Legend of Fu Yao

“Ahh!”

A terrible scream reverberated around the dark, tiny cell as fresh blood splattered across all four walls.

Claw-like fingers twisted here and there around the body; clearly, this was not pain that a normal human could endure. The throat emitted a gurgling noise as fresh blood spurted out again from the mouth.

Thereafter, a lifeless body fell heavily onto the ground.

Thud.

The nasal, youthful voice exclaimed softly as if slightly surprised and murmured, “Pity.”

It wasn’t clear whether the voice was referring to the lifeless body or the person that had suddenly launched itself over.

The voice sighed nonchalantly, and with a flick of his sleeve, he retreated outside in a puff of green smoke and said, “Count yourselves lucky…”

The green smoke dissipated, revealing the body on the ground.

It belonged to the prisoner from the cell next door.

Meng Fuyao punched the bars of the neighboring cell; the three of them had already shifted their fight to the wall next door, fighting all the way to that neighbor. Not counting the neighbor as part of the fight, they ignored him, leaving him to watch them, trembling, until the imposter reached out behind Meng Fuyao, did he suddenly launch himself forward.

With her mind filled with the fake Zhangsun Wuji, Meng Fuyao reached out to block Zhangsun Wuji’s turning body, yet she didn’t expect someone to be willing to be a human shield for her.

Meng Fuyao’s face was filled with shock as she stared at the dying man beneath her feet. After a moment, she bent down and asked, “Why?”

The man looked at her, perhaps it could have been a reflection, but his eyes seemed to shine even brighter as he opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but his throat was blocked by blood froth. Meng Fuyao reached out and grabbed his wrist, then patted his back, letting him cough out the blood froth.

He took a deep breath and stared at Meng Fuyao, then stuttered, “Are… you… her…”

His voice was slight, and his words incomprehensible. Meng Fuyao couldn’t hear him and leaned closer to ask, “Wan?”

The person sniffled noiselessly, it seemed as if he were crying.

Meng Fuyao thought for a moment. She knew that this person’s organs were utterly damaged and there was no hope for him to speak coherently anymore. Hence, she had to ask, “This Wan, is it alive or dead?”

“Dead…” Meng Fuyao revealed an “I knew it” expression when the person said again, “Alive…”

Meng Fuyao’s mouth twitched, only then remembering that this person was half-mad to begin with, what could she expect from him?

She was expecting too much.

“Where is she? Who is she?”

“Wan… Yan Forest… Under…”

“Yan Peak? Yan Pass? Yan Forest?” Meng Fuyao asked persistently. There were too many similar-sounding names on Mandarin, and it was difficult to figure out which one he was referring to.

“Can you write?”

However, the last spark of life had left the person’s eyes as it dulled, his body tensing suddenly as he grabbed her hand, tears welling in his eyes as he rasped, “Wan… I was wrong…”

He trembled violently, unable to coherently express anything anymore, yet he continued to mumble “wrong,” lodging the word in his blood-filled throat.

Seeing that he was still clinging on to life torturously as if waiting for something, she thought for a moment and said, “Are you waiting for her forgiveness? If… If she and I are related… I forgive you on her behalf.”

Once those two words, “forgive you,” left her mouth, his entire body relaxed, and the person leaned back and let out a long sigh, his eyes wide open as it slowly darkened. After that, he did not move any longer.

The moon shone across the partially destroyed wall, falling on the person’s pale body.

In the darkness, Meng Fuyao sat in silence, thinking about the few words he had spoken before his death, thinking about the expression of indignance and guilt, thinking about how he still sought for his Wan-er’s forgiveness even at the doors of death. Suddenly, she felt a cold creep through her body, as if her body had been doused in ice and all the heat in her body sucked dry.

Behind her, someone placed a hand on her shoulder and said, “Fuyao, sometimes not knowing has its advantages, knowing will be a burden. No matter what, I’m here with you.”

“Mn,” Meng Fuyao murmured as she smiled and grasped his hand. The skin on her shoulder was hot under his touch, comforting and warm.

Because it was cold, it felt even warmer.

At that moment, everything was cold, the road was dark and bone-chillingly sinister.

Yet, because of the love she had, the fire continued to burn in the midst of winter, forever lighting the path for her, never having to experience what a cold heart felt like.

Meng Fuyao bent down and rubbed the person’s face, cleaning him up slightly to reveal a normal-looking middle-aged man’s face. From between his eyebrows, she could tell he was an honest and loyal person, except, who said that loyal and honest people wouldn’t make mistakes?

It could be that this mistake had been so great that he could never forget about it even at death, and because of a similar-looking face, he sought the last form of relief.

She exchanged glances at Zhangsun Wuji, then put down the body and stood up.

