Gong Hua Vol 1 Chapter 8

Lit once asked me why I was so focused on the past.
Even if I got revenge, it wouldn’t change anything. What was lost was already lost and would never come back.
I answered him, revenge wouldn’t make the lost come back, but aside from remembering my hatred, I had no other way of stopping the memories from fading, disappearing.
But the one thing I didn’t say was that, since I had already taken so many lives, the only way to repent would be to make my own life a tragedy.

—Gong Hua

Even though Owen had invited him to have breakfast together, when Yin Qie Zi walked into the dining hall, only Mila was inside.

He wasn’t surprised though; truthfully, the sky wasn’t even bright yet. If the servants hadn’t told him that Mila was already in the dining hall, he would have decided to come a bit later.

“You’re really early.” Once she saw that Yin Qie Zi had entered the dining hall, Mila put down the book in her hand and smilingly said, “I thought I’d have to wait another hour for breakfast! Since Owen would only be here in another hour or so.”

Yin Qie Zi replied simply, “I have a habit of waking up early.”

“Most people are used to waking up early, but I’ve never met someone who wakes up this early before.” Mila smiled and then asked, “What would you like to eat?

Yin Qie Zi said, as always, “I don’t eat meat.”

“I’ve heard from Yehv. Then, is there something you especially want to eat?”

Yin Qie Zi thought about it and said in a strained voice, “I like drinking soup.”

Mila smiled. “I’ve also heard about that from Yehv.”

“Why is it Yehv? I’ve barely spoken with him.” He couldn’t understand; shouldn’t she have heard it from Owen?

Mila said with a laugh, “Because Owen tells everything to Yehv and then forgets about it all, it’s better to ask Yehv than Owen!”

Yin Qie Zi said coldly, “If Owen didn’t have Yehv, he probably wouldn’t even remember how to get home!”

Mila laughed, “You, you’re really just as Owen said; your speech is completely merciless!”

Yin Qie Zi was speechless. It seemed as if he really couldn’t treat Mila as someone he’d only just met. She probably knew him better than the forgetful Owen.

At this time, Mila turned her head and told the young maid behind her, “Fenny, let’s serve the meals according to what we’ve already decided on!”

“Yes, miss.” After receiving the order, Fenny promptly got to work. She first arranged the utensils, then instructed the other servants to start preparing the meals.

“Fenny?” Yin Qie Zi glanced at the maid and asked, “Yehv’s wife?”

Mila nodded. She waited for a shocked reaction from Yin Qie Zi since Yehv and Fenny were a full 15 years apart. Almost everyone who had seen Fenny for the first time had felt very surprised.

However, Yin Qie Zi didn’t ask anything, nor did he look shocked.

Mila thought about it and realized, “Owen already told you?”

“What?”

“Owen told you Fenny’s age before, right?”

“He never told me.” Yin Qie Zi frowned, unable to comprehend why Mila had suddenly mentioned Fenny’s age. To him, Fenny looked around the same age as Mila, at most a few years older, so what was there to be so surprised about?

“You’re not surprised?” Now it was Mila’s turn to be surprised.

Yin Qie Zi asked uncertainly, “Surprised about what?”

Mila reminded him, “Yehv and Fenny are 15 years apart in age.”

Yin Qie Zi paused, then said hastily, “That’s not something to feel strange about!”

It should be okay like this, right? Yin Qie Zi felt kind of uneasy. He had learnt that sentence from someone else; if he made a mistake or said something wrong, he only needed to add that one sentence to dispel the other’s suspicions.

“That’s right.” As predicted, Mila smiled and said, “It’s not that strange.”

Meanwhile, servants entered the room pus.h.i.+ng a cart filled with food. The cart stopped beside Fenny. She looked at it for a while before squeezing some lemons and dripping juice onto the food. She then placed the plates in front of Mila and Yin Qie Zi.

Yin Qie Zi looked at the food on his plate questioningly. There were a lot of transparent cubes in the middle of the plate and a large, fat leaf beside it as decoration. He had never seen anything like it before.

“This is called ‘fruit-leaf,’ and apparently it’s the Leaves’ staple food,” Mila explained patiently. “The leaf beside it is what it used to look like. The semi-transparent cubes in the middle are what the fruit-leaf looks like after removing the outer skin and cutting it up. It tastes really good if you drizzle some lemon juice and honey on it!”

The Leaves’ staple food? Yin Qie Zi looked at the food on his plate dazedly.

