How To Polish A Pearl

Chapter 74 - Interrogating

Author's Notes:

This chapter contains a lot of gore, violence and anxiety. Please don't continue reading if this is something that makes you uncomfortable, or skip to the last paragraph.

I wrote this chapter when I wrote the previous, so for this one I still listened to this song to help me through it: Isak Danielsson - Power

⊂ (▀▿▀) つ

The voice is so weak Wen Ke Xing can't hear it from where he is sitting. Making sure that the devil is still watching without being able to move, he gets up and walks toward the table. As he gets closer, the metallic smell of blood gradually increases. It isn't until he has basically by the table that he can hear Xiaotao mumbling through his tears, "Please... Please stop... Just... please stop..."

Stopping at the opposite side of the table, his hands ache to touch Zhou Xu. Hug him. Hold him. Hold his hand. Hold anything. However, the hand that is currently resting on the table is occupied by the bloody dagger, a subtle tremble in the fingers.

Swallowing through his shallow breaths, Xiaotao's voice is but a whisper, "I'm just... I just provide information that I hear from... men staying here..." Closing his eyes, his head screaming so loud his ears are ringing, yet he is so tired all he wants to do is sleep.

Zhou Xu watches the butchered traitor on the table with cold eyes, void of any remorse or empathy, "Who recruited you?"

"... a woman... I don't know her..." Xiaotao swallows slowly, his lips dry and as he licks them, leaving stains of fresh blood. "The money she gave me means I can buy myself free next year."

"What did she look like?"

Xiaotao is drooling a mixture of saliva and blood with small bubbles forming between his lips. The words are muffled and short, like every word takes all the strength that he has. "Young... Pretty... Dark hair... Almond eyes..." Closing his eyes, his breathing slows down as he takes a few deep breaths. He coughs up blood that leaks out and dribbles down his right cheek. "She didn't have the tattoos."

"Who do you work for?"

Forcing his eyes open, Xiaotao stares at Zhou Xu with a foggy gaze and teary eyelashes, "Hongtao Huanghou... She is the daughter of the former Guigu Guzhu." Closing his eyes, he doesn't open them again, the final whisper trailing off into silence, "I haven't met her..."

Wen Ke Xing sees Zhou Xu's fingers grip the hilt. Without hesitation he flicks his wrist so quickly, Zhou Xu doesn't even react, he just stares at the red slice mark on Xiaotao's throat. Turning his gaze from the dead prostitute, he looks at the double edged knife in Wen Ke Xing's hand. Turning to meet those black ones for the first time since he had started, he is unsure as to what he will see both in those eyes but also reflecting back within them. When I look at you, will I still see the rest of my life in front of my eyes? (4)

Looking at those walnut-colored ones that are dimmed to the point where Wen Ke Xing can't see beyond the marble, he responds to the question that hasn't been asked, "Until the rivers run dry..." (5) Taking a deep breath, he shrugs and continues with a light smile on his face, "Don't be upset I claimed the kill, he was mine the second he touched you."

Zhou Xu is stunned, Wen Ke Xing had just quoted his wedding vows to him at this moment. A warm feeling spreads starts to prod at the cold marble exterior, a part of it changing. It doesn't crack, but it softens. He is telling me that everything is okay...

Turning, they both look at the devil that is still on the floor by the chair, all blood drained from his face and his eyes in absolute horror. Though everyone in this Ghost Valley are used to violence and death, what he had just watched was cold, cruel, calculating and ruthless.

Wen Ke Xing walks over and pulls down the gag, allowing Lecherous Ghost to finally take a few deep breaths and regain some of his composure and allow him to speak. Together they watch Zhou Xu walk over from the table, amazingly not a single drop of blood has touched him. He is still carrying the dagger stained with Xiaotao's remains.

Before he has even reached them, Lecherous Ghost starts rambling like a mad man, anything to keep that demon away from him. "I don't know who she is, I promise. I have never seen her face. She always wears a mask or stays hidden the few times I have met her. I was recruited two years ago by the same woman as him," Lecherous Ghost nods towards the corpse, "However, as far as I know, most of her underlings are women. Only my assassins have been male."

Crouching down, Zhou Xu levels his gaze with those pathetic brown ones that are on the verge of crying, "... and what else?"

Panic creeping up his spine, his body instinctively twitching to try and get further away from Zhou Xu, the devils continues to spit out words at the speed of light, "Only what that prostitute told you−she is the daughter of the former Guzhu. I don't know why she wants you dead. The instructions have been very clear though. No one is to touch the Guzhu. You are the only one that is permitted to kill." He is rambling at such a speed, he is almost spitting saliva in Zhou Xu's face. His eyes darting back and forth to try and remember everything as fast as he possibly can. Anything to keep himself alive. "Oh, you can identify them with the tattoo, but you have already figured that out. I don't know any others and only work with my own men. The only way I have been able to identify others is by the tattoos. We don't interact with others, only contact is through her or the woman who recruited me."

Zhou Xu's face remains marble even though he wants to cringe at the spit that is flying everywhere from the mouth of this pathetic ghost. There really is no loyalty amongst Devils... His voice low and steady, Zhou Xu continues, "How do you contact her?"

"I don't, she always contacts me via one of her girls, a new one every time, never the same one twice and I never see them again afterwards. We have a deadline of planning the next assassination before the full moon, which is in a week from now. If things proceed according to the plan, she will contact me a few days before to understand the plan. Maybe you can intervene then or have her servant followed."

Wen Ke Xing doesn't see the movement but his eyes catches the reflection of the blade that cuts Lecherous Ghosts throat, killing him instantly. Silently, he watches the man hunched before him. The man that is now cleaning the blood off the blade with a handkerchief. This is the man he has heard so much about. The man that he was, he admits, excited to learn had been picked up during the raids to find him a bride. The man he had set out to break those first nights. The man who is the owner of the famous sword Bai Yi. The man that is the leader of Window of Heaven−Zhou Zi Shu.

w(°ｏ°)w

Author's Notes:

(1) 'When I look at you, will I still see the rest of my life in front of my eyes', here I have changed the Chinese proverb 'when I look at you, I see the rest of my life in front of my eyes' or 当我看着你，我看到我的未来岁月在我的眼. The original proverb is commonly used at weddings. If you can see the rest of your life in your fiancée, then they are probably the one. It is important to be able to envision a future with your partner. Here, Zhou Xu is scared that the love Wen Ke Xing expressed the night before might change because he is changing.

(2) Reminder - This is the poem 上邪, English title is The Pledge. More on this poem is in the chapter Bowing.