They divided the grilled fish, one for each of them. After taking her medicine, Jade Guanyin grew drowsy and wanted to sleep again. Xiao Ma wrapped her in the thin blanket, held her in his arms, and let her sleep against his shoulder. He had nothing left to hide. He had jumped off a cliff for Jade Guanyin; even a blind man could see that this enchantress had bewitched him, let alone Xiao Ma himself. No matter how much he hated her, he could not deceive himself. There was no point in putting on an awkward display and mistreating Jade Guanyin now. His hatred was one thing, and never wanting to see her again was another. At least until they parted, he could only do everything in his power to care for her.
Jade Guanyin also behaved herself. Every day, she quietly recuperated without poking around, stirring up trouble, or behaving like a demon. She did not even tease him verbally. She took her medicine and slept, then ate when she awakened. She was not picky about food either and ate whatever she was given. Whenever Xiao Ma went out to search for food, she sat leaning against the cave entrance and waited for him like an obedient little wife.
Xiao Ma was no good at hunting and not particularly skilled at fishing either, so he simply raided every chicken and duck coop nearby. Within a few days, he became the greatest menace of the two neighboring villages. Every household went on high alert, organizing the able-bodied young and middle-aged villagers into daily patrols. Xiao Ma therefore began sleeping during the day and emerging at night, specifically targeting homes without dogs.
One night, he was feeling around for piglets inside a family’s pigpen when he suddenly heard a commotion nearby. He hurriedly dropped the squealing piglet and climbed somewhere high to take a look. Beneath the moonlight, a short wild man with disheveled hair and tattered clothes was sprinting along the ridge between the fields with an old hen in his arms. Behind him came a long line of villagers waving sickles and hoes and shouting at the tops of their lungs. The scene looked remarkably familiar.
“Cluck, cluck, cluck! Cluck-cluck-cluck! Cluck-cluck-cluck-cluck!”
The wild man leapt down from the ridge with the hen in his arms, darted into the pomelo grove, and disappeared without a trace. The villagers gathered in a cluster, cursing and seething with outrage. Completely baffled, Xiao Ma jumped down and prepared to slip away as well, only to shudder suddenly when he recalled that the wild man’s figure had looked rather familiar.
When he looked again in the direction the wild man had fled, his heart went cold.
…
Supporting herself against the stone wall, Jade Guanyin carefully shuffled forward as she practiced walking. A large section of rotting flesh had been cut from her right calf, damaging the nerves. She could no longer flex her foot and could not even remain standing. Barely supporting her weight on one leg, she had not managed two trembling steps before pitching forward and crashing to the ground.
Without making a sound, she pushed herself back up, gritted her teeth, and continued forward.
The sound of a man’s footsteps, harsh panting, and a hen’s clucking came from the cave entrance. Without turning around, she continued walking and asked, “Are we having chicken again tonight?”
The newcomer drew two heavy breaths and threw the hen at his feet. Pulling a dagger from his waist, he cursed furiously in Thai, “Susin?! You damned whore!”
Recognizing his voice, Jade Guanyin’s expression changed. Her body reacted faster than her thoughts, and she lunged toward the nearby fire. The man charged behind her, cursing as he drove the dagger viciously toward the back of her neck!
Jade Guanyin snatched up the cracked pot sitting over the fire and hurled it behind her. Scalding water splashed directly into the man’s face. He released a roar of agony, covered his face, and thrashed wildly. Seizing the opportunity, Jade Guanyin hobbled toward the cave entrance, hopping on one leg while repeatedly glancing back. The man truly was Ksitigarbha! He too had survived the fall from the cliff!
Ksitigarbha’s clothes were torn, and he was starving, exhausted, and utterly bedraggled, with rage already filling his heart. After Jade Guanyin poured boiling water over his head, splitting his skin and exposing the flesh beneath, the excruciating pain drove him completely mad. He seized his dagger and chased her from the cave, but blood covered his face and blurred his vision. It took him some time to distinguish the direction in which she had fled.
Jade Guanyin hopped and stumbled ahead while he staggered behind her. After they had covered roughly a hundred meters, he finally caught her and pinned her weakened body down in the grass.
Holding down the struggling Jade Guanyin, he furiously stabbed several times, but she avoided every strike. They had trained together since adolescence and were both among Golden Maitreya’s finest fighters. In brute strength and viciousness, Ksitigarbha naturally held every advantage, but when it came to strange tricks and unorthodox techniques, Jade Guanyin was superior. During training, their matches had always ended evenly. Now Jade Guanyin was gravely injured while Ksitigarbha was utterly exhausted, leaving both of them at a disadvantage. Their struggle resembled a childish fight: one pulled the other’s hair while the other jabbed fingers into a nose. It appeared ridiculous, yet it was undeniably a battle to the death.
