Ch. 24: Orphan

DING! System practically jumped as it received a notification, it's first since it had been assigned as Meifeng's punishment system. It appeared like a simple email in System's inbox, making it worry that it had received spam mail. After all, as a punishment system, the only notifications System would ever get would be whether Meifeng had passed or failed the difficult task set for her.

System tentatively clicked, before its invisible jaw dropped open. By system law, System was required to share the news with Meifeng.

"Master! I have... news," System called nervously, disbelieving the view before its eyes. It switched its blue screen display to show the message to the subdued pair of benefactor and subordinate trudging through the snow.

'CONGRATULATIONS!,' the message began innocuously, 'you've initiated the side mission, earn your nine tails! To collect a tail, you must break a man's heart. With each tail collected, you will grow even more beautiful and your charms will be doubled. Good luck!'

Little firework graphics flashed across the screen, drawing Meifeng's attention for a moment before her gaze turned sharper than flint.

"Little System, did you forget I can't read, or are you mocking me?" she asked carefully, her tone matching the frigid weather. Meifeng spoke quietly under her breath, her words almost getting lost in the sharp gale. But System was calibrated to hear its Master's every word and thus, nearly fainted from her words.

"Master, I wouldn't dare!" System's voice quaked as it read the message out loud, its disbelief heightening further. The purpose of a punishment system was to deprive the user of any additional benefits, in order to make reaching the objective even more difficult. And yet, it suddenly spoke now of tails and beauty. System was dullwitted, but not entirely stupid.

Its eyes fell on Meifeng, who held a bare glimmer of a smile at System's message. It could already see the newfound charms on Meifeng's face, whose lips appeared as if they were freshly bitten, skin far more translucent like priceless mutton fat jade, and coal-black eyes dizzyingly enchanting. She was a beauty poor scholars could spend their lives writing poems about. It would not be a stretch to say that she would be a city toppling beauty before long.

"Master..."

Meifeng looked up, struck by the sudden, subdued tone in her personal system. She mused whether it was frightened by this otherwise impossible development and let out a soft laugh that startled Lin Xiao beside her who was locked in chaotic thoughts. The flash of white in her smile brought visions of a tiger's fangs, although her gentle appearance was not akin to that of a wild beast.

"System," she murmured once more under her breath, "Are you frightened?"

System, who did not need to breath but did it anyways, ceased altogether at the lilting softness in its Master's voice.

"Your Master has secrets, but if you were smarter you would've known that before now. But you are lucky, you still have the chance to make a smart decision. The decision to keep what you've seen today and what you will see again to yourself. Not too hard is it?"

The childishness in her comfortable-sounding speech threatened Meifeng more than her cold, detached tone. Although it was a logical assumption for one to assume that System would try to inform HQ, to System it was as if Meifeng had managed to read his mind.

"I-I don't d-dare, Master. Please f-forgive your humble s-servant," System could not feel the late winter chill, but its teeth chattered just the same. Meifeng gave System a long look, one that was neither hot nor cold as if she were observing a specimen.

Her head tilted to one side, then the other, as if she were listening to an invisible tune that only she could hear. Meifeng never said anything else to System, however, for it was now Lin Xiao piped up, her fervent dedication to Meifeng cooled down as a glimmer of suspicion flickered deeply in her eye.

"Benefactor, I am not well learned like my brother. I can read and write. I've read the Analects of Confucius before. But there is much I do not understand about the world," Lin Xiao started humbly, admitting her faults. Her rough, slightly frost-bitten fingers wrestled with the coarse nun's habit, belying her nervousness.

"En," Meifeng faintly replied, intent to hear what Lin Xiao had to say.

Lin Xiao visibly gulped, gathering her courage before continuing. "I don't understand what you are doing. Um... i-in the room with Pushan Nun, you spoke of wanting the world. Isn't that... treason? And, and, and you also mentioned that Yonghe Temple would not be here by tomorrow. What are you going to do to this place? Are you... Meifeng, are you a spy from one of the southern kingdoms?"

