Chapter 118: Gyeon's Ten Rounds (7)
The thatched house below the southern riverbank.
In the midst of the small, shabby houses huddled together like overturned crab shells, there was one house that uniquely faced the south directly.
This was a house where a widow who lost her husband long ago lived alone.
Pan Jinlian. She was humming a song while putting on makeup.
“Since my dear Ximen is washing his hands in a golden basin and going up to the city now, he will surely come to pick me up before long. Finally, goodbye to the tedious waiting of every night. To think I can live with my husband continuously in the future, it feels like I’m dreaming.”
Looking into the bronze mirror, she styled her hair and applied powder to her face.
She pressed rouge on her cheeks, painted her lips red, and shimmied her shoulders and hips, fully swollen with anticipation.
Until now, she had spent a long time waiting only for the day Ximen Qing would visit her.
Of course, the days Ximen Qing did not visit were far more than the days he did, but she used to comfort herself, saying that it could be so when a man working outside was busy.
“Will he take me to a luxurious mansion? Will he let me ride in a splendid carriage? Pretty ornaments? High-class cuisine? Oh, how wonderful. Just thinking about it makes me feel like flying~”
This was not the time to be like this.
Who knew when Ximen Qing might suddenly pop up one day and say?
To set fire to all such shabby household goods and follow him.
To move and live together in a splendid and wonderful land far away.
“To do that, I must be ready at any time. So that I can go out immediately when called. In my prettiest appearance.”
That was why Pan Jinlian was sitting alone in front of the bronze mirror applying powder to her face at this late hour.
While waiting for Ximen Qing, not knowing whether he would come or not.
Right at that moment.
Cre-e-e-ak……
They say sincerity moves heaven.
The sound of the brushwood gate opening beyond the yard was heard.
And soon, a man’s characteristically heavy footsteps followed.
Thud- thud- thud- thud-
Pan Jinlian brightened up.
“My dear Ximen~ have you come!”
She was thrilled to pieces and made a coquettish nasal sound.
Then, having slipped the token of love placed on the dressing table, a gold ring embedded with jewels, onto her finger so it could be easily seen, she rushed out.
“Why did you only come now! Because you haven’t visited at all lately, I thought I was abandoned…….”
Pan Jinlian went to the door with tears in her eyes.
And.
“……!”
She realized that the midnight visitor was not Ximen Qing.
Pan Jinlian shouted in a tone full of wariness.
“Who goes there! Do you know whose house this is!? It is the house of Great Hero Ximen Qing! If you don’t want to get into serious trouble, get out at once!”
“Hahaha—the house of Great Hero Ximen Qing?”
At that, the intruder laughed heartily and continued speaking.
“Since when was this the house of the Ximen family? Is this not the house of the Gyeon family?”
“……?”
Pan Jinlian blinked her eyes, not knowing the reason.
She had not understood what the intruder was saying.
Soon, the mysterious man who walked from beyond the darkness revealed his identity.
“It has been a long time, Sister-in-law.”
“……!”
Seeing Gyeon Sul’s face, Pan Jinlian recoiled in startlement.
It was an expression where the phrase ‘her heart sank’ fit perfectly.
“Y-Y-Y-You are……”
“Have you even forgotten your brother-in-law’s name? Well, when I said the Gyeon family’s house earlier, you couldn’t even understand. You must have erased it completely from your memory, right?”
“You died in the past! My husband definitely stabbed you to death…….”
“Would I possibly die to that idiot? I am living well like this here, aren’t I?”
Gyeon Sul walked in with a smiling face and strode inside the house.
His bright red, bloodshot gaze swept over everything.
The door hinges and floor stones made of rocks from the riverbed that he had grunted and carried along with his brother.
The fence, door, and roof made of trees he had cut down along with his brother.
The jar where he had brewed soy sauce along with his brother.
The yellow clay wall he had plastered along with his brother.
Everything was exactly the same.
Only his brother was absent; everything else was exactly as it was in his memory.
…Thud!
Ahead, Pan Jinlian was seen falling flat on her buttocks.
Looking at her crawling backward hesitantly, Gyeon Sul spoke.
“Sister-in-law. I told you back then, didn’t I?”
“W-what? What did you tell?”
“Look at this, look at this. You don’t remember again.”
Gyeon Sul squatted in front of Pan Jinlian to match her eye level.
And he repeated the line he had said long ago exactly as it was.
