Strange Boy

Ancient Shu's frontier, Yellow Bamboo Town.

When Qin Yi's consciousness awakened once more, his cheek felt the icy touch of the rammed-earth floor, along with the muffled voices of a conversation drifting in from nearby.

"...Scarface, I don't get why the boss insisted on taking this job. Killing one little girl, and they sent so many people! Fucking boring."

"I heard the boss say that girl's pretty formidable."

"No matter how formidable she is, she's still a kid. Can she turn the heavens upside down?"

"How would I know?"

Following the voices with his gaze, his blurry vision gradually cleared, revealing a man and a woman.

Firelight flickered. The pair sat around a lame square table propped up with stones, playing pai gow. Quite a few bits of broken silver lay on the table, and two simple sabers rested beside it.

The man was broad and sturdy, with a scarred face, dressed in coarse linen clothes.

The woman had short hair and wore fitted martial garb. He could vaguely sense the muscles beneath her clothes, but with her back to the corner, he could not make out her face.

After pausing for a moment, his gaze shifted to their surroundings.

The room had no windows, only a door pieced together from thick wooden planks. Iron rings holding grease-soaked torches were embedded in the earthen walls, their crooked flames dragging the room's outline from the darkness.

After staring at the raw wooden support structure overhead for several breaths, Qin Yi roughly determined that this was an underground hidden chamber.

Kidnapped...

Qin Yi thought about it, but felt no particular emotional stir.

Ever since crossing over, a brain illness similar to Alzheimer's disease from his previous life had lingered in this body. Most of the time, he existed in unconscious chaos, only occasionally waking suddenly for a day.

After living like that for so long, he had grown accustomed to opening his eyes and possibly dropping dead at any moment.

His eyes wandered, and he discovered that besides the two wandering bandits, there was another girl in the hidden chamber. She appeared to be a little older than him. Her hands were bound behind her back as well, and she lay in another corner, seemingly asleep.

He did not know her,

but she was probably a rich family's daughter who had been kidnapped.

Her goose-yellow dress was filthy, but it could not conceal the precious quality of its fabric.

The man and woman paid them no attention. They played cards while talking.

The scar-faced brute was clearly impatient. He shook his leg restlessly beneath the table.

"Sanniang, are we really heading into the mountains after this job? I heard the mountains haven't been peaceful lately. Boss Li and Boss Zhou's two groups went in, and neither ever came back out."

The short-haired woman shot him a glance, impatient.

"You complain that it's boring, then you're scared of danger. Why do you have more troubles than a woman?"

"Bullshit!"

The scar-faced brute grew irritated at the mockery. "I'm worried about that big tiger! You weren't there the last time we went up the mountain. I saw it from far away—after eating so many people, that thing was nearly a mountain lord!"

"Heh heh."

The short-haired woman smiled noncommittally. She slowly spread out the pai gow tiles in her hand, lightly tapping each face with her fingertips. Her tone carried leisurely smugness.

"Supreme tile. I win again."

The scar-faced brute looked at her hand, the flesh on his face twitching. He suddenly slammed the square table, producing a muffled bang. The stones beneath its legs nearly slipped loose as he pointed at her and cursed.

"Three rounds, and you got two Heavenly Kong hands and one Supreme hand! If you're not fucking using marked tiles on me, I'll take your surname!"

The short-haired woman merely laughed, not angered in the slightest. Her narrowed eyes curved into two slits.

"A woman has a few days every month, you know. Pay up."

"Fuck off! You cheat and still want money? Give me my stake back!"

Though he said that, the scar-faced brute extended his rough, fan-sized hand and forcibly swept at the broken silver on the table.

"Put it down."

The short-haired woman's voice suddenly turned cold, deep and sinister, no weaker than the brute's. The smiling wrinkles on her face vanished in an instant, replaced by a chill that seeped into the bones.

The scar-faced brute raised his eyes. They flashed red with ferocity, refusing to yield even an inch. His five fingers had already gripped the hilt of the saber beside him as he cursed.

