The Story Of Dusk

So, the only thing that Senja could do was to treat him as per his instruction.

Gong Xu was being poisoned by Xiao Jun from the dagger that he threw toward him, thus it made his condition worse as his wound kept open and sometimes bled.

Senja needed to change his bandages every three hours and with that, she needed more bandages for him, but the problem was she couldn"t keep taking it without rose a suspicion from other people.

Especially Xiao Tianyao, who had his eyes on her since the first day of the attack.

He didn"t pester Senja, but she knew that he had sent someone to monitor her. These past three days were so hard.

"Gong Xu, what should I do?" Senja was sitting beside him while the man was closing his eyes, sleeping. "How can I get the antidote of your poison?"

There was no answer. Senja even had not yet a chance to ask him, why he appeared and wanted to kidnap Xiao Mugi.

The last time Gong Xu regained his consciousness, he was asking a certain medicine.

Thus, risking everything, Senja was going out of the hidden room to the city to buy the medicine that Gong Xu needed, but she didn"t know what to do with this medicine, should she boiled it in hot water or she just let Gong Xu to drink just like that?

Senja snuggled closer toward him and rested her chin atop of his shoulder.

"Prince Xiao Tianyao is getting more suspicious toward me." Senja confided, she felt uncomfortable with that situation, she felt there were eyes that look at her in her every steps. "He is annoying."

The next day after that night, Xiao Jun and Qianru along with Xiao Mugi returned to the Capital City, he has another thing to handle, leaving this case for Xiao Tianyao to handle.

That wasn"t good news for Senja and she couldn"t possibly ask her grandfather to get rid of him, because he did nothing wrong and moreover, he was her grandfather"s disciple.

"What should I do now?" Senja asked Gong Xu, who kept silence, pitifully. "At least let me know how to concoct this medicine." She was at lost with this, since Gong Xu fell unconsciousness, she had no one to talk to.

Tired and stress, Senja fell asleep beside Gong Xu.

***  

She didn"t know how long she had fallen asleep when she heard noisy sound around her and slowly opened her eyes.

"If you are awake help me with this…" Gong Xu was sitting on the ground while grinding something.

"You are awake!" Senja jumped from the pile of the blanket and pounced on Gong Xu, she hugged his neck liked she always did. "Gong Xu is awake!"

"Stop it. My back hurt…" Gong Xu wanted to get rid of her, but he was too wake to move this silly girl as he could only endure it until Senja came to her sense.

Fortunately it happened quickly, upon hearing Gong Xu"s complain, Senja immediately released him and sat next to him while looking what he was doing.

"What do you need me to do?" Senja looked up at him excitedly, though his face was still pale and his lips were slightly chapped, but for him to be able to sit down and concocted his own medicine was a progress.

"I need you to grind this… my hand hurts." Gong Xu said weakly, and now his back and neck also hurt, thanks to Senja.

"All right, just lay down, I will give you after I finish this." This was the medicine that she had bought earlier, but because she didn"t know what she should do with it, so she just let it be.

Gong Xu followed Senja"s suggestion as he started to lay down on the pile of the blanket again and closed his eyes.

It took some time for Senja to concocted the medicine as per Gong Xu"s instruction, after Senja helped him to drink his medicine, she peeled an orange for herself, because he couldn"t eat or drink anything for awhile after the medicine.

Because Gong Xu was too tired to read her lips, Senja needed to write down her question on paper and let him read it for them to communicate with each other.

"Why did you come to the mansion to kidnap Xiao Mugi? Hadn"t I told you, that"s dangerous?" Senja wrote that and let Gong Xu to see it.

"I don"t have intention to kidnap the child, but there is mysterious person came for him." Gong Xu answered weakly.

"Really? They misunderstood you then!" Senja was upset because of this, if that was the case they had attacked wrong person. "Do you know who was the person?" Senja wrote it in another paper.

Gong Xu shook his head. "I think it was someone from Misty Cloud Clan."

"Your father…" Senja mumbled. "What is Misty Cloud Clan doing here?" She wrote it, every character of her words was filled with pressure, showing her emotion.

"Misty Cloud Clan and L clan are the clans under Modama and the Emperor, but mostly they will take my father"s side." Gong Xu explained. "L clan has been starting to show their move, they even have started to set a lair in this city. Before that night, I have been investigating about what their next moves, it relates on something like that could affect the entire country, but I still don"t know about that yet."

"Something that could affect the entire country?" Senja was shock, as she lay p.r.o.ne beside him. "That serious?"

Gong Xu squinted his eyes, but still couldn"t make out what Senja was mumbling, thus he pointed at the paper in her hand.

"What kind of plan that could affect the entire country? How that benefited them if the entire country is going to be affected?" Senja wrote a long question before she let him to read.

"I don"t know… I am still collecting information about that." He answered her. "But, one thing that I know, it will not be something good."