After a while, they heard several voices getting louder and louder as the prison guards rounded in. Upon seeing the two destroyed cells and the corpse on the ground, and the Daoist Priest and the Old Man who had been originally locked inside were missing, they hurriedly called their superiors. Because of the unique way that the cells had been destroyed, Magistrate Xian arrived personally, along with the Amethyst Cape Knights. The Amethyst Cape Knights barged into the prison, and after searching the destroyed cells carefully, they kicked Magistrate Xian out of prison.

“Bastard! Why didn’t you report locking such a person!”

Magistrate Xian hugged his leg indignantly and turned around, slapping the guards who had arrested Zhangsun Wuji and Meng Fuyao.

“Bastard! Why didn’t you report this to me!”

The prison guards rubbed their faces and retreated timidly, glaring at each other—they had caught too many people without reason and never reported it, they were simply unlucky this time.”

“My Lord… We will definitely search thoroughly, very thoroughly,” Magistrate Xian stuttered.

“Search, my ass!” The Amethyst Cape Knights kicked him again. “Can’t you see that the entire prison has collapsed! They’ve already escaped!”

The knights ran out while shouting, “Search the city and its outskirts!”

Magistrate Xian mumbled, “It’s good that they’ve escaped, serving the little servant serving the woman every day has almost stuck to me!” After receiving orders on how to deal with the bodies, he shouted impatiently, “Send someone to settle the corpses and ask them to pay three tassels of silver as collection fee!”

“This person doesn’t have any family,” the Book Keeper replied him after flipping through the records and shaking his head.

“No family? Then how did he get locked in here?”

“Let me check…” The Book Keeper raised a candle over the records and searched carefully, and after a while, he said, “I don’t know, there are no records of him from the past six years, it was probably the work of the previous officials.”

“A load of rubbish!” Magistrate Xian flicked his sleeve angrily. He knew that these guards received very little and would often catch people to let them out for a sum of money. However, this person had been locked up, not for money, and probably for a long time, to the point where nobody knew where he even came from. These things were often overlooked by the magistrates since there were little occurrences of screw-ups.

“Drag it out and throw it in the Burial Mound!”

The knights rushed out noisily, and the prison became quiet once more. Nobody glanced at the corpses on the ground, and nobody thought to search the prison one more time.

The oil lamp continued to flicker on the wall, shining at the two cells, as well as the rest of the cells beside them.

Right next to the cell that had been destroyed, someone was leaning against the wall, smiling maliciously within the shadows of the setting sun.

Meng Fuyao.

She and Zhangsun Wuji had never left.

Nobody else under the heavens could take advantage of others’ blind spots as well as she and Zhangsun Wuji, and nobody would think that after being beaten like this, they wouldn’t leave.

If the prison was the most dangerous place to be in earlier, it was now the safest, the imposter would not return after getting injured, the Amethyst Cape Knights would not return, instead continue searching for them at Guanyuan County.

As for that person’s body… The hidden guard would follow them to the burial mound to retrieve it.

After listening to the Amethyst Cape Knights and Magistrate Xian, Meng Fuyao’s eyebrows knitted together slightly. This person had already been here for a long time? Where did he come from? Why would he be locked up for so many years? What was his relationship with Wan-er? And that year, what had happened to the girl that looked like her, for this man to blame himself so, using his entire life to wait for her forgiveness?

Things had already come to this stage and some things, even if she wanted to avoid, couldn’t be avoided any longer.

Once she moved forward, she would encounter the dark past that had been sealed off for many years sooner or later, perhaps with just a slight push, the bloodstained greyness would come rolling out, enveloping her entire body.

Meng Fuyao closed her eyes and let out a helpless sigh.

After seven days, Meng Fuyao and Zhangsun Wuji were “let out.”

Following the marks left by the hidden guard, they gathered in an unassuming inn in the north of the city. It was the base for Zong Yue’s “Virtuous Guild,” a restaurant on the first floor and lodging on the second. Xuanji now was in turmoil, and it was already difficult for them to establish their power overseas. However, the innkeeper was a Xuanji citizen who had lived in Guanyuan for tens of years and was an honest and kind man. Even so, he was shocked by what was happening—The Amethyst Cape Knights wreaking havoc in the city, and the suspects’ list had already grown to hundreds of people who were held captive in the Amethyst Cape Knights stronghold at Nanzhi County. And in order to enter the stronghold, family members had to cough up large amounts of silver, and even so, it wasn’t certain if they could successfully bail the suspects out.

“It’s a mess! It’s a mess!” The ordinary-looking Virtuous Guild owner sighed repeatedly. “Those Amethyst Cape Knights have just issued a notice, setting up a “Whistleblower Box” and encouraging the people to submit secret reports, if the household is found to harbor criminals, then the entire family will be wiped out. Some people have used this as a chance to seek revenge, yet the Amethyst Cape Knights don’t care and round them up all the same for interrogation. The entire city is shaking with fear, and many people have retreated into the basement at the slightest noise, unable to sleep soundly at night… sigh…”