"I'm taking it—"

Before he could finish, he saw that the short-haired woman had already raised a hand crossbow. Its bolt pointed straight at him, shimmering with cold light beneath the flames.

"Put it down!"

"..."

The redness in the scar-faced brute's eyes instantly cleared.

After several breaths of silence, he forced out a smile.

"Ha... no, I was just joking. We've been brothers for years. It doesn't have to come to this... really, it doesn't."

The short-haired woman stared at him. Firelight reflected in her narrowed eyes as she smiled with curved brows.

"Who's brothers with you? I'm a woman. Hand over the silver obediently, and the celebration money for the Supreme tile too."

The scar-faced brute's face alternated between red and green. He flung a bit of broken silver from his chest. It bounced twice on the tabletop before rolling into the pile.

He leaned heavily back against his chair and said in a muffled voice, "That's all I have. I'll owe you the rest."

"Fine. We'll calculate the interest by donkey-roll."

"Fuck your m—"

"Hmm?"

The short-haired woman casually raised the hand crossbow. The bolt's tip carved a brief arc through the air.

"Fine." The scar-faced brute gritted his teeth and squeezed out the word through the gaps.

Seeing this, the short-haired woman put the hand crossbow back into its leather holster. Her leisurely smile returned as she asked gently, "Ma, want to borrow money to win it back?"

The scar-faced brute's cheek twitched. Leaning hard against the chair, he snapped, "Win back my ass! Tch... sigh, forget that. Wasn't there a rumor that the great person at Immortal Guest House intended to take this brat's sister as a concubine? How did the boss dare lay a hand on her?"

The short-haired woman picked up a bit of broken silver and bit it. Teeth marks appeared on its surface. Once she confirmed its purity, she gave a satisfied chuckle. Rather than answering immediately, she asked slowly, "You sure you're done playing? Then I'm putting the money away."

It was a rule of the martial world: the winner could not leave the table first.

The scar-faced brute stared at the scattered silver bits across the table. It was as though something had lodged in his throat, and he waved a hand irritably.

Still smiling, the short-haired woman gathered the broken silver piece by piece before herself and explained unhurriedly, "That crazy girl refused. The moment she heard the news, she burned her own face with a torch. So that great person apparently isn't planning to protect her anymore."

The scar-faced brute's thick brows knitted together in surprise. "That girl's that ruthless? But why?"

The short-haired woman shrugged. "How would I know? So many people would kill to climb into that person's bed. It's an opportunity I couldn't beg for, yet that girl refused it. Heh heh."

Beauty was the most convenient way to cross class boundaries. Even a little of the resources leaking through the seams above was enough for foot soldiers like them to live in food and clothing for the rest of their lives.

The scar-faced brute thought for a moment. His brows relaxed, then furrowed again. Suddenly, he turned to glance at Qin Yi, tied in the corner.

The corner was very dark. The firelight only reached the vague outline of that small figure curled into a ball.

He grinned and asked, "Could it be because of her little brother?"

"This brat looks barely ten. And if she followed that person, wouldn't the siblings live better than they do now?"

"Tch, true enough."

The scar-faced brute nodded, rose, and walked up to Qin Yi, looking down at him from above.

Qin Yi lay on the cold mud floor and looked upward from the man's ankles. Drool ran from the corner of his lips.

"Ah... ah..."

Most of the time, he was an idiot. But at certain times, being an idiot was also his best camouflage.

Like now.

The scar-faced brute's eye twitched. He raised a foot and kicked Qin Yi without mercy, sending his whole body curling up as he slammed heavily into the corner wall.

"Fuck you, don't disgust Master Ma."

"..."

After kicking him, the irritation in his heart did not fade. As if remembering something, he split his wide mouth in a grin and turned toward the other hostage in the hidden chamber.

Before he could bend down beside the girl, Sanniang's suddenly colder voice came from behind him.

"If you don't want the boss to beat you to death, Wang Ma, you'd better not touch that girl. Her family doesn't look simple."

"..."

Wang Ma looked back. The short-haired woman was eyeing him sideways, lightly rubbing a bit of broken silver between her fingers. Her fist tightened slightly as she gave a forceful snort.

