Bao Zhu saw that the pregnant woman had rough hands and feet, her face contorted with abdominal pain. Fearing she might bleed uncontrollably on the road and die in childbirth, she hurried to support her under the armpits and helped her up, following the direction the old woman indicated.
The pregnant woman’s arm tightly encircled Bao Zhu’s neck, her entire weight almost pressing down on her. Though Bao Zhu was strong herself, she still found it somewhat strenuous. She thought that naturally a pregnant woman carrying a baby would be heavy, and didn’t think otherwise.
Though the old woman said home was nearby, this journey led them from Cihui Ward to Tongli Ward, winding through seven turns and eight bends into a shaded back alley, until they reached the entrance of a secluded small residence, where she said they had arrived. The courtyard’s furnishings were dilapidated and chaotic. As soon as Bao Zhu helped the pregnant woman step over the threshold, the old woman quickly turned back to close the courtyard gate and bar it.
She repeatedly urged Bao Zhu, “Hurry inside the house.”
Though she said this, the old woman didn’t come to help, only standing aside with folded arms, her eyes not focused on her daughter-in-law in labor, but instead staring intently at the helpful Bao Zhu. With their destination in sight, the pregnant woman’s arm around her neck tightened even more, almost making it impossible for her to move.
Bao Zhu couldn’t help but feel suspicious. At this time the evening drums were nearly finished, and curfew was imminent. Though she had voluntarily helped, if she delayed any longer, the ward gates would close and it would be inconvenient to return.
While she hesitated, she suddenly felt her shoulder lighten as the pregnant woman’s arm was twisted behind her back, the bones breaking with a crisp crack. Before the piercing wail could fully escape her throat, the blue-clothed figure kicked her in the lower back with one leg, and the woman collapsed sideways to the ground, silent forever. The old woman turned to flee but was grabbed by the back of the neck. With a “crack,” her neck was twisted and broken.
Bao Zhu watched wide-eyed as Wei Xun killed the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law pair in an instant, his facial expression sinister and fierce, unlike anything she had ever seen. She couldn’t help but stare in shock, greatly alarmed.
“Ghost accomplices!”
Wei Xun cursed. Before Bao Zhu could react, the door of the dilapidated house suddenly opened, and four adult men rushed out. Seeing two corpses lying on the ground, they too were startled and went back to fetch wood-cutting knives and axes. The leading man looked toward Wei Xun with suspicion and wariness, yet reluctant to give up such rare and attractive goods, he demanded harshly:
“Which gang are you from, boy? The ‘Guanyin’ has already been brought into the courtyard, so she’s ours. That’s the rule of the trade – first come, first served. There’s no reason to rob someone midway!”
Hearing these words, Wei Xun’s killing intent intensified as he said coldly, “This is my Guanyin!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, blue shadows flickered. Everyone’s vision blurred, and that man’s arm along with half his shoulder was torn off, blood shooting skyward. Wei Xun was extremely angry and struck with great force. The remaining three had no way to resist and were torn apart by the残灯手 technique, their tendons snapped and bones broken. In an instant, all six people had perished.
From the moment Wei Xun appeared, Bao Zhu had roughly guessed that the entire affair was wrong, but she had never personally witnessed him kill people with such methods. Her face instantly turned deathly pale. She stared down at the pregnant woman’s protruding belly, almost unable to breathe, stammering, “She… she still has a fetus in her womb…”
Wei Xun reached out his bloody hand, thrust it into the protruding belly and pulled hard, directly disemboweling the corpse. Amid Bao Zhu’s screams, from within the loose skirt hem emerged a mass of old silk cotton and straw – the woman’s pregnant belly was actually fake.
“A pregnant woman at this stage would have a very heavy belly, with her center of gravity shifted forward, requiring her to arch her back and spread her legs to walk. This person’s gait was wrong – there was no weight in her abdomen at all. This gang are human traffickers who used such despicable tricks, exploiting your kindness to lure you in. Once you entered the house, you would have been captured by the people lying in ambush.”
