They each shared a grilled fish. Having taken her medicine, Jade Guanyin felt drowsy and wished to sleep again. Xiao Ma wrapped her in the thin blanket, pulling her into his embrace and letting her rest her head on his shoulder as she slept—he had nothing left to hide. He had leaped off a cliff for her; even a blind man could see he had fallen under the spell of this enchantress, let alone himself. No matter how much he hated her, he could not deceive his own heart, and there was no need to put on a petty display of mistreatment at a time like this. Hate was hate, and the desire never to meet again remained, but for as long as they were not yet parted, he could only do his utmost to look after her.
Jade Guanyin was sensible as well. She spent each day quietly recovering from her injuries, neither causing trouble nor even using words to provoke him. She took her medicine and slept, and when she woke, she ate. She was not picky about her food, consuming whatever was provided. When Xiao Ma went out to forage for food, she would lean against the cave entrance and wait for him, looking like a well-behaved little wife.
Xiao Ma was not skilled at hunting, nor was he particularly good at fishing, so he simply raided every chicken coop and duck pen in the vicinity. Within a few days, he became a major grievance for the two nearby villages; every household stood on high alert, organizing young men to stay behind and patrol daily. Consequently, Xiao Ma switched to hiding by day and emerging at night, specifically targeting households without dogs.
On this night, as he was fumbling for piglets in someone’s pigsty, he suddenly heard a commotion nearby. He quickly dropped the squealing piglet and climbed to a high vantage point to look—there, on the field ridges under the moonlight, was a disheveled, ragged, short-statured wild man clutching an old hen and running at full speed, followed by a string of shouting villagers brandishing sickles and hoes. The scene was incredibly familiar.
“Cluck, cluck, cluck! Cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck! Cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck!”
The wild man jumped off the ridge with the hen, ducked into the pomelo grove, and vanished in an instant. The villagers gathered in a group, cursing and venting their indignation. Xiao Ma jumped down to the ground, confused, and intended to slip away as well, but he suddenly felt a jolt of realization; the wild man’s silhouette looked somewhat familiar.
Looking again at the direction the wild man had fled, a chill ran through his heart.
……
Jade Guanyin braced herself against the stone wall, cautiously inching forward as she practiced walking. A large piece of necrotic flesh had been carved from her right calf, damaging the nerves; she could not flex her foot and could not even maintain a standing position. She forced one leg to support her body weight, trembling for less than two steps before plunging forward and collapsing onto the ground.
Without uttering a sound, she climbed up from the ground on her own and grit her teeth to continue forward.
The sound of a man’s footsteps, heavy breathing, and the clucking of a hen came from the cave entrance. Without turning her head, she spoke as she walked, “Are we having chicken again tonight?”
The newcomer let out two heavy gasps and dropped the hen at his feet. He drew a dagger from his waist and roared in Thai, “Susin?! You damned bitch!”
Jade Guanyin recognized his voice, and her expression shifted. Swifter than thought, she lunged toward the nearby campfire. The man behind her charged forward with a roar of fury, thrusting a ruthless blade toward the back of her neck!
Jade Guanyin scooped up the broken jar resting on the fire and hurled it back! Scalding water splashed onto his face; the man let out a roar of agony, clutching his face and struggling blindly. Jade Guanyin took the opportunity to hop toward the cave exit, looking back as she fled—the newcomer was indeed Ksitigarbha! He, too, had survived the fall from the cliff!
Ksitigarbha was in a wretched state, his clothes in tatters, hungry and exhausted, filled with a monstrous rage. Now, having had a head of boiling water poured over him, his skin was torn and his flesh was raw; the intense pain drove him into a complete state of madness. He gripped his dagger and chased Jade Guanyin out of the cave, but with his face covered in blood, his vision was a blur, and it took him a long time to discern the direction in which she had fled.
Jade Guanyin hopped and leaped ahead while he followed unsteadily behind. After they had run about a hundred meters, he finally caught up to her, pinning her weakened body down into the grass.
He held down the struggling Jade Guanyin, stabbing at her frantically several times, but she managed to dodge them all. They had been trained together since youth and were the top experts under Golden Maitreya. In terms of brute force and ruthlessness, he naturally held the advantage, but in terms of cunning tricks and strange techniques, Jade Guanyinwas superior. When they spared during training, they were always evenly matched. Now, Jade Guanyin was severely injured while he was exhausted; both sides were at a disadvantage. Their brawl became as childish as a fight between toddlers, pulling hair and poking nostrils—it looked farcical, yet it was truly a struggle of life and death.
After tumbling and fighting for a while, Jade Guanyin was seized by the throat, the dagger pressed firmly against her windpipe. She blocked his wrist and pushed back with all her might, yet the sharp blade was still forced bit by bit into her flesh. Beads of hot sweat seeped from her forehead, her face deathly pale; it appeared her throat was about to be sliced open.
