Chapter 8: Monsters

The sky full of goose-feather snow fell like incense ash and shattered cinders spilled from an immortal's censer knocked over by a careless celestial official; Shaowei ran through this blinding snow-ash, feeling that everything around her was unreal.

The immense sense of unreality made Shaowei feel dazed and dizzy; she could not hear any sound in this world, only her own rapid breathing from running in her ears.

Shaowei often angered Qin Fu, so she was often thrown into the sheepfold as punishment; Qin Fu never specified how long to lock her up, the guards had long since grown used to it and gradually developed a sense of measure, often leaving her alone after locking her up for half a day.

This morning Shaowei had just had blood taken, and not long after being locked in the sheepfold she fell ill and fainted, until just now when she opened her eyes again.

It was already afternoon; wind and snow raged in the mountains, few people in the stockade ventured out in the snow; a few drunk men and working women saw that half-grown figure sprinting madly through the snow one after another, but none questioned it — the Dang Jia's daughter, though young, had been reckless and fierce since childhood, a genuine stubborn thorn; as long as she didn't cause trouble or leave the stockade, the rest was none of their business.

Tianlang Zhai occupied half a mountain peak; a ring of defensive walls surrounded the stockade, behind the walls lay a sheer cliff, and outside the front gate mountain bandits stood guard and patrolled day and night.

Most houses in the stockade were built against the inner side of the walls; among them, the largest stone-built high house was the most imposing, with stone pillars standing on both sides of the entrance, each hung with a wild beast skull.

The house was divided into inner and outer chambers; a woman with a cinnabar birthmark at the corner of her eye was kneeling in the outer chamber wiping the leftover food and mess around the stone table.

From the inner chamber, separated by a single curtain, came a man's cursing and the sounds of punching and kicking; with each sound that came through, the woman imagined the scene inside and could not help her fingers trembling, her cleaning movements growing even faster.

After clearing the leftovers, the woman picked up two empty wine jars; just then, accompanied by a loud crash of shattering pottery, shards flew out from behind the cloth curtain and struck the back of her frostbitten hand, drawing blood immediately.

The woman dared not stay any longer; clutching the wine jars she hurriedly retreated outside.

Heart pounding with fear, she left the high house and stopped a girl of about ten years old.

The girl was about the same age as Shaowei, her appearance four or five parts similar to Shaowei's, only her brows and eyes lacked that stubborn, fierce air; she asked the woman, "Zhu Niang, has Father finished his wine? I heard Father got a pearl that glows at night, I want to ask for it to have a look!"

The woman only pulled the girl farther away, saying in a low voice, "Can't go in right now, the Dang Jia is in a rage!"

Hearing this, the girl immediately grew fearful and dared not mention the pearl again; she was about to ask in detail why her father was angry when she suddenly saw a figure sprinting through the snow like the wind.

The figure was so fast and sudden she had no time to dodge and was knocked on the shoulder.

The girl frowned, rubbing her shoulder, and turned to look at the shadow already running far away, still only daring to mutter softly, "What fit is she having this time?"

"Don't mind them, hurry..." Having seen similar things many times, the woman only feared being caught in the crossfire and hurriedly dragged the girl away.

The snowing sky pressed down extremely low; the cold wind shuttled through like evil ghosts wailing in the mountains.

Qin Fu's mood had been very bad lately.

Tianlang Mountain belonged to Taishan Commandery, and Taishan Commandery lay within Lu King's fief — twenty years ago, the Liu family pacified the chaos and founded Great Qian; early on to stabilize the situation they enfeoffed seven kings of different surnames and granted them fiefs, but different surnames would eventually harbor different hearts, and rebellions broke out from time to time in various places.

The Grand Ancestor reigned eight years, and in his final year he uprooted three different-surname kings in one stroke; after the Ren Emperor succeeded the throne, Marquis Ling Ke led troops to pacify the remaining four different-surname vassal states one after another, and at this time Lu State was precisely the last one.

Several days ago, Lu King was executed under the blades of the Ling Family Army; from then on, there were no more different-surname kings in the Liu Family's realm.

Bandits mostly rose on chaos; Tianlang Zhai's days of doing as they pleased would probably end soon.

The day before yesterday Qin Fu had already sent men down the mountain to scout the Ling Family Army's movements; although subconsciously he didn't think the Ling Family Army, having just achieved great merit and supposedly rushing back to the capital for rewards, would specially stay behind to suppress bandits, being careful was never wrong.

Qin Fu felt agitated and depressed; today he drank several more bowls of wine, but the more he drank the more stifled he felt; when he was seven or eight parts drunk, he returned to the inner chamber and saw that woman kneeling with head bowed, silent; he casually dragged her onto the bed, wanting to use her to vent his anger.

However, that woman who had seemingly grown numb in the long torture, today actually pursed her lips and resisted.

This enraged Qin Fu; he slapped the woman's face, blood instantly gushed from her mouth and nose; he pinched her face, forcing her to meet his gaze, but saw in her eyes undisguised hatred and contempt.

Clearly she was nothing but a broken object for him to play with, yet when she looked at him with such eyes, it was as if he was the lowly one.

And her nobility seemed not in her clothes, not in her skin and hair, never stripped away.

She had not shown such a bearing for many years; he had thought her pretended noble spine had long been beaten and smashed to pieces.

Qin Fu examined the face pinched in his hand, gritted his teeth and asked, "Why not keep pretending?"

Truly laughable; could it be he couldn't even intimidate and control this moth-like weak woman?

Wine fumes mixed with rage; Qin Fu moved his hands, brutally dragging her from the bed to the ground; under his punches and kicks the woman curled up in pain, yet only let out muffled groans, not a single word of begging for mercy.

Qin Fu's expression grew increasingly ferocious and violent; when he tired of the assault, he bent down, one hand gripping the woman's nape, lifting her upper body, the other hand holding a sharp short knife, pressing the cold blade against her blood-streaked face, and commanded word by word: "If you don't want to die, strip your clothes clean yourself, crawl outside and kneel to accept punishment!"

The woman's body under the knife was clearly trembling with fear; a moment later, she spat a mouthful of blood foam, spraying it onto Qin Fu's face.

Her voice trembled yet was full of contempt: "Beneath this filthy skin... nothing but monsters!"

Qin Fu was already furious to the extreme; the knife in his hand traced along the woman's cheek, past her neck, her chest, finally pressing against her abdomen.

With his threatening motion, the woman trembled uncontrollably, but from her bleeding mouth slowly came laughter.

That laughter was extremely mocking; hearing it, Qin Fu felt only incomparable disgust and grating harshness; he did not want to face the true source of that disgust, only told himself — this woman has gone mad!

Qin Fu, blue veins bulging, was eager to sever and shatter this laughter that made him uncomfortable to the extreme; just as that short knife was about to be thrust into the woman's abdomen, a small-beast-like swift figure lunged in from outside the curtain, striking at him like lightning.

Qin Fu's nerves were partly numbed by drunkenness and rage, plus the wind and snow howling outside, so he failed to notice the footsteps in time; by the time he reacted, the shadow had already pounced before him, knocking the half-kneeling him back a full step, and in that close-quarter moment, the "small beast" raised a dagger, fast and ruthless, slashing straight for his neck!

【Shaowei: Die!! (◣_◢)】

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(Chapter End)