Sanniang smiled faintly and pointed at Qin Yi. "If you're really so pent up, you can use that little ghost to vent your fire. No one's protecting him, so it doesn't matter whether he lives or dies."

Qin Yi: "..."

"Fuck you."

The scar-faced man's expression darkened. His eyes shifted about as he let out a long breath, then he asked, "Sanniang, can we leave this brat's sister alive for now?"

The short-haired woman immediately understood his meaning and sneered. "Not going to Willow Lane today?"

"Didn't I lose all my money to you?"

At that, the scar-faced brute's already gloomy expression became even uglier. As though he had finally found an outlet for his anger, he walked over and violently kicked Qin Yi again.

He kicked as he cursed.

"Fuck, if I didn't have to watch you, you little ghost, how would I have lost the bet?! Huh?! Fuck your mother!!"

Qin Yi's hands were tied behind his back. He could only draw his knees up to protect his chest and abdomen, doing his best to avoid every kick that might injure his organs.

More than ten breaths later,

the scar-faced brute seemed to find it boring. He spat out a thick gob of phlegm.

"You unlucky little shit. Later, I'll put on a spring palace show with your sister right in front of you. Shame you're an idiot, or it'd be more interesting."

The short-haired woman collected every last bit of broken silver from the table into a pouch and pulled its drawstring tight. Her red lips curved into a satisfied smile as she replied casually, "That crazy girl's already disfigured. If we can capture her alive, and you don't mind, the boss probably won't object. She has to die in the end anyway."

Staring at her bulging money pouch, the scar-faced brute felt envious. But at the thought of her hand crossbow, his interest instantly died. With a cold snort, he headed for the door.

The short-haired woman called after him. "Where are you going?"

The scar-faced brute picked up a saber from the table. The blade spun in a flourish through his hand, and without looking back, he said, "It'll be dark soon. I'm going to find something to eat. Don't tell me you can't even keep watch over an idiot!"

Laughing, the short-haired woman weighed her money pouch toward his back and flicked out a bit of broken silver. "Bring me a portion too. I'll pay three times the price."

"Your mother..."

The scar-faced brute froze upon hearing that. He caught the silver, veins bulging on his neck, but he still held back. Only fools turned down money. He angrily replied with a single word.

"Fine!"

Bang.

The thick wooden door slammed shut with tremendous force. The entire hidden chamber trembled, and the torches swayed several times beneath the gust.

The hidden chamber fell silent in an instant.

Only the faint crackling of burning torches remained, along with the creaking of the wooden chair as the short-haired woman rocked it.

Qin Yi still lay where he was, without moving.

He was thinking.

Kidnapping always had a purpose, but this kidnapping did not seem to be for money or goods. They wanted to kill his sister. Thus, whether they succeeded or failed, neither of them had any reason to let him live.

In other words, he had to do something to change the situation.

Huff...

He let out a soft breath.

Encountering danger, then escaping it—he had experienced that kind of pattern many times. The only question was whether he should talk his way through this with the short-haired woman, or simply use violence to break the deadlock.

After considering it for a moment, Qin Yi chose the latter.

He would resort to violence directly.

The short-haired woman clearly loved money, but he had no way to prove in a short time that he could bring her enough of it.

Killing her through direct violence carried less risk than talking.

With his back pressed against the cold, damp rammed-earth wall, Qin Yi slowly drew out a sharp iron shard from the sole of his shoe.

To ensure that he could survive smoothly even while unconscious, Qin Yi had prepared many layers of insurance in advance.

His adopted sister was the first layer. The younger brother who had disappeared some time ago was the second. If he had awakened in the wooden hut where he currently lived, he would have had even more protective measures.

The iron shard hidden in his shoe was his final layer of insurance. Because of this young body, it was also his frailest and weakest layer, but it should barely be enough to deal with this woman.

Judging from the strange knowledge left in his mind from his previous life, this group of wandering bandits was highly unprofessional.

No one was specifically assigned to deliver food. They did not search their hostages. They played cards while on watch. They did not regularly inspect the hostages' condition. They even dared leave one person alone to guard the captives...

