Secrets of the Blossom

Chapter 7 🔞

Huai En holds to the side of the cliff, his fingers digging desperately at the earth. He is trying to pull himself back up. Fear rather than relief fills him at the sound of approaching footsteps, but he refuses to show it. He knows if he cries out or begs his father will just have him whipped so he only looks up defiantly as his father approaches. His father doesn't say anything, only looks down with an expression of contempt on his face. He lifts a foot and places it on one of the hands clinging to the ground and Huai En can feel the pain. A scholar once told him you couldn't feel pain in a dream, but Huai En does. Maybe that is because this is as much a memory as a dream. Huai En waits and knows the next thing that should come is the sensation of falling.

However, for the first time the dream changes. Just as Huai En loses his grip and feels himself sliding backwards, a hand grabs his wrist. Huai En looks up and sees Xiao Bao. The omega is trying to pull him back onto the cliff, but the ground here is loose. Huai En is afraid they will both be pulled down instead. Huai En wants to tell Xiao Bao to let him go, but that's when he wakes.

He has a feeling like Xiao Bao could be in danger, and he doesn't think it's because of the dream. He gets up and quickly pulls on his robes and grabs his sword.

Xiao Bao's servants are asleep in front of the omega's residence. Huai En frowns at this, obviously they believe that their young master is safe here at home, but he wonders at Master Jin not setting more guards around his son's quarters. This household has obviously grown complacent over the years, it would never happen in his father's sect.

Huai En moves so silently that the servants don't even wake, he opens the door to their master's residence and slips inside, already unsheathing his sword. The assassin, dressed all in black, makes his way towards Xiao Bao's bed with a knife in hand. His intentions are clear.

Huai En knocks him away with a wave of energy then quickly stabs the assassin before he can react. Xiao Bao wakes up with a start, "What's going on?" He asks sleepily. The servants also rush in, woken by the noise.

Huai En reaches down and pulls the mask off the assassin, while Xiao Bao comes over. He looks like he is in shock. "Who?"

"You don't know him?" Huai En asks. "He was here to kill you."

"Me?" Xiao Bao squeaks as if he can't conceive of anyone ever wanting to kill him. Huai En thinks again that the omega is too innocent for his own good.

By morning the word of the attempted assassination of the young master has spread throughout the estates. Master Jin has the body brought out for everyone to look at, but no one recognizes the man or can determine his sect by his clothes.

"He was probably a foreign assassin hired by someone to kill Jin Xiao Bao," his father says. Xiao Bao is concerned by how pale his father looks and how he breaks into a coughing fit when he finishes speaking.

His mother must be concerned as well; she orders the servants to help her husband back to their rooms and calls for the doctor. His father has been getting worse lately, especially since they returned from their trip to the temple.

Xiao Bao is alarmed by the intensity of the coughing coming from his parents' bedroom when he enters their residence. There are several servants gathered around the door of the room and when he enters, he sees his father in bed being examined by the doctor. His mother is standing to the side looking scared.

"What's happened?" Xiao Bao asks his mother.

It's the doctor that answers, "His breathing disorder has caused a blockage. In my opinion it has been made worse by the upset of the assassins breaking into the residence."