The smell of the hospital was quite familiar to Gu, opening his eyes slowly, the first thing he saw was two girls on either side of him, sleeping, as he could see the tear marks on his bed. Slowly moving his arms and touching his aching head, he felt so tired, like he was drained of blood for two hours.
Feeling the movement, Jing and Ling opened their puffy eyes slowly, and as soon as they saw Gu, they lunged at him, crying uncontrollably. "Gu!"
Patting both of their backs, Gu tried to remember what had happened, but he had a lot of blanks. "W-What happened to me?"
Ling was the first to speak, "Y-You, the, the..."
Jing continued, "A-A Jiangshi, almost killed you."
Suddenly, a wave of memories crashed down on him, clutching his head in pain, he could vaguely remember somebody, but it was not clear, like he was in a mist. Chu, walking in with some food, dropped the food on the ground and rushed towards Gu, holding his hand.
"Bro, you okay?" asked Chu.
Gulping heavily, he looked at Chu with a bit of anger but answered nonetheless, "As fine as you can from a Jiangshi attack, how did I survive?"
The three of them looked at Gu with a reluctant expression, "We don't know either, but when the police went into the room, it was empty, except for you, so we lied about it."
Narrowing his eyes, Gu asked, "Where is Grandmama? I thought she would be here?"
Silence filled the room for a minute until Chu said, "She is missing..."
Gu got up quickly, almost flipping over the two girls lying beside him, feeling his weak strength, he sat down. "What? Is she missing? She would never go anywhere without me. Did she leave a note?" Shaking their head, Gu felt more distressed, "I need...to go home, please."
Jing and Ling held his arm down, "Calm down, please, the doctor said you will be fine after two days, so just stay still until then, okay?"
Sighing heavily, Gu nodded. Chu looked at the food on the ground, "I will clean it up." After cleaning the food, he bought some more food, and they began to eat slowly, trying to recall the night.
Two days go by as Gu walks out of the hospital slowly with the help of Chu and Jing, Ling, just watching in the back silently. "I...need to go home first, please."
Nodding, they led Gu to his house. The first thing he noticed was how dirty the place was. Walking inside slowly, he looked around, "Grandmama? Grandmama, where are you?" Looking in her room, there was nothing out of the ordinary. Seeing the dropped sewing kit, Gu picked it up and looked at the dried blood on the needle.
"I...think, I need some alone time, please," said Gu, softly sitting on the couch, looking at the sewing needle. Noticing the needle, the trio didn't question it after seeing how sad Gu's face was and left him alone in the living room.
"What happened to his grandma?" asked Ling to Jing and Chu.
Shaking their head, "I don't know, I only remember taking you two out, and that is all," said Chu, trying to remember anything.
The two of them glare at him a bit and sigh, "I suppose, this is all our fault."
They all looked at Gu in silence, seeing how sad he was. They went outside the house and stood out there, letting Gu be alone. Touching the needle, Gu placed it in a small box, placing it under his bed. "Grandmama, where are you? Are you healthy? Are you happy? Please, Grandmama," said Gu as he collapsed onto the floor, bawling.
Slowly getting up, he made his way to Grandmama's desk and searched in there for any clue, until he found a journal, her personal journal. Gu began to read it. The first sentence was, "If you are reading this, that means that I have died."
Tears began to fall onto the ground slowly, "How, how, how!" yelling in anguish, unable to control his grief, he collapsed onto the floor like a crumpled piece of paper. "How...?"
Sniffing, he began to read the book, which detailed her life. Grandmama was forced to marry Grandpa in a family joining, to make them powerful, but she had a lover of her own. She despised him, but still birthed the one she loves the most, her son, Gu's father.
Gu's father kept her in the marriage, and as she grew older, she started to care about her husband, but on the fateful day of Gu's birth, is when she lost everything...
*Flashback*
"Don't worry, my son, we will be able to witness greatness; your son will be the strongest of us all."
Gu's grandpa and father were dressed in Taoist Robes, preparing for the birth of Gu. Grandmama and Gu's mother watched from the sideline, not worrying since they are used to this. "Don't work too hard, okay, baby?" said Gu's mother, smiling at her husband.
Returning the smile, he hugged Gu's mother and kissed her on the cheek, "Ew, save that for private time," chuckled Grandmama lovingly as she looked at the bulge. "What will you name him?"
"Him? I want a daughter," pouted Gu's father.
Laughing in amusement, Gu's grandpa slapped him on the back, "Either way, they have our blood, so they are family."
Nodding silently, Gu's father gulped and watched as thunder began to form, then Gu's mother began to have labor pains, screaming a bit. Placing her on the bed in the middle of the circle, filled with symbols.
They both grabbed a talisman and activated the circle, as Grandmama sat beside the bed to hold her hand. The circle began to form, a semi-transparent blue circle around the circle. "Good, now, nothing should come for us, your son's talent is truly something I have not witnessed in a long time."
"I hope it is a gift, rather than a curse."
