Part6 (1/2)

Feng Jin is no gentleman but he is a tad too … despicable? today though I thought it totally fits his character .   He took advantage of his weakened state and hit Shang Guan Jing at all the right spots. Little wonder she will end up marrying him (it is stated in the book summary) but I can't help feeling sorry for her. Yan Ying appears once more with more backstory of Shang Guan Jing and her token with mysterious symbols.

Chapter 3 Part (2)

To Shang Guan Jing's amazement, she still cannot find a single servant as she searches the house and its compound for the second time. She vaguely remembers seeing people replenis.h.i.+ng water in the rooms and working in the gardens during the day and although she has never met any of them in person, she is certain that there are other people in the house. And with Feng Jin's bamboo house located far from the village with no nearby houses, where could they have gone at night?

Finally she gives up and goes back to Feng Jin's room. If she can tend to her elderly teacher back at Yu Ling Peak, she can jolly well tend to a sick man now in Nan Man.

Remembering that he is feeling sticky and uncomfortable, she heats up a big pail of water and prepares a bath for him. After she has helped him into the tub (he removed his s.h.i.+rt and kept his pants on, thank goodness), she left him alone while she waited outside a curtain of wooden beads. To make sure that he does not fall asleep - or drown – in the tub, she would call out to him from time to time.

After a while, she notices that he only responds when she calls him ”Feng Jin” instead of ”Master Feng”. Smiling, she recalls him saying that it has been ages since anyone has called him by name and promises herself that she will always call him by name henceforth if it makes him so happy.

When he is done, she helps him out of the tub and back to his room. It is very unnerving to be touching a half-naked man, even if he is more asleep than awake. She dabs his chest dry and helps him lie down before she contemplates a serious matter – should she, or should she not remove his pants?

Sons and daughters of the pugilist should not be enc.u.mbered by small matters, she thinks.

And this is a desperate situation, she adds silently.

Taking a deep breath, she pats her heated cheeks and gets down to business. First, she covers him with a towel from waist down before reaching beneath the towel to loosen the knot on his pants. She can only depend on her sense of touch and it is not easy from her angle to loosen his knot. After several attempts, she finally completes the difficult task and drags out his sodden pants out from under the towel.

Whew! That is even more tiring than martial arts training!

Finally, she replaces the towel with a warm blanket and nods in satisfaction. The southern nights are warm and with a blanket, he will not catch a cold. He seems sound asleep, breathing even, and his bleeding has stopped. From all outward signs, he looks like he has survived another 15th.

As she looks at him, she knows that she will remember him on every full moon night from henceforth, as the man who will bleed from his eyes, nose, ears and mouth on every 15th, no matter where or how far her travels take her. His condition does not seem to be an illness and he has claimed that this is some kind of curse.

”Is there really no way to stop your bleeding?” Her question is as soft as the moonlight streaming in from the window. Stifling a sigh, she sooths back his hair and bends to pick up his blood-stained clothes on the floor, unaware of the widening smile on his face.

********

Feng Jin is awake in an hour's time. He does not require more than 4 hours of sleep every night and he sleeps even less every 15th. After checking that his body is back to normal, he gets up from bed and looks at the woman who has dozed off in a chair, sword within easy reach on the table.

Is she worried that he will wake up and go on a walkabout in the middle of the night that she feel that she has to guard over him?  The chair looks uncomfortable and it must be tough for a woman to sleep on a chair,poor soul.

Forgive me, he mouths. It is not my intention to trick you.

This is just my calling.

He strides to her, confident in his near nakedness, and waves a hand over her head. This will prevent her from waking until he commands it and he spends the next few minutes studying her sleeping face.

She is pretty to start with but the more he looks at her, the more he likes what he sees. He has not missed her awkwardness around him when he leans on her intentionally when he climbs in and out of the tub, nor the becoming flush on her cheeks. And leaning close, he closes his eyes and inhales her healthy, feminine scent.

Thinking that he should ignore his n.o.bler instincts (actually, he has none), he pulls her up by the waist and sits her down on his legs. His hands snake around to her front and fondle her curves leisurely. As his hands get busy acquainting themselves on her body, his brain muses that it really doesn't pay to be a hero - or heroine – these days.

Her sense of righteousness can be charming but if he finds out that her concern tonight is purely to help a man ”in a desperate situation”, he will be royally p.i.s.sed.

His eyes turn red at the possibility and grabbing her roughly by the hair, he turns her around to face him and grinds his mouth down onto hers. He tastes her sweetness and inhale her intoxicating scent as his hands go like marauders on a rampage.

He must be crazy.

He tightens his hold on her and rubs their bodies together to create a tingling fiction. He is not going to let go of her. He wants her. Only her. His spirit has soared to a s.p.a.ce beyond the clouds and even though he can feel the heat of his body and the warmth of her body in his hands, he feels …. Lonely?