“‘If you betray my brother, you will surely pay the price.'”
“W-who betrayed whom! Your brother died of illness! Just like your parents! C-can I not even remarry!? Are you telling me to grow old and die as a young widow my entire life!?”
“My brother died of plague? Since when?”
Hearing Pan Jinlian’s struggle, Gyeon Sul took something out of his pocket.
…Thud!
It was a bone fragment discolored black.
“You used arsenic, right? How much did you pour in for the bone to turn beyond blue and into black.”
“W-where did you get this……”
“Confess while I am speaking nicely.”
Seeing Gyeon Rang’s bone fragment, Pan Jinlian’s eyes instantly turned venomous.
“Is that the only attitude you can show to a sister-in-law met after a long time? That is why you brothers are hopeless.”
“Oh. What great spirit? The spirit is just perfect.”
“Ha! You’re going to beat me? Go ahead and try? If I scream, Great Hero Ximen will come immediately, you know? Then a nobody like you is finished. This time you won’t even escape luckily.”
“Hahaha—is that so? Then that won’t do. Since I also find Ximen Qing, that bastard, far too terrifying.”
Hearing Pan Jinlian’s threat, Gyeon Sul stepped back with a feigned look of fear.
And then, he continued speaking as if compromising.
“If Sister-in-law is still receiving Ximen Qing’s protection, how could I dare act recklessly?”
“Right. You are still more sensible than that brother of yours. Well, it was like that since the old days. If I had met you instead of your brother, maybe I would be living quietly by now as a wise mother and good wife serving the two Gyeon families?”
Pan Jinlian finally became high-spirited.
This was because she judged that Gyeon Sul could not harm her due to his fear of Ximen Qing.
Just then, Gyeon Sul spoke.
“But you see. There was one thing I was curious about over the past years.”
“Hmph! What is it?”
“Back then. How did you know that my brother and I were hiding and watching? We really laid in ambush thoroughly.”
Gyeon Sul still remembered.
‘My brother-in-law violated me.’
‘If my husband finds out about this fact, he will be bedridden with shock. The brotherly bond is good. Poor man.’
‘So I hope Great Hero Ximen helps. I want to punish that shameless brother-in-law. Since my husband would faint if he found out, please handle it in secret……’
The very moment when Pan Jinlian called Ximen Qing over and falsely framed him while Gyeon Rang was hiding and watching.
That was why Gyeon Sul was curious.
About how Pan Jinlian knew of his and his brother’s ambush and reverse-exploited it.
Pan Jinlian snorted.
“Promise that you won’t lay a single finger on my body. Then I will tell you.”
“I promise.”
“Simply not laying a finger is not all. You must not inflict any harm on me either. I must not feel pain because of you or anything. Do you understand?”
“I don’t play word games. I promise.”
“Good. Now we are finally talking.”
Pan Jinlian raised her body.
And after checking her attire, she sat on the chair in front of the dressing table.
Meanwhile, Gyeon Sul raised both hands and distanced himself far from her.
Before long, Pan Jinlian began to tell the event of that day.
“I am no Daoist master, so how would I know whether you brothers lay in ambush or waited? I knew because your brother told me.”
“My brother told you?”
Gyeon Sul’s expression was stained with wonder.
At that, Pan Jinlian laughed heartily.
“I was also inexperienced back then! Because in my young heart, I had a guilty conscience. So as I poured him some alcohol and treated him softly and well next to him, he blabbed everything?”
“…….”
“Getting thoroughly drunk, he cried bitterly, begging me to rather say it was a lie, to say nothing had happened, and telling me to be careful because he was hiding and watching, clinging so tenaciously. So just in case, I tried putting on an act. That fool didn’t even know he had confessed everything while drunk, and from the next day, he hid diligently. So I told him the words he wanted to hear.”
“…….”
Only now was the curious point resolved.
Gyeon Sul leaned his back against the wall with a hollow expression.
“Indeed. Alcohol was the problem. That damn alcohol……”
The alcohol drunk to escape from the painful reality made the reality even more painful.
It was a bizarre paradox.
Soon, Pan Jinlian stood up from her seat.
“If you are a man, keep your promise too.”
“…….”
“You said you wouldn’t lay a single finger on me? Leave now. Soon my dear Ximen will come to pick me up.”
Standing in a haughty posture, she pointed her finger at Gyeon Sul.