During the time Bao Zhu was alone on Xinzhong Bridge, Wei Xun had twice observed her from atop the courtyard wall. The third time he saw her leave the stone bridge and head home, but in just the distance of one turn, she had disappeared. Fortunately, these two swindlers, old and young, disguised as a pregnant woman, moved slowly and he caught up in time. Had he been even half a moment later, once they had locked her indoors, stripped her clothes, changed her appearance and sold her elsewhere as a slave or prostitute, it would have been difficult to find her again in this lifetime.
Having already killed, they needed to leave this place quickly, taking advantage of the curfew’s quiet streets to escape. Wei Xun reached out his hand, wanting to take her over the wall to leave, but Bao Zhu instinctively stepped back half a pace.
Seeing the fearful expression on her face, Wei Xun immediately felt deep regret. All along the journey he had deliberately avoided killing in front of her, but today she had finally seen with her own eyes his true nature beneath the dark waters.
He lowered his eyes, vigorously wiping the blood from his hands on his clothes, saying softly, “There’s hardly anyone on the streets now. If we leave at this time, there won’t be any witnesses.”
Bao Zhu slightly came to her senses, knowing his words were true. Trying not to look at the corpses on the ground, she moved closer and embraced him. Wei Xun carried her over the courtyard wall, avoiding pedestrians and patrolling guards all the way back from Tongli Ward to Cihui Ward.
Yang Xingjian and Shisan Lang were both shocked and delighted to see Bao Zhu safe and sound, breathing a long sigh of relief and exclaiming, “Found her!”
Earlier, Yang Xingjian and Wei Xun had been busy settling the luggage and mount. Though there was a well in the courtyard, the well water had long since dried up. Shisan Lang went out to fetch water, and the three were each busy with their tasks, unable to spare anyone to accompany her, resulting in such an unexpected incident. All felt lingering fear.
Bao Zhu was still shaken. After getting down from Wei Xun’s back, she asked anxiously, “Several people died – won’t there be government officials searching for us?”
Wei Xun shook his head: “They weren’t running a legitimate business. When their accomplices discover the deaths, they won’t report to officials either. They’ll just treat it as thieves falling out among themselves and secretly search for enemies.”
Yang Xingjian helped Bao Zhu into the main house to sit and rest. Bao Zhu’s mind was filled with images of dead people’s broken bones piercing flesh, red and white scattered all over the ground. She sat stunned for a while, then recalling his angry shout earlier, asked puzzledly, “What does ‘Guanyin’ mean?”
Wei Xun explained: “That’s underworld slang. ‘Receiving Guanyin’ means abducting women, while kidnapping children is called ’embracing boy attendants.'”
Shisan Lang’s heart was still pounding as he said, “Fortunately senior brother is the fastest, otherwise if you’d been abducted by human traffickers, it would have been very difficult to find you again.”
Yang Xingjian’s face was pale as he condemned angrily, “In broad daylight and in the city, these bandits dare to act so lawlessly – they truly deserve death!”
Shisan Lang wanted to go brew tea for her, but Bao Zhu called him back, having him bring out a jar of new wine they had bought in the South Market today. Breaking open the mud seal, he poured it into a pot. Several people sat facing each other and drank a round, all feeling shaken and unable to taste anything.
Bao Zhu took the wine pot and went up to the second-floor bedroom, changing her clothes. Lightly touching her hair, that osmanthus flower had somehow been lost. She sat absent-mindedly by the window, gazing at the Luo River below, drinking alone.
Heavy evening mist shrouded Luoyang city, and the last traces of the setting sun’s dim yellow afterglow lingered at the horizon. Water flowed gently, and the merchant boats on the Luo River moored to the banks, gradually disappearing into darkness.
Wei Xun had wanted to accompany her, but recalling the fearful expression on her face at that time, he dared not rashly enter the room, silently crouching outside the window on the eaves.
Bao Zhu had not lit a lamp. Under the moonlight she poured and drank for quite a while, then asked, “Won’t you come in and drink a little with me? You used to… enjoy having a few drinks afterward.” She paused slightly, deliberately omitting the words “after killing someone.”
