Chapter 4: Am I Insane
In less than a fraction of a second, and in less time than it took to open one's eyes from a blink, all of them were back in their places, and the man in white had even thrown off his outer coat and scarf, pressing it beneath him and out of sight.
The red and purple members walked out, including two in black, both with faces covered with masks. She looked down politely, as they passed, recognizing the footsteps of her master, who came out almost last, to hop in behind him. She noticed he was rather morose after the meeting, and so didn't bring anything up the entire way back.
He went to bathe, she got to cleaning. When he came back, he stood in the doorway, watching her work, enjoying the way sweat rolled down her brow and chin.
He sat down, to work some small things more, and packed up all his documents into a chest. She worked for the next couple hours until he could smell nothing, and then some.
Before she finally stood up, resting against the wall for a breath, before grabbing her pails and clothes, she came before him, setting them down. "Thank you master." She bowed.
"Return after." He requested.
As usual, she remained obedient, returning shortly after cleaning face and hands, around her in the halls she traveled down, she noticed several people, well, literally all the people in the blood cult were moving rather quickly back and forth, as if in a hurry somewhere, several carrying boxes of equipment upward.
"Master." Waiting for instruction. and perhaps an explanation for what was going on outside and why he had packed up his documents and some clothing. Then again, she had a guess.
He sighed, leaning back, before standing up and sitting down on the bench.
She noticed his robe was even more open than usual despite her intentions to not notice it.
She was 21 in total years after all. She wanted to marry already, and although he was probably in his early thirties, he looked to be only 25 at the most.
She followed him, quickly hiding her eyes.
He gestured to the seat beside him, "Sit."
She sat down obediently, trying to look away from him without seeming to be impolite.
He sighed again. "It's really a problem. Someone defected, a stronghold was taken down unexpectedly, and an attack on this base is imminent. We will probably need to retreat to the main base if that is the case. The top has already retreated ahead of us. We are lucky to get anything at all. Lucky that the heir and his brother seems to still care about us."
Oh, so that was the heir and his brother earlier, no wonder she felt such a strong power from him.
He turned to her, his hand reached over, and almost flinched, as he touched her neck. At his touch, a golden binding appeared.
"You've had this…almost 9 years, am I right?"
She nodded, turning to gaze at him.
"Were you ever…mad, mad that I placed it on you." He almost looked worried, as he stroked her neck. She had never felt him touch her so softly, so gently, none of his nails pierced into her skin. His poisoned nails.
She felt herself immediately drawn to him in a way she had not felt before. Was this love then? Like between her father and mother? No, could it be that? She knew he was her captor and an evil man, she had plans to kill him, this attack was the perfect opportunity. But, well, who she loved had never gotten in the way of her plans before. It wouldn't now.
She leaned into his hand, giving in to its gentleness for a moment.
Her eyes stopped acting demurely, gazing at him so steadfastly, with arrogance, wildness, playfulness, and a little desire.
"Nothing from you is a regret, Liao Lusheng." When she spoke those words, the binding reacted, as it did every time she disobeyed a command from him, squeezing her throat, sending tendrils of tortuous pain through her body. She happened to break free from his hand when she was seizuring. It finally stopped, she caught her breath, holding her throat, rubbing it in relief. Liao Lusheng, what you give has never been a regret, but what you've taken away, is. And we have a blood feud between us. u and i.
She felt a hand at her shoulder, another take her chin, pulling it up, she was looking into his stark red eyes again. "Say it again…" He whispered, almost desperately.
She felt lawless in that moment, consumed by him, whether he wanted to warn her, torture her or whatever, she didn't care.. "Liao Lusheng-" She convulsed in pain again. She could handle it without sounds or falling to the ground, but while it was active, it was hard to focus on anything outside it.
He stood away from her, back facing her. "...I thought you said you had gotten rid of such thoughts?"
Tonight, didn't he say they would evacuate? Right. Let's not lose this chance. And if this is our last talk…What he did to her, how he punished her for what she did to him before she was done, she would take it as his revenge for what she was going to do.