After rolling back and forth in combat, Jade Guanyin found herself with his hand around her throat and the dagger pressed firmly against it. She gripped his wrist and pushed with all her strength, but the sharp blade still sank slowly into her flesh. Hot sweat beaded across her forehead, and her face turned deathly pale. Her throat was about to be sliced open by force.
Thud!
A large stone struck Ksitigarbha’s head. His eyes rolled upward, and he collapsed facedown across Jade Guanyin’s chest without moving again.
Panting heavily, Xiao Ma shoved his bulky body aside, hauled Jade Guanyin from the ground, and pulled her directly into his arms. He held her tightly for a long while, trembling. Then he gripped her shoulders and pushed her away, wiping the small trace of blood from her neck with his thumb while anxiously looking her over. “Are you hurt?”
“…” Jade Guanyin was still stunned.
“Say something! Are you hurt?!”
Jade Guanyin wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. Xiao Ma’s powerful body shuddered. Instinctively, he grabbed her hair and began pulling her away, only to lose control of himself and press the back of her head toward him instead.
Kneeling together in the grass, the two kissed wildly until they lost all sense of heaven and earth, biting and devouring each other’s lips and tongues like two fish using kisses to fight. As they continued, Jade Guanyin began pulling at Xiao Ma’s trousers. Xiao Ma hurriedly caught her hands.
“Hey! Mmph…” She kissed him so thoroughly that he could not speak. Only after struggling several times did he finally break away.
“Damn it! You shameless slut!” He seized Jade Guanyin’s troublemaking hands and gripped her chin, forcing her to look around. “Does this look like the place to fool around?!”
“It’s not as though we haven’t done it outdoors before,” Jade Guanyin replied reasonably. “That night at the Peak…”
“Shut up! That was because you were acting horny!” Xiao Ma cursed.
He roughly pushed Jade Guanyin away and rose with his big bird already rock-hard from her teasing. Walking several steps, he bent over to seize Ksitigarbha’s legs. “We’ll talk about it when we get back! Let’s bury this bastard first, before we attract the villag—”
His voice cut off. He stared blankly at the dagger embedded in his waist. Ksitigarbha had sat up, his face a mass of hideously mangled flesh. Two blood-filled eyes stared from within the ruined meat, and Xiao Ma saw the malicious smile inside them as Ksitigarbha violently dragged his arm upward.
Xiao Ma instinctively blocked Ksitigarbha’s attack and retreated, but it was already too late. The sharp blade carved a long wound through his body from his waist to his shoulder, as though it meant to split him entirely in two!
He released a cold breath, yet his heart was strangely calm as the momentum of the blade sent him falling sideways. His head struck a stone, and his teeth clacked together, but he felt no pain. It was as though every sensation in his body had been cut off. The world fell silent, leaving only his own heavy breathing and the thunderous pounding of his heart. Through his swaying vision, he saw Jade Guanyin seize a stone and smash it against Ksitigarbha’s head. After three or five blows, the skull resembled a shattered melon. Ksitigarbha’s heavy body collapsed into the grass just as Xiao Ma’s had, never to move again.
Crying, Jade Guanyin threw the stone aside and rushed toward him. She lifted him into her arms, and tears streaked with blood dripped across his face.
He opened his mouth but had no strength to speak. Blood poured from between his lips. Then, in an instant, all sensation seemed to return to his body. Jade Guanyin’s despairing sobs pierced his ears, and violent agony enveloped him completely. His entire body turned cold, and breathing became difficult. His mind filled with noise. He was dying too slowly, giving him time to think too much.
What will happen to Grandma back in the countryside? Out of all her grandchildren, she loves me most. She’s in such good health that she’ll probably live another ten or twenty years. Will the relatives hide it from her? What will she think when I never visit during the holidays?
The Boss is really going to be heartbroken this time. Who would’ve thought I’d survive jumping off a cliff only to be stabbed to death in the middle of nowhere? That He brat has nothing good in his belly. If I’m gone, who’ll help the Boss guard against him? Boss Dong Dong is softhearted. She’ll probably be fooled by that brat too…
Why won’t this woman stop crying? Can someone like her actually feel grief? She’s so ruthless when she kills people, and it’s not as though she’s never seen a corpse before. What is she doing? What use is taking off her clothes now? Does she still want to fuck me one more time before I die? I heard some men die with hard dicks. Is she planning to take advantage of even that? Does she have to be this ruthless…?
Amid those mournful thoughts, he lost consciousness.
…
When he awakened again, he seemed to be floating through heaven. Warm sunlight streamed through the window and fell across his face. Slowly turning his head, he saw a familiar elderly woman sitting beside the bed. She was so ancient that she resembled rotting wood, and her twiglike hand held a segment of pomelo. When she saw him awaken, her fingers began trembling, and the pomelo dropped onto her trouser leg with a soft plop.
Xiao Ma smiled at her, revealing a large gap in his teeth, then closed his eyes and drifted away again.