However, Gyeon Sul did not walk out of the house.
He merely sighed while crossing his arms.
“Since I made a promise, I will not lay a single finger on your body.”
“Yes. So get out quickly.”
“But that was a promise I made.”
“……?”
Pan Jinlian opened her eyes wide.
At that, Gyeon Sul gestured with his chin toward the outside of the brushwood gate.
“That is not a promise made with that fellow, is it?”
“……!”
Pan Jinlian’s eyes widened as if tearing.
Where her gaze directed, a shadow was already floating suddenly.
Chui. The intruder holding two spikes walked inside the house.
Pan Jinlian’s hands trembled in fear.
Chui spoke to her in a dry voice.
“Your husband is Ximen Qing, they say?”
“Y-Yes, so what! If my dear Ximen says a single word, all the young men of this village will swarm here! Can you handle it, you guys!? And what!? My dear Ximen is from that famous Ximen Clan! A prestigious orthodox family! You must have heard at least the name!?”
Pan Jinlian struggled, putting forward that Ximen Qing was the leader of the scoundrels in this region and simultaneously from the Ximen Clan, a prestigious orthodox family.
However, at Chui’s subsequent single word, her expression turned blank.
“Ximen Qing. Did you meet him while knowing the fact that he is a spy of the Demonic Cult?”
“……Pardon?”
Pan Jinlian asked back with a dazed expression.
No matter how ignorant she was, she knew how terrifying and evil the Demonic Cult was.
Moreover, was this not Henan Province, where the Martial Alliance, the symbol of the righteous path, and the Shaolin Temple, the great signboard of the fifteen pillars, were located?
In such a place, one could get into serious trouble just by mentioning the name Demonic Cult.
Yet, a spy of the Demonic Cult?
In Henan Province, it was a statement that could not be simply passed over even as a sleep talk babbled by children.
Chui continued speaking.
“Ximen Qing. He is a lackey of the Demonic Cult.”
“W-what does that……? W-who are you to say such things?”
“I am a secret inspector of the Martial Alliance. Did you truly not know that Ximen Qing exchanges letters with the Demonic Cult’s contacts at Kuaihuo Forest once every three months?”
“……! ……! ……!”
At the statement that he was from the Martial Alliance and searching out a Demonic Cult spy, Pan Jinlian’s complexion turned deathly pale.
Chui continued to speak.
“I hear the position of assistant instructor at the Ascending Heaven Academy has recently become a target of selling positions. It is becoming increasingly frequent for Demonic Cult spies to buy these credentials and infiltrate into the Martial Alliance. I am chasing after Ximen Qing to investigate that.”
“Th-Th-Th……”
Pan Jinlian could not continue speaking.
If one got associated with the Demonic Cult in this place where the Martial Alliance and the Shaolin Temple were located, it was mercilessly torture and execution.
Not only the parties involved but also all eight generations up and down would receive harsh interrogation, and furthermore, the village where the Demonic Cult spy was found would be completely devastated and turned into a large pond.
Because Henan Province was a place where common people once suffered damage due to the Demonic Cult’s invasion, public sentiment was bad of course, and even the government office turned a blind eye to all Martial Alliance actions related to the Demonic Cult.
Shhh- shhh- shhh……
Chui rubbed and sharpened the blades of the two spikes he took out from his breast pocket.
And then, he murmured in a low voice.
“A mistress planted locally by a Demonic Cult spy…… this is extremely precious.”
“I-I don’t know! I knew nothing! It’s true!”
As soon as the name Demonic Cult came out, Pan Jinlian lay flat on the floor.
One must show pride and arrogance only where appropriate.
How could she remain still when the name Demonic Cult came out of the other’s mouth?
Pan Jinlian begged with all her might and shook her head.
“Really, I know absolutely nothing! With Ximen Qing, it was just a physical relationship! Occasionally meeting to only share our bodies……! It’s true!”
“You knew that Ximen Qing bought the assistant instructor position with money and was going to the Ascending Heaven Academy, though?”
“I knew nothing besides that! Truly! That is all I know!”
“I’m sure. Everyone says that.”
“Aah…….”
The conversation was choked.
Despair dwelled in Pan Jinlian’s eyes.
Soon, Chui walked in front of Pan Jinlian while holding his spikes.
“Let us have a slow talk. For the night is long.”
Unrivaled Spear Ghost