Noticing Xing being nonchalant about Chenglie, s.h.i.+hong continued his story to Xing"s dismay."So my father..."
"Can"t you be concise and tell me what you want?", Xing lost all her patience.
Is this new kind of torture? Forcing someone to listen to them?
"I told you before. I need you to listen to my past!!!", s.h.i.+hong shouted that startled Xing and she realised that she has no choice but to listen to his ramblings until Chenglie gets there. By now the children were brought out of the tunnels safely and Xing could sense Bai Li out there talking with the soldiers who helped them out and it seemed like he was using spells to mask the noises they made.
"Well, Gee! Continue then...", Xing pouted at s.h.i.+hong and she could see him tensing up slightly as if he wondered if there is something wrong with the scenario there.
What she didn"t know was that her pout was too cute...! Her cuteness even made a villain speechless! If Chenglie was there he"d have killed s.h.i.+hong then and there since he had seen this cute side of Xing.
But Xing"s expression turned sombre immediately as she could conclude it was only she and s.h.i.+hong now in that shack and others were in a safer distance and unless he is going to communicate using a signal flare, others aren"t in much danger.
Xing who was in a bind to listen to s.h.i.+hong did what she did best ... She didn"t care about s.h.i.+hong"s past or suffering and only pretended to listen.
s.h.i.+hong told Xing how he accidentally found Old Rong in a sketchy place which is prohibited for entry in the palace and how he started to chat with him each night when there is no one around and how he mentioned he was the G.o.d of Fire wrongfully held there and asked his help to get out of the Palace. But s.h.i.+hong who was h.e.l.l bent on getting accepted by his father as a Princess, never heeded his advice.
Apparently Old Rong would say that being a woman is no good and women are the lowly beings who are just there for the pleasure of men and for procreation. He even blamed s.h.i.+hong for his situation with the old guy in his past.
"Who wouldn"t want to take a flower for himself?", That was his reasoning.
But s.h.i.+hong never agreed to it. Women are the pretty s.e.x and they get to have all good jewellery and all pretty clothes! What do men get? This world won"t be pretty without women!
Xing was surprised to find out that s.h.i.+hong was the one who first found Old Rong who was perfectly hidden by the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor in a place only a Lu can enter. Xing found it odd that there were places that those with Lu blood could escape to, inside the palace. Chenglie who wanted to escape those who were trying to fawn around him found a place and so did the Emperor who wanted to escape his bullies and s.h.i.+hong who wanted to escape his work.
Where can I find such place? Xing wondered and only Chenglie"s firm chest and his warm arms that would hug her, came to her mind.
Huh! He is my resting place, my home and my love!
She sighed and didn"t listen much when s.h.i.+hong further told her how his father asked him to meet him one night and in front of his eyes and let some of the soldiers violate one of his concubines who defied the Empress, while he was watching from the side along with s.h.i.+hong.
What"s new, right? But... Wait... A father let his daughter see such a thing...? Especially when she went through such thing herself before?
Xing started to listen and what s.h.i.+hong explained after, blew her mind.
He explained, how different it was to watch from the other side and how he was scared to look at the wailing woman at first and how his father forced him to look at the woman and told him that this is what a woman is for and how his father"s promotion had made her too arrogant and made her defy the Empress and how this is his way to show her father who really has power in this place.
How abhorrent!
s.h.i.+hong said that he slowly started to observe the screaming woman and pretty soon, he could understand why the servants laughed at him when the same thing happened to him before.
"It was fun to see the light in the eyes of that women started to diminish as they were ravaging her as if her soul was leaving her", he made a motion as if he was tracing, " And she became a living dead. Her eyes were dead when she pleaded for death afterwards... Whoa..! It was a sight to behold...", s.h.i.+hong chuckled and Xing just shook her head in disbelief.
Despicable! So the s.h.i.+hong they all know now is a product made by that despicable and immoral father who could do show such atrocities to his already unstable daughter!
Xing didn"t care, how starstruck s.h.i.+hong was, while talking about his father treat women that way because he was a man who had actual power and so he could do anything he wanted and no one could question him.
So, s.h.i.+hong treats women that way because he saw his father doing it to punish the woman who defied against his wish and s.h.i.+hong believed that was the manly way to live? Just how...? How stupid and twisted is that?
Xing felt more and more irked to be there and decided to leave even before meeting Chenglie. She felt her brain would be damaged listening to these absurdities spewed by this person who had lost all his sanity.
s.h.i.+hong was reminiscing how his father threatened that he"d do the same to him if he does not leave the palace. So that made him sad and angry and he decided to listen to Old Rong after all. He was the only one honest to him from the beginning!
Who"d threaten their daughter this way?
Xing felt gooseb.u.mps all over her. s.h.i.+hong was broken by his father that day! Yep! He wasn"t that far gone when he was violated and even when his father tried to push him away or when Old Rong tried to convince him but when his father he idolised taught him such acts worthy of condemnation, he decided to follow his teachings as he was thrown away.
Xing went into deep thoughts and wondered if it was just s.h.i.+hong"s father... Or maybe... It was the combination of all...
What Xing gathered from what s.h.i.+hong rambled afterwards is that,
With the help of Old Rong, s.h.i.+hong escaped the palace and when he got out, he decided in his twisted mind to become a man because he thought being a man gives certain powers and protection against the world where women were treated as mere objects as he was taught by Old Rong.
So he got to an underground doctor who performed taboo arts and Xing felt gooseb.u.mps all over her when s.h.i.+hong explained the pains he went through when he was taking medications to stop him from bleeding monthly so that he would become a man as advised by Old Rong.
But s.h.i.+hong"s fate was changed when he met a guy from the Fire Kingdom and he taught him how to use weapons and fight. But he stole Old Rong and escaped and s.h.i.+hong later found him in the Western Province and decided to join him. It was there he came to meet Chenglie again too and he was elated to see someone who was treated the same way as him by their father and how they had good times together.
Xing wanted to ask him if Chenglie could not recognise his sister then but controlled herself. So that guy who trained Chenglie, trained s.h.i.+hong too as Chenglie mentioned and he was from the Fire Kingdom.
Xing felt the bitterness in s.h.i.+hong"s voice when he learned that Chenglie was in love with a woman when he met him back and decided to find that girl and eliminate her so that he would have Chenglie to himself. He believed it was fate that brought them together and was not willing to let him go.
Xing could not but feel pity towards s.h.i.+hong for his thoughts. Surely it was fate... But not s.h.i.+hong"s fate but her fate that made Chenglie meet s.h.i.+hong again and he didn"t even know who s.h.i.+hong was.
So, apparently after Chenglie escaped from the gang, s.h.i.+hong decided to take back what he owned that is Old Rong back from his master and got out and built the criminal empire he has now with the help of Old Rong.
Xing laughed in her heart when he said, "You three were always a thorn in my ways!", when he thought the three of them were her, her brother commonly known as "Lord Táng" and Haru according to him.