She came forward, wrapping her arms around his thin waist. It seemed thinner than her own, and his frame, almost smaller than hers, was instantly swallowed, she didn't want to let go.
"How will you punish me for lying then?" She whispered directly to his ear. Punish me if you desire, I'm tired of holding back.
She was expecting him to blow up in rage, and had already prepared herself to deal with the blow like she couldn't fully handle it, or for him to activate the bond on her neck to force her away, instead, she heard his breath come thicker, deeper, faster.
She didn't stop then, leaning down to kiss the nape of his shoulder and neck.
He jolted, she threw him around, to force him against a wall. "Tell me, master, why aren't you punishing me yet?"
Then, she grew stun-locked. He was limp in her arms, she was holding him up, as if his knees couldn't work.
His face was bright red, breath hot, and eyes turning wilder by the minute.
It was then, that he suddenly stiffened in her arms, leaping forward, his hands grasped either side of her chin, head coming up to place his dry lips against hers. His sharp teeth crashed hard against hers, but she didn't back down from her first kiss, his hands slid down, grasping her neck, she didn't stop. Pulling her own arms around him, she pulled him deeper, letting him completely lean the entirety of his weight on her, climb up higher on her. He only grew more excited, he attempted to overtake her, fighting for dominance. He was gripping her neck so tightly she used spiritual energy to strengthen it, and then, when he saw it was having no affect, his nails pierced into her skin. She didn't stop, ignoring it, and when he bit her lip, she bit his cheek and mouth, fighting back as excitedly as he declared war on her. It was a battle. Spiritual energy began to be activated, things whirled around them in the room, the ground beneath heir feet began to sink in, his own feet were against the wall.
They fought to bite each other, and almost both ended in death, before he finally grew tired first, collapsing into her arms.
"That was…perfect." He breathed.
She smirked, lifting him up into a princess carry. "Was it now? You liked it?"
He just leaned against her shoulder.
"I liked it too." She muttered in his ear.
She began to walk out. Several people were running about when she exited. Only Liao Lusheng would be so relaxed in a time of emergency, even finishing his document work, and letting her clean his room before exiting.
She called for a servant to clean up the things in the room and carry it to the next place. He bowed, rushing in.
The evacuation had been set in motion in their department by Ruyang, and no one cared to look at the strange sight of a man carrying another man, with long, stark white hair, slowly down the hall.
Liao Lusheng finally decided to stop enjoying being carried and listen to his surroundings, peaking his eyes open to confirm his suspicions.
"We are going the wrong way," he suggested.
"No, we're going the right way." She refuted.
He was more obedient than ever before, just quiet in her arms, letting her slowly carry him deeper and further away from the exit. No one was to be seen now if they were a blood cult member. Only a couple new trainees were still locked in cages down here.
She took him farther, setting him down. He glanced around, still quite a bit more drowsy than he should be. Afterall, she had made sure to drug him rather well in that moment.
She sat down beside him.
"Do you remember this place?" Her voice was pleasant as if discussing the prairie flowers.
He considered for a long while, before shaking his head.
"I do." She brought a hand around his shoulders, pulling him towards herself. "It's where I first met you." She kissed him on the forehead, a tear slid out of one eye.
She came forward to kneel down before him.
He was confused. "Master." She placed her head on his lap. "Forgive me, yes?"
"What?" He reached out his hand, rubbing her jaw, entreatingly, gentleness in his eyes. She didn't know he had this side. "What could my little tongku do that would make me not forgive him?"
She took out a dagger, a straight dagger. "Do you remember this then?"
He shook his head. "We should leave though, It's already past the time I set with Miao Ruyang." He ran out of patience, grabbing her face fiercely, "You think I'll play your games just because you caught my attention???" Why wasn't his poison working on the brat anyway?
She licked his hand. "It doesn't matter if you play or not."
He suddenly felt his hand weaken, dropping her.
Gazing at it for a moment before realizing. "You…What is the meaning of this? You don't like me?"
"Master," she smiled, but it was filled with bitter sorrow. "I do like you, I like you so much." She stepped towards him. "But, you owe me the blood for a young, chubby little boy. Thus," she sighed wistfully, "It really won't work out between us."