A slapdash crew with very loose rules.

Using the iron shard, Qin Yi sawed the hemp ropes around his wrists and ankles until they were connected only by a few threads. He began thinking about how to lure the unguarded short-haired woman over, but the instant the thought arose, the woman sitting at the square table suddenly moved.

Sanniang tucked the pouch of broken silver into her clothes and rose of her own accord, walking toward Qin Yi.

Her steps stopped before him. Clothes rustled as the short-haired woman bent down and crouched. Then Qin Yi felt a hand settle on his head and grasp his hair.

The pain and pull at his roots made Qin Yi lift his head. His dull gaze followed the motion toward the woman. Their eyes met, and he finally saw her face clearly.

She was not pretty—she was even somewhat ugly—but she possessed a different sort of temperament. Cold, with a crisp air of slaughter and decisiveness.

No wonder that scar-faced brute feared her.

While Qin Yi appraised her, the short-haired woman was also looking at him. Her gaze slid from his brows and eyes to his lips, then from his lips to his neck. An intrigued smile curled on her mouth as she reached out and patted Qin Yi's cheek.

"At first, I wondered why there was so much charcoal ash on such a perfectly good face. So you really are handsome. Good thing Wang Ma didn't ruin you. Train you up a little and make you a breeding stud. Once I've enjoyed you enough myself, I can sell you off... There should be plenty of noblewomen in the county who'd want to buy you. Heh~ Maybe certain masters would like you even more. But we won't share that money with those foot soldiers."

With that, she prepared to stand and find a sack to cover the little ghost with. She would take him out of the hidden chamber and hide him, then tell Wang Ma he had been killed when he returned.

And right at that moment,

"Tch."

The faint click of his tongue was glaringly obvious in the silent secret chamber, masking the soft snap of hemp rope breaking.

Sanniang froze at the sound and instinctively searched for its source, only for her gaze to finally land on the boy before her.

Their eyes met.

There was no muddiness, no dullness.

They were a pair of calm, unfathomably deep eyes.

What was this...?

Countless questions surged through Sanniang's mind, but her brain had no time to process even one of them...

Because cold light had already rippled swiftly beneath the flickering firelight.

Slash!

The side of her neck turned faintly cold.

The chill was precise and fleeting, as though something soft had been sliced open. The sensation of warm fluid spraying from her neck was intensely nauseating.

Without a moment's thought, the instincts ingrained in her body had already made the choice for Sanniang.

Almost in the next instant, tremendous force burst from her arm, and the hand gripping Qin Yi's hair flung violently to one side!

The world spun before his eyes!

Bang!

Qin Yi's body was hurled several meters away, his back slamming into the rammed-earth wall before he hit the ground hard.

Several flakes of plaster rustled down onto his shoulders and hair. Pain surged from all over his body, while the itch rising in his throat made Qin Yi cough lightly several times despite himself.

Ignoring the pain coursing through his body, Qin Yi rolled to the side the instant he landed, cutting the hemp rope around his ankles as he did so before rising to his feet.

After moving his somewhat stiff body a little, Qin Yi finally turned his gaze toward the short-haired woman on the other side.

Her reaction had been quick. She had counterattacked the instant she was attacked and drawn the short dagger at her waist, but she had clearly made the wrong choice.

She should have drawn the hand crossbow.

Then she might still have had a chance to take him down with her.

Qin Yi's taut body relaxed slightly as he casually dusted off his clothes.

And during that interval,

the short-haired woman had already dropped to her knees, desperately clutching her severed throat. She tried to block the blood gushing out with her hand, tried to hold on to the vitality constantly draining from her body, but it was all in vain.

Blood

continued to gush and seep endlessly through the gaps between her fingers.

The wound in her carotid artery sent blood pumping wildly outward. It flowed backward into her windpipe, then surged into her mouth. The short-haired woman mumbled words Qin Yi could not understand:

"You... urgh... khk... gulp... cough, ah..."

Qin Yi walked toward her without haste.

