Soul Lock

The First Life (JX)

"General, there is a man alive under the ruin!"

Hearing the shouting of one of his soldiers, General Ju Xin rushed to the ruined house whose entire roof was on the ground and a pale arm was hanging out.

"Let's pull him out," Ju Xin commanded with worry and five soldiers raised the fallen roof enough for the general to pull the unconscious man out. Pressing the man's upper body on his chest, Ju Xin thanked Heavens for sparing at least one person's life.

When they entered the village earlier, nobody expected to witness such a terrible scene. The entire village reeked with blood, the houses were either destroyed or burned, and the corpses of the villagers were scattered everywhere. Women, men, children, no one was spared, except one.

The young man in the general's arms.

"General, what are your orders?" Song Bei asked softly, seeing the general was too immersed in his thinking.

Ju Xin snapped out of his thoughts, "dig a mass grave for the dead, I will take care of this one. We can stay the night here, then move towards the capital tomorrow."

The soldier fidgeted restlessly, but none of them dared to speak up. Reluctantly, the thirty soldiers set to work and Ju Xin carried the man into a half destroyed stone house. He put his sleeping mat onto the ground and laid the man on it. After he patched him up, he sat on an unbroken bench, thinking about the happenings.

According to the information he received, the enemy must have been at south not at southwest, but as that village was completely destroyed, the information proved itself wrong.

Ju Xin's thinking was interrupted by the movement next to him. Looking at the source, he saw the injured man groping around to find something.

"Are you awake?" he asked and the man froze. Noticing his clenched fists and tightly shut eyes, Ju Xin tried to calm him, "don't worry, we won't hurt you, we are soldiers from the Kingdom of Xi, mind to tell me who you are?"

"D-Did you see a b-bamboo hat around?" the man asked with a shaky voice.

"A hat?" he asked as he stood up from the bench and sat next to the lying figure. His movement made the man flinch, but Ju Xin decided not to comment on it, he rather said "we didn't see a hat when we saved you from the ruins, was it important for you?"

The man didn't answer, but stress and sadness were apparent on his face. Seeing him like that Ju Xin's heart filled with pity.

"Wait a bit," he said and went out to look for the mentioned hat. His soldiers inquired about where he was going, but he ignored them and walked back to the ruined house. Luckily, the hat was there in one piece, so Ju Xin rushed back to the injured man with the tattered bamboo hat.

He sat back at his previous spot and grabbed the man's arms, pulling him up gently into a sitting position. Then he arranged the man's messy hair and his long bangs in a way to cover half of his face before placing the hat on his head.

The man seemed to come back to life as he ran his hands around the hat. Sighing with relief, he lowered his head towards Ju Xin and said "thank you so much my lord."

"It is nothing, really," Ju Xin said cheerfully, "now, can you tell me about yourself?" He didn't want to force the man, but he really wondered about the reason why he was hiding his face. As far as he saw, there was no problem on his face.

The man didn't utter a word, just throwing furtive glances towards Ju Xin.

"Don't you want to talk?" he asked with sympathy.

"Oi General, let him be, come and eat," one of his soldiers called out, but Ju Xin shook his head in negative as suddenly the man started to talk.

"I am not a villager, I just wanted to help when I heard the cries and saw the smoke," he said while looking down at his bandaged hands which Ju Xin patched up carefully.

"Hmm," Ju Xin rubbed his chin, "then where do you live? Close by?"

"I..." the man started but couldn't finish.

"You can tell me, I won't judge," the general reassured him.

"I live in the forest," the man said in one breath.

"I see. Then can you tell me what happened here as far as you know?" He decided not to push him too hard for the time being.

"I was fishing when I saw the enormous black smoke, wondering, I came closer and heard villagers crying and shouting. The smell of burning and ashes covered everywhere. I wanted to help so I entered the village from the forest path and saw that mounted soldiers with red armours were killing the villagers..."

The man stopped abruptly and Ju Xin noticed his head was tilted towards his clenched fists. Forcing a smile in an attempt to hide his agitation, he said "please continue."

"Then I rushed to the tea house..."

"Why?" Ju Xin looked at him with curiosity.

"Because the owners have a ten-year old girl, I pushed her out of the burning tea house, but the roof collapsed on me," then suddenly he grabbed Ju Xin's arm with his trembling hand, "did you see Lei Lei? Is she alive? She is wearing a pink dress..."

Ju Xin saved his arm from his grip, "I am so sorry," he whispered and ran away with a heavy heart. He hated it when innocent lives perished because of meaningless battles.

He strolled around the ruins, trying to get rid of the heavy burden in his heart, then he went back and brought a bowl of food which his soldiers cooked to the injured man.

"Here, eat this," he reached the bowl to the man, but he didn't move an inch. Therefore, Ju Xin sat next to him and forced the bowl into his hand. He patted him lightly on the shoulder, "you were unconscious for the whole day, so you should eat something... for Lei Lei's sake."

A lonely tear fell from the man's eye and he hastily stuffed the food into his mouth, swallowing it without even chewing under the sad gaze of Ju Xin.

When he was done, the general took the bowl from him, but he didn't walk out. He looked at the man with sympathy and said "tomorrow we have to set off."

The man just nodded, but from his expression Ju Xin could see his anxiety. Therefore, he continued "I want to ask you whether you would like to come with us. There is nothing left in this area and you are injured, so it could be better for you to come with us until we find a secure village for you."

In a blink of an eye, the man grabbed Ju Xin's arms, repeating "thank you so much, General," again and again.

The general chuckled softly and patted his hand, "my name is Ju Xin, you can call me by my name."

"Ju as giant and Xin as heart?"

"Yes, it is," Ju Xin replied with a smile, "and yours?"

"Wen Lan," the man answered.

After that night, the group set off towards the capital. Interestingly, Wen Lan didn't come near them, rather just following them behind with his tattered bamboo hat covering his face, not talking to anyone other than Ju Xin. Being conscious of his discomfort, Ju Xin tried to act as friendly as he could, even personally changing his bandages and bringing his food.

At night, Ju Xin was sitting with him separately from his soldiers and they were talking about everything and anything. He genuinely enjoyed Wen Lan's company and his enthusiasm about small things in life. It was obvious he had gone through many hardships, so Ju Xin tried to gain his trust slowly. However, as the journey continued, he realised his feelings might be a little more than a mere friendship.