Death Sutra

Chapter 13  Servant Xiao

It was not on a whim that Big Head G.o.d’s daughter thought of her 10 teenager servants. Every day in the morning after the teenagers had made their pledges, they would be led by a maidservant to the courtyard of the eighth young lord and show their respect to the Miss.

After several days, Gu Shenwei realized that it was not easy to become close to the Miss.

Despite copying Servant Yao, Gu Shenwei didn’t gain the Miss’ favor.

When he was still a young lord of the Gu family, he didn’t find it difficult to make someone like him, but now, he was a humble servant who stank of the dead. Others would do their best to avoid him, who on earth would like him?

To show their respects to the Miss, the teenagers had to kneel on the edge of the courtyard with their body motionless and head held down. They were only allowed to stand up after the Miss had come back from outside and completely disappeared inside the backyard. They would then follow the path back to Ji Xin Yuan and face Servant Ji’s cold expression.

Although the Miss’s surname was Luo and she was not a young lady of Shangguan Family, she still had to fulfill her obligations as a daughter-in-law and bow to her mother-in-law with the other daughter-in-laws every morning. It was during  this time that she had the worst mood, and she would vent herself by abusing her own servants, similar to her husband Shangguan Nu.

Servant Yao intimidated with a warning, ” I wonder which one of you will provoke the Miss first. Don’t ask me for help when that happens. Although we are brothers, I still have to protect myself first.”

Servant Yao always scared others and lied most of the time, but this time it was unfortunate that he was right. A teenager called Servant Xiao became the first unlucky one.

Servant Xiao was strong, and was the tallest and oldest among the teenagers. With a kind face, he always wore a smile which made him appear to be even more naive than the youngest Servant Xie. He also held the record of being frightened until crying by Servant Yao. It was him, however,  that did an outrageous and incredible behavior during their second visit to the Miss.

He had raised his head and glanced at the Miss.

The Miss had been walking in the courtyard with hasty footsteps and had said rather angrily, “why does little Ru have to change her name? Does Shangguan Family wants to occupy all of the characters in the world? It is outrageous, how dare you!”

In addition to Xue Niang, the Miss also had four personal maidservants. Following the Chinese idiom ‘Chen Xin Ru Yi’, they were called little Chen, little Xin, little Ru and little Yi.1Privately, the teenagers thought that none of these names were good, but it didn’t affect the Miss’s love for them.

Perhaps the Miss didn’t care about the four maidservants, and also didn’t care about their names. She just didn’t want to be forced to change the name for her underlings. She had to surrender, however, because this proposal was made by her mother-in-law, Mistress of the Shangguan Family.

This was Servant Yao’s a.n.a.lysis afterwards, but at that moment, the teenagers didn’t think that much because they were all startled by another voice.

“Your head was up? Why did you raise your head?

Screams rang through the whole yard. The maidservant little Ru who hadn’t received her new name yet angrily stared at a teenager kneeling on the edge of the courtyard. Following that, Servant Xiao was kicked down to the ground by Xue Niang before he could explain anything. His face hit the bluestone of the courtyard heavily. He no longer dared to move.

The teenagers who had been kneeling with their heads on the ground, at that moment, even their eyeb.a.l.l.s were all motionless with fear.

The Miss’s endless whining stopped abruptly, and a sound of someone rushing into the great hall was heard. After the screen was placed, she asked,

“This man saw me?”

Servant Xiao, because of that one head lift, turned from a silly teenager into a ‘man’.

“No, he should not have.”

Although Xue Niang’s kick was ruthless, she still spoke a word for Servant Xiao. Servant Xiao wanted to say something, but was gazed to hold back by Xue Niang.

“I didn’t see anything,” Servant Xiao said vaguely while lying on his stomach. This inevitably revealed that he had raised his head.

“Kill him.” The Miss ordered from behind the screen.

“Miss……this is probably not good.” Xue Niang hesitated.

The Miss was now in Golden Roc Castle, not the robbers’ gang of Iron Mountain, so she no longer had supreme power over life and death. Although she was very angry about this, she couldn’t do anything recklessly.

