Lu Xiaofeng Book 5: Mansion of Spirits

[Anh Nam]

Thanks junny

[disrupt]

I've been away for a while and it's so nice to come back to updates. Thanks Junny!

[junny]

Sorry for the wait!


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Chapter Seven – Drowning sorrows in wine

The bed was indeed very big. The sheets were white, the bedding brand new. The moment they walked in, Widow Hua immediately lay down on the bed.

Lu Xiaofeng remained standing at the head of the bed.

Widow Hua scrutinised him from head to toe with her misty eyes, then suddenly said: “By now you should know that I’m that scary Widow Hua.” Lu Xiaofeng nodded.

“Naturally you’d have heard that I’m a b.itch, a man-eating one,” she continued.

Lu Xiaofeng nodded again.

“Do you know people here think I can sleep with them anytime?”

Lu Xiaofeng still nodded his head.

Widow Hua’s eyes seemed to mist over. “So why aren’t you jumping into bed?”

Lu Xiaofeng did not even move.

“You don’t dare?”

Lu Xiaofeng did not nod his head, but he did not shake it either.

Widow Hua sighed and said: “Of course you don’t dare, because you don’t even know who I am!”

Lu Xiaofeng suddenly smiled. “There are not many who can merge the zhenqi of the Liu Family of Huainan and Diancang Sect’s Flowing Cloud Swordplay, so…”

“So, what?” Widow Hua asked.

“So you must be Liu Qingqing, the Huainan Hero’s woman, and the wife of the Diancang swordsman.”

“Do you know too that I have slept with Xie Jian’s four best friends?”

Lu Xiaofeng admitted that, since it was such a scandal to begin with.

“Since you know everything, why don’t you come to bed?” she asked.

Lu Xiaofeng smiled and said: “Because I don’t want to, and because it’s none of your business.”

Widow Hua laughed. “Looks like you’re quite different from other men.”

She suddenly leapt from the bed. “Come, I’ll treat you to a drink.”

As they started getting tipsy, the mist in her eyes seemed to deepen as well.

Precisely because the valley was always shrouded in mist, that was why it was able to preserve its aura of mystery.

Was it not the same for her as well?

It was probably not too difficult to see her naked body, but it was much harder to guess what was in her heart.

After another cup of wine, she suddenly asked: “Do you know why Hai Qikuo always wants me to sleep with him?”

“Because he thinks you have slept with the other men here.”

Widow Hua smiled. “Every one thinks that way, but… the number of men I’ve slept with, I think not even you can guess.”

“Not even one in this place?”

“Only one,” Widow Hua said.

Lu Xiaofeng started drinking.

Widow Hua’s gaze seemed very faraway, as though there was a faintly discernible figure in the distance; her gaze was filled with love and adoration.

Aftter a long while, she snapped out of her reverie: “Why did you not ask me who this person is?”

“Why should I ask?” Lu Xiaofeng said.

Widow Hua smiled. “You are indeed a unique person. I like unique men.”

Her smile suddenly vanished: “Xie Jian was a very unique man as well. I married him because I really liked him at that time.”

“But you changed later on,” Lu Xiaofeng said.

“It was not I who changed, it was him,” she said.

A slit appeared through the mist in her eyes, sliced by a sword full of hatred and anguish. “You will never be able to imagine what kind of person he had turned into, much less the terrifying things he had done.”

“Terrifying?” Lu Xiaofeng asked.

“Do you know why I slept with his friend?” Widow Hua asked. Her fists clenched and tears rolled down her cheeks. “Because… because he wanted me to do it, he liked to watch… he even knelt and begged me to, even threatened me with his sword…”

Lu Xiaofeng suddenly averted his gaze, downed his cup of wine. He suddenly felt his gut clenching and he almost felt like vomiting.

When he turned around again, Widow Hu had quietly wiped away the tearstains on her face.

She too downed her cup of wine: “You must be wondering why I am telling you these things.”

Lu Xiaofeng did not feel it was strange, not at all.

When one is feeling grief and anguish, and these emotions have been suppressed for too long, one is wont to find someone else to confide in.

Even though Widow Hua had managed to vent her pain, she was getting tipsier: “He’s an old man now, but he is a real man, an extraordinary one. Even if I don’t love him, I respect him. So long as I can make him happy, I am willing to do anything.”

She raised her head and gazed at Lu Xiaofeng: “When you meet him, you will like him too.”

Lu Xiaofeng could not resist asking: “You mean…”

“I am talking about Old Sabre Honcho,” Widow Hua said.

Lu Xiaofeng was shocked. “Old Sabre Honcho?”

Widow Hua nodded and said: “He is the only man for me here. I know you couldn’t have imagined that.” She smiled, a desolate one: “I had thought no one in this world would be able to understand me or sympathise with me, but he understands me and sympathises with me, and it is genuine.”

“So you gave yourself to him?” Lu Xiaofeng asked.

“I can sacrifice everything for him,” Widow Hua said. “Even if he tells me to die, I will die. But… but…”

She did not continue. Such emotion was not something that could be put into words, and she knew Lu Xiaofeng would understand.

Lu Xiaofeng could understand, all right. Not only that, but he could also understand Old Sabre Honcho the person.

“If I were you, I would have done the same,” he said gently. “I think he must be an extraordinary man.”

Widow Hua let out a long breath, as though she had just set down a very heavy burden. To know that there is still someone in this world who understands your pain and anguish is still a pretty good thing.

She gazed at Lu Xiaofeng, her eyes filled with gratitude and gratification. “Ever since coming here, I’ve not been so happy like I am today. Here, I’ll toast you, three times.”

“We’ll be drunk if we drink more.”

“What’s the worry?” She raised her cup. “If I could get drunk, I’d be really grateful to you.”

Lu Xiaofeng laughed. “To be honest, I’d long wanted to get rip-roaring drunk, just this once.”

So they ended up being drunk on the bed.

They held each other, mumbling words in their drunken stupor that other people would never be able to understand, because in their hearts they were lonely and had too many knots they were unable to untangle.

Although they were holding each other tightly, their hearts were pure like a child’s; there was probably no other time in their lives that they were so pure and honest.

What then was this sort of feeling?

Youth was dying and the past was best left forgotten. A woman who had suffered abuse and humiliation, a man with no roots… who on this earth could understand your feelings?

Both of you have been driven into such circumstances, but since you have met, why should you need other people to understand your feelings?

Outside the window, the night was deep, and so was the fog.

The window was not closed tightly and in the cold fog there suddenly appeared a figure, whose eyes were filled with enmity, jealousy and hatred.

Then, through the crack in the window, there appeared a blowpipe.

A black blowpipe, puffing out dark purple smoke.

The fog dissipated, and even those who were not drunk were now intoxicated, they had no choice.

This person was confident of it, because what he used was the “Bone and Soul Corroding Powder”, the most effective of intoxicating drugs. He had used it thirteen times – it had never failed him.

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Hurrah, thank you Junny! More talking about the old sabre honcho.. When do we get to meet him?

[Anh Nam]

Thanks Junny

[LuDongBin]

One is never too late for this sort of thing .... thks Junny...

[Wanlie Tong]

Thanks very much!