Rescue Me, My Love

My Brother's Keeper

     Bai Xue and Mo JinDe were born into a farming family.  As twins they were revered by the locals.  Twins were a rarity and were considered a blessing.  Their mother died shortly after having them and their father, a humble man named Lin Xin, had raised them alone.  They were good boys.  Xue was quiet whereas JinDe was loud and boisterous.  Xue would quietly go about his work while JinDe was always seeking adventure.  Their farm was prosperous, no help from JinDe.  They were near twenty when the kings men came traveling through their province.  They took what they wanted and left them nearly stripped of all their labor.  JinDe attacked a soldier with the full intent to kill him.  He didn't see the attack coming from behind.  Xue stepped between him and the whip that was descending at a rapid rate.  The whip hit Xue square in the eyes.  He was permanently blinded. 
     JinDe was beaten and left.  As Xue was now blind, he was no threat.  Lin Xin was getting old, but he tended his sons until JinDe could recover.  It was a slow process, but at least they had food to eat.  Xue sat in a corner most of the time.  He was a kind and gentle soul by nature, but his blinding had turned him into a bitter man.  He sat in his corner contemplating his worthless life.  He had been courting a local girl, but now he refused to see her.  Her family wanted her to stop seeing him.  Xue would only talk when directly spoken too.  He would do nothing for himself and depended on his father and brother for everything.  The despair on his face was plain to see. 
     JinDe was bitter too, but for a totally different reason.  He now was the sole caretaker for his brother and his father.  His father's health had been deteriorating ever since the raid.  The increased burden of having to shoulder Xue's work load was too much for him.  Three years to the day, he died, leaving JinDe to tend the once prosperous farm all alone and tend his brother, who was nothing but a stone tied around his neck.  He begin to resent Xue.  No girl wanted to marry him because of his brother.  Not only would she have a husband, but his blind brother to tend too.  Every day that resentment built until he was at a crossroads.  "You know, Xue, you're not totally helpless.  There are some things you could do to help around here.  There are things I can start teaching you to do that would take a lot of weight off of me."  "What can I, a worthless blind man do?"  "Well, for one, you could learn to keep yourself clean.  You stink.  You could get water and bathe yourself off.  The water is where it has always been.  Or I could help you into a tub of water.  You could learn to cook.  You could do some chores.  It wouldn't be that hard."  Xue sat in his corner by himself but he was trying to decide what could he really do?
     They were now thirty years old.  Xue had tried to learn things to help out.  He bathed himself regularly and tried to do a few chores around the house.  Whenever JinDe had to go into the town for supplies, he refused to go with him.  On this particular day, JinDe would take no for an answer.  They walked together.  JinDe walked slow with Xue walking along touching his shoulder.  They were both rather handsome.  As they walked into the marketplace, Xue could hear the sounds and smell the smells of people, animals and food.  He became very nervous and took his brother's arm.  A group of drunk men outside of the local flower house saw them and decided to have some fun.  Unknown to JinDe, Xue had taught himself to use his staff s a weapon.  He had worked tirelessly.  He was blind but his other senses were heightened to compensate.  They approached and started taunting JinDe.  "Well what have we here!  If it isn't the farmer boy and his blind brother!  Not a woman in town will touch him, or his worthless brother!  Isn't that right, boys?"  The laughter was loud and raucous.  Xue knew this was going to get bad quickly.  "We heard you're a regular visitor to the flower house.  What about your brother.  Shouldn't he have fun too? Come now!  What's wrong?  Can't you speak, blind boy?"  JinDe had taken enough.  "Leave him alone!  He's never done anything to hurt anybody!  Leave him alone!" The loud man was a touch shorter than JinDe and not as strong.  He shoved JinDe and the fight was on.  Xue was thrust aside.  He had no idea where he was or what to do.  A pair of soft hands grabbed his arm.  "This way!"  "Who are you?"  "I am just the maid for the girls of the flower house.  They won't let me be one of them because my face was cut by a drunken man when I was younger."  He reached up to feel her face.  She flinched at first, but she knew he wouldn't harm her.  He softly touched her face and felt the long scar down the side.  He touched her hair and down her nose.  Satisfied, he dropped his hand.  "Your brother is a very brave man.  He is well liked by all of the girls in town, but none of them are allowed to court him.  He will defeat the drunks in but a minute.  He has done it before, you know."  "No, I didn't know.  Why do they taunt him?"  "It's because of you.  He has fought them for years.  You see, he could have brought you to the local monks to have them tend to you, but he refused.  He even stopped trying to find a wife.  He has taken care of you and the farm.  Ah, the last drunk just hit the ground.  Here he comes now!"  "Xue, are you alright?"  "Yes, I'm fine, thanks to this lady here.  She pulled me over to this bench."  "What lady?"  "The one sitting right next to me."  "Xue, there is no one there!"  He felt the bench next to himself.  She was not there.
