The door slammed shut behind him, her piercing scream abruptly cut short, and everything fell silent once more. The servant boy waited for him beside him, holding an umbrella obsequiously. Zexiu gazed silently at the withered yellow leaves scattered on the ground, raindrops pattering against them.
He shook his head, signaling everyone not to follow him, and then slowly left the small courtyard in the rain.
From then on, he disliked rainy days and autumn. Because they always reminded him of many unpleasant things, like a hole he would fall into.
The autumn rain was cold, wetting his hair and clothes, but this chill was nothing to a martial artist.
Zexiu just walked slowly, not knowing where he was going.
The garden was a mix of withered yellow and lush green, all the beautiful scenery passing by in the blink of an eye. He walked into another magnificent courtyard.
Two people were guarding the door. They seemed a little embarrassed when they saw him, and from a distance they gestured and mouthed, "Don't come any closer! The master is busy!"
Zexiu hadn't originally planned to go, but seeing someone blocking his way, he insisted on going anyway. The two servants were so anxious they didn't know what to do, so they grabbed him from either side and tried to drag him away. Zexiu easily dodged them, immobilized them by pressing their pressure points, and crushed a ginkgo leaf under his foot.
He slipped into the courtyard like a ghost.
The doors and windows were tightly closed, but he could hear the sounds inside clearly. Martial arts practitioners have sharp ears and eyes, and no subtle sound within a few feet could escape his notice.
This time, however, the voice surprised him slightly; he had never heard it before.
A woman was sobbing and moaning. Not in the way of being injured or in pain; quite the opposite, she seemed quite happy, experiencing both pain and pleasure. Her soft whispers made his ears instantly burn.
Zexiu stopped at the window, seemingly stunned, unsure whether he should open it.
Besides the groans, there were other strange noises: crackling, creaking of the bed legs scraping the floor, and heavy, labored breathing.
He curled his outstretched finger back, hesitated for a moment, and vaguely sensed that something was wrong.
He turned to leave, when suddenly he heard a noise at the window. Someone had kicked the window open from the inside. In an instant, all the sounds that had been trapped inside were amplified thousands of times in his ears.
Zexiu suddenly turned around and saw two naked people entangled together.
There was a very young and innocent girl, her skin as white as jade, wrapped around a man's strong body like a vine. As if unwilling, or as if seducing, she wrapped her legs around his waist, her long hair sticking out from the window, wet with rain, swaying slowly.
She couldn't stay still for a moment; her slender body spun around, trembling. The man didn't seem to care for her much; his movements were extremely rough, as if he were breaking her. She let out a long, drawn-out cry of pain.
Suddenly noticing someone behind her, she turned pale and screamed, immediately shrinking behind the man, only her dark eyes peeking out as she looked fearfully at the boy dressed in all black in the rain.
Zexiu stared blankly at the man by the window for a long time.
Rainwater slid down his handsome face, passing his thick eyelashes, trembling slightly, like a tear falling.
It's beautiful.
The girl's eyes were somewhat glazed over.
"Get out." The tall man by the window uttered a single word coldly.
Zexiu didn't look at him; he stared intently at the shy young girl, who was only about thirteen or fourteen years old, like a pitiful little white rabbit. Embarrassed by his direct gaze, her face flushed instantly, a blush completely different from the flush of her earlier arousal.
He looked for a while, then whispered, "Release my mother. I want to take her away."
The man said calmly, "Impossible, she died because of the Li family."
"Nothing is impossible. If you let her go, neither of us will ever set foot here again."
The man remained indifferent, like a high and mighty god: "I won't say it a third time, get out."
Zexiu smiled, a mocking smirk playing on his beautiful lips, his wet eyelashes fluttering. He stared intently at the shy girl and said softly, "You need to understand, I'm not begging."
It was as if he was whispering sweet nothings to her, and her face turned even redder and redder.
"Oh? You've got some nerve," the man scoffed coldly.
The next moment, the handsome young man suddenly landed beside him. He was startled as five cold fingers gripped the back of his neck, rendering him unable to move.
“I really want to strangle you to death like this.” Zexiu said slowly, lifting the stiff man by the back of his neck. He slowly dragged him to the bedside, where the bed was a mess, with blood and water stains. “But strangling you to death would really dirty my hands. Don’t worry, no matter how angry I am, I will not do something like patricide. It would be a huge waste to take the blame for someone like you.”
The man was stiffly pressed onto the bed by him, looking at him coldly: "You practice martial arts."
Zexiu neither confirmed nor denied the statement.
"Give me the cage key." He wasn't going to waste any more words with this man.
The man laughed, contemptuously: "You can kill me, but the key is just a pipe dream."
Ze Xiu's brow twitched slightly, and he said in a low voice, "I won't kill you, but I can leave you half-dead." His hand slowly gripped his neck, and his fingers gradually tightened.
The man's face immediately turned pale, then slowly purple. Surprisingly, he remained defiant, not uttering a sound or moving an inch.
The young girl behind him cried out in surprise, lunged forward, and clung to Ze Xiu's back, tugging hard at his hand. He grabbed her slender wrist, turned around, and scrutinized her naked body from head to toe. Suddenly, a cryptic smile appeared on his face, and he said softly, "Do you want me to do you?"
She was so frightened that her face turned pale, and she curled up in a ball on the ground.
Zexiu slowly stood up, unbuttoned his clothes, and took off his soaked clothes one by one. He wasn't wearing much; once his outer and inner garments were removed, he was bare-chested.
The fifteen-year-old boy's body was still developing, yet his martial arts training had given him well-defined muscles, making him lean and muscular. Water droplets slid down his strong shoulders to his chest. He had a ferocious qilin tattooed on his body, newly done and still stained with blood.
The girl's face flushed red and then turned pale. As she watched him take off his pants and walk towards her, she couldn't help but tremble.
"Are you going to come here obediently, or do you want me to go over there?"
He sat in the armchair and asked coldly.
She choked back a sob, and as if fleeing for her life, she stood up and rushed over, throwing herself into his cold embrace.
Zexiu grabbed her shoulders and looked her up and down again. It was the first time he had seen a woman's body, and he was filled with curiosity and confusion. His hand caressed her delicate face, slowly sliding down, past her doe-like eyes, past her lips that trembled with fear, down her neck, her shoulders, and then into her small breasts.