“I once asked Fenny to make it into soup, but no matter how we cooked it, it wasn’t as delicious as cutting it up and eating it raw, so we gave up. The soup’s just ordinary potato soup with milk.”

Was this specially prepared for me? Yin Qie Zi raised his head and looked at Mila. “Even if I’m a descendant of the Leaves, you don’t need to go out of your way to give me the Leaves’ food. I’m not really familiar with the Leaves, so I have no idea what they usually eat.”

“Hehe, it’s not specially prepared. To tell the truth, I’ve always been interested in the Leaves, and I’ve always been researching them. So I asked someone to look for the fruit-leaf out of curiosity. This isn’t the first time I’ve had fruit-leaf, and I actually really like this type of food; I have it for a meal once almost every two or three days.”

Yin Qie Zi nodded.

Speaking about the Leaves, Mila suddenly became high-spirited. She said excitedly, “Did you know? Apart from the Spirit Tree, the Leaves also have another guardian spirit called Hua!”

“…I didn’t know.”

Hearing Yin Qie Zi’s response, Mila said somewhat disappointedly, “So you don’t know? I’m really curious about what Huas look like! Even though there are records on them, none of them bring up Huas’ appearance.”

Yin Qie Zi said faintly, “Maybe it’s because there’s nothing mentionable about Huas’ appearance.”

“Why wouldn’t there be anything mentionable?” Mila asked fervently. “Aren’t you curious? About why they would be called Huas? Are they like the Spirit Tree, and do they actually have the appearance of a flower? But the records say they have the ability to attack! If flowers went and attacked their enemies themselves, wouldn’t that be weird?”

A flower attacking enemies… Yin Qie Zi imagined it and couldn’t help but laugh and admit, “It is quite weird.”

“See?” Mila said, smiling. She took another piece of fruit-leaf.

Seeing her, Yin Qie Zi also ate a piece and found that the fruit-leaf was very juicy and fresh. With the sweet smell of honey and the slightly sour tang of lemon, it was very refres.h.i.+ng to eat.

“Is it good?” Mila asked curiously.

Yin Qie Zi said earnestly, “Very delicious.”

“That’s great.” Mila smiled happily. “If you want another helping, just ask Fenny.”

The fruit-leaf was only an appetizer; the main course was mashed potatoes, boiled vegetables, and grains. Yin Qie Zi, however, barely touched any of it and only asked Fenny for some more fruit-leaf. Finally, under the gaze of a smiling Mila, Yin Qie Zi realized he should have some of the main course out of politeness, but he only just managed to eat some grains.

After finis.h.i.+ng the main course, Owen finally arrived belatedly, though it was just barely past sunrise. Butler Yehv also followed after Owen.

“It’s a shame you two aren’t spiritmancers.”

Seeing the two seated at the table, Owen said somewhat despondently, “During training before, Teacher Chris would always ask me to get up at sunrise to practice. And now, you guys wake up before sunrise even without someone asking you. You’re even more hard-working than spiritmancers in training!”

Butler Yehv walked towards the food-cart, looked at the food, and then turned and asked, “Young Master, would you like some fruit-leaf as an appetizer?”

“No thanks!” Owen refused. “I dislike that kind of tasteless food.”

After finis.h.i.+ng his sentence, he received an eye roll from Yin Qie Zi and also saw Mila ducking her head and laughing. He couldn’t help but feel a bit bewildered.

At this time, Yehv asked, “Then how about some bacon rolls as an appetizer?”

“Sure, you can make some for me.”

“Yes.”

Yehv served him some bacon rolls, and after Owen had finished a few, he saw that Yin Qie Zi’s plate was heaped with uneaten food. He hastily asked, “Yin Qie Zi, are you not used to the food? You can tell Fenny and Yehv what you want to eat.”

Yin Qie Zi said, annoyed, “The food is fine, especially the fruit-leaf; it’s really delicious.”

Owen finally realized what he had said wrong. “Right, right, it’s definitely really delicious! My sister also likes eating it.”

Yin Qie Zi’s response was an exaggerated eye roll, accompanied by Mila’s bell-like laughter.

Owen rubbed his nose and mumbled, “But it’s true that it’s tasteless…bacon’s much more fragrant.”

“You can have your bacon! Brother. We’re all done eating; you should hurry up,” Mila said with a smile. She then turned to Yin Qie Zi: “So, Yin Qie Zi, do you have anything planned for later?

Yin Qie Zi shook his head. “If I had anything planned, I wouldn’t have stayed the night.”

“You’re right.” Mila smiled. “Then could you accompany me on a stroll along the streets today, please?”