Senja gave some thought about it and stopped to ask question as Gong Xu had fallen asleep.

***  

The sky had turned dark when Senja came into her grandfather"s study room after the dinner, strangely she didn"t see Xiao Tianyao at the table.

It didn"t mean that she was looking for him, but she was just curious as he was always there and tried to pry something from Senja through his sarcastic comment.

"Grandfather…" Senja greeted the old man.

Elder Dam raised his head from the letter that he was reading. "Take a seat first my child, I will finish this first." He waved his hand and turned his focus on the paper in his hand again, resumed his serious expression.

Senja sat down on the seat in front of Elder Dam and stared at the pile of book on top of her grandfather"s table.

Apparently, it was an important letter as Elder Dam only gave his attention to Senja after he had written down two letters and gave it to the shadow guard to deliver.

"Senja, grandfather has two news for you." Elder Dam smiled faintly, seemingly one of the news wasn"t something that please to her.

"Yes, grandfather…" Senja asked with concern, this was the first time they were talking in this kind of atmosphere, this was too serious and uncomfortable, though Elder Dam didn"t usually talk to her about something serious, but this time, this kind of different.

"I have decided that I will retire from military and accompany you here, spending the rest of my old time to look after you." Elder Dam"s eyes softened. "What do you think?"

Senja wasn"t sure about what she felt about this news and didn"t know what she should think about it. But, she knew one thing, this news didn"t make her happy or sad.

She didn"t feel there was something special about Elder Dam"s announcement for retiring from the military. It didn"t matter for her.

"Great." Senja only could utter that single word as she didn"t know how to react.

For Elder Dam, he didn"t see something strange with Senja"s answer as his granddaughter was always lack of word and sometime hard to show her true feeling.

"However, before I retire, grandfather has to deal with the matter in the Capital City. This will be my last a.s.signment." Elder Dam explained.

"What the matter in the capital city?" Senja asked curiously, because Gong Xu had mentioned it before, Misty Cloud Clan under Modama, his father, had been planning something that could affect the entire nation.

If it was going to affect the entire nation than this most likely would be something that started from the capital city, right?

"It isn"t a big deal…" Elder Dam waved his hand. "This is just a strange epidemic of a disease."

"Disease?" Senja was squinted her eyes, if it was an epidemic of a disease, that was make sense with the information that Gong Xu had gotten.

"Yes, there is strange disease that started in the capital city now, but don"t worry it is far from here." Elder Dam rea.s.sured Senja, misunderstanding with the frown on Senja"s expression. The old man thought she was afraid about the disease would spread to this city, but the thing that he didn"t know, Senja was thinking about something that totally different.

"What the symptoms?" Senja needed to ask this, maybe Gong Xu knew something about this disease, after all he was knowledgeable with medicine and poison field.

"From the report that grandfather received, the patient will fall unconscious during day and screams in pain during night, not only that, the patient also will be sweating and the smell was so bad…" Elder Dam recalled the report that he received.

"When you are there, you need to be careful grandfather."

"I will." Elder Dam rubbed Senja"s head lovingly.

"When will you leave?" Senja asked

"Tomorrow." Elder Dam smiled. "But, after that we will be together for long time!" He stood up and gave Senja a big bear hugged. "Grandfather will make up to you for the years that I have left you alone in this mansion… you will never be alone again. Once grandfather retired, grandfather will look after you."

Upon hearing that, Senja didn"t give much reaction except reciprocated the hug and smiled faintly.

However, her heart didn"t move by Elder Dam"s words. She wasn"t alone anymore, because she has Gong Xu with her. He was the one who always accompany her during these past three years, even when Carye and her daughters started to bully her again, it was his advice that made Senja could get through those days.

She didn"t feel excited neither looked forward the day that her grandfather would spend his time here, in the other side, she looked forward the day when Gong Xu fulfilled his promise to bring her away from this mansion and saw the world outside this wall.

She had changed, but her grandfather didn"t know… no one knew…

***  

"…Those are the symptoms that grandfather told me…" Senja was changing Gong Xu bandages as she told him about the conversation between Grandfather and her.

It was early in the morning and Senja was very impatient to let Gong Xu knew about this.

"Do you think, you know about this disease?" Senja asked him offhandedly as he wiped his back, he could feel his tense muscle under her tiny hand.

Because Gong Xu often got injured and have another new wound, Senja became expert with this kind of handwork now.

"I know…" Gong Xu admitted. "I am the one who had invented that disease for Modama."

"Really?!" Senja walked around and sat right in front of him, as if by seeing his face she could decide whether Gong Xu was telling her lie or not. "You did?"

"Yes." Gong Xu"s voice was so weak, or he felt embarra.s.sed by this revelation. "The disease is not infectious, if the other city has the same disease then there is someone who spread this."