…
For the following week, he remained in a haze between dreams and wakefulness. Many people seemed to come and go around him, but apart from Jade Guanyin, he could not distinguish any of them. Nor did he possess enough awareness to consider how Jade Guanyin had brought him here or managed to save his life. He merely slept in a daze, swallowing whatever was placed in his mouth and drinking whatever water was poured between his lips. At night, Jade Guanyin moved his body around while wiping him clean, but he believed he was once again being sexually harassed.
Why is this slut so troublesome? Master Ma is already in this condition, yet she still wants a taste of him?
Jade Guanyin turned away to rinse the towel. When she looked back, she discovered that Second Master Ma had risen while Xiao Ma remained unconscious.
“…” Jade Guanyin fell silent.
Using both her mouth and hands, she helped Second Master Ma lie back down.
She really does want a taste of Master Ma! Floating blissfully, Xiao Ma closed his eyes and reached his conclusion.
…
The next time he opened his eyes, he was completely lucid. He had enough strength to sit up unaided and chew his own food. Holding a bowl, he noisily slurped down an enormous serving of chicken congee. A shred of meat became trapped in the gap in his front teeth, and he struggled for a long time before finally digging it out.
He ordered Jade Guanyin to bring him a mirror. “Damn it! I’m disfigured! Master Ma’s handsome face!”
“I’ll take you into the city to see a dentist tomorrow,” Jade Guanyin said.
“I’m not going!” Xiao Ma stubbornly turned his head. “I’m going back to Hong Kong and getting a gold tooth!”
Jade Guanyin did not argue. She wiped down his body, covered him with the quilt, and squeezed onto the bed beside him to sleep.
“Why aren’t you acting horny anymore?” Xiao Ma asked.
“I’m tired,” Jade Guanyin replied. The moment the words left her mouth, she buried her face against his shoulder and fell asleep.
…
Early the following morning, a sedan stopped outside the small courtyard. The young boy whom Xiao Ma had once carefully picked up and placed aside helped him downstairs, while Jade Guanyin followed behind with a bag of clean clothes on her back, limping with every step.
The entire family from the three-story house came outside to see them off. Jade Guanyin pressed her palms together and saluted them, and the two sides spoke in Thai for a while. A man stepped out of the sedan and handed Jade Guanyin a package that appeared to contain money or valuables. Jade Guanyin passed it to the family. After both sides exchanged another salute, she and Xiao Ma climbed into the car and departed.
The sedan jolted along the rural road. Every bump made Xiao Ma’s wound ache, so he leaned crookedly against the seat and concentrated on enduring the pain. Jade Guanyin spoke continuously in Thai with the man driving. Xiao Ma could not understand a word, but he could hear the respect in the other man’s voice whenever he addressed her.
Damn it. If someone was available to help us, she could’ve told me sooner. She made me sleep in a cave for half a month and steal chickens the entire time. Xiao Ma grumbled inwardly and glared fiercely at Jade Guanyin.
Jade Guanyin was perceptive enough to understand his look and explained, “He’s my friend and an ordinary civilian. Neither the police nor Golden Maitreya’s people know about him. I didn’t want to involve him before.”
Xiao Ma said nothing and turned toward the countryside outside the window. Then he heard Jade Guanyin continue, “He helped me ask around. None of the people arrested by the police were from Hong Kong. Liu Yi escaped.”
Xiao Ma whirled around, seized her collar, and demanded, “Really?!”
Jade Guanyin met his eyes openly. “Really. I’m not lying to you. I did scheme against Liu Yi, but only because I wanted to use him to lower Godfather’s and the others’ guard. I never gave his information to the police beforehand, so they did not know he existed. Before I acted, I told myself that this was a private grudge between Golden Maitreya and me and had nothing to do with him. If he was arrested, then he had simply been unlucky. He had worked with Golden Maitreya, so he would have deserved it. If he was fortunate enough to escape, I would not betray him afterward.”
Relief loosened something inside Xiao Ma, but he remained angry and shoved her roughly. “Stop spouting shit! What do you mean, ‘deserved it’?! You’re no good person either! What are you putting on that act for?!”
The shove sent Jade Guanyin crashing against the car window. The driver glanced back and asked something. She waved a hand, replied briefly, and indicated that he should ignore it.
“I’m not a good person. I’ve killed many people and done many things for Golden Maitreya. When I die, I’ll go to hell,” Jade Guanyin said.
Xiao Ma angrily turned away and ignored her.
Jade Guanyin continued, “My friend said that Kun Zhang, Golden Maitreya’s superior, knows I helped the police bring down Golden Maitreya and has sent people everywhere to find me and take revenge. It isn’t safe to remain in that village. We’ll stay at my friend’s home for several days first. He’ll help us find somewhere safe to recover.”
Xiao Ma still said nothing and refused to acknowledge her at all. Now that her injuries had improved, his hatred had returned as well.