Hearing this invitation, Yin Qie Zi was quite surprised. From what he had heard, Mila never went outside. If it wasn’t for that, he wouldn’t have hesitated so long for an opportunity. He also wouldn’t have needed to spend a year befriending Owen in order to use his friends.h.i.+p as a reason to get into the Warlord’s mansion.

He couldn’t help but remind her, “The streets aren’t safe. You might encounter danger.”

“Owen will come with us… along with some soldiers.” Mila’s tone was very indifferent. It was evident that she wasn’t happy that there would be many soldiers following them.

“Come on!” Owen urged. “It’s rare that my sister has such an interest, so don’t disappoint her!”

So we’re really going shopping? Yin Qie Zi glanced at Owen doubtfully; the latter’s smile was so annoyingly bright that it made one want to punch him.

“Yin Qie Zi……”

Yin Qie Zi’s attention was drawn to Mila’s voice. Looking behind him, he saw that Mila had her hands clasped together and her head slightly lowered like a little girl. She said flightily, “Could you accompany me? Please?”

Had he landed himself in some weird situation?

Seeing Mila’s spoiled att.i.tude, Yin Qie Zi couldn’t help but wonder…

Finally, Yin Qie Zi complied and pushed Mila’s wheelchair onto the streets, though he was constantly blinking at Owen, trying to tell him to come and push the wheelchair instead… Even if he had lived a sheltered life, he understood how weird it was for him to be the one pus.h.i.+ng Mila’s wheelchair and also how inappropriate it was.

However, even though he blinked at Owen, or at Fenny, or even at Yehv, no one reacted or came to ask what was wrong. It was as if everyone was especially slow today.

This surprised Yin Qie Zi. He had always thought that Yehv’s observational skills were inhuman; sometimes, Owen would only have to glance at something for Yehv to go forward and buy it. Also, Yehv had never made any mistakes.

“Yin Qie Zi, am I heavy?” Mila asked worriedly.

Yin Qie Zi glanced down at her and replied earnestly, “You’re very light.”

She didn’t feel rea.s.sured. “But you don’t look very well. Isn’t it because I’m too heavy, so you’re tired from pus.h.i.+ng me?”

Yin Qie Zi shook his head. “No, it’s because everyone’s looking at us.”

“You’re right!” Mila gasped and then realized, “It must be because your silver-purple hair is so unique!”

He felt that the two rows of soldiers were far more conspicuous than his silver-purple hair. Yin Qie Zi thought about this silently.

“To tell the truth, I don’t go out often.” Mila smiled faintly. “So how should we go shopping? Where do people usually like to shop around?”

For some reason, everyone was looking at Yin Qie Zi. Slightly confused, the latter said hastily, “I don’t go out often either, so I have no idea!”

“You can’t be making spirit medicine every day, right?” Mila said humorously. “Are you this serious about it because your teacher was really strict?”

“It’s just my habit, that’s all.” Yin Qie Zi calmly changed the topic and avoided the subject of teachers completely.

“Why don’t we go to the grocery street the next street over?” Fenny suggested. “There are lots of cute things there! And there are also things that men would be interested in!”

Seeing that the atmosphere was kind of awkward, Owen said immediately, “Let’s just go there!”

After arriving at the grocery street, Mila was at a loss at first. However, after f.a.n.n.y took her from booth to booth, the unusual trinkets immediately captured her attention. The girls began chatting nonstop about hair accessories, jewelry, and st.i.tching tools.

The two girls weren’t the only ones who were extremely excited ―even Owen was as well. He would readily pick up leather wrist bands, sword sheaths, sword cloths… he would also occasionally pick up a bunch of spirit medicine to ask Yin Qie Zi about.

Yin Qie Zi and Yehv were the only two uninterested people. Even though Yin Qie Zi didn’t go shopping often, he still occasionally came here for necessities, so he wasn’t a stranger to this street.

Yin Qie Zi wondered, “I don’t know why Owen is so interested in this place. Doesn’t he change wrist bands often?”

Yehv smiled and answered, “Young Master’s things are mostly bought by others. Even if he could choose, it would mainly be from the three to five styles brought to him. This is the first time the Young Master has seen so many things in person.”

Yin Qie Zi nodded. He could roughly understand why Owen and Mila couldn’t come to this kind of place frequently; the two rows of soldiers were truly a bit too conspicuous and caused the vendors and other customers much inconvenience. Probably because everyone rarely saw this kind of situation, though, they allowed it… at the same time, they could be curious onlookers.

