“Hao-san, that man?” The leader of the Akizuki clan, Akizuki Tanenaga, shook Hao Xu’s hand, and looked at Chu Yunsheng, who had walked past him, in confusion. Surprisingly, he spoke fluent Chinese.
“A friend who just came here to do some personal business.” Hao Xu replied vaguely.
“Oh… and Hao-san, you are here for?” The man thought for a second and asked.
“He doesn’t know that it’s mainly foreigners that occupy this area. So if he needs anything, I hope you could help him.” Hao Xu looked at the Hoshino clan’s territory and said. He tried to hint at something.
“Okay, Hao-san, I’ll arrange it.” Akizuki Tanenaga frowned while looking at the Hoshino clan’s direction.
He then looked at Hao Xu seriously and said, “Hao-san, I’ve just convinced two more leaders to join me two days ago. What happened today will make them rethink their decisions. So I hope that this won’t happen again in the future. You know why I would agree to join you. We want peace, not blood. Please!”
Hao Xu frowned. He thought for a second and sighed, “Likewise, I also don’t want blood. I’ll try my best to convince my two elder brothers.”
“Please!” Akizuki Tanenaga gave him a respectful bow.
Looking at Akizuki Tanenaga bowing at him, Hao Xu sighed once more. Despite what had happened to the Japanese people, they still didn’t forget their manners. However, his own people…
…
Chu Yunsheng didn’t reject Hao Xu’s kindness this time. Of course, he knew why Hao Xu wanted to do this. However, he still needed to ask some questions to those foreigners. One of the questions was ‘How did they sail across the sea to China?’ Especially, when there were so many powerful sea monsters in the oceans. Not to mention the one that he encountered back in Hong Kong.
But before that, there was something else he needed to do. He needed to visit his parents’ graves. It had been so many years since he left Shen Cheng City. He thought that he would never be able to come back to this place and see his parents again.
He had so many things to say to his parents. He had thought a lot about what he wanted to say along the way. However, when he finally got to the cemetery and found the broken tombstone, he just stared at his parent’s photo; he didn’t utter a single word.
Chu Yunsheng thought that he would cry. He would cry loudly in front of his parents— telling them about all the miserable things that had happened to him, telling them about all the pain in his heart, and so on… He wanted his parents to comfort him like when he was a child.
However, he didn’t know how to cry anymore.
He knelt down and used his hands to gently wipe the snow off the tombstone.
Looking at his parents’ photo he whispered quietly, “Mom, Dad, I am useless…”
The cold wind brought up the snow on the ground and blew it onto Chu Yunsheng’s clothes— his disheveled hair— and his messy beard.
The wind muttered his father’s last words into his ears.
“Yunsheng, you are a grown man now. You should learn to…”
He had thought about what his father wanted to say to him at that time. However, even until now, he still couldn’t figure it out. Maybe his father wanted him to learn how to take care of himself, maybe he wanted him to learn to be strong, or maybe it was something else.
“Mom, Dad, I’m going to America now. I’m going to bring them back…”
In the snowy world, in a ruined cemetery, a man slowly stood up and silently left alone.
******
The next day, in Eastern Shen Cheng City, Mingdu Garden Housing estate.
Chu Yunsheng sat on the roof of Building No. 8 with his newly made Qian Bi sword. Behind him stood a gleaming armor. The cold wind was strong on the roof. It mixed with the snow and scattered numerous cigarette butts on the roof’s floor.
Suddenly, Chu Yunsheng raised his head and gulped down the bottle of alcohol that the Akizuki clan had given to him.
He threw away the empty bottle and began to swing his sword.
With the first sword swing, he saw the first red-shelled insect that he had encountered below Building No. 8.
With the second sword swing, he saw the scene where he almost died at the hands of the tentacle monster that was hiding in the hospital.
…
With the seventh sword swing, he saw You Xiaohai getting caught by a green-shelled insect.
With the eighth sword swing, he saw himself being chased by a flaming bird.
With the ninth sword swing, he saw himself struggling in a sea of human bodies.
…
The fifteenth swing, he saw the little girl who asked him if the porridge was tasty.
Sixteenth swing…
…
Thirty third…
…
Ninety-ninth sword swing, he escaped from the sea monster’s stomach…
One hundredth sword stab, he saw that the lovefool, Zhang Han, and the girl that was saved by him were still alive…
In the chaotic sword Qi storm he unleashed, his movements were random without any patterns.
He thought to himself: maybe he shouldn’t have left Building No.8, then all this wouldn’t have happened.
Suddenly, his eyes became cold and sharp, and as he waved his sword and hacked at the armor next to him. The helmet instantly dropped on the ground.
“You deserve to be killed by this sword!”
Then he fell onto the roof floor and began to laugh crazily.
******
Chiba Hiro had cried for a very long time. When she finally stopped crying, her heart became as cold as ice.
She stood in her room emotionlessly, letting her mother and aunts wash her bodies and apply a layer of faint fragrance liquid all over her body.
She was put on the most beautiful clothing and adornments that the people in the Akizuki clan could find, and was asked to sit in the meeting hall with the two other girls that had also been selected.
In front of the oath of their fathers and brothers, their fate was determined.
When all the people in the clan knelt before them and said, “The fate of the Akizuki clan is now in your hands. Please!” Chiba Hiro and the other girls yielded to their fate.
For the future of their Akizuki Clan, they all took oaths to serve the person who killed the man they deeply loved.
They felt pain in their hearts, but were forced to put smiles on their faces. They hated the man, but they had to offer their bodies to him.
Maybe it was only their pure souls that belonged to themselves.
After the oath, all of the men were asked to leave the hall. Then they were taught all kinds of skills on how to please a man by the experienced aunties.
No matter how shameful the skills were, no matter how humiliating the postures they needed to make, they all gritted their teeth and followed the instructions.
This was their fate, they needed to face it.