Thump!
A large stone smashed into Ksitigarbha’s head. His eyes rolled back, and he slumped onto Jade Guanyin’s chest, motionless.
Panting heavily, Xiao Ma shoved the heavy body aside and pulled Jade Guanyin up from the ground, pulling her directly into a tight embrace. After holding her tremblingly for a long while, he gripped her shoulders to push her back, his thumb wiping a speck of blood from her neck as he looked her up and down anxiously, “Are you alright?”
“……” Jade Guanyin was still in a daze.
“Speak! Are you alright?!”
Jade Guanyin threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. Xiao Ma’s powerful frame shuddered; he subconsciously reached out to grab her hair, and though he started to pull her away, he could not help but press her head back toward him.
The two knelt in the grass and kissed wildly, oblivious to the world, biting and chewing each other’s lips and tongues with all their might, like two fish fighting with a kiss. As she kissed him, Jade Guanyin began to pull at Xiao Ma’s trousers. Xiao Ma hurriedly pinned her hands down.
“Hey! Mmm mmm…” He was kissed into silence, struggling several times before breaking free.
“Damn it! You slut!” He captured Jade Guanyin’s two troublesome hands and pinched her chin, forcing her to look around. “Does this look like a place to do that?!”
“It’s not like we haven’t done it outside before,” Jade Guanyin argued reasonably. “That night at Victoria Peak…”
“Shut up! That was only because you were acting slutty!” Xiao Ma cursed.
He pushed Jade Guanyin away roughly, standing up with his “big bird” already hard from her provocation. He took a few steps and bent over to drag Ksitigarbha’s legs. “We’ll talk back at the cave! First, let’s bury this guy so we don’t attract the villagers…”
His voice cut off. He stared blankly at the dagger plunged into his waist. Ksitigarbha, who had sat up, had a face full of hideous, mangled flesh; a pair of bloody eyes were embedded within the rot. He saw the sinister smile in those eyes as Ksitigarbha’s arm gave the blade a violent upward pull!
He subconsciously blocked the attack and retreated, but it was already too late! The sharp blade had carved a long, bloody gash from his waist to his shoulder! It felt as though he was being split in two.
He let out a cold breath, feeling a strange sense of calm in his heart as he collapsed to the side following the blade’s path. His head struck a rock with a sharp crack of his teeth, yet he felt no pain, as if his senses had been severed. The world was silent, save for his own heavy breathing and a heartbeat that felt like thunderclaps. In his swaying vision, he saw Jade Guanyin grab a rock and smash it into
Ksitigarbha’s skull. After three or five blows, the head looked like a smashed melon. Ksitigarbha’s heavy body collapsed onto the grass just like his own, showing no further movement.
Crying, Jade Guanyin threw the stone aside and threw herself onto him, pulling him into her embrace. Bloody tears dripped onto his face.
He opened his mouth but lacked the strength to speak. A mouthful of fresh blood overflowed from the corner of his lips, and his senses seemed to return to his body in an instant! Jade Guanyin’s grief-stricken wails pierced his eardrums, and intense pain enveloped his entire body! His body turned cold and his breathing became difficult. His mind was a mess of noise—dying too slowly led to stray thoughts.
“What about my grandmother in the countryside? Out of all her grandsons, she likes me the most. Her health is so good, she’ll probably live another ten or twenty years, right? Will the relatives hide this from her? When she doesn’t see me during the holidays, what will she think?”
“The Big Boss is really going to be heartbroken this time. I didn’t expect to survive the cliff only to be stabbed to death in the middle of nowhere. That He Chu San kid has bad intentions in his heart; with me gone, who’s going to help the Boss watch out for him? Sister Dong Dong is soft-hearted; she’ll probably be fooled by that kid too…”
“Why won’t this woman stop crying? Can someone like her even feel sad? She’s so ruthless when she kills; it’s not like she hasn’t seen a dead body. What is she doing? What’s the use of taking off her clothes at a time like this? Does she want to go for one last round before I die? I’ve heard some men die with a hard-on; is this woman even trying to take advantage of me for that? Does she have to be this ruthless…”
Amidst his sighs and lamentations, he slipped into unconsciousness.
……
When he woke again, he felt as if he were drifting in heaven. The gentle sunlight spilled through the window onto his face, feeling warm and pleasant. He slowly turned his head and saw a familiar old lady sitting by the bed. The old lady was so aged she resembled withered wood; her skeletal hand clutched a segment of pomelo. Seeing him wake, her fingers trembled, and the pomelo fell onto her trouser leg with a plop.
Xiao Ma smiled at her, revealing a large gap in his teeth, before closing his eyes and drifting back into a stupice.
