"That's what happens when you're not honest!" Xinxin exclaimed angrily, glaring at Feng Lin.
She helped Liu Yan to his feet. He was slightly unsteady and looked pale, but otherwise he was in good shape. He felt new power surging through his veins, rushing through his meridians and connecting with him. Xinxin stood in front of Feng Lin.
"Jing Tai!" she said, looking at her so angrily that even Liu Yan didn't dare say anything. Feng Lin's angry expression threw her off balance and the girl who had collapsed on the gravel whimpered.
"Stop it now, the curse is..." Xinxin's gaze shifted briefly to Liu Yan. "The curse is gone," she finally said coldly. Then she turned back to Feng Lin.
"You knew it was Jing Tai, didn't you?" It was not a reproach, not a statement.
Just a statement of fact, but Xinxin's voice sounded so resigned, as if she was fed up with all the lies and secrecy. With the cruelty that went on behind closed doors.
"If you had been honest, not only with us, but above all with yourselves, you could have solved your problem much earlier."
Xinxin slumped her shoulders, her gaze downcast. She had wanted to help and now felt like she had betrayed herself. If she had known what kind of person Feng Lin was, she would have left her to her fate and deserved punishment.
Liu Yan stood up straight. That was her, the Xinxin who didn't hide behind morality and a clean slate. The Xinxin who allowed karma to take its course and did not stand in the way of retribution. Without hypocritical righteousness.
"Get the girl out of the well, give her a decent funeral, and own up to your sins," she demands.
"Otherwise, sooner or later, the same thing will happen to you again. Where malice and impurity run rampant, vengeful spirits and curses are not far behind. If you ask me, your house is doomed, you will never be able to wash away the karma!"
With those words, she turned and touched Liu Yan's arm lightly, as if to make sure he was well enough to walk.
Liu Yan nodded almost imperceptibly. With one last glance at the undergrowth behind the well, where he was hidden, he turned to Feng Lin. When I met her gaze, an amused smile played on his lips.
It was thanks to people like her that he existed at all: his curse, his fate, and now the possibility of gaining power. With a tiny, hinted bow, he turned away from her.
Feng Lin's blood ran cold at the sight. She didn't stop them as they left the property. The girls had come out of the dormitory, curious, and had overheard Xinxin's words. They looked at each other, frightened and helpless. Feng Lin cleared her throat, but her voice trembled as she spoke.
"Get her out of there!" she said tonelessly, pointing toward the well. Then she turned and trudged back to the great hall to throw the guests out.
As they left the house, Xinxin turned around once more and kicked the entrance gate.
"It's always the same, everywhere," she cried, then ran down the street with long strides. She slowed down a little and calmed down a bit when she noticed that Liu Yan was having trouble keeping up.
He was sweating, his heart was beating fast and aching in his chest. But he didn't feel nearly as exhausted as he had when he was with Jingzi.
"I've told you before that your fate is not unique," she said quietly as they walked more leisurely along the street at night. Lanterns swayed in the wind, illuminating the city even in the darkness.
"People like Jing Tai are everywhere. The powerful, the rich, or even those with just a little more influence than oneself, oppress those who don't have as much power."
"If it were any different, the curse shackle wouldn't exist," he remarked. Xinxin nodded.
"You absorbed the curse she left behind, didn't you?" Xinxin asked again, just to be sure.
Liu Yan's lips curled into a smile.
"Don't you remember?" he asked, watching her reaction. Xinxin turned away, hiding her bright red face and the fine, thin, blood-crusted wound.
"No," she said quickly.
"Are you sure?" Liu Yan didn't let up. Xinxin shook her head.
"There was the black shadow and then only darkness. I couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything, only feel the pain," she said. Liu Yan didn't probe further, but watched her from a few steps away.
They entered the inn where they had arrived that morning, and the innkeeper looked at them with curiosity and skepticism.
"One room, I assume?" he asked cynically. Xinxin opened her mouth to give him an equally cynical reply when suddenly a voice echoed through the empty inn.
"A'Xin!" Xinxin turned around and froze.
Liu Yan looked in the direction from which the voice came. A young woman, almost still a girl, was rushing toward them. Her white, magnificent hanfu with red silk fluttered with every step.
Her braids bounced and her subtle jewelry jingled. She held a short sword firmly in her hand and her gaze was serious, but also relieved. His gaze shifted back to Xinxin. She didn't move. Was it fear? Disgust? She instinctively took a step back, prompting Liu Yan to do the same.
Normally, he was the one who stayed in the background, but his newfound strength gave him confidence and boldness. He stood in the girl's way and gave her an icy stare. She stopped and looked at Liu Yan. Her gaze turned angry, and she tried to get past him, but he wouldn't let her through.
"Guniang," he said quietly, almost threateningly. "I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding."
"There hasn't," she replied. "Step aside and stay away from A'Xin, you wretched curse," she growled angrily.
"Tao Cui." It was Xinxin who had spoken, preventing Liu Yan from taking another step forward and doing something that should not be done in an inn. But it was too late anyway. All friendliness disappeared from the innkeeper's face.
"Cursed shackle?" he echoed. Tao Cui stuck out her chest and looked at Liu Yan defiantly.
"Third Prince Tian Liu Yan, step aside and leave Xinxin to me. I will help her," she said firmly.
"I don't want your help," Xinxin blurted out. Now there was clear hostility in her voice and her gaze.
