The Death of a Rabbit

"When you successfully capture and kill your first rabbit, the best way to eat it is to slowly roast it over a fire and season it slightly with some herbs. The aroma of the meat becomes so overpowering that even the strongest of cultivators can't help but melt at its scent."

- Ruan Xiaomen, "The Bamboo Chronicles of a Good-for-Nothing"

***

The assassin, under the name of Zhu, glanced through the window of the temple. The girl had collapsed, the arrow stuck straight into the position of her heart. The blood on the blanket covering her blossomed like a peony.

He had not expected her to have been killed so easily. After all, moments before the attack, her eyes had met his in the darkness. She had been obviously aware of his presence, but had made no move to evade as he released his arrow.

Well, it wasn't as if it mattered anymore. The dead are still dead. Without even an expression of guilt or remorse, Zhu flew towards the capital.

He stopped on the roof of an ostentatious courtyard. It was a gaudy with golden toads sitting guard on each side of the steps below. Even if they say that golden toads bring wealth to a family, having ones the size of a ten-year old child was perhaps going a little too far. If it wasn't his employer's property, Zhu would have long desecrated and chopped into pieces these ugly statues.

Ugly golden toads turned into a spiky one with his many arrows. Or even better an arrow through the heart, and chopped into a smaller golden statue of a dog for loyalty. Then again, this particular household wasn't exactly known for their loyalty...

"Have you killed her?" a voice interrupted Zhu's thoughts. It had come from inside.

"Yes," Zhu responded.

"Your payment is those two golden toads at my steps."

Zhu's face scrunched up into one similar to the toads below him. They were indeed valuable since they were made of pure gold, but in all honesty, who wants two gigantic ugly golden toads?

Regardless, the value of the toads must not have been retracted by their shape. Zhu soon flew off with the toads hidden in his space ring. What he didn't understand was the origin of the gaudiness within the toads. The problem wasn't inherently the shape of the toads. It was the over-expression of wealth that was so disgusting to the human eye. Anyone, with the exception of the beautiful Empress, would look gaudy with as much gold as these two toads were.

Soon after his departure, a man emerged from the building. He was a very familiar person: the Great General Xinhao who had recently been promoted for his excellence in carrying out orders from the emperor like a dog- no, no, he was promoted for eliminating traitors to the nation.

The do- Great General Xinhao seemed surprised by the disappearance of the golden toads. Considering their honorable presence, he hadn't entirely expected that Zhu would truly take the toads. The low-born are still low-born even in wealth, he decided.

An ambiguous smile overtook his face and he motioned towards some dark figures in the shadows. He made a throwing motion ambiguously.

The figures split into two directions. Half chased after the Zhu, while the other half headed up into the mountains toward the Caili Mountain Temple.

***

The head monk wept miserably as buried Ruan Shanqiao. Her face was veiled and her body was swaddled in white blankets as they lowered her gently into her grave.

"What a short life she had," the monks wailed as they wept.

The figures hidden in the mountains witnessed the miserable scene before they returned to report to the Great General.

Ruan Shanqiao was truly dead.