Blood of Deception [ON HOLD]

Chapter Twenty Four

It was after the firework show that Xinlei took Zhonghong back to the stable. She'd persisted to stay with the remaining partygoers, so he had to practically lift her over his shoulder - he was also drunk - and took her home.

Liping wasn't yet home when they returned. Xinlei went away after he tucked Zhonghong beneath the sheets. Alcohol made her fast asleep and she slipped into a dreamless slumber.

She woke again sometime later to some noises from the wall next to her bed. It was from the other side, coming from Yuzhe's room. Her fogginess cracked at the reminder of her brother. She sat up. Her head felt like there was an extra one being attached on top of it. At least she had high alcohol tolerance, spared from a splitting headache.

She glanced at the window, seeing the pitch-black sky. Yuzhe must had just come back from wherever he was. She decided to check on him.

She stepped out to the room next to hers. The middle doors were opened. Light from within cast faint silhouettes on the screens. She noiselessly moved to the threshold.

Yuzhe was fussing about his bed, dressed in something completely different from what she'd seen that morning. He spoke something and she realized Meiyue was standing near the headboard. No amount of shadow could conceal the glimmering attire that hung down her womanly body. They both almost seemed out of place, surrounded by all the plainness.

"So you were together."

Her brother turned. Only then did she see the man lying on his bed. Zhonghong recognized the shadows on the man weren't at all shadows but blood.

"Who's that?" she asked, alarmed.

"We don't know," Meiyue said, maintaining a strict distance from the bed.

"But we can't leave him," her brother said. "He could die from these wounds." He stepped back as Zhonghong came to check the man's pulse.

She was the nurse of the household. The field held her passion ever since she was as young as she could remember. Liping had urged her to pursue it, but Zhonghong was considerate of the family's financial level.

"Bring water and a clean towel," she told Yuzhe. He went to it immediately. She began to carefully undo the buttons and peeled off the man's rags. All his wounds seemed to be external, extending from his shoulders to stomach. She suspected the minor ones were caused by arrows. The deep ones needed stitching.

"There's a severe one at his back," Meiyue commented. Zhonghong almost forgot that the princess was still there.

"Your sister was looking for you during the feast," she said as she worked.

"Not the Queen?"

Zhonghong glanced up at her. She noticed a pair of earrings she'd never seen on her before. "Where did you two go?"

Meiyue had a tired smile. "Yuzhe took me to the Forlorn Lake."

Her hands faltered for a brief moment. "It's a beautiful place," she remarked late. It had been a few years since her brother took her there, along with Liping and Xinlei. Thinking back, she wondered if Yuzhe still remembered the words she'd carved into one of the larches' trunks. They were her wish, something that her brother didn't take seriously at that time.

Yuzhe reentered the room with a basin filled with clean water. Zhonghong pulled a stool over and had him place it on it. She moistened the towel and began to wipe the man's wounds.

"I'll take you home," Yuzhe said to Meiyue as his sister took over.

The princess shook her head. "You should stay and help."