It was amazing how Mila and Owen could remain so at ease in the current situation. Yin Qie Zi felt as if every part of him was squirming with discomfort; he wasn’t used to being stared at by so many people.

Yin Qie Zi sighed and began looking at the items so he wouldn’t appear even more conspicuous by standing there blankly.

He looked around casually. Suddenly, a round hairclip caught his attention. He picked it up to examine it closely.

The hairclip was made of jade and was carved into the shape of a flower. Unlike normal flowers, however, this flower was black, and upon a closer look, the workmans.h.i.+p was very meticulous. The flower petals were extremely lifelike, but because the hairclip was black, people wouldn’t notice that it was a flower if they glanced at it carelessly. They would just see a round lump of black.

The vendor, seeing that a customer had come, immediately started calling out loudly, “That is a defective product! The artisan probably used the wrong material! He actually made the flower into a black one, really! If you want it, then I’ll sell it to you for a discount: one silver coin; so how about it?”

Instead, Yin Qie Zi glared at the vendor, took out a handful of gold coins, and threw them onto the table. He said coldly, “I’ll buy it.”

The vendor stared the pile of gold coins dumbly, unable to react.

Yin Qie Zi scoffed and turned to leave, but once he had turned around, he regretted his foolish move. Owen and the others were currently looking at him with expressions of surprise.

He hastily went over to push the wheelchair and offhandedly pa.s.sed the hairclip to Mila. He said hurriedly, “It’s for you.”

Mila took the hairclip with surprise and then began to scrutinize the hairclip carefully.

Meanwhile, Owen jogged over to Yin Qie Zi and said disbelievingly, “The vendor said it was only worth one silver coin, so why did you throw out a pile of gold coins for no reason? It’s just a defective hairclip; even if you’re rich, you shouldn’t waste money like this, right?”

Yin Qie Zi suddenly growled, “It’s not defective!”

Upon seeing Owen’s shocked expression, Yin Qie Zi immediately realized he was behaving strangely, but he had no way to explain to the other why he was so out of control.

Should he make up a justification? But what kind of lie would he have to weave in order to explain why he had lost control of his emotions over a hairclip? He didn’t know what to do…

“I’m going home. It’s not far from my house here.” After finis.h.i.+ng his sentence, he turned around to leave without waiting for anyone’s reply.

“Yin Qie Zi, wait!” Owen immediately called out.

Yin Qie Zi stopped in his tracks and remembered that, since he had spent so much time getting this opportunity to enter the Warlord mansion, how could he just give up like this? He turned around, intending to apologize to Owen. He told himself that even if he didn’t explain anything, Owen wouldn’t pester him too much in this situation, right?

When he turned around, however, what he saw was a shadow behind Owen raising an arm, a glint of silver in the shadow’s hand. He yelled a warning―“Owen, behind you”―and charged forward.

Owen stopped, turned around, and found himself face to face with a silver flash. He hastily stepped back and just barely avoided it, but behind him was another a.s.sa.s.sin raising his sword…

Yin Qie Zi dived forward and pulled out the short knife at his waist. As he blocked the a.s.sa.s.sin’s sword, his knife slid against the sword’s blade and towards the other’s throat.

The a.s.sa.s.sin hesitated, immediately gave up attacking, and backed up a couple of steps, but Yin Qie Zi’s knife was still glued to his sword. The knife slid towards where the blade and the hilt connected, and as the knife sliced downwards, he undid the chain. A perfectly cut sword blade fell onto the ground. Only a sword hilt was left in the a.s.sa.s.sin’s hand.

The a.s.sa.s.sin promptly threw away the hilt and then ran away without looking back.

Watching the a.s.sa.s.sin leave, Yin Qie Zi chased after him a few steps but then stopped. He felt that something was very wrong…

Owen ran towards him and shouted disbelievingly, “Yin Qie Zi, you know how to use a sword? The way you broke the opponent’s sword… what accurate chain undoing! You’re a spiritmancer? How come you never told me before?”

“There are a lot of things I haven’t told you!”

Yin Qie Zi grabbed Owen’s collar and said icily, “You better explain this to me: what are you really trying to do? You were attacked, but Yehv and the soldiers didn’t do anything. Even the a.s.sa.s.sins weren’t truly trying to hurt you. So don’t tell me you don’t know anything about it!”

Owen’s expression froze for a moment. He then smiled bitterly and replied truthfully, “I knew about it. My father wanted to test you; he felt that you weren’t a weak spirit binder.”

