How To Polish A Pearl

Chapter 27 - Swaying

A/N: Just want to thank you guys for supporting me and this story. It keeps me motivated to continue writing it. 

Also - I have been contemplating if I should use the Chinese word for husband instead? What do you guys think? 

⊂ (▀▿▀) つ❤

"Lao Wen..."

Surprisingly enough, those had been the first words that had left his lips in a low murmur before he was even conscious, totally oblivious of whom he had just called out for.

When the pain kicks him into consciousness and the brain starts firing up, the memories of what had just happened out on that platform comes rushing back without sparing him a moment to catch his breath. The fight, the slaughter, the fucking. Oh God, the fucking... Did I just beg Lao Wen to fuck me until I came? The earthquake!

"Lao Wen!"

His eyes springs open, and he jolts forward, his body screaming in protest of the movement. His body aching like someone has ripped out his spiritual core and then shoved it back in again.

Stumbling to his knees, his naked skin bruised by the ground, he vomits blood before he attempts standing up for a second time. Where is he?

"Lao Wen!"

Stumbling out of the passage and on to the plateau, he trips on the reshuffled surface. The scene in front of him so morbid, it is almost comical. The chopped up assassins are scattered throughout the plateau, some crushed under the falling rocks whilst others are partly or fully within the cracks. The fault lines zigzag across the ground like a spiderweb, where the spider resided inside the mountain, trying to swallow the massacred bodies to its inner core to feast on.

"Lao Wen!"

Whether he blames it on being in pain or being disoriented after having been knocked out when he was thrown, Zhou Xu is not his logical and methodical self. Impatient and borderline anxious, he randomly searches through the piles of bodies, scanning the cracks as he moves from one to the other.

His hands already damaged from earlier are now almost shredded from lifting, prodding, and pushing at the various corpses. He slips trying to turn over the nth boulder and stumbles to his bare knees, his usual jade white skin now stained with blood and dirt. White skin shimmers in his peripheral vision as he hits his head against the rock, white light flickering in front of his eyes.

"Lao Wen!"

Using the boulder to stabilise himself, he pushes to his feet and stumbles towards the body that is sprawled dangerously close to the edge. Wen Ke Xing is on his side, his body twisted in an unnatural angle.

"Lao Wen!"

Falling to his knees, he grabs at the wrist to feel the pulse, relaxing when he feels the slight quiver under his fingertips. He's alive.

"Wait, why do I care if you're alive?" he asks the unconscious man. "I should push you off this cliff and be done with this. Do you hear me!?", he says and shoves the body with his torn hands, the momentum making it slump forward exposing the back.

Standing up, he looks at the man wearing nothing but boots, a massive bruise colouring his ribs an unnerving shade of purple. Is that from where the boulder hit him after the threw me into safety...?

"FUCK!"

It would be so easy just to give you a little push. Just a nudge. Just pretend that the earthquake was your final fate.

Kicking a rock off the edge, he watches it fall until it is out of sight. Turning back towards the limp body he sees the marks all over the back. The back that had sheltered him from the falling rocks.

An especially deep bruise is glowing on the shoulder. Memories surface of Wen Ke Xing moving in front of him, almost hugging him, taking that blow that would have killed him.

Why did you do it? How much of your core did it damage?

"FUUUUUUUUUCK!"

He rubs his palms against his face so hard it burns, leaving red marks along his cheeks. Clasping his fingers at the back of his head, he squeezes his head between his arms so hard his whole head vibrates as he stares up at the cloudless sky. His breaths are coming out in pants so rugged it makes him dizzy.

"FUUUCK!"

What do I do? Do I run? Will he die if I leave him here? Why hasn't anyone from Ghost Valley come to check on us? Surely, they know something is wrong by now.

Staring towards the passageway leading back towards Wu Ying (1) he gathers the qi in his core and take off about thirty meters straight up into the air. The breeze cold against his naked skin, he spins 360 degrees as he slowly descends. The mountain is still. No sounds and no movement. They are not coming.

Landing a bit stiffly, at the exact spot he had just left, he looks down at the unconscious man. Wen Ke Xing's words from earlier in the day echoes in his head. 'It is kill or be killed, there is no in-between'.

No one would come.

"Fuck... FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

Looking around the plateau Zhou Xu spots the various piles of their discarded clothes. Supressing the images of how they were removed and what happened afterwards, his mind in full denial, he moves towards Wen Ke Xing's clothes figuring that his own would be too shredded to be useable.

Picking up one of the two inner robes and his own pair of trousers he steadies himself against the boulder, that is still carrying traces of their earlier activity, as he puts them on. Tying the belt around his waist, the robe is two sizes too large, draping against the ground around his boots.

Feeling like a kid in adult clothes, memories surface of when he and his third junior had snuck into his shifu's pavilion to secretly try on his special New Year's robe. The memory slices quickly alongside the headache and he steadies himself against the rock. I need to figure out how to get my memories back... and I need him for that.

Shaking his head with his eyes tightly closed, he suppresses the memory and the headache. He picks up the second inner robe and the other pair of discarded trousers. Taking a deep breath, he fixates his gaze on the still unconscious Guzhu. Walking back, he picks up one of the bayonets that has been left ownerless on the ground and balances it in his right hand. You will have to do.

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