WangXian Forever Book 8

Chapter 61 Heise Xin (Black Heart)

"What do you mean?" SiZhui asked Gu Xing, but the latter was rummaging around in his sleeves.

"Here!" He held out a vial of a clear liquid. "It is the antidote to the poison." He pointed to his wooden chest.

SiZhui remembered that both Jin Ling and Zhitiao had touched the strange looking vegetables inside. As fast as a snake, SiZhui tapped on the three meridian points on both weapon wielding warriors, effectively rendering them harmless. He tipped half the vial's contents into each mouth and waited for their eyes to become normal...not crazy-looking like they had been before.

Then he reversed the paralysis he had inflicted upon them.

Jin Ling looked around, confused as to why his sword was pointing at Gu Xing and Zhitiao did the same, looking at Jin Ling.

"That, should be a lesson to you all." Gu Xing said, sternly. "I might have invited you here, but that by no means meant you should be invading my privacy. You are lucky I happen to have the cure for the Black Heart...otherwise, what would you have done?"

"Black Heart?" SiZhui asked him.

He still wasn't too sure what to make of Gu Xing...but the fact that he just helped with whatever was ailing his husband and Zhitiao...made SiZhui trust him a little bit more.

"Heise Xin is the name of a particularly lethal vegetable. If it is touched, it produces irrational hatred, and the more one is exposed to it, the more severe are the symptoms. I am guessing that you," He looked at Jin Ling, "touched it longer than you." His gaze drifted towards Zhitiao.

"Then why do you harbour such items if they are that dangerous?" SiZhui asked, helping both Jin Ling and Zhitiao to sit down.

"I need them." But he remained tight-lipped about it.

"While your friend is away, you are welcome to stay here and wait for him." Gu Xing said, standing up. "But remember what I told you. Zhi Zhi still provides some measure of protection, but once you leave him, anything can happen. You have the pearl after all and it is a precious item." He left them then.

"So let me get this straight, those things...the black vegetables...they're poisonous...right?" Jin Ling asked, keeping his eyes closed for now.

SiZhui situated him so his head was resting in his lap.

"Yes. They're call Black Hearts."

JingYi poured out some water from his pouch for both of them.

"SiZhui...you have some explaining to do." Jin Ling sat up after a while.

SiZhui blushed a bright red.

"I'm sorry...and I know I do." He sighed, looking around at everyone. "I suppose...since you all saw me do it...I can tell you what happened. But please...this is between us, you have to swear it."

They all nodded solemnly.

"I was too little to know what I could do with my hands...and at the time, I thought everyone could do it. I had no idea I was the only one left. Or that my name had become taboo...and if anyone found out...my life would be in danger." SiZhui had never told anyone this, and now he looked down at his hands and was surprised to see them shaking.

Jin Ling reached over and threaded their fingers together, squeezing them lightly. He gave SiZhui a small smile for encouragement to go on.

"The first time it happened...I was playing outside with Father Zhan...Father Wei was...um....so, he wasn't back yet...and when we returned to the Jingshi, our food had already arrived. Winter in Gusu is no joke, and the food was cold now. But I could not bear my father leaving me to go and heat it up again so I pressed on both of our plates and heated it up. My father was so shocked at that!" SiZhui smiled at the fond memories.

"And then?" JingYi asked.

He had been friends with SiZhui since the beginning, from SiZhui's first day of classes in Cloud Recesses...he too, felt hurt that he had not known anything about SiZhui's abilities.

"My father told me that my real name was A-Yuan...he said that bad people had taken away my other father...and if I revealed to anyone that my surname was Wen...bad people would come to take me away as well. I was so scared that day...my father had cried then...he told me about my other father. How brave he was to stand up all alone against the cultivation world, how the other four sects made him out to be an enemy...but that he had saved me all by himself. And he made me promise not to tell anyone or show them what I could do with my hands. We began having private lessons where my father taught me how to cultivate with my gift, how to control the fire. He told me about a bad man...Wen Chao, who when he had come to escort my side of the family to Cloud Recesses for the yearly lectures, had burned the innocent guards at the Ivory Pillar Gates. My father said no one would understand that the Dafan Wens were different or that they were a medicinal Sect, not interested in fighting. And he made me promise to honour my father, the one who had hidden me inside a tree stump, to honour his sacrifice by staying alive." SiZhui never realized how much of a weight it was to shed by telling his two closest friends his deepest secret.

He could only hope that they would understand why he had to hide it from them.

"So back there...?" Jin Ling asked him, knowing that SiZhui would know what he meant.

"Back there, that dragon would have killed us, myself and Uncle Lao Long. I had no choice but to fight fire with fire." SiZhui finished, watching them