With a severed carotid artery, consciousness could last at most half a minute. By the time Qin Yi reached her, the short dagger in the short-haired woman's hand had slipped weakly from her grasp. Only her wide-open eyes still stared fixedly at him.

Qin Yi did not look at her.

He wiped the blood from the sharp iron shard in his hand with his clothes, casually tucked it back into the sole of his shoe, then bent down to pick up the short dagger she had dropped and spun it around his fingertip.

This was not his first time killing someone.

The world outside was chaotic. If he did not kill, he would be killed.

Sanniang's bloodshot eyes widened, the venomous hatred in them gradually replaced by fear. One hand covered her neck while the other reached for Qin Yi, but she had already lost all her strength. The hammer blow she had imagined carrying the force of a fist became a feeble scratch, leaving only several bloody finger marks on Qin Yi's tattered hemp shirt.

After thinking for a moment, Qin Yi reached out with his small hand and held hers. His muscles tugged at the corners of his mouth, pulling them into a smile.

"Auntie, don't be afraid. Once you're dead, it won't hurt anymore."

Sanniang: "..."

Little Girl: "..."

With that, Qin Yi drove the short dagger into the short-haired woman's eye socket.

The immediate crisis was resolved.

He drew a deep breath, but the itch in his throat made Qin Yi cough twice more uncontrollably. When he looked, specks of blood had already appeared in his palm.

That was why he had not wanted to take risks.

A fierce woman who lived by licking blood from a blade was nothing like an adult shut-in from the peaceful era of his previous life. Even with her carotid artery pierced, she had still managed to leave him with internal injuries as a final parting gift.

But they should not be serious.

Casually pushing the corpse to the ground, Qin Yi swept his gaze across the secret chamber.

He did not intend to run.

Running could not solve anything.

His greatest safeguard, his elder sister, was neither confirmed alive nor dead. If he could not execute this band of roving bandits while he was still lucid, then once his brain illness flared up, he would be dead all the same.

He needed more information.

The size of the bandit gang, the identity of the mastermind behind them, and the reason that mastermind wanted his elder sister dead. At present, the only source of that information was the scar-faced brute.

Qin Yi needed to prepare an environment where he could interrogate him.

Silence, broken only by the faint rustling of searching.

This secret chamber ought to have been the hideout of this band of roving bandits. Several sacks and wooden crates were piled in the corner. Opening them, Qin Yi found quite a few smuggled spices, tobacco, and leather goods inside.

Hoh... they even had a side business.

He searched out every useful item and laid them out on the ground. Most had come from the short-haired woman's corpse.

A pouch of broken silver.

A short dagger.

A hand crossbow.

Thirteen spare bolts in a deerskin pouch.

Qin Yi could not use that saber. Its blade had been designed exceedingly thick and heavy for repeated chopping, and with his frail constitution, it was difficult for him even to swing it.

If he survived, he could melt it down at a blacksmith's shop and make something useful for the household.

Bending down to pick up the hand crossbow, Qin Yi examined it for a moment.

It was finely made and even had a winding winch. The words "Eighth Year of Jinghong" were engraved on its body.

An official crossbow?

Qin Yi glanced at the woman's corpse.

He had found the reason such a ragtag group could survive on Compassion Mountain. They were likely "household guards" raised by some powerful local clan in the town or county.

This attack had probably been planned by his sister's enemies?

His thoughts wandered for an instant as Qin Yi tried operating the winch. The hand crossbow had considerable draw weight, and it was somewhat difficult with his strength, but he could still crank it.

Step by step, he retreated to the wooden door, then turned back and aimed at the short-haired woman sprawled on the floor.

It was not to finish her off, but to test its accuracy.

The bowstring released, and the bolt instantly buried itself in flesh.

After confirming that the sight was properly aligned, Qin Yi casually scattered the pouch of broken silver across the floor before the door. Then, gripping the short dagger, he walked toward the short-haired woman's corpse and began arranging the environment he needed...

Little Girl: "..."

Once the arrangement was complete, Qin Yi finally turned his gaze toward the other "living thing" in the dark chamber, stepping through the blood covering the floor as he walked toward her.

Little Girl: "..."