Her breathing was rapid, her heart was racing, and the wound had reopened. A fine veil of blood covered the lower half of her face. It wasn't just hostility. Liu Yan sensed the hatred, the corrupted qi, and the miasma that Xinxin was clearly generating.
Right now, there was no big difference between that and the power of the curse he had just absorbed.
"Third Prince Tian Liu Yan?" The innkeeper had fallen to his knees.
"Please go, leave my inn. I have always been a decent person, a good citizen. Please don't destroy my inn, my life's work, with your curse. We citizens of Wu have no dispute with the Kingdom of Tian," he pleaded. Liu Yan looked at the trembling man. Xinxin followed his gaze.
"That's nonsense, he absorbs karma, he doesn't give it away," Xinxin began, but then Liu Yan grabbed her and pulled her out of reach of the young swordswoman who was reaching for her. Tao Cui glared at him angrily.
"Let A'Xin go," she cried.
"I'm not a prisoner," Xinxin replied. "Leave me alone, Tao Cui," she demanded. Tao Cui took a deep breath in and out. There were tears in her eyes.
"Please, A'Xin, we miss you. Ever since that terrible accident..."
"Be quiet," Xinxin yelled so loudly that her voice cracked. "Be quiet, I don't want to hear any of it. Go back and leave me alone, I don't need your hypocritical help!"
"My hypoc..." Tao Cui seemed stunned.
"Xinxin, what's wrong with you? Please come back, we'll find a way to..." A cup flew past her by a hair's breadth. Xinxin had grabbed the first thing she could find and thrown a teacup that was standing on the counter at her.
"Why?" she asked, her voice trembling with anger. Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Why does she always have to ruin everything?" Xinxin asked hoarsely.
"She?" Liu Yan and Tao Cui were both surprised by Xinxin's choice of words.
"We wanted," her gaze shifted to Liu Yan, "I just wanted a peaceful life," she whispered. Tears ran from the corners of her eyes down her face, loosening the dried blood.
"Just somewhere, in peace..." Her voice broke. Liu Yan carefully placed his hands around Xinxin's face so as not to aggravate her wound and looked at her. Pain, but a very different kind from the pain he had felt when he was punished, flooded his body.
It constricted his throat and made his heart beat painfully. As if it had to overcome itself with every beat. He gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes so they wouldn't dry up and burn in her wound.
"We'll find it," he said softly. "A place for us."
Tao Cui was pushed aside as black shadows rose out of nowhere and enveloped the two of them. Red mist, like blood in water, billowed up, giving the magic a bloodcurdling, corrupt aura.
"A'Xin," she tried again. But Xinxin no longer heard her. Only Liu Yan stared at Tao Cui with a look that made her blood run cold.
He would not give up Xinxin, Ta Cui realized. She drew her sword, but then the shadows engulfed the two silhouettes and raced through the tavern at breakneck speed before he ripped the door off its hinges on his way out and disappeared into the night.
So she had actually run away with the curse shackle? He hadn't kidnapped her or forced her? Tao Cui took a deep breath.
She was about to go after them when a buzzing sound and a bluish light held her back. She raised her palm and the light wrote in thin, fine lines.
"Come home, Mu Bai is hurt!" Tao Cui clenched her hand into a fist. Right now? She sighed. Then she would tell the others what she had seen. Perhaps together they could bring Xinxin to her senses.
"Tian Liu Yan," Xinxin screamed, clinging to him as they swept across the land. They left the city they had just entered, which was supposed to be their safe haven, far behind them.
Liu Yan's grip tightened as he began his descent and landed almost silently on the forest floor, carrying Xinxin in his arms. Xinxin's heart was racing, she was sweating and freezing at the same time.
"Tell me you knew how to do that," she cried, beside herself. Liu Yan laughed, feeling light and free.
Then he tilted his head back a little further and said with deadly seriousness:
"I knew how to do that!"
"Liar!" Xinxin cried, jumping out of his arms. She raised her finger and pointed at him.
"You, you, dududududu..." She didn't know what to say. "That was... I mean... tell me next time." She was breathing rapidly, as if she had been running, and her whole body was still trembling.
Tian Liu Yan crossed his arms behind his back to show his good intentions, that he would not grab her again without warning and fly off with her.
"Could it be that you don't like heights?" he asked mischievously. Xinxin looked at him with a bitter glare.
"Yes, no, just don't ever do that again," she stammered.
Liu Yan waited a while for her to calm down.
"That Tao Cui," he began.
"I don't want to talk about it," Xinxin rebuffed him, looking at the floor. "I... wanted to forget. I didn't think they would find me after so long. Let alone that anyone was even looking for me." " She swallowed and cleared her throat.
"I don't know what we should do now," she admitted. Her plan to become officially certified as a healer and settle down had failed.
From Dafang, the capital of the Kingdom of Wu, news of Tian Liu Yan, alias the Curse Binder from the Tian Empire, would spread quickly. That, and a wanted poster with a hefty bounty.
His capture and handover to Emperor Tian Teng Fei could quell the smoldering unrest. That was clear to both of them. Liu Yan had promised to find a place, and he was determined to keep that promise. By force, if necessary.
"Let's make a fire and see what happens tomorrow morning," he suggested. Xinxin took the hand he held out to her and nodded.
Someday, he was sure, she would tell him about her past. And then he would kill everyone who had dared to hurt her. Every single person who had brought tears to her eyes.