Thunder began to shout as the circle could barely contain the energy pooling out of Gu, and the pain began to intensify, making her scream unbearably loud. Grandmama held her hand and tried to use some spells to lessen the pain, but it wasn't working.
"Come on, concentrate!" yelled Gu's grandpa as he increased the power of the circle.
Focusing up, both of them poured all of their spiritual energy into the circle, "Godammit, it won't last!"
The circle began to tear as both grandpa and father flew and impacted a tree hard, coughing up blood from the backlash. "Husband!" yelled Gu's mother as she tried to push, but to no avail.
Grandmama tossed them both a healing talisman as they both made their way to the bed in the middle of the circle, as the energy outputting from her stomach was making the heavens cry.
"Get ready, they are coming!"
Suddenly, Jiangshi began to appear from the forest, and a man with a black mask appeared on top of the tree. "Well, well, well, you thought you could hide from me? I told you that baby is gonna be mine!"
Grandpa and Father took out their wooden peach swords and, without a word, began to fight the Jiangshi, as the masked man watched Gu's mother give birth slowly. Seeing that his grunts were not working, he jumped down and began to fight with both of them.
Grandmama, after seeing this, gritted her teeth but stayed beside Gu's mother as rain began to pour down heavily. Grabbing both wooden peach swords and smashing them against the ground, the masked man revealed his dark claws.
"You! You actually tried to become Half Human, Half Jiangshi!?"
Chuckling darkly, the masked man showed off his fang, speaking coldly, "Dead people don't need any answers."
Rushing towards them like a blur, both of them are sent flying towards the bed, landing near the ground. The masked man walked towards them slowly and licked his lips, "Once I get that child, I will make him into the ultimate Jiangshi King!"
Grandmama let go of her hand and looked at the masked man, "Why, there is no need to do this?!"
"Blame the baby, he is the reason I am here, and the reason I killed our family, sister," said the masked man as he took off his mask, revealing a half-man, half-Jiangshi face.
"BROTHER?! I thought you died?!" yelled Grandmama in disbelief.
"HAHA! You tried to kill me, this is the result, don't blame me, blame your weakness for not throwing a killing blow!" The masked man then laughed loudly, "Even if you defeat me today, I have Jiangshi invading both of our families, so you all will have nothing left!"
Both Gu's father and Grandpa shot each other a look and combined their last remaining spiritual energy into a coin sword as it penetrated through the masked man's stomach. Clutching the bleeding stomach, he glared at them both. "It seems you still have fight after all, but too bad, you will never see how your son grows up!"
Blurring in front of both of them using Jiangshi speed, he gripped both of their necks and began to feed, as the wound on his stomach healed at a rapid rate. Grandmama took out her own wooden peach sword and tried to stab his stomach, that was healing.
Catching the sword easily, Grandmama's brother threw it away like livestock and broke the wooden peach sword with a squeeze of his hand. Feeling a bit horrified, Grandmama took out a blue talisman.
"Oh? You're gonna use some of your soul just to defeat me?"
Gritting her teeth, "Not on you, but her."
Throwing the blue talisman on Gu's mother as the spiritual energy in her womb shot out towards Grandmama's brother as he flies towards a tree, breaking it in half as he lies there, half of his body was gone.
Clutching her chest, Grandmama saw that Gu's mother was dead, from all the overload, feeling sad because she was just an orphan whom she picked up from the street and raised into her own daughter due to her inability to birth any more children.
Sobbing on her bulging stomach, Gu slid out of her, slowly crying softly, as if he had lost someone special. Grandmama closed Gu's mother's eyes and looked at Gu, with something she had never had in a long time.
Resentment...
After that day, she lost everything and gained something to constantly remind her of the loss she experienced, not only her, but her family, every single one of them.
*Flashback ends*
"Grandmama...you...suffered so much, I...don't...thanks...so much..."
Closing the journal after the story was done, Gu wiped his tears as they still fell down slowly, took the journal, and put it in his bag. Packing up all of his stuff, he walked out of the house with puffy eyes.
The three looked at Gu silently as he wept, "I...am gonna leave, not just this town, but this country..."
Ling, Jing, and Chu had panicked faces. "What?! Why?!" said all of them, looking at Gu in hopes that it was a lie.
"I understand my purpose in this life now, to help people who can't help themselves..."
Holding both of his arms, Jing and Ling cried a bit, while Chu looked sad. "I will visit, I promise, pinky promise." Holding out his pinky, they all linked pinkies sadly.
"Better keep writing to us, okay?" asked Chu, reluctantly hugging Gu.
Gu, looking at them all, smiled for the first time since he woke up. A genuine smile, "Thanks for putting up with me, for throughout middle school until now, haha."
They could not come up with a response, so they just watched as Gu boarded the bus, carrying all the money Grandmama had saved, as well as her journal and essentials. When the bus left, Chu's tears fell slowly as they walked to their houses.
"I thought you weren't gonna cry?" asked Jing.
"Just the rain, haha."