ce: ‘Yes.’ Xiao Feng said loudly: ‘Why? Why?’ A’Zhu said: ‘The Duan Family of Dali has the 6 Meridians Divine Sword. If you killed their South-Stabilizing Prince, how could they be willing to leave you alone? Big brother, we can’t read the words in that ‘Muscle Changing Sutra’…’

Xiao Feng suddenly understood. His eyes could not help brimming with tears. Then tears rolled down his face.

A’Zhu said: ‘I have 1 thing to beg you, big brother, are you willing to promise me it?’ Xiao Feng replied: ‘I’ll promise you even 100 or 1000 things, not to mention 1 thing.’ A’Zhu said: ‘I only have 1 younger sister. The 2 of us haven’t been able to be together since childhood. Keep an eye on her, I beg of you. I’m worried she would go down the wrong road.’ Xiao Feng forced a laugh and said: ‘Wait till you’ve gotten well, we’ll find her so that you’ll have a reunion.’ A’Zhu said softly: ‘Wait till I’ve gotten well… Big brother, then I and you will go outside Yanmen Pass to ride on horseback, go hunting, and pasture cattle and sheep. Do you think my younger sister will be willing to go there?’

Xiao Feng replied: ‘Of course she’ll go. Her elder sister and her brother-in-law invite her, how will she still not go?’

Suddenly a ‘hu-la’ sound was heard. From the cavity under the bridge, a person moved out, saying: ‘How shameless! What is elder sister? What is brother-in-law? I won’t go.’ This person was small and slender, and was wearing a suit of waterproof clothes. She was none other than A’Zi.

After accidentally hit A’Zhu with a palm attack, Xiao Feng had totally focused his mind on her. Otherwise, with his skills, he definitely would have noticed that there was a person hiding in the water beneath the bridge. But because, firstly, it had been thundering and raining heavily, and secondly, his mind had been in great turmoil, so he had been unable to detect A’Zi until she showed herself. He could not help being slightly shocked and called: ‘A’Zi, A’Zi, you quickly come and see your elder sister.’

A’Zhu slightly pouted her small lips, saying: ‘Originally I hid under the bridge to see you and my father fight and to have a jolly time. Who’d have thought you’d hit my elder sister? You two haven’t finished rattling on and saying loving words. I don’t like to hear. You two can talk about love, but why drag me into this?’ As she finished saying, she moved towards them.

A’Zhu said: ‘Good sister, later on big brother Xiao will look after you, you… you’ll look after him, too…’

A’Zi said with a giggle: ‘This ugly rustic barbarian–I’ll ignore him.’

Suddenly Xiao Feng felt A’Zhu, who was leaning on his bosom, slightly tremble. Her head drooped and her beautiful hair spread over her shoulder. She was motionless. Horror-stricken, he called: ‘A’Zhu, A’Zhu.’ He checked her pulse at once, but it had already stopped beating. It seemed as if his heart had also already stopped. He held out his hand and checked her breathing, but she no longer breathed. He called loudly: ‘A’Zhu! A’Zhu!’ However, even if he called 1,000 or 10,000 times, A’Zhu would not be able to answer him. He hastily transferred his internal energy into her body, but all the while A’Zhu did not move at all.

A’Zi, seeing that A’Zhu had stopped breathing and died, was also shocked. She stopped grinning cheekily and and said angrily: ‘You beat my elder sister to death. You… you beat my elder sister to death.’

Xiao Feng said: ‘Yes, it’s I who beat your elder sister to death. You should take revenge for your elder sister. Quick, quickly kill me!’ With his 2 hands drooped, he lowered A’Zhu’s body. Then he held forth his chest, crying: ‘Quickly kill me.’ He really hoped A’Zi would draw a knife and stick it in his chest, thus finishing all his troubles with death and freeing him from endless sufferings.

A’Zi, seeing his facial muscles twitching and his frightening expression, could not help being extremely scared. She retreated several steps and cried: ‘You… Don’t kill me.’