It was the first time Lin Xiao had not addressed her by Benefactor or Young Miss. System shuddered at Meifeng's punctuated silence after Lin Xiao's outburst suddenly fearing for the little girl. It hadn't been long since she had swapped from the heavy gauze bandage around her broken hand to a thinner, lighter one.

However, Meifeng did not intend to hurt Lin Xiao in any way, instead doing a gesture that surprised everyone present as she grabbed Lin Xiao's hand. The sudden warmth and close contact startled the abandoned daughter, who instinctively tried to pull away, although Meifeng held on tightly. There was a brief tug of war, but Meifeng clung on as if she were a lone boat being thrown about by the waves without overturning.

"Let me go!" Lin Xiao eventually exclaimed, her bottom lip sticking out in a pout as if Meifeng had taken her candy.

Meifeng lightly smirked. "No."

"Leave me be! Y-You're not the person I thought you were," Lin Xiao pouted, her eyes faintly turning red just as they had the first time they met.

No one was surprised as Meifeng did the opposite of what her subordinate requested, drawing the girl even closer to her so they stood face to face.

"Look," Meifeng's voice was as placid as a lake as she raised the joined hands for the both of them to see. "We are one and the same, you and I. Orphans. Forgotten girls. The world doesn't care about us. And why should it? Even our own parents couldn't be bothered."

"Stop it," Lin Xiao hissed out, her eyes burning hot as Meifeng picked at her fresh wounds. But it was as if she had begged Meifeng to continue, for the girl's grip tightened further as if the first sign of weakness would allow her prey to escape. The former spitfire from the Jiangnan marketplace quickly replaced the docile subordinate that all parties had become accustomed to.

Meifeng smiled, the chill seemingly dropping the temperature a few degrees. "Why do you think I let you into the room with me, Wan Xiaomei? Because I consider you a part of me. Do you understand? I care about you. Even if no one else will. My thoughts and intentions, I want you to know of them. And I want you to accompany me as I fulfill them."

The shorter girl let go abruptly and Lin Xiao rubbed her wrists, her ears tingling from hearing her birth name once more. It already sounded foreign, like something that had never belonged to her in the first place. Guilt lapped at her ankles like the shallow waves at the river bank before the river swelled and rose. However, her stubbornness that had treated her to one too many beating when she was growing up did not allow her to step back so quickly.

"You... you said you want to burn this place. That's horrible! It's sick!" Lin Xiao protested with wounded eyes.

A slender brow quirked up. "Just that?" Meifeng sighed, a pitying glance in her eye as if Lin Xiao didn't understand the ways of the world. It rubbed the abandoned daughter the wrong way, her eyes prickling in discomfort at Meifeng's next words.

"You care so much about a place that doesn't care about you. Don't you remember what happened to you the last time you made that mistake?" The snow squelched under Meifeng's straw shoes as she trudged away, leaving Lin Xiao alone to the tumult of her feelings.

Meifeng had thrown down the gauntlet: join me or leave me.

Lin Xiao shivered, her mind replaying Meifeng's last words over and over again. She picked up on new details, the distance Meifeng had placed between them after clutching her hand tightly, the sudden alienation in Meifeng's eyes.

A streak of panic flashed across Lin Xiao's face. Was this... Meifeng's goodbye to her? A final adieu to their time together?

The grey habit seemed to tangle in her legs as Lin Xiao broke into an alarmed jog, each steg shooting pain through her frozen feet. She pushed herself, eventually reaching the quiet storage room they had called home, her breath forming thick clouds as she pushed past the thin bamboo curtain that did not keep any wind out of the tiny space.

It was empty. The weight of the heavens seemed to crush her thin chest and Lin Xiao gasped for air.

She had been abandoned. Just like her brother, who had left to chase his dreams, and her mother, who had selfishly tossed her away for a stable life with her own brother-in-law, Meifeng was leaving her too. In her mind's eye, Meifeng's every step away from her had been steady without doubt, as if she were merely leaving behind an old shoe as opposed to her subordinate.

"No... no way..." Lin Xiao murmured frantically, rushing around the room to look for anything. They had come with few belongings though, and all were gone, including the brightly colored cuju ball that brought life to the flat gray environment.

