Chapter 19 The Woman When the master was still alive, Bird often followed him to the fair to play while the master went to do his own business. The most frequently visited place for him was the crowded restaurants. Now he had found a similar one: A tea restaurant of the Gambling King. Right on the corner of the tea restaurant, there was an ordinary mansion. Though the mansion was not eye-catching, it was an old-style private bank, where people could exchange money, called “Benefits”.
“Little brother, the rain is so heavy, and you are still hanging around. Are you looking for something?” the strong man who followed him here asked. “Do you want to change some money from Benefits?”
“I am looking for my friend. She is missing. I want her back home soon since the rain is coming down so hard.” Bird’s white-and-black style clothing was already drenched.
“Your friend? Is she the girl who rushed into your house that you want to find?” The man started to complain, “What a bad idea for her to make you go out right now. You can use the Spirit Mirror to find a person.”
“The Spirit Mirror?” Bird thought of the idea Siyu had told him about before, and he focused on his hand, forging a spiritual fire to shape into a mirror. After a while, Siyu’s face appeared in the mirror. “Sisi, where are you? It is raining cats and dogs. I am going out to find you.”
“Hey, I heard a lot of noise on your side. Are you out? I told you don’t come out before your wounds have fully recovered. Do you want to put your life in danger again?” Sisi spoke in the mirror at a rapid-fire speed. “Where is the doctor? Have you seen him? Forget it; I am sure you didn’t wait for him. Go back, Bird. I am in the governing hall. I will be back soon after I finish some business.”
The connection between them was shut off, and Bird took back his fire. The rain became a little less in force, and a rainbow appeared in the sky. He planned to go to the governing hall to meet her, but he was stopped by several warriors in the street. He once saw them before in the woods, by the side of the marsh.
“Hey, guy! We meet again! This time, I won’t let you go.”
Their leader waved a hand, and the underlings ran together for Bird with their blades drawn. Bird didn’t want to fight them, so instead, he moved here and there to avoid a serious confrontation with them. But the warriors thought that he was afraid and was trying to dodge, and they became fiercer.
“A bunch of wastes! All of you can’t catch such a little boy! Kill him directly!” the leader ordered.
His underlings heard this abuse, and all burned up their spiritual fires and released their kill tactics.
“Hey, little brother,” the strong man said, scoffing aside, “those warriors want your life so badly, but can’t get to you. Why do you humiliate them by sparing their lives?”
“It is not possible to cease conflicts with power. I have no intention to take their lives. Let me make them unable to move.” Bird changed his strategy and lifted up immediately to thump them one by one. The warriors were all wounded by this and fell, piling up like a small hill. “Your servants are all vanquished. Do you want to fight me yourself?” he asked the leader.
“Who are you indeed, little boy?” the leader asked. He had thought that Bird was wearing a simple manner of dress, and therefore he must not have any backup force. But for sure, he made a mistake in estimating his martial arts. Then he roared to him, “Don’t you know who I am? You dare to offend me, which means that you have already offended the Royal Family.”
“My name is Bird Three.”
“Bird Three? The Ghost-Power Master who killed a lot in the governing hall several days ago?” The leader was astonished by the name and he quickly used his own Spirit Mirror to spread the news to everywhere of the city, so people would avoid meeting him on the street.
Bird stepped ahead, simply ignored the leader’s erroneous description.
“Hey, little one, are you called Bird Three? Bird Two was the best mind master and he was a good one, with no any ambitions in the world. Why do you become a Ghost-Power Master?” The strong man kept on following him and he was confused.
“It is my fate. I got this t.i.tle after suffering. Hey, you swordsman, I don’t care what kind of relationship you shared with my master, I have no connection with you. Why don’t you leave me alone?”
Bird left the man and went toward the governing hall as fast as he could. On the way there, people all hid from him, as if he was some miscreant or monster. Finally, he entered the hall and saw Siyu at first sight. He walked to her, and she did not blame him, as he guessed she would. They just smiled at each other like Zeus and Roxanne. He stared at the woman who was still yelling for just treatment and beating the drum outside the hall at the same time.
“Sisi, why does the governor not accept her plea? She looked so miserable,” Bird asked curiously.
Siyu told him that the day the woman came here, he was too weak to keep his mind clear. So he knew nothing that happened afterward. The governor didn’t accept her plea, so instead, he asked the underlings to drive her out. The woman stayed outside, beating the drum everyday since then.
“I don’t know what her wronged case is about, but she had been begging here for five days. And the governor still chooses to overlook her.”
“Lets go.” Sisi finally sighed and said, “When the sun sets, the woman will leave. Since the whole world was preparing for the upcoming war between monsters and humans, we don’t need to take special care about this little wronged case.”
So, just as they, the audience also scattered to go home. They waited until the sun had set, and then the woman left, without hopeless. They followed her out from Xiaoxiang City to a desert. Unlike the scenery in Xiaoxiang City, the wilderness was only desert, with dust filling the whole sky. The woman walked haltingly along a small road with skeletons buried underneath, and she finally reached a broken hut. A little boy was standing outside to wait for her. His face was a waxy yellow, and his body was slim and weak. For sure, he had been suffering from a disease for a long time.
“Sister, I have some gra.s.s cake for you.”
“I am not hungry, younger brother. You eat it.”
The woman broke the cake in half, giving one-half to her brother, and saved the rest in her dress at her waist. Then she took a hoe to the back of the house. There were two big pits behind a small earth hill. In the pits were two dead bodies, lying on straw mats. She did not cover them with earth; however, she bowed, and said, “Dad, Mom, I am sorry that I can’t get the governor to accept your case. Moreover, I have no way to earn money to ask someone powerful for help. So the only thing I can do is to make a straw stand here, and hope that someone kind will see us, and give us a hand.”