Following her, Xiao Feng walked forwards several steps. He reached for his chest and, with a ‘chi’ sound, ripped the cloth that covered the chest, exposing his skin. He said: ‘You have poisonous needles, poisonous thorns, poisonous awls… quickly puncture me to death.’

In the light of a flash, A’Zi saw that deep blue wolf head tattoo on his chest with fangs bared and teeth shown, looking ferocious, so she was even more frightened. She suddenly uttered an exclamation, turned around and ran away very fast.

Xiao Feng stood in a daze on the bridge. He was extremely grieved and infinitely remorseful. He raised his hand and with a ‘peng’ sound he hit the stone railing, causing stone bits to scatter around. He kept dealing 1 blow of the palm after another. Then, a loud ‘hu-la-la’ sound was heard as a block of the stone railing fell into the river. He wanted to wail but was unable to weep anyway. A bolt of lightning flashed by, shining clearly on A’Zhu’s face. Those deep love and deep concerns still remained on the tips of her eyebrows and the corners of her mouth.

Xiao Feng let out a scream: ‘A’Zhu!’ Then, carrying her body, he rushed into the wilderness.

It kept thundering and raining heavily. He ran up the mountain for a while then ran down the valley for another while, totally not knowing where he was. His mind was in chaos, insomuch that it seemed to have gone blank.

The thunder gradually stopped, but it kept raining heavily unceasingly. In the East, dawn was breaking and the sky slowly lightened. Xiao Feng had been rushing around for 4 hours, but he was not tired in the least. He only wanted to punish himself as much as possible, and only wanted to die immediately to be with A’Zhu forever. Uttering hoarse cries of distress, he rushed around chaotically. Unconsciously, he suddenly returned to the bluestone bridge.

He mumbled to himself: ‘I’ll go find Duan Zhengchun, find Duan Zhengchun, and ask him to kill me in revenge for his daughter’s death.’

Before long, he arrived at the side of the lake. Xiao Feng yelled: ‘Duan Zhengchun, I killed your daughter. Come and kill me. I definitely won’t strike back. You quickly come out and kill me.’ Carrying A’Zhu horizontally in his arms, he stood before the Square Bamboo Forest. After he had waited awhile, the forest was still silent, and no one came out.

He walked into the forest and stopped before the bamboo house. After kicking the door open, he walked into the house and said loudly: ‘Duan Zhengchun, be quick and kill me!’ The house was empty and without anyone. He searched one time everywhere, from the rooms in the wing to the backyard, but did not find Duan Zhengchun and his subordinates. Even the owner of the bamboo house Ruan Xingzhu and A’Zi were not here either. The utensils and furnishings in the house were still the same as before. It seemed everyone had gone away hurriedly, and in their hurry they had not had enough time to take along anything.

He thought: ‘That’s right. A’Zi brought the news. She only thought I still wanted to revenge myself on her father. Even if Duan Zhengchun was unwilling to run away, that surnamed Ruan woman and his subordinates would certainly force him to run far and fly high. Ha-ha, I’ve come here not to kill you, but to ask you to kill me, ask you to kill me.’

He yelled several times again: ‘Duan Zhengchun, Duan Zhengchun!’ His voice went very far, but he could only hear the rustle of high winds brushing bamboos. There was not the least bit of human voice.

There was nobody beside the Little Mirror Lake and in the Square Bamboo Forest, only silence. Xiao Feng felt that it seemed there was only him left under Heaven. Ever since A’Zhu had breathed her last, he had not yet put her down for even a minute. For many times he had channelled his internal energy into her body with the hope that Heaven would show pity on him and let her survive the serious injury, just like when she had taken a palm attack of Abbot Xuan Ci previously. But that time, the force of Abbot Xuan Ci’s Great Diamond Palm hit the copper mirror in Xiao Feng’s hand, so A’Zhu was only affected by the shock. This time, Xiao Feng’s palm attack hit her squarely in the chest, how could he save her life? No matter how much internal energy he had channelled into her body, A’Zhu had always been motionless.

