Sweet Words

The damp air, mixed with the fishy scent of blood, was beginning to ferment at the end of the corridor outside the prisoner's cell. The man and woman who had exchanged insincere affection in bed just a month ago had long since switched roles. Fan Xian looked at this miserable woman and frowned slightly. At first he had thought that she was the kind of woman that they wrote about in novels of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and that they could do wonderful things together, or that he could take her home like the poet Bai Juyi. Who would have thought that the story would end so hastily; before it had even started? But there was little to regret. Since she had wanted to kill him, if he had shown too much sympathy, as Fei Jie had warned him years ago, that would be extremely irresponsible, not just for himself but for those around him.