"You're insane!-" to think there was someone more insane than he was. Well, he had considered she may be insane, but since she was so obedient for 9 years, he hadn't thought a thing for it.
he attempted to activate the bond, but his brain was so muddled and his spiritual energy wouldn't activate.
"There's still a backfire," he warned. "If you kill me, the bond will kill you!"
"Oh, is that a problem?" she tilted her head, "I don't see why that's a problem?"
She came towards him, he still couldn't activate his spiritual energy, trying every method possible.
"What, what did you feed me?"
"The same thing I ate." She considered. "Right, it's one of the poisons of some black man, I think…or you might call him a snake, I don't know."
He didn't know what she was talking about, but he knew, as she was approaching, that he was in danger. Wait, if she ate the same poison, didn't she also lock up her spiritual energy by now then? How would she activate it with such a relaxed mind?
He watched her, sure enough, she wasn't activating it anymore. She had stopped since she had begun to carry him down here. He grinned, pulling out a couple daggers.
It was pointless. She was strong, even her physical body had been worked out, unlike his, since he had grown slothful in recent years, his experience in combat was nothing before that. She tore through his defenses easily, and stabbed his heart, catching him as he fell, to place his head on her shoulder.
"Why…why not that little boy instead…"
"I ordered that little boy, and, you were why I did so." She kissed his ear as he faded away. "Don't worry, your death, it's not your fault, it's mine. You see, I made a promise to them, to each one of them." That if they should ever die, she would hunt down their killer till the end. That was the pact of the original 5 that had made the gang, the Fushu. If any of the original 5 should die, the rest would hunt down the killer to either of theirs' end. Shushu…was not the killer, neither was it her who gave him the order, but the man in her arms. Shushu knew her plan, and left it in her hands to fulfill. Their alliance would never break, be it a hundred years or more.
Right then, the pain hit. Her neck felt like it had been slit off, it would've, perhaps, if she had spiritual energy that would activate. Instead, the poison had locked up all her brain function enough to keep the spiritual energy imobile in her body, so the bond could only control her currently weakened physical countenance, and burn through the neck, reinforced by spiritual energy that had relaxed the moment she lost contact with it.
She fought against her body to not cut into herself, but it still managed to grab the dagger, and cut several times into her, narrowly avoiding anything life threatening. Pain ran up her body, like biting ants inside her flesh, and the skin on her neck burned almost completely through, as the bond seared to nothing. When it was finally over, she collapsed on the ground, panting, the poison was beginning to lose effectiveness by the end, her spiritual energy naturally clearing it from her system, and as it returned to her general use.
Finally. Finally free again. chained to the hospital, then chained to him. Right. Him. She glanced over, before standing up,walking over and picking him up. She covered his face with a handkerchief, and began to climb her way back up, back towards the surface. She opened all the major cages as she went, sending messages into the most kind-looking kids' heads about how to free the rest, before continuing her journey. As the children and adults rushed past her, she remained steady, slowly carrying up a man cloaked in red flowers, she, cloaked in white, kissing his brow every now and then as she went.
[wait.]
Suddenly an electrical voice sounded out in her head, she paused, curiously.
[what actually is going on here?]
"Hmm? What do you mean? Oh," she suddenly had a realization. "Are you the one that brought me here?"
[! how did you know?]
She shrugged, "It just felt right." Some called it a woman's intuition. Well, and he typed in lowercase for everything. Only someone from her world would do that.
The system wasn't impressed. [but, really, please tell me, how do you explain the current situation? you are part of the demonic cult? carrying a thin wicked man who is also a minor role villain later who kills extravagantly and is somewhat of a headache for the male lead and female lead, due to his intelligence, say, how did you mess up the story this bad? also, why do you look like that?]
"Ah, story? I don't understand, but, if you brought me into this world," she bowed as much as one could allow while carrying another, "Thank you, I will make sure to repay you for giving me a second chance at life."