“Poke out his eyes, cut out his tongue.”

This was the same punishment that the unfortunate virgin girl had suffered. The blind and tongueless virgin girl had stayed beside the Miss, and every time the teeneagers came to pay respects to the miss, they would see her.

“I didn’t see anything, I didn’t see.”

Servant Xiao became terrified. His body shook uncontrollably as he lay flat on the ground.

The four personal maidservants came together. It was their responsibility to get rid of one’s eyes and tongue. The maidservant, little Ru, was particularly enthusiastic. She felt just as annoyed as the Miss and needed to vent her anger.

Although Big Head G.o.d’s daughter couldn’t do as she wished, some things were still the same. No one could stop her from punishing her own servants.

No one begged for Servant Xiao.

Gu Shenwei didn’t want to admit it, but he was really freaked out. He even hoped that he would temporarily lose his hearing so he didn’t have to listen to Servant Xiao’s scream.

The maidservants moved quickly and professionally; they even helped Servant Xiao stop the blood with medicine.

n.o.body said a word as they carried Servant Xiao back to Ji Xin Yuan . Although everyone was insincere while they pledged to be brothers, they all felt sympathy for the half-dead Servant Xiao at this moment.

Seeing the b.l.o.o.d.y face of Servant Xiao, Servant Ji was astonished. He jumped back and waved the red stick in front of him like as if he was driving away some invisible evil. “what happened?”

Servant Yao briefly explained what happened. Upon hearing this, Servant Ji was frightened, his facial expressions changing constantly as he said, “you foolish boy, why did you raise your head!”

Even though Servant Xiao had lost his eyes and tongue, he still had his hearing. He suddenly broke free from the teenagers’ hands, cried out “Ho ho”, and rushed to the place where he believed Servant Ji was standing.

It happened too suddenly, so no one was able to block him. Servant Xiao almost ran past his objective. At first, Servant Ji was petrified and froze in place, but then he became angry and swung his red stick at Servant Xiao.

“You heartless fool, are you mad? Peeping at the eighth mistress, you want to court death?”

Servant Ji’s anger seemingly came from nowhere.

Observing Servant Xiao’s expression, Gu Shenwei immediately figured out the truth; It was Servant Ji who had ordered Servant Xiao to secretly peek at the Miss.

That’s right. Servant Ji had revealed numerous times his curiosity toward the eighth mistress when chatting with servants from other courtyards. The robber’s daughter of the West Regions was famous for her peerless beauty, but she had never allowed a man to see her face. The men from Golden Roc Castle had never experienced Big Head G.o.d’s cruelty and naturally very much wanted to know if the rumor was true or not.

For the 10 teenagers, the concept of not looking at the Miss was embedded in their mind, and even the most ordinary curiosity exterminated. Only Servant Xiao, who was naive and always liked to please others, was persuaded by Servant Ji.

Everyone had figured out the truth, but no one spoke a word. With Servant Yao taking lead, the other teenagers grabbed Servant Xiao, and carried him into the bedroom. Servant Xiao didn’t resist. He had already lost the consciousness from being hit by the red stick.

Servant Xiao laid on the brick bed, his blood flowing everywhere without end. Servant Ji refused to find a doctor, so the other teenagers had no choice but to clean after Servant Xiao again and again. Anyway, their tasks were to take care of the dying, so this was no different from what they did usually.

During the night, Servant Xiao kept moaning, panting, and occasionally made garbling sounds like he was trying to say something. No one could understand what he was saying, so Gu Shenwei couldn’t figure out what he was yelling.

n.o.body could fall asleep in this situation. In the end, Servant Yao jumped off the brick bed and slapped Servant Xiao’s head. He ordered something incomprehensible, before the dying teenager finally became quiet.

Gu Shenwei almost didn’t sleep that night.

The next day morning, he opened his eyes, then realized Servant Xiao had already died before he was awake.

The sworn brothers, who had no true feelings in the first place, finally broke up because of this matter. Everyone understood that little servants were neither qualified nor capable of being protectors. To survive, they had to find other backers.