Carrying A’Zhu, he sat down before the house in a daze from the morn to midday then to sundown. By now, it had stopped raining, making visible the azure sky, and the setting sun was illuminating his body and A’Zhu’s with its dull light.

When he was beset by exceptional fellows at Juxian Manor, even though he was utterly isolated and the situation there was extremely dangerous, he did not waver in his determination in the least. Now, having made an irredeemable blunder with his own hands, he felt more and more lonesome. He felt that he should not live on in the world. ‘A’Zhu has died in her father’s place, so I can’t find Duan Zhengchun to get revenge. What else do I have to do? The great undertaking of the Beggar Society, the grand ambitions and lofty goals of the past all are not worth caring. I’m a Khitan, what great undertaking and grand ambition can I have?’

He walked to the backyard and saw a gardening hoe put at a corner of a wall. He thought: ‘Will I stay here with A’Zhu forever?’ He was still carrying A’Zhu in his left hand and did not want to let go of her for even a short while regardless. Lifting up the hoe with his right hand, he went into the Square Bamboo Forest, dug a hole then dug another hole. The 2 holes were side by side.

He thought: ‘When her parents return, they’ll probably dig up the grave to see what actually happened. I must put up a tablet in front of the grave.’ He broke a bamboo section, cut it into two, went into the kitchen, smoothed them with a kitchen knife then walked into the room in the west wing. He saw paper, ink, brushes, and inkstones on the table. Putting A’Zhu horizontal on his knees, he ground ink, picked up a brush, and wrote on a piece of bamboo: ‘The grave of a rash Khitan Xiao Feng.’

Then he picked up the other piece of bamboo and muttered to himself: ‘What do I write, ‘The grave of Madam Duan of the Xiao Family’? Though she and I had a promise of marriage, we haven’t got married. At her death she was still a young lady who was pure like jade and clear like ice. Wouldn’t calling her ‘Madam’ mean disrespect to her?’

Temporarily unable to decide, he raised his head and considered for a while. By chance, he saw a calligraphic scroll hanging on the wall. It had quite a few columns of words. He conveniently read from the top down:

We are too bashful and drunk to sing,

Your elegant hands fasten fragrant silk.

Leaning on the flower in the candlelight,

I secretly pass on my deep thoughts.

The aroma of wine has risen to your eyes.

Mistaking red for emerald, I am in a daze,

Lovingly turning around,

You wrinkle your eyebrows.

Meeting awhile but long we shall part.

The spring has ended again,

How melancholy!

As he was not a learned man, the words he knew were limited. However, this poem did not have any difficult character, so he could see that it was a romantic amorous poem. It seemed the poem talked about drinking wine, getting shy, singing, how the people in the poem met each other for a while but would separate for a long time, and how sad they felt about that. He looked confusedly at the scroll and was in no mood to understand what the poem was about. He only absently read it from start to finish. And he saw 2 rows of words written below the poem: ‘A record of the visit I paid Zhu mei (~ my dear Zhu) in my youth to supplement the wall. Having a partner with eyes bright like stars and a waist slender like a bamboo in my company, I have lost my awareness of Heaven and Earth, years and months. Duan the Second of Dali scrawling in his intoxication.’

Xiao Feng mumbled: ‘He was really happy. Having a partner with eyes bright like stars and a waist slender like a bamboo in his company, he lost his awareness of Heaven and Earth, years and months. Duan the Second of Dali scrawled in his intoxication. Duan the Second of Dali, hum, so this scroll was written by Duan Zhengchun to give his lover Ruan Xingzhu, and was also about the affair between A’Zhu’s father and mother. How can they hang it openly here? Have they no shame? Ah, that’s right. Duan Zhengchun’s subordinates can’t come in this room.’

