Chapter 27: Mourn

Back to reality in Xiu'er's room, she took some paper on the table and started analyzing the situation from every possible angle. Every possible poison she had ever studied in her entire life, she wrote it down. For the next eight hours, she used all the hard work she had rigorously studied in the past 12 years. She recalled all the observations from the girl's body and fit it with the symptoms of different poisons. In those eight hours, not only had she deducted how the specific poison worked to attack the body, but also a cure.

She was one of the most accomplished physicians she had ever known after all. And even at this accomplished level, Xiu'er was not satisfied with herself. Rather, she felt that if she was this accomplished then she could've saved the girl.

Why did she have to stay an extra minute to talk after breakfast? Why did it take so long for her to pack the cookies? Why did she stop in the street to look at the masks? If she had headed straight out then she would have arrived in time to prevent everything. Everything!

The sun hung low in the sky when Silang broke the door, trying to get inside his sister's room. He kicked it with his foot.

"Little Sister! How long are you going to stay in there?"

At first, he barged in loudly but after seeing the large disarray of papers on the table and all over the floor, he stopped himself and gently closed the door behind him.

"Xiaogua told me that you were very upset and locked yourself up in your room all day. Is that right?"

As he sat across from her at the table, he opened up a napkin of pastries and desserts but only to see the little monkey was fast asleep on the bed.

"I told you that you need to feed A'Li."

She saw the napkin of desserts and her eyes grew teary again. The image of the lifeless girl opened up in her mind once more. A tear escaped and rolled down her right cheek.

Seeing his sister with tears, he lowered his gaze and that was when he saw her bleeding knuckles. He immediately ripped out a handkerchief from somewhere in his body and started bandaging her hand. "What's going on?"

She wiped the tear away with one swipe, then shifted in position. Out of all the written papers, she bent down and picked one off the ground and handed it to him without batting an eye. He took the paper from her and skimmed it over on the table under the light of the candles. It was written in incomplete sentences but still makes sense.

"Entire body harbored poison. Person will die upon skin contact immediately, but death varies based on the person's internal energy. Skin contact is the reason why she must be covered up. Holy Cursed Lady from Hidden Butterfly Valley, Chun Yi."

As if on cue, right when he finished reading, Xiaogua burst through the doors and came rushing into her room. He saw the mess of papers and was silent for a second.

"Xiu'er, you have to go see who Kun Shang brought with him!" He cried out loud.

Standing in the courtyard of the inn, next to Kun Shang, was the mysterious girl in black Chun Yi. As soon as Xiu'er saw her, she couldn't hold back her vengeance any longer and decided to settle debts. She took one step forward with death in her eyes and a low growl. Kun Shang saw the action before it happened and immediately jumped in front of Chun Yi. Silang held his sister back before she could take another step forward. He knew exactly how dangerous it would be for everyone if he had failed to stop her.

"Hold up! What is going on with you two? Has there been a misunderstanding?" Kun Shang asked with his arms out in between the two girls.

"There is no misunderstanding--."

"You killed her!" Xiu'er interrupted Xiaogua. "You. Killed. Yaoyao. Why!?"

Chun Yi stood behind Kun Shang's back and hid her eyes, something that cannot hide her sins as much as her tongue.

"Kill who? What are you talking about?" Kun Shang creased his eyebrows at her.

"Brother Kun, why did you bring her here? She's a murderer."

Chun Yi hid her face when Xiaogua pointed to her.

It was two against one with Kun Shang in the middle and Silang just praying that his sister doesn't go ballistic. The inn owner ran an errand past them and warned them not to have a fight in his place or else they would get kicked out. Too furious to listen to anyone, Xiu'er broke free of her brother's hold and ran to the furthest place she could think of.

I won't cry in front of them. They don't deserve it.

When she got to the river, the sun had set with streaks of colors in the sky, but the Bhuddist monk was still standing there, eyes closed, counting his wooden beads in one hand with his head bowed. He was the closest family to Yaoyao, a wandering monk who found an orphaned little girl and gave in to raise her. Although it didn't last long, they did create a bond between them.

"Amitabha," the Bhuddist monk said without lifting his head. He was still young for being so composed and collected. Not an Abbot yet, but maybe still in training in his middle thirties. "Let the sorrow leave with the river, and bring the next day brighter. Guniang, you have to let it go eventually."

She dropped on her knees in front of him. Her chest felt tight and her tears uncontrollable. If anyone was to see her cry, let it be Bhudda.

"Is there someone I can pray to for you?" The Bhuddist monk asked, hoping it could console her the tiniest bit.

With her head bowed and both her hands rubbing into her eyes that cannot stop the tears, she croaked with a sore throat, "The Goddess of Mercy, Guanying."

The Bhuddist monk began chanting in a deep voice.

Yaoyao was not the first death she ever saw. She was also not the first loved one to die before her eyes. Xiu'er had seen enough of life and death to understand the nature of how it works. If that was the case, then why couldn't she accept the little girl's death? Why couldn't she see it as another normal death? And why couldn't she get Chun Yi to reprimand before running away like that?

Truth is, she cannot accept that Yaoyao died at such a tender age. It was such a young age. She had her whole life in front of her. She could have grown up in a monastery if she had left the slums with the monk, learned the arts of a fine young lady with other sisters like her, found her own Prince who loved her regardless of what she looked like, and grow up beautiful in her own way like the girl in the story she told her of.

She could've had it all. She truly could've. Yaoyao could've.