased at Xu Ming's action.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

Without answering him, Xu Ming pulled out his sword and urged Jiajia.

"You have to run."

"...I can't."

Jiajia had long overexerted her strength which eventually left her with nothing. She wouldn't be able to stand up even if she wanted to, let alone to run.

The old man chuckled.

"I didn't know you got yourself a little girlfriend from that village. No wonder you didn't want to help transfer the bodies."

Jiajia's hair stood on end as she felt a shiver down her back.

What a sick old man.

The ground beneath her seemed to shake. Right after, the dirt was lifted in parts to form solid boulders.

The old man drew out his own sword.

Xu Ming's voice came out cold.

"I don't want to do it anymore."

The man replied with a nod, "Hmm. Suit yourself."

The boulders moved at a high speed, but instead of attacking Xu Ming, it was aiming for Jiajia.

Noticing this, Xu Ming quickly lunged towards her to block the boulders, but the man had moved quicker and blocked Xu Ming with his sword by the neck.

At the same time, the boulder hits Jiajia's already frail body, bruising her and spilling blood.

Jiajia yelped in pain.

"AHHH-"

Another one hit her.

And more crashed into her.

Again and again.

"AHHHH! AAARGHHHH! AAAAHHHH!"

With her hoarse voice, it sounded even more gruesome.

Xu Ming shouted desperately.

"No! Stop! Don't hurt her! Grandfather! Please!"

Without enough experience and skills in magic, Xu Ming would always be too slow at countering magic attacks. His grandfather, on the other hand, was quite an expert that he managed to bind him with a talisman while continuing to attack Jiajia mercilessly.

Immense pain throbbed throughout her body, and transferred to Kou who felt it.

This is ridiculous. He had the choice to kill her in one clean attack with a sword. Why the torture?

Kou had asked out of impulse because of the pain. But he knew the answer.

The stronger the resentment, the more powerful the energy.

While continuing the attack, the old man talked to Xu Ming.

"I said no survivors. No exceptions. After everything I've done for you, you disobeyed me? Without me, you'd probably live in the streets after that prostitute died. At this rate, I'll never let you bear the name 'Tan'. You're a disgrace to my sect."

The name Tan? And he said 'my sect'?

He's not the sect leader is he? I remember the head of Tan Clan being much older, so he's not. But he's definitely part of the family.

Also Xu Ming had definitely called him grandfather. So he's a Tan. He was forced to use a different surname because the old man didn't want to acknowledge him.

This man is probably aiming to become sect leader with the way he's trying to gain power and the claim of 'my sect'.

By the time Kou finished thinking, Jiajia's body was already wrecked in a bloody mess. 

She had cracked bones everywhere and some of them were visible as the boulders had crushed through her flesh.

The old man held his sword in one hand as he looked at Jiajia's bloodshot eyes on her now deformed face.

Xu Ming on the side was unable to move nor make a sound. At some point, his grandfather had placed another silenting talisman on him.

He could only watch helplessly.

Jiajia was piercing the old man with her gaze.

She was cursing him in her mind.

Unexpectedly, Kou could hear it. It seemed that the curse was so strong of hatred that it seeped through her heart and soul.

'From the depths of my soul,

I swear you will die!

And my spirit will forever curse you and your clan!'

The last thing Kou saw through Jiajia's eyes was the old man piercing his sword through her body.

With that, Jiajia's memories ended and reality warped one final time.