At once, he stopped paying attention to the scroll, thinking: ‘What should I write on A’Zhu’s grave tablet?’ He knew that with his shallow command of language, even if he considered more, he would not come up with anything. So he wrote 4 words ‘The grave of A’Zhu’. Then he put the brush down and rose to his feet. He wanted to plant the bamboo tablets before the holes, bury A’Zhu carefully then commit suicide.

He turned around and carried A’Zhu’s body in his arms. His eyes caught sight of the scroll on the wall again. Suddenly he jumped up and exclaimed: ‘A’yo’. Then he said loudly: ‘Wrong, wrong, this matter is wrong!’

He took 1 step towards the scroll and looked at the several rows of words on it again. He saw that the handwriting was round, smooth, elegant and unconstrained. It seemed as if there was a voice saying loudly in his mind: ‘That letter! The letter the leading big brother wrote to Chief Wang–its words ain’t like this. They’re totally different to this.’

Having only a limited knowledge of characters, he should not be able to recognize a person’s handwriting. But the characters on this scroll were beautiful and skillful, and had neat spacing. The characters on that letter, on the other hand, were skewed and angular. At first sight, anybody could know that it was the handwriting of a man of martial arts in jianghu. The difference between the 2 styles of writing really was so big that anyone could recognize it. He gazed at the characters on the scroll with his eyes wide open. It seemed he wanted to look for the big secrets and big schemes hidden in these several rows of characters.

His mind was in a whirl and full of thoughts of the letter that he had seen in the apricot forest outside the city of Wuxi that evening–the letter that the leading big brother wrote to Chief Wang. Venerable Zhiguang had torn off the signature of the letter and swallowed it into his stomach to make him unable to know who had written the letter. But the handwriting of the letter had been engraved deeply and very clearly on his mind. The writer of the letter and ‘Duan the Second of Dali’ who wrote this scroll were definitely not the same person. There was absolutely no doubt about it.

But could the ‘leading big brother’ entrust the task of writing the letter to another person? After pondering a little, he knew this was definitely impossible. Because Duan Zhengchun was capable of easily writing this kind of nice-looking characters, he certainly was a man who was familiar with penmanship. If he wanted to write a letter to Chief Wang to discuss such an important matter, what reasons could he have to ask another person to write the letter on his behalf? And he had no reason to ask another person to write an amorous poem for his own lover on his behalf.

The more he thought, the more doubtful he became. He thought repeatedly: ‘Could it be that leading big brother isn’t Duan Zhengchun? Could it be this scroll wasn’t written by Duan Zhengchun? Impossible, impossible, besides Duan Zhengchun, how can there be another ‘Duan the Second of Dali’ who wrote this kind of amorous poem and hung it here? Could it be Madam Ma lied? That’s also impossible. She and Duan Zhengchun don’t know each other, one in the North, one in the South, one is a widow of a rustic fellow, and one is a member of the nobility. What enmity between them can there be that she could make up lies on purpose to trick me?’

After he had known that the ‘leading big brother’ was Duan Zhengchun, all the doubts and suspicions in his mind had been swept away, and he had only been thinking about how to get revenge. At this moment, when he saw the calligraphic scroll, all kinds of doubts and suspicions emerged in his mind: ‘If that letter wasn’t written by Duan Zhengchun, then the leading big brother isn’t him. If it’s not him, then who’s the leading big brother? Why did Madam Ma wanna lie to other people? What cunning schemes and conspiracies are there in this? I killed A’Zhu by mistake. But A’Zhu was willing to die for me. This way, a layer of unredressed wrong has been added to her unredressed wrong. Why didn’t I see this scroll before? But this scroll has been hung in a room in the wings, how could I see it? If I had died to follow A’Zhu without seeing it, that would’ve been a case of death ending all troubles. Why didn’t I see it earlier or later? Why did I see it just a short while before my death?’