Three of them went to Servant Ji. Of course, they all learnt from Servant Xiao’s experience and would never peep at the Miss for Servant Ji.

Another two made greater efforts to please Servant Yao. Servant Yao received the favor of Xue Niang and would soon become a killer; his future seemed to be bright.

The pair of brothers, Servant Qi and Servant Xie, remained independent. They rarely conversed with the other teenagers and always muttered something in their own language.

Gu Shenwei had no interest in forming alliances with this small group.The only thing he thought was about was how to get revenge.

Xue Niang came again the day after Servant Xiao’s death. She directly broke into Servant Ji’s room with an unkind face.

“You beat the Miss’s servant to death.”

Servant Ji was frightened by Xue Niang’s aura and backed up two steps. He suddenly summoned some courage to say,

“Don’t blame the innocent. You killed Servant Xiao by cutting out his eyes and tongue, it had nothing to do with me.”

Xue Niang was ineloquent, but she had strong iron fingers. She didn’t speak anymore and instead, swiftly poked Servant Ji’s chest twice. The teenagers all knew that this skinny woman’s finger was even harder than the red stick of the overseer.

Servant Ji’s face immediately grew red as if he had done something wrong. Then, with a cry of pain, he fell down to the ground and curled into a ball. This was the second time he had been poked, and Xue Niang had used more power than last time.

The death of Servant Xiao came to an end after Xue Niang punished Servant Ji.

Because Servant Ji did not want to be looked down upon by the teenagers, the next day, he invited his backer. It was all because of this man’s help that he had been able to be the overseer of Ji Xin Yuan.

It was during the evening, just when those nine teenagers were ready to sleep that Servant Ji shouted from his room and ordered everyone to come inside. He looked very emboldened and wanted to show his ‘strength’.

Servant Ji’s confidence was not groundless. An extra man appeared in the room, lying on a recliner while facing the ceiling. Servant Ji was sitting on a stool and ma.s.saging the man’s legs.

The man wore a black robe with a golden bird embroidered on the shoulders and with a dark red belt. A narrow sabre was by his side, indicating that this man was a killer of Golden Roc Castle.

Other teenagers could only recognize that he was a killer due to the clothing, but only Gu Shenwei knew this person.

Although he had only glanced at his side profile, Gu Shenwei felt that the man was familiar; he must have seen him somewhere before.

“Little whelps, your Miss hasn’t cut your tongue today?”

Servant Ji said in an unkind tone. No one dared to respond.

“Hey, be careful of what you say. That is the eighth mistress, you should show some respect.” the killer in black said casually, his eyes still closed.

“Third Brother, it’s not that I’m speaking nonsense. I have always taught the servants with this method in Golden Roc Castle, and I have yet to see any lords be unhappy about this. It was just a cheap dead servant, why did the new mistress ask the skinny woman to poke me twice? Moreover, they dug out the eyes and cut the tongue of that teenager, it was their fault he died. Third brother, I’m telling you, that skinny woman’s finger strength is huge, the two fingerprints on my chest are still green.”

Servant Ji held the killer’s right hand and rubbed it against his chest.

His tone and behavior was totally different from the vicious overseer.

“That woman has some background, and she has already showed mercy by not poking you to death. What do you want me to do? I’m the eighth young lord’s underling, how am I going to fight with the eighth mistress?”

“Huh, I think the mistress is either too ugly or doesn’t know how to please others. If not, why doesn’t she allow others to see her? And the eighth young lord is going to leave and go far away only a few days after they have married. Alas! Third brother, you had left for a few months and only just came back, but now you have to leave again. Third brother, you really have to talk to the eighth lord about this Xue Niang. She who just entered the castle but is already so arrogant, what will she become in the future?”

Gu Shenwei suddenly recalled who this man was.

Approximately three months ago, a man called Han Shiqi from the Western Regions came to Gu family manor with a letter. And lord Gu Lun had accepted him as a guardsman.

Gu Shenwei found himself to be on the edge of the cliff again. As long as Han Shiqi turned around and opened his eyes, he would immediately recognize the young lord of the Gu family.