Chapter 26: Poison

Her vision was blurry as tears rolled down her cheeks in streaks of wet despair. Other than sorrow, grief, and remorse, there was also anger and vengefulness. The little girl's lifeless body drifted down the river in a raft of flowers, a napkin revealing a pile of cookies laid beside her. The Buddhist monk stood next to Xiu'er, chanting a ritual that would send her soul to a much happier place.

She was too young.

Xiu'er turned away from the river, followed by Xiaogua and A'Li when the raft containing Yaoyao's body finally disappeared out of sight. They both returned to the inn in complete silence with a gloom over their heads. The lively capital looked different now in their eyes. They didn't talk to anyone on the way back, even when the inn owner greeted them they were silent. Xiu'er locked herself in her room for the rest of the day without eating or going out.

She stared at the table for hours without budging until one word popped into her mind.

Poison!

She reflected back to when she witnessed the murder scene. She had gone back to the slum-like areas to look for the little girl but instead, found the girl lying underneath a tree. Her feet stuck out into Xiu'er's view and she smiled, thinking the girl was only napping. When Xiu'er got closer, she saw another person was with Yaoyao.

Chun Yi slowly backed away from the girl's body on her hands and knees. Chun Yi's fingers slowly moved away from underneath Yaoyao's nose.

No! Her head screamed. Her eyes grew large. Please, don't let it be!

There was a ringing in her ears. High in frequency, it had caused her heart to race and after that everything was in slow motion.

Xiaogua, who had come with her and was next to her, dropped to his knees when he also realized the same. The enclosed napkin fell from Xiu'er's hand, the cookies escaped and came out of the napkin.

Too numb to think properly, the first thing she did was run to the body and shake Yaoyao's little shoulders, but knowing damn well that it was too late. She croaked out Yaoyao's name but there was no reply. She repeated her name.

Chun Yi fell back on her hands, her eyes also wide in shock, her breathing shaky with a sniffle.

That was strange. She was also crying?

Xiu'er clenched her fist so severe her fingernails broke through her skin. She was shaking not of anger or mourning, but she was holding back her emotions from Xiaogua but especially Chun Yi. She turned to Chun Yi. Her face veil was removed. So the girl in black Yaoyao met yesterday was her. How could she do this? What did Yaoyao ever do to her?

Xiu'er suddenly got up and jumped at Chun Yi. The only way her anger could express itself was in the wild punches and kicks that came out of her. It was a short battle between the two until Chun Yi was saved by her fellow sisters who arrived. Xiaogua held Xiu'er back, telling her to calm down but she couldn't stop flailing.

Chun Yi turned a shaky head to her, one hand clutching tightly onto her face veil that had been removed. She opened her mouth many times to say something but she could only mutter, "I'm so sorry."

Abruptly after Chun Yi left, Xiu'er broke free from Xiaogua's grasp and crawled back to the girl's body. With a shaky hand, she combed the hair away from the child's face. She told Xiaogua to send for a doctor while A'Li searched for the Bhuddist monk.

Under the shade of the oak tree alone, she finally cried. First, she gasped for air, then the cries followed. It was uncontrollable sobbing, it was ugly, it was loud, and her heart ached more than anything.

Why does it have to be Yaoyao? Why? Was it because she no longer had a reason to live? Was it because she was too young to understand death? Or was it because she was an easy target?

Every reason Xiu'er found to blame herself, she did. She hated herself for letting this happen, hated herself for not coming here faster. Her anger was let out by punching the tree above Yaoyao's head until her knuckles were torn and bleeding. Then she was resting her head on the girl's stomach and begging for forgiveness.

She felt like she was crying forever. The sun hid behind some dark clouds, leaving her in a dim gloomy spot. As she laid with one side of her face on Yaoyao's chest, she no longer had energy and tears. She stayed still listening to the slow, airy wind making the trees whistle. She listened to the water splashing nearby, the waves moving down the river. But most importantly, she was listening for a tiny heartbeat.

If Buddha could be so kind and let her hear one tiny heartbeat…

But Xiu'er knew very well more than anyone, that Buddha would never let her hear that.

She couldn't feel her face when she sat up and wiped the tears away. Strangely enough, she started to look down at her hands as if they weren't hers. As if they were magic... but they were! Once a long time ago, these hands were able to do things so incredible they might as well be deemed as magical. Now's the time to put it back to use.

With one final rough inhale and biting her lip until she was satisfied with the taste of blood, she was brought back to sanity. Step by step, with one thought at a time, she examined the body.

I will not let her death go unjust.

She removed the girl's clothes and checked for dark wounds. She inspected the skin carefully for needle holes, used an acupuncture needle to the throat for consuming poison, checked the head for trauma, ears and eyes for blood and finally the circulation of qi in the body.

Her body was still warm. There was some frothing at the mouth. The evaluation of her examination led the cause of death to be poison. What kind of poison is effective enough to kill someone in under 10 minutes?

Many.

But what kind of poison, in that manner, does not require bodily intake and work from the outside?