The setting sun was about to disappear behind the mountains. The last sunbeams gradually got away from his insteps. Suddenly he heard 2 people advancing towards the bamboo forest from the side of the Little Mirror Lake. These 2 people were still far. Concentrating his mind and listening, he noticed that the incoming people were 2 women. He thought: ‘Probably A’Zi and her mother are coming. Hum, I want to ask Madam Duan if this scroll was written by Duan Zhengchun. Of course she extremely hates me for killing A’Zhu. She surely wants to kill me. I… I…’ At first he wanted to ‘strike back under no circumstances’, but he immediately changed his mind: ‘If A’Zhu really died unjustly, then it’s another person who killed my father and mother, and so this prime villain has borne one more blood debt, and one more life. Could it be that A’Zhu wasn’t harmed to death by him? If I don’t settle this score, how will I be able to die easily?’

He heard the 2 women draw closer and closer and go into the bamboo forest. Then, after a short while, he also heard the sounds of their conversation. One woman said: ‘Be careful. This harlot doesn’t have good martial arts but she’s up to all cunning tricks.’ The other woman, who was young, replied: ‘She’s all by herself. Mom, you and I will always be able to finish her off.’ The considerably older woman said: ‘Say no more. Once we go into action, let’s use the most dangerous skills. There’s no need to hesitate.’ The young woman said: ‘If father knows…’ That senior woman said: ‘Humph, you still call him father?’ After that, there was no sound of talking, but he heard the 2 women going with stealthy steps. One of them went to the main entrance, and the other went to the back of the house. Apparently they wanted to jointly attack from the front and the rear.

Xiao Feng was rather mystified, thinking: ‘Judging from their voices, these 2 women aren’t Ruan Xingzhu and A’Zi. But they’re a mother and a daughter, too. They’ve come here to kill a lone woman. Oh, probably they want to kill Ruan Xingzhu. But that girl’s father disapproves of this.’ This matter had flashed through his mind, but he did not paid attention to it any longer. He was still sitting in a trance.

After quite a while, a creaky ‘ya’ sound was heard as someone shoved open the door and came in. Xiao Feng did not raise his head the least. He saw a pair of fine feet in black shoes walked up to him and stopped at a distance of about 4 Chi (33.33 cm). After that, the side window was pushed open and a person leaped in and stood next to him. Hearing the sound of that person’s leap, he knew they did not excel in martial arts.

Still, he did not raise his head. With A’Zhu in his arms, he pondered deeply: ‘The ‘leading big brother’ is Duan Zhengchun, or he is not? Is there anything unusual in Venerable Zhiguang’s words? Did Elder Xu have any cunning scheme? Is there any flaw in Madam Ma’s words?’ Truly, thoughts were surging up in his mind like tidewater, and he was utterly confused.

He heard the young woman ask: ‘Hey, who are you? Where’s that harlot Ruan?’

Her voice was cold and her tone was totally disrespectful. Xiao Feng did not pay attention to her. He was only thinking about all kinds of suspicions. The older woman said: ‘Is there any connection between you, sir, and that harlot Ruan Xingzhu? Who’s this woman? Quickly say.’ Xiao Feng still paid no attention to her. The young woman said loudly: ‘Are you deaf or dumb? Why don’t you say a word?’ Her tone was brimming with anger. Still, Xiao Feng ignored her and kept sitting motionless and like a stone statue.

That young woman made a stamp. The long sword in her hand slightly shook, and the blade shook. With a buzzing noise, she thrust the sword at Xiao Feng’s temple at an angle. When its tip was only several Cun (3.333 cm) away from his temple, she shouted: ‘If you keep acting the fool, I’ll let you taste a bit of misery.’

Xiao Feng was in a very dangerous situation but he did not care about it in the least. He was only considering all kinds of unanswered doubts and suspicions. That young girl slightly pushed her arm forwards. The long sword was thrust forwards, and it went past the side of his neck at a distance of around 1 cun. Xiao Feng heard clearly the approaching direction of the sword, so he did not dodge or parry it, as if he was totally unaware of it. The 2 women looked at each other in amazement. The young girl said: ‘Mom, could this fellow be an idiot? The girl he was carrying seems to be dead already.’ The woman said: ‘He’s probably acting fool. There can’t be any good thing in the house of this harlot. Give him a hack of the saber first. Then we’ll torture and interrogate him.’ Just as she finished saying, she brought the saber in her left hand down on Xiao Feng’s shoulder.

