On the Petals of a Flower, I found something that does not belong to me

40

Every lie is two lies — the lie we tell others and the lie we tell ourselves to justify it. - Robert Brault

Note: Big chapter ahead. :)

 The next day we started together with Alex and Daryl to go back to Suanhi. On the way I didn't feel much of my body. I had rested the day before, but my wounds were away from closing completely any time soon.

 As for Des, she was running almost instead of walking. But she always made sure she didn't leave me behind. She may have been chubbier than I was, but she was a lot more fit than me.

 When we arrived in the village, the locals welcomed us with joy. There was no more fog and the wooden houses looked spotless. When we asked them about the disciples who had disappeared, they didn't seem to know anything.

 "We have not seen any of you here since you left and chased those monsters," said Su Ming, the village chief.

 "Are you sure? Have you not seen anyone?" Daryl asked for the third time.

 Su Ming played with his fingers and his eyes played right and left. He seemed to hesitate. People around us came and went in their jobs, but they had their ears on us. They were looking at us strangely. "The truth is that... there is one. We saved him. But what does it matter? He seems to have been lost for a long time."

 Daryl grabbed him by the collar. His eyebrows furrowed and he brought his face close to Su Ming. "You lied to us from the beginning!"

 "No, no!" Su Ming whispered. "I am telling the truth. The truth!"

 "And why did you say in the beginning that you have not seen anyone? And now you admit it?" I have spoken.

 Su Ming hesitated and tried to escape from Daryl's grip. Alex made a sign to him and Daryl took his hands off Su Ming. "I told you why! He has been lost for a long time. Ever since you left, the teacher's daughter, A-Si, found him on the street. She took him home and treated his wounds. But the boy seems to have lost his soul."

 "His soul?" did Alex.

 I returned to Des. "That is bad. Think he might be like a moving zombie," she explained immediately.

 "Yes!" was immediately hastened Su Ming to confirm. "His spirit! But what can we do. We did not want to kill him or bury him. Nobody wanted to take him home. Except for the teacher's daughter. She had her father, the teacher who died, she has him now."

 "Then why did you not call anyone? Tell us where the disciple is. We will take him back," Daryl said.

 Su Ming stepped forward to show us the way. As we walked, the eyes of the people around us stared at us. For some reason, their smiles seemed scary to me.

 "Why didn't they inform the Nie sect who is closer to them, to get him?" Alex whispered to us.

 I put my hand on my chin. He was right. Didn't they want to get rid of him as he said? Why then?

 Su Ming relatively quickly brought us to the door of a wooden house. "Here it is," he said and knocked on the door.

 We waited outside for a few minutes. As we were about to go inside, a voice came from behind us.

 "Hello. Who are you please?"

 I turned back. Behind us stood a relatively beautiful girl. She seemed to be about my age and Des's more or less.

 "They are cultivators, along with those who faced the monsters the other day. They came for their own," Su Ming replied.

 "Ah!" did the girl. Then he smiled. "Wang."