Soul Lock

The First Life II

That day, when the group stopped for a short rest, Wen Lan went to the river to wash his face. The weather was extremely humid that day and his bangs and hat only contributed to his sweat. He had a look around to check if any of the soldiers were around, then crouched down and removed his hat. Flipping back his thick and long bangs, he washed his face with the cold river water.

"Look, what I found!" A wry voice announced above Wen Lan's head. He pulled his bangs down immediately and reached for his hat, but it wasn't there.

"I thought this ugly thing was a part of your head," another voice said and tossed the hat to another soldier. They all laughed.

"Give it back!" he yelled, his eyes half close.

"No!" the same voice yelled back, "you can go and cry to the general!"

"By the way, why are you wearing it, is there a problem with your face?"

"Let's check!"

Wen Lan felt the group of three besieged him, leaving no room for escape. Suddenly two hands grabbed his arms while another pair harshly pushed his wet bangs aside. Wen Lan kept shouting and struggling but of no avail. The third one stood in front of him, put his fingers around his left eye, opening it forcefully. Seeing his eye, the soldiers took a step back immediately, shouting "devil!"

The terrified Wen Lan tried to escape, but the soldiers came to their senses quickly and caught his fragile body, dragging him back to where the general was sleeping.

"General, wake up!" one of them yelled and Ju Xin woke up with a start.

"What's going on here?!" he yelled, seeing Wen Lan was held on the ground like a prisoner. The other soldiers also gathered around to see what was happening.

"He is a devil!" the same one yelled, "we need to kill him before he kills us!" The other two nodded wholeheartedly and Wen Lan started to cry with fear.

"Let him go!" Ju Xin pushed the ones holding his arms and helped Wen Lan to sit. "Care to explain the situation?" His tone was calm yet icy.

"His eyes, general! Look at his eyes!"

Sighing heavily, Ju Xin turned his head to look at the trembling man, "open your eyes Wen Lan," he said softly, but Wen Lan shook his head severely. The general held his shoulders and repeated his sentence more firmly.

As there was no other way, Wen Lan opened his eyes reluctantly and looked straight at the general whose eyes looked back in awe.

Wen Lan's eyes were ocean blue!

"Devil!"

"Ghost!"

The soldiers were shouting with terror while Ju Xin kept staring at Wen Lan whose heart was hammering inside his rib cage. After a while, the general raised his hand and shushed the soldiers.

"He has blue eyes, so what?" he said nonchalantly with a bored expression on his face.

"What?!" the soldiers were fuming, "General are you kidding?! We must kill him!"

"Nobody will touch him," Ju Xin said threateningly before helping the trembling Wen Lan on his feet, "get rid of your ridiculous superstitions." He directed Wen Lan back to the riverside.

"W-Won't...you...kill...me?" Wen Lan stuttered but managed to finish his sentence.

"Of course not," Ju Xin smiled reassuringly and sat on the ground, "so because of your eyes, you were living alone?"

Wen Lan nodded and sat in front of him after a second of hesitation. "My mom used to hide me in the house, but when she died, I had to go out. When the villagers saw my eyes, they chased me away with stones. I became a wanderer and lived in the forest. Then I found that hat and used it when I went to the villages."

That was it. All his life was presented to the general.

"It must have been hard," Ju Xin whispered and handed him the severely tattered hat, "don't get close to them, just stick with me," he said concernedly and went back to his soldiers.

Wen Lan kept looking at his disappearing figure with complicated emotions. He was extremely happy that the general didn't think he was an evil creature, but on the other hand, he knew the soldiers wouldn't leave him alone and he didn't want to be a burden for Ju Xin.

As he had expected, the following seven days were very hard for Wen Lan. Like usual, he was following the group from behind and his bamboo hat was still on his head, but now they knew about his eyes, so they didn't miss any chance to bully him. Ju Xin did his best to protect him, but his attitude irritated his soldiers.

The last thread broke when they learned about the death of their king and the fall of their kingdom. All of them blamed Wen Lan for it and Ju Xin had difficulty holding them back. Therefore, he told Wen Lan to go away a bit.

Wen Lan complied with his command, but when the sky got dark and there was no sight of Ju Xin, he got worried and sneaked back to look for him. When he saw the general was talking with one of his soldiers, he didn't dare to interrupt so he hid behind a tree near them.

"What do you plan to do with him?" The wind carried the soldier's words to Wen Lan.

Ju Xin rubbed his chin, thinking. In the end, he said, "I will handle him personally." Then they went back to the others.

Wen Lan didn't know what to deduce, so he went back to his previous spot, waiting for the general who came after a while.

"Here," he handed a bowl and a spoon to Wen Lan.

"We can share this," he offered as he felt bad for eating their stocks although everyone hated him.

"No, it is yours," Ju Xin pushed the bowl back to him and turned his back to him to watch the camp.

Sighing, Wen Lan started to eat the porridge; however, after a few spoons, there was a churning pain in his stomach and throat. The spoon fell from his grip onto a green leaf on the ground and that leaf turned into blue.

Poison...

With disbelieved eyes, he grabbed the blue leaf and squeezed it in his fist with the last bit of strength he had. Pain besieged his entire body and his breathing hitched.

So the one the general would handle was himself!

"Why?" he wanted to ask, but he had only a breath left, so he used it to shout "SOUL LOCK!" before he collapsed to the ground, dead.