Xiao Feng waited until the saber was half a chi away from his shoulder to turn over his right hand, stretch it out forwards and catch the back of the blade with 2 of his fingers. The saber seemed to be fixed to the air and stopped coming down. He slightly pressed forwards with his fingers. The handle of the saber at once hit an important acupuncture point on the shoulder of that woman, rendering her immobile. Then, conveniently, he slightly shook his hand, his internal energy was channelled in the blade, and the steel saber was snapped in two with a ‘pai’ sound. He tossed the section in his hand on the floor conveniently. All along, he did not raise his head and look at the woman.

The young girl, seeing that her mother had been subdued by him, was very frightened. She leaped backwards. Continuous ‘chi-chi’ sounds were heard as she shot 7 short arrows at him. Xiao Feng picked up the broken saber and knocked all the arrows down with one stroke. Then he slightly waved his hand, and the broken saber flew out. With a ‘pai’ sound, the handle of the saber hit her waist. ‘Ah,’ that young girl cried. An acupuncture point of hers had been hit squarely. And she was immediately rendered motionless.

That woman asked in fright: ‘Are you injured?’ The young girl replied: ‘My waist is hurting a lot, but I’m not injured. Mom, he’s blocked my ‘Jingmen acupuncture point.’ The woman said: ‘He hit my ‘Zhongfu acupuncture point’. This… this fellow’s martial arts are very formidable.’ The young girl said: ‘Mom, who is this fellow? How could he best the 2 of us without standing up? I think he probably used some evil technique.’

The woman dared not be fierce anymore. She said to Xiao Feng mildly: ‘There’s no enmity between me, my daughter and you, sir. Just now we went into action rashly and offended you. It was our fault. I pray that you are magnanimous and will go easy on us.’ The young girl hastily said: ‘No, no, we’ve been defeated, that’s all. Why should we ask for forgiveness? I don’t like it. If you have the guts then just kill me with a hack of the saber.’

Xiao Feng vaguely heard the words of the mother and her daughter. He only knew that the mother had begged for mercy and the daughter was very stubborn, but he paid no attention to what they had said, not even a single sentence.

By now it was already pitch-dark inside the house. After a while, it got completely dark. Xiao Feng had always sat at the original place, carrying A’Zhu and not making a move. Ordinarily he was very quick-witted, and when encountering difficulties, he had always been very fast in decision-making. If there was something that he was unable to understand, he would put it aside at once and temporarily ignore it, and he would definitely not hesitate or waver. But having accidentally killed A’Zhu today, he was exceedingly grieved and had become dazed and benighted. It seemed as if he was just a demented madman.

That woman said in a low voice: ‘Try to rush your internal energy to the Huantiao acupuncture point. Maybe that would affect the channels and you’d be able to open the blocked acupuncture point.’ The young girl said: ‘I already tried it. Totally useless…’ The woman suddenly said: ‘Hush! Someone is coming!’

The crunch of footsteps was heard. Then someone pushed the door open and came in. It was also a woman. With several ‘ca-ca’ sounds, that woman used a fire-striking knife and a flint to set the kindling afire. Next she lit the oil lamp. When she turned around and suddenly saw Xiao Feng, A’Zhu, and the 2 women, she could not help exclaiming an ‘Ah’ sound. Never could she have thought that there were other people in the house. So, when suddenly seeing 4 people, either sitting or standing, of whom all were being motionless, she jumped out of her skin at once. Her hands loosened and the fire-striking knife and the flint dropped, making 2 clanking noises.

Suddenly, the woman who had entered the house earlier shouted severely: ‘Ruan Xingzhu, it’s you!’