……
For the following week, he remained in a state of chaos, drifting between dreams and wakefulness. Many people seemed to come and go, but aside from Jade Guanyin, he could not distinguish any of them. Nor did he have the brainpower to wonder how Jade Guanyin had brought him here or how she had saved his life. He simply slept in a daze, swallowing whatever was fed to him and drinking whatever was poured down his throat. In the middle of the night, Jade Guanyin would move him about; she was actually wiping his body, but he believed he was once again being sexually harassed.
“How can this slut be so annoying,” he thought groggily. “Lord Ma is in this state, and she still wants to take a shot at me?”
Jade Guanyin turned to wash the towel, and when she looked back, she discovered that the sleeping Second Lord Ma had stood up.
“……” Jade Guanyin.
She used both hands to help Second Lord Ma lie back down.
“She really does want to take a shot at me!” Xiao Ma thought with his eyes closed, feeling ecstatic as he reached a conclusion in his heart.
……
When he opened his eyes again, he was fully conscious. He had the strength to sit up on his own and the strength to chew his own food. He held a bowl of porridge, slurping down a large bowl of chicken porridge. Bits of meat got stuck in the gap in his front teeth, and it took him a long time to pick them out.
He demanded that Jade Guanyin bring him a mirror, “Bastard! I’m disfigured! Lord Ma’s handsome face!”
“I’ll take you into the city to see a dentist tomorrow,” Jade Guanyin said.
“No!” Xiao Ma turned his head away defiantly. “I’m going back to Hong Kong to get a gold one!”
Jade Guanyin did not argue with him. She wiped his body, covered him with the quilt, and squeezed onto the bed to lie beside him and sleep.
“Why aren’t you acting slutty anymore?” Xiao Ma asked her.
“Tired,” Jade Guanyin said, falling asleep with her face buried in his shoulder as soon as the word left her lips.
……
Early the next morning, a car pulled up outside the small courtyard. The young boy Xiao Ma had once hoisted up and carefully tossed aside helped him down the stairs. Jade Guanyin followed behind them, limping and carrying a bag of fresh clothes.
The entire family in the small building came out to see them off. Jade Guanyin pressed her palms together to salute them, and both sides spoke in Thai for a while. A man stepped out of the car and handed a package that looked like valuables to Jade Guanyin, who then handed it over to the family. After another exchange of salutes, Jade Guanyin and Xiao Ma boarded the car and left.
The car jolted along the rural road. Xiao Ma’s wound throbbed from the bumping, and he leaned crookedly against the seat back, concentrating on enduring the pain. Jade Guanyin and the male driver spoke in Thai the entire time; he did not understand a word, but he could tell the other man was full of respect for Jade Guanyin.
“Damn it, if there was someone to receive us, you should have told me earlier. You made me sleep in a cave for half a month and steal chickens for half a month.” Xiao Ma grumbled in his heart, shooting a fierce glare at Jade Guanyin.
Jade Guanyin was sharp-witted and understood his meaning, explaining to him, “He is my friend, an ordinary person. Neither the police nor Golden Maitreya’s people know about him. I didn’t want to involve him before.”
Xiao Ma did not speak, turning his head to look at the countryside scenery. He heard Jade Guanyin speak again, “He helped me get news. None of the people caught by the police this time are from Hong Kong. Xia Liu Yi escaped.”
Xiao Ma turned back and grabbed her collar, demanding, “Really?!”
Jade Guanyin looked calmly into his eyes, “Really, I am not lying to you. I did plot against Xia Liu Yi, but I only wanted to use him to make Godfather and the other brothers lower their guard. I did not give his information to the police in advance; they didn’t know he existed. Before I acted, I thought: this is a private grudge between me and Golden Maitreya and has nothing to do with him. If he was caught, it was his own bad luck; he worked with Golden Maitreya, so it would be what he deserved. If he was lucky and escaped, I would not betray him again.”
Xiao Ma felt a sense of relief in his heart, but his anger remained. He pushed her roughly, “Cut that ‘what he deserved’ bullshit! What kind of good person are you?! Stop putting on such an act!”
Jade Guanyin was pushed against the car window. The driver looked back to ask a question, but she waved her hand and replied, signaling for him not to worry.
“I am not a good person. I have killed many people and done many things for Golden Maitreya. I will go to hell when I die,” Jade Guanyin said.
Xiao Ma turned away indignantly, ignoring her.
Jade Guanyin continued, “My friend says Golden Maitreya’s superior, Khun Zhang, knows I helped the police take down Golden Maitreya. He is sending people everywhere to find me for revenge; it’s not safe to stay in that village. We will stay at my friend’s house for a few days; he will help us find a safe place to recover.”
Xiao Ma still did not speak, completely unwilling to acknowledge her. Now that her injuries were healed, his hatred had returned.
Futile Devices Scans 
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