     JinDe took Xue into the flower house for a drink.  "Xue, tell me about the woman who helped you."  "She said she was only a maid for the women who work here.  She said a drunk cut her face.  I felt of her face, JinDe.  She had a scar down the side of her face.  She was very kind to me."  JinDe thought for a moment and smiled.  So his brother had touched that one's heart!  Xiao Ling was not a bad person at all.  Maybe she saw a kindred spirit there.  He would find her for him.  He ordered wine for him and his brother.  Xue could hear the chatter and giggling of the women.  It seems his brother was rather popular here.  JinDe was looking for the maid.  He finally found her and brought her to sit by Xue.  She was a pretty woman but her scarred face turned away many men.  Xue took an instant liking to her.  JinDe made the arrangements for Xue to be with her.  He took them both to a private room upstairs and left them together.  Whatever happened, happened! 
     Xue would come back with JinDe every time he came to town.  Every time he would see the maid.  After six months, he asked her to marry him.  "But Xue, I'm just a whore working in a whore house.  Why do you want me?"  "Why would you want me?  Would you rather stay here, or come help me and my brother tend our farm?  It's up to you, but you see, I'm in love with you!"  "Xue, I will marry you!"  They were married a month later.  Life seemed much better for Xue.  She was always there to help him and she was teaching him how to be more independent.  Although JinDe did the plowing, Xiao Ling did most of the planting.  JinDe would usually disappear after the planting was done.  It had gotten where he would disappear for months.  He would only come back to plant and harvest.  Xiao Ling had taught Xue how to weed by the feel of the plants.  He knew what plant was what simply by feeling the leaves.  He became very good at it.  Harvest time had come, but JinDe did not appear.  Xue was worried, but he didn't say anything.  He and his Ling Ling harvested the field alone.  They readied what they were going to sell to take to the marketplace.  It was not going to be easy.
     JinDe had taken to leaving his brother and his wife alone.  He had to admit, he was envious.  What did Xue have that he didn't.  He was strong and handsome.  Women were always looking but it was with a sigh as if they felt he was off limits.  Just what was the problem?  He stayed at the flower house most of the time.  He thought long and hard but he decided he would rent himself out to the women who wanted him.  He didn't realize that this decision had cost him a happy life.  His reputation as a ladies play thing got around pretty fast.  He knew how to please a woman and other rumors got around about his anatomy.  He was sitting outside when his brother came into town.  "Oh no!  He'll know about me!"  He ran inside to his well appointed room.  For three days, Xue and Xiao Ling sold their produce.  It was good quality and the people liked them.  They were leaving town when a drunk man in front of the flower house made a snide comment.  "Hey blind man!  Why don't you visit your whore of a brother!  I hear women come from all over to pay for his big cock!  I bet you have one too!  Haha hahaha!"  Xue was stricken to his heart.  Was it true?  Is that where JinDe left to go?  Was he so desperate for love that he sought it by being a ladies man?  He hung his head from the shame of it all and left town. 
     Xue was helping Xiao Ling plow the fields for planting when two men came dragging JinDe home.  It had been five years since he had seen or heard from him.  They threw JinDe down on the ground and left.  Xiao Ling ran to Xue and led him to his brother.  What Xiao Ling saw chilled her to the bone.  Xue felt of JinDe's face.  He had been beaten, but that wasn't the worst of it.  He had been castrated.  For weeks, JinDe lay in bed delirious and feverish.  He was incoherent and made no sense.  He babbled and moaned.  After a month of care from both Xue and Xiao Ling, he finally opened his eyes with lucidity in them.  He saw Xue sitting by him holding his hand.  "Xue, please kill me!  If you won't do it, I'll do it myself!  I have money at the flower house.  You see I own it now.  Go get the money, sell the house and you and Xiao Ling live well.  Hire people to work for you!  Please, Xue!  I don't want to live like this!  Please!"
     Xue had Xiao Ling go into town to talk to the constable about JinDe.  She went to the flower house and collected the money.  One of the women there bought the property.  They were indeed now very rich.  She found out from the constable that one of the King's concubines had started coming to JinDe for his services.  She became a weekly regular.  When she got pregnant, the King got wind of it and had her followed.  She was killed along with her child.  The King's men then beat JinDe and castrated him for daring to violate the king by using his woman.  Retribution.  He had pushed himself too far and he had paid.  And paid dearly.  She came back home with the money in had and the whole story to tell Xue.  When she told him the complete tail, he was shocked.  JinDe had become a cruel user of women.  He made them pay so he could use and abuse them for his own ends.  He didn't care that his phallus was too large for some of them.  He used them anyway and left some of them needing urgent medical attention from bruising and tearing.  He was called 'The Dragon' by every woman in town and even those from other towns.  His fame spread to the point that some men sought him out too.  Those he refused.  It wasn't his thing.  He was doing fine until the concubine showed up.  She was young and the king was older.  It was his undoing.  His once handsome proud brother was now a eunuch.
     JinDe was guarded by Xue and Xiao Ling for weeks after she returned with the money.  He wouldn't look at it or touch it.  At the age of 40, JinDe walked outside, took up a kitchen knife from the table and sliced both wrists and his own throat.  Xue and Xiao Ling had been in the field.  They found him laying in his own blood, laying propped up against the porch, his eyes sightless.  Xue buried his handsome twin brother and asked for mercy for him.  He lived twenty more years and left his life behind.  He and Ling had two sons.  His farm had prospered and several families worked for him.  He left a contented man.