The woman who had just entered the house was none other than Ruan Xingzhu. Turning around, she saw that the person who had just said was a middle-aged woman with a young girl, who was wearing only black clothes, beside her. These 2 people were rather beautiful, especially the young girl. But she had never seen both of them. Ruan Xingzhu said: ‘Right, I’m Ruan. Who are you two?’

The middle-aged woman did not answer. She only continuously looked at her carefully. Her face was full of fury.

Ruan Xingzhu turned around and said to Xiao Feng: ‘Chief Qiao, you already killed my daughter, what are you still doing here? My… my… my poor daughter!’ As she finished saying, she wept loudly and rushed to A’Zhu’s body.

Xiao Feng kept sitting in a daze. After a good while, he said: ‘Madam Duan, my sin is very serious. I beg you to draw a knife and kill me.’

Ruan Xingzhu sobbed: ‘Even if I killed you with a slash of the knife, I wouldn’t be able to revive my poor daughter. Chief Qiao, you said I and A’Zhu’s father made a blunder that we’ve been ashamed of and harmed a child to the point of being wretched for life and not knowing its own parents. These words are true. But… if you wanted to defend somebody against an injustice, you should’ve found Prince Duan and killed him. Why did you kill my A’Zhu?’

In this moment, Xiao Feng’s mind was rather slow. Only after a short while did he shiver with fear in his heart, asking: ‘What’s the blunder that you’ve been ashamed of?’ Ruan Xingzhu wept, saying: ‘You already know clearly. Why do you insist on asking me? Both A’Zhu… A’Zhu and A’Zi are my daughters. I didn’t dare bring them home so I gave them to other people.’

Xiao Feng said in a quavering voice: ‘Yesterday I asked Duan Zhengchun if he had made a blunder that he’d been ashamed of. He admitted frankly. So this shameful matter was only giving A’Zhu… and A’Zi to strangers?’ Ruan Xingzhu said angrily: ‘I already did this shameful thing, how can it still be insufficient? What bad kind of woman who specializes in doing shameful things do you think I am?’ Xiao Feng said: ‘Yesterday Duan Zhengchun also said ‘Heaven has shown pity on me and today allows me to meet a… a parentless child of that year again.’ When he said now he had met this parentless child again, he was talking about A’Zi, and not… and not me?’ Ruan Xingzhu said angrily: ‘Why should he want to talk about you? Are you the child he abandoned to other people? You… What rot are you talking? Could I give birth to an animal like you?’ She detested Xiao Feng, but afraid of his outstanding martial arts she dared not go into action and only scolded him.

Xiao Feng said: ‘Then, when I asked why he has still continuously committed one wrongdoing after another since, why did he admit that his conduct had been improper and his virtue had been deficient?’ Ruan Xingzhu’s cheeks, which were being covered with tears, slightly reddened. She said: ‘He has a loose nature. It’s always been so. After he’s played around with 1 woman, he’d play around with the 2nd woman, the 3rd woman, the 4th woman, debauching himself with one after another, but… who needs you to meddle in other people’s business?’

Xiao Feng mumbled: ‘Wrong, wrong, completely wrong!’ After being in a daze for a long time, suddenly he stretched out his hand and slapped himself heavily in the face, making continuous pai-pai-pai-pai sounds. Frightened, Ruan Xingzhu jumped to her feet and retreated some steps. She only saw that Xiao Feng kept beating himself with all his strength and every blow of the palm was very heavy. After a short while, his cheeks had already swollen up considerably.

Then, a soft ‘ya’ sound was heard as someone else pushed the door open and came in. This person cried: ‘Mom, have you taken that scroll…’ She was none other than A’Zi. Before she had finished saying, she saw other people in the house, and saw Xiao Feng was repeatedly beating himself with his right hand while carrying A’Zhu with his left hand. So she could not help being so frightened that she was dumbfounded.

Xiao Feng cheeks swelled then their skin broke. After that, his face and his hand were full of fresh blood, then blood spattered ceaselessly on the walls, the table, the chairs… Everything was spattered with blood. Even A’Zhu’s body and that scroll hanging on the wall were also covered with small red drops of blo