Sensation drained out of Lin Xiao's legs, her bottom colliding painfully with the stone floor although she didn't register the faint pain. Where did Meifeng go? The mysterious girl's smile, although lovely, was the equivalent of a closed book. Lin Xiao realized she knew little of the girl she followed, yet had been so quick to condemn her.

"Someone is in there! Quick! Catch the adultress and wipe out Yonghe Temple's shame!" a voice cried from outside.

Through the wide slats of the hanging curtain, Lin Xiao could see a servant dressed in the livery of the town magistrate's manor, quickly beckoning the strong women of the temple who did rough labor. Despite the cold, their sleeves were rolled up to their elbows, showcasing their thick waists and arms hardened by work. A dash of color could be spotted in the approaching crowd, a stern-faced Madam Fang supported by her maid.

Hefty clubs were clasped tightly in their palms and Lin Xiao grimaced to herself. She was an uneducated girl, but even she knew that this conduct was not fit for a temple. The small girl took a good look at the incoming parade, her heart blackening as the distance between them closed.

In the distance, she swore she could hear Meifeng's bell-like laugh for a moment. The approaching crowd was hungry for blood and it wouldn't matter to them that she wasn't the one who had spoken to Wen Chuyi.

Was it penance? Lin Xiao did not move from the ground, the fight seemingly draining from her. She'd never liked being alone anyways. Wouldn't it be better for her to just leave altogether? Who knew where her benefactor was, or if Meifeng would even allow her to walk by her side once more. The sun had begun to fall, drawing long shadows from the shabby items in the storage room converted into a bedroom. It seemed that Yonghe's last sunset would also be hers.

"Stop! Stop it all!" Lin Xiao jolted where she sat, propping herself onto her knees as someone came from the reverse side of the room, a flickering light shining through a hole in the paper window. Wen Chuyi had come. In his hand, a burning torch was clasped fiercely as he stood between the raging throngs of women and the humble room.

Perhaps he had come to dissuade everyone from harming Lin Xiao. Perhaps he thought that Meifeng would admire him more for a feeble, last-minute stand against his mother. Quite frankly, Lin Xiao did not care, her fevered gaze spellbound the feeble glow of the fire in the fading light.

Wen Chuyi's flabby lips opened and close, a hand pounding his chest as he roared at his mother. It was all white noise in Lin Xiao's ears.

"Watch out, son!" Madam Fang shrieked, her sudden shout echoed amongst the crowd she had brought.

Rushing footsteps crunching ice and snow underneath approached, but what could Wen Chuyi, a man who had only chased around women in his bedchambers do? At first, the young shaoye felt his broken heart beat for the first time, turning around gleefully to meet Meifeng whom he believed was moved by his display against his mother.

A force greater than one he could withstand jerked his torch from his grip, Wen Chuyi's eyes focusing in the now darkness to see that it was not Meifeng before him, but the girl who was her shadow.

"You-" he barked loudly in an attempt to disguise the way he had instinctively leaped back as the smaller girl stole his torch. "Someone grab this girl for me!" He wrenched his arm free from the manservant who steadied him and cleared his throat, annoyed that it was just Meifeng's lackey as opposed to the girl herself.

"Humeizi!" wailed Madam Fang, mistaking Lin Xiao for the culprit who had bewitched her son. Lin Xiao, having run a safe distance towards the storage room, let out a loud sigh.

"She would rather die than be with you anyways," Lin Xiao muttered loudly enough for the gathered crowd to hear. A weird half-smile was illuminated as she brought the torch close to her face, the flame bringing her a strange joy and striking fear into the hearts of those watching. Lin Xiao did not know it, but the grin was quite reminiscent of her benefactor's own particular smile.

"Hey, you crazy girl don't you dare-" a servant with a keen sense yelled.

Lin Xiao closed her eyes and fervently prayed for Meifeng's approval as she took matters into her own hands quite literally, flinging the burning stick into her former room. As the flame hungrily took to the withered hay mats and the yellowing paper windows, a crimson flower she couldn't bear to look away from, Lin Xiao felt warm for the first time since she had arrived at Yonghe Temple.