[eh? you consider this living? i'm looking over your files…say, what did you do? you jumped off the carriage and then straight up started the beggars coalition?]
"Beggars coalition?" She was confused.
[ah, i think you called him Biaoshu, he runs the beggars coalition, you helped found it.]
"I see, I didn't know I did that." She continued forward, since it seemed the voice could automatically follow her.
[you were then captured by the blood cult and… what is this…you went through such horrible things! weren't you just a kid when i sent you in here? also, why have you killed so many people? oh right, i remember, you were that 12 year old murderer who killed her parents. also…you're kinda strong, i don't remember anyone mentioning that the character was particularly strong…is it because you practiced blood cult techniques? it's true demonic techniques work differently, and no normal member would choose to learn them due to the karma and the maddening effects and social hatred of them. interesting, this news should be worth a pretty penny…]
"Sir," she finally interrupted, "Is there a reason you brought me here? Did you have a task you wanted me to accomplish?"
[ah! it's good you know, actually, i'm a system, who brought you here since i saw your potential. the trial period for whether you are qualified to be working with me full-time will be three lifetimes, if you can survive these, you will get a lifetime salary and several other benefits!]
"Ah, so I can live forever then, with your help?"
[yes! all you need to do is achieve the mission objectives, but if you fail in the trial period, unfortunately that's it, your life is over for good.]
"Tell them to me." She hadn't stopped walking, returning to the third floor. "I will do my best to achieve these objectives, if it will pay you back for this new life I have."
[ah, ahahaha, yes, yes, that's fine, i suppose, I think you get the gist. anyway, all you need to do is achieve the character's unrecognized wishes!]
"I'm confused."
[oh, right, let me send you her memories so that you can see what happened to her in her life, basically she was a sort of character in a story, but because she died with so much grievance, the grievance had destabilized the weak world created by the world slightly, to make sure this doesn't accumulate, we, the systems hire you, the actors, to realize her revenge or goal, whatever it might be. you see, in that world, she wasn't supposed to meet her end like that, but another character got a time tag, or trans tag, from a playful time deity, or trans deity, I didn't look into which one, and so redid the world differently, and thus, the character you are possessing met an untimely demise]
suddenly her eyes blacked out for a moment, as her head felt like a hammer had hit it heavily, memories flashed through her mind.
A girl, jealous of another girl. She was the child of a concubine married to a branch family of an affluent one, the girl she was jealous of, child of the main heir line of the noble family. But although that girl was born the main descendent, and was supposed to inherit all the property from her grandfather, she had lost both of her parents, and thus all her social standing. This girl, she was jealous, but also found great enjoyment in torturing her, so that the girl might grow up feeling like a pathetic thing and even stole her betrothed man.
Unfortunately, one day, while having her servants beat up the girl, the girl seemed to grow possessed, and the girl suddenly grabbed the whip and beat them all in exchange. When the jealous girl tried bringing it up to her father, the main patriarch got involved, having finally left his indoor meditation for the first time in around a decade. And her father had to back off, in fact, she was even punished in exchange! This was around the time the girl turned 18, three years older than the protagonist. Thus, it continued, over and over, until she died with grievance, after being raped and passed around in a brothel or something. Tongku stopped paying attention at some point, and continued to walk forward.
"I understand." she finally spoke, "I'll help you out then…Although I still owe you the life debt."
[ah, sounds good then, i have some other people i must pay attention to at this moment, have fun! let me know how it goes! ah, getting revenge on the protagonist before she turns 15 might be smart!]
"Wait!" She called out before he could go.
[yes?] he decided he might as well hear her out, he had employed child labor originally after all.
"Am I…insane?" She finally asked. "You, who must know me best out of anyone, having seen me in my past life, would you say I'm insane?"
[nah] he couldn't care less whether she was insane or not and left with that.
However, at that simple word, she finally shook, walking out of the hall, back to their clean room, and falling to her knees, cuddling the cooling body in her arms, as she cried bitterly.
"I don't want to do it anymore." She cried. "I don't want to kill the people who love me. I never did, I'm such…a horrible person." After all, if I'm not insane, it must mean I'm just a terrible person then, doing it fully understanding what I'm doing.