Yin Qie Zi’s heart skipped a beat, but he tried to use anger to conceal it. He then growled, “I might be a spirit binder, but I’m not weak! You know that I wandered around the wilderness for a while; do you think that’s something a weak spirit binder can do? There are plenty of things I haven’t told you, but it doesn’t mean I’m trying to hide something. It’s just because I don’t want to talk about it and there’s no point in telling you!”

After he had finished yelling, Yin Qie Zi turned around to leave. It looked as if he was leaving in anger, but only he knew that he was actually more fl.u.s.tered than angry. He had thought that he had acquired Warlord Paladin’s trust and therefore could enter the Warlord mansion. He had no idea that the other still suspected him.

Fortunately, he hadn’t gone to inspect the mansion last night; who knew how many people were secretly monitoring him?

“Yin Qie Zi!”

That was Mila’s voice. Yin Qie Zi stopped in his tracks, turned around, and saw her trying her best to roll her wheelchair towards him.

“Thank you for the hairclip you gave me, the flower on it is really beautifully carved!”

Yin Qie Zi froze.

Mila held the hairclip, smiled, and said, “If it wasn’t for your good vision, I would have missed this beautiful hairclip completely.”

Yin Qie Zi didn’t know how to reply. “It’s only a cheap trinket…I’m glad you like it.”

“Will you come eat fruit-leaf with me next time?” Mila spread her hands helplessly. “You know, Owen doesn’t like to eat fruit-leaf, and he also doesn’t get up very early!”

Yin Qie Zi stayed silent for a while, and then at last he nodded.

Upon seeing Yin Qie Zi’s nod, Owen finally dared to step forward and apologize with his head lowered. “I’m sorry. My father’s very untrusting, I’m sure you know that. I wouldn’t say no to him, and even if I did it would be futile; he would probably find someone on his own to test you.”

Hearing this, Yin Qie Zi didn’t say anything, but neither did he continue to look angry.

“This expression is…” Owen examined Yin Qie Zi’s expression for a while and then said grinningly, “You forgive me?”

Yin Qie Zi said snappily, “I still haven’t cooled down yet, so don’t act all giddy around me!”

“Sure!” Owen rearranged his smile a bit and asked, “So you aren’t leaving?”

Yin Qie Zi remained silent for a while, then said, “No, I’m still going to go back, I’ll come to find you guys another day.”

“So that’s it? I wanted to spar with you… but alright!” Owen was a bit disappointed, but he still nodded.

A rare opportunity had slipped away, just like that.

Yin Qie Zi had no choice, however, because too much had happened… it had only been two days, but he felt as if those two days had been longer than twenty years. All sorts of confusing emotions were roiling about in his chest, welling up so that he couldn’t breathe. He needed some rest.

“I’ll be going.”

After saying this, Yin Qie Zi waved goodbye to Mila and then truly turned to leave. When he neared the street corner, he suddenly heard a sharp sound. Looking behind him, he saw that a place a few steps back was covered with broken gla.s.s, and a man dressed as an a.s.sa.s.sin and wearing a mask was standing there.

Even though the other was dressed as an a.s.sa.s.sin, the way he looked was too conspicuous. Yin Qie Zi couldn’t believe that this a.s.sa.s.sin had really come to kill someone.

He looked at Owen suspiciously and asked, “Owen, what are you up to now…”

He then stopped abruptly when he saw the a.s.sa.s.sin throw a knife towards Mila.

The person’s target was Mila? This definitely wasn’t planned. Warlord Paladin wouldn’t let there be any possibility of his daughter getting injured!

“Mila!”

Owen turned around with a yell, but Yin Qie Zi didn’t go over to help. He was too far away; there was no way he could make it.

There was the sound of a strike. Fenny was holding a sword in her hand, and the a.s.sa.s.sin’s knife was stuck in the ground.

Seeing this, Yin Qie Zi was glad he hadn’t acted rashly last night; Fenny was actually another of Mila’s bodyguards! Then Yehv, too, was probably a hidden ace.

Fenny held the sword and stood in front of Mila. Yehv stood between Fenny and Owen, but he wasn’t carrying any weapons; he just stood there with a stereotypical butler smile.

Owen looked furious and pulled out his sword. The a.s.sa.s.sin took out a small bottle and threw it on the ground. The bottle broke, releasing a large amount of white smoke.

Yin Qie Zi wasn’t nervous; he was very familiar with the type of spirit medicine the a.s.sa.s.sin had used. He also sold this kind of medicine often. The main buyers were usually mysterious clients.

