Ink Blade Chapter 60 (Part 2)
Translated by Sylver
Chapter 60.2 Child (part 2)
Yan Luo laughed in surprise. “Chu Yan, you are willing to go this far for a humble guard? Trading a kingdom for a beauty, the Jiuzhong Palace Master is still a sentimental person.”
“However…” He looked up at Bai Hua, who was hanging, and at the hemp rope soaked in blood, his lips curled coldly, “What do I need with a failure who is more than enough to ruin things?”
The sun was very good today, the overly brilliant light shone into the eyes, making people’s eyes sour. Yan Luo squinted his eyes and thought to himself: What do I need him for?
In this dazzling sunlight, he seemed to see the young Zhong Hua laughing softly, stretching out his hands for a hug, calling him, “Big Brother Yan!”
Yan Luo only learned later that due to the practice of secret methods within the sect, Zhong Hua had been locked in the insect cave since he was a child, growing up with the five poisonous insects and hundreds of medicinal herbs.
He was clearly a jade-like child, but his character was extremely clever and ruthless; but if one really said that this was a vicious and sinister little monster, it seemed too simple. The loneliness was unabashed in those beautiful eyes.
This child didn’t understand good and evil, right and wrong, he only understood obedience. Only by obeying could he call the sect leader father, madam, and the weird and cold uncles to look at him more and say more to him. After all, people’s faces were more pleasing to the eye than bugs, and people’s voices were better than insect sounds.
And suddenly one day, in the empty and lonely insect cave, a handsome and gentle Central Plains big brother came.
The big brother would smile at him, hold him in his arms and call him Hu’er, kiss his neck, and tell him stories about the Central Plains.
He would feel sorry for his practice of secret methods, would curse the inhumanity of the Wuxian Sect, and would promise him a beautiful “future”.
“In the future, when I recover my martial arts, I will definitely take you out, we will ride a horse, two people will run far away together, the Jianghu is so big, no one can find us.”
“When no one is chasing us, we can go to the Central Plains, to the Jiangnan water town. I have been there before, and the lanterns of the Shangyuan Festival are the most beautiful. Life is so long, we can watch many, many lantern shows together.”
The Jianghu is so big, life is so long.
His Big Brother Yan was so gentle and considerate, he was the only one in the world who would patiently play with him and love him wholeheartedly.
Zhong Hua’s heart fell like this, he could see that Yan Luo was good to him for his own purposes, but even so, he was willing to be wronged. Patience, attentiveness… even if there was no sincerity, it was enough for a child who was too lonely.
After two years of day and night, Yan Luo got what he wanted. He used Zhong Hua’s identity to deceive the holy medicine in the Wuxian Sect and restored his abolished cultivation.
The used child was no longer useful, Yan Luo easily abandoned the once promised “Brother Yan will accompany Hua’er for a lifetime”, “will always love you and never leave you”, he wanted to return to the Central Plains, to take revenge on Jiuzhong Palace and Xuyang Sword Sect.
It was on a stormy night before leaving, Zhong Hua, the young master of the Wuxian Sect, killed his father.
The heavy rain poured down that night, and the lightning illuminated the beautiful and ruthless face of the young man, and on the high seat, his biological father’s eyes were bulging and he died with his eyes wide open.
A cup of poison, a short dagger, ended the life of the former leader Zhong Tong. Zhong Hua still did not give up, and stabbed the dagger into his mother’s chest, completely being stained with blood.
Finally, Zhong Hua slowly and carefully cut off his parents’ heads… These were his biological parents who cruelly threw him into the insect cave for the so-called great cause of the Wuxian Sect, allowing him to endure countless days and nights of insect bites and boundless loneliness year after year.
It seemed like a revenge, with a child’s temper, a child’s innocence and cruelty.
Zhong Hua placed his parents’ heads in front of Yan Luo, with a smile as beautiful as a flower.
“Don’t go, Big Brother Yan.”
Zong Hua hung his eyelashes somewhat desolately, his eyebrows stained with blood, his rosy lips opened and closed.
“I know… you deliberately approached me from the beginning. Big Brother Yan, you are not really fond of Hua’er, you just want to use Hua’er, right?”
In the sound of thunder and rain, Yan Luo’s face suddenly turned pale.
Cold sweat trickled down his forehead, his palm hidden in his sleeve had already turned into a knife, ready to fight Zhong Hua to the death.
Even though his dantian had just recovered, there was almost no chance of defeating Zhong Hua in front of him.
At this moment, he truly believed that his life was over.
But he was wrong. He underestimated Zhong Hua’s morbidity, especially his obsession - his obsession towards him.
Without any warning, the young master of the Wuxian Sect, who was noble, suddenly knelt down at his feet, looked up, and tears filled his eyes.
“——Since this is the case, why are you leaving? Hua’er still has a lot to give you! I can heal you, pass on internal strength, help you take revenge, you stay and continue to use Hua’er, okay?”
Yan Luo was shocked, almost unable to believe his own ears.
Zhong Hua was crying, his eyes full of expectation. “Zhong Tong is already dead, and the position of the leader of the Wuxian Sect is vacant. In the future, you will be the leader of the Wuxian Sect, and Hua’er will be your servant…”
“Master, Hua’er will call you master from now on. I will give you everything I have, the whole South…”
He suddenly clenched the white clothes on his left chest with his right hand, as if he could suppress that burning heart in this way, and there was still a sweet and illusory smile on his face, “You stay, continue to deceive me, deceive me that you will always love me, and accompany me for a lifetime.”
At this moment, Yan Luo realized in a daze that Zong Hua’s heart would always be a child.
The child who sat silently in the cold cave, looking up at the sky, enduring the gnawing of poisonous insects, trying to exchange a little warmth of being cared for by being obedient.
“Say it.”
“Master, you say it.”
“Will always love me, accompany me for a lifetime.”
The Jianghu is so big. A lifetime…is so long.
A drop of blood rolled down from the high hemp rope.
But in a blink of an eye, Bai Hua’s life, like a moth to a flame, just like this, was worn away in the vast Jianghu.