It was then that howls could be heard, she closed the door of their room, right before enemies poured into the corridors, running from above to deeper. Most of them were cloaked in white and off-white clothing.
Several ran past her, not even seeing her, their room hidden in darkness.
All farther down the current hall she was in, on the third floor of the underground, the clashing of blades could be heard.
She didn't bother herself with it.
She had settled him down nicely, crossing his arms over himself in a comfortable posture, making sure his eyes were shut, and his legs straight. She covered him with his blanket, brushing the hair from his face. If he were to die, she knew what he would have wanted.
She stood up, and tearing off all her garments except the white one, left the room. With the white undergarment, people didn't immediately recognize her, at least not long enough for her to remove herself from their sight. She sprinted downward again.
She had prepared for this day for many years, hiding them in several locations, connected by a wire. Well, once one went off, the rest would too tho. The fuse had been placed in the prison. The deepest prison. where no one ever went. Why? because no one went to it, and she had a friend down there…a friend who guarded it. They were friends, not because he was in any way happy with her acquaintance, but simply because he desired what she had him guarding to take place.
She came to the cell, and spoke. "It's done. It's ready."
She unlocked the cage, dropping the lock to the ground and walking inside, the man inside, was a monstrous one, tied by several chains. Magical chains. Whatever. She had grabbed a set of keys. She also had a match.
"I want to thank you, so I brought you some keys. If you have any thoughts to be thankful in response, don't kill me," is all she requested, throwing him the keys.
He unlocked them, slowly rising to his feet as she lit the fuse, before smirking, stepping out and slamming the door shut, locking it. This wasn't a simple cage. Or a simple lock, it was enhanced. Nothing inside could attack the outside, no one inside could use their martial arts. She just looked at him, expressionlessly.
"I think, good sir, this still qualifies as 'killing'."
he just chuckled a little, "I never said a word of agreement to your deal." The keys crumpled to dust in his grip. And strode away. Ah, so she would die here.
She wondered how it would feel. Blown to pieces.
She sighed, not one to sit down in the face of death unless she was the one choosing it, she took out some small metal pins and began to fiddle with the lock.
It was then she heard screams, and running feet, someone, covered in blood, ran down the hall, past the several cells, to the end where she leaned against her cage.
He, hitting a dead end, looked around for any exit. He was clothed completely in black. his belt…was also black.
She leaned against the cage watching, as several of his pursuers arrived. He fought well, easily dismantling each of them. However his body was slowing, as if inflicted with grievous wounds (hard to tell with black fabric). He glanced over at her, after taking down the last man in that group, more could be heard coming down the hall. "What are you doing down here?" Since the prisoner's neck bonds should have self-detonated only recently.
Lin Si glanced at him, far more confused, "What do you mean, the better question is, what are you doing down here? Isn't the blood cult getting attacked?"
He looked around, ignoring her, as if for another exit.
"It's a dead end." Lin Si explained. "Ah, but if you let me out, I'll help you fight your way out of here." He continued to ignore her.
"If you let me out, I'll protect you the entire way out."
"Fine, if you let me out, I'll serve you for 2 weeks."
"..A year."
"3 years?"
"Fine, …till death. I'll serve you till death, just please, let me out of here?"
He finally looked over at her, confirming no other exits. "You? What could you do for me? That would make me want you to serve me?"
"...I can fight." Tongku considered for a long time. "Ah, I have a good nose too."
She noticed his 'magic'/'martial arts' was rather unsteady. Was he poisoned?
"...I also know a little about poisons."
running feet could be heard from above, some running down halls around them.
"Please, just let me show you how great a subordinate I can be. You can always lock me up again later, when we get out."
His eyes turned to her again, stopping at her neck: the mark of blood cult life sentence, it should have killed her at the last moment of their departure, when it was set off. How did she survive? And then her crippled hand. The man's blade smashed into her lock, sending it to the ground. He seemed almost panting just from that effort. It seemed his wounds were worse than she thought, "Alright then, cripple. Show me."