This spirit medicine had to be separated into two bottles, and when used, the two bottles of medicine had to be mixed together. The effect was the appearance of a large quant.i.ty of white smoke. The white smoke wasn’t toxic, and to most people the medicine was useless, but to people who needed to escape or create confusion, this medicine was a necessity. It was even more important than healing medicine.

Yin Qie Zi hesitated, unsure of whether he should go help Owen. He quickly abandoned the thought though; enemies and allies were hard to distinguish in the white smoke, so joining in would just make it harder for Owen and the others to distinguish friend from foe.

Besides, he really didn’t think the a.s.sa.s.sin would succeed. He knew how hard it was to harm Owen and Mila.

Suddenly, a black shadow appeared from within the white smoke…Yin Qie Zi pulled out his knife immediately but still barely blocked the attack. He had no idea the a.s.sa.s.sin would attack him…he thought the target was Mila or Owen, but he was clearly wrong. The a.s.sa.s.sin’s target was actually him!

The opponent’s weapon was a dagger. Knives and daggers were both weapons of speed, but because the opponent was so fast, it would be almost impossible to use chain breaking to damage the other’s weapon. The two could only use pure force in their fight. Dagger and knife clashed repeatedly in the air, making an almost musical series of clangs.

Yin Qie Zi quickly discovered the other was very strong; the attacks could even be described as a furious storm.

Yin Qie Zi’s strongest offensive skill was following the enemy’s attack, finding a weakness, and then striking to kill. Faced with this torrent of attacks, however, not only was finding a weakness impossible, he also had no time to strike back.

The attacks couldn’t last long, though; if he could endure for long enough, the other would definitely slow down. This type of attack definitely couldn’t last for long! Right now, however, Yin Qie Zi could only grind his teeth and brace himself.

Not long afterwards, the opponent suddenly used force to flick away both of their weapons. The a.s.sa.s.sin backed up a few steps and stopped attacking.

Yin Qie Zi hesitated but didn’t go forward. When facing this kind of opponent, direct attacks were completely useless.

“Hi, it’s been a long time.”

a.s.sa.s.sins usually needed to hide their real ident.i.ties; however, this one actually opened his mouth and greeted the other person. Yin Qie Zi was left unable to react. He needed to be on guard to make sure that this wasn’t a way for the other to distract him and sneak in an attack.

Seeing his dilemma, the a.s.sa.s.sin smiled and said teasingly, “How cold! It’s been so long since we last met. Don’t you miss me? Gong Hua darling.”

Yin Qie Zi was startled for a moment, and this hesitation gave the other an opportunity. The a.s.sa.s.sin stepped forward and stabbed the dagger into Yin Qie Zi’s left shoulder.

At this moment, there was only ten centimeters of distance between their faces. Even though the other was wearing a mask, his eyes weren’t covered. Yin Qie Zi was able to see a scar on the a.s.sa.s.sin’s face that sliced over the left eye diagonally. The wound wasn’t deep, so he wasn’t blind in the left eye.

That’s great…

When the a.s.sa.s.sin pulled the dagger out, a large amount of blood sprayed out, splattering onto his face. The a.s.sa.s.sin didn’t seem to mind, though―he even stuck out his tongue and licked the blood on his face.

Maybe it was due to the other’s actions or the sudden blood loss, but Yin Qie Zi felt kind of dizzy and sat onto the ground. The knife was still in his hand as he glanced up at the a.s.sa.s.sin; he wasn’t planning on giving up his life here.

Seeing this, the a.s.sa.s.sin gave an unexpected appraising smile. He said while smiling, “I knew you wouldn’t die that easily. I’ll come back to find you, remember this…”

He bent down and said gently, as if speaking to a lover, “I will never leave you.”

Yin Qie Zi’s pupils constricted abruptly.

At this time, Owen’s call came: “Yin Qie Zi! Yin Qie Zi, where are you? Answer me!”

Hearing the calls, the a.s.sa.s.sin smiled and said in a low, husky voice, “Believe me. That name doesn’t suit you.”

Then he turned and melted into the smoke. Soon after, another person appeared from the fog. It was Owen.

“Yin Qie Zi…s.h.i.+t! You lost a lot of blood!”

Owen panicked upon seeing that the other had been injured so gravely. He hastily picked up Yin Qie Zi and said, “Hang in there! I’ll take you immediately to the doctor…Yin Qie Zi, how are you feeling?”

His reply was the sharp sound of his knife falling to the ground and a faint, almost unnoticeable utterance.

“I can’t breathe…”