He used to always leave casually with a phrase like “I’ll be right back,” as if it were as trivial as fetching water or buying food. Now witnessing living people lose their lives with her own eyes, the impact was shocking and chilling.
Wei Xun lightly climbed in through the window and sat down far away across the table. “I’m not in the mood today,” he said sullenly.
Bao Zhu tilted her head back and drained her cup in one gulp, saying, “You did nothing wrong. Disguising as a pregnant woman to abduct people… there’s no more despicable, more base evil act than this! I don’t know how many innocent passersby they’ve harmed. It’s my lack of experience that made me fall for their evil trick…”
Wei Xun heard the slight intoxication in her tone and sighed softly, comforting her: “Actually, if you kept fifty paces distance, all of them together wouldn’t be your match.”
Bao Zhu laughed self-mockingly: “Who can guarantee they’ll always maintain the upper hand while enemies obligingly remain at a disadvantage?” Even with once-glorious noble status, hadn’t she now lost it all completely? So-called true dragon bloodline was worthless once separated from imperial power.
She drank for a while longer, tears glimmering with intoxication in her eyes. Setting down her cup, she turned around and said to Wei Xun, “Come closer, let me look at your hands.”
Wei Xun hesitated for a moment, then reached out his arm across the table. He had immediately washed off the blood after returning, but the bloody smell from dirty work seeps into the bones and can never be completely cleaned.
Bao Zhu grasped his hand, which still bore old wounds from the fierce battle with Guan Chuan at Changliang Temple. Cold, strong, and invincible palms, yet they didn’t seem coarse. If one ignored the traces left by martial arts practice, his hands were like their owner – under the hazy moonlight, their outline appeared delicate and clean. Though possessing stone-shattering strength, they quietly allowed her to hold them.
“I was somewhat frightened at the time, I didn’t mean to avoid you.”
Whenever night came, this person became a mysterious and unpredictable shadow. Only by firmly grasping him in her hands could she truly feel his real existence. She gently caressed the calluses on his palm and fingertips, saying in broken, low tones, “It’s these hands that have always protected me, all the way from Chang’an to Luoyang… I really like your hands.”
Wei Xun’s heart suddenly palpitated, his ten fingers going numb. Ripples spread from his fingertips to his shoulders, causing him to tremble slightly. He hurriedly pulled his arm from her hands and hid it behind himself. Sitting restlessly with his heart almost jumping out of his throat, he anxiously climbed out the window and stood on the eaves.
Bao Zhu chased to the window, and the two gazed at each other in the moonlight for a moment. Whenever at a loss, he instinctively wanted to run away, yet couldn’t bear to go too far. He slowly backed away, actually forgetting where he was, and stepped into empty air, falling from the eaves. Fortunately he hooked on with his toes and didn’t fall into the Luo River.
The blue-robed wanderer’s lightness skill was supreme, his movements always graceful and agile. When had she ever seen him so flustered and clumsy? Bao Zhu couldn’t help giggling aloud, pointing at him and laughing: “So clumsy! Where is there a lightness skill master like you!”
Wei Xun climbed back up, head lowered in awkward unease, his boot tip scraping ash on the tiles, drawing one circle, then another. Though momentarily embarrassed, having her temporarily forget her unhappiness seemed worth it.
“Don’t run away, I can’t climb out the window and chase you across the tiles.” Bao Zhu pursed her lips and made the overlapping sound for calling a cat: “Tsk tsk tsk!”
Wei Xun noticed something unusual in her words and behavior, secretly lifting his head to glance at her. Under the moonlight, her charming, plump face was covered with a thin blush, the skin at her earlobes and neck all pink. Drinking to drown sorrows only increases them – when people have worries, they get drunk particularly easily.
Seeing him still not moving, Bao Zhu complained: “Didn’t you say ‘This is my Guanyin’? Since the Bodhisattva has spoken, does the cat servant dare disobey?”
Wei Xun knew she was intoxicated, yet couldn’t help slowly edging closer. The nearer he got, the more he felt his steps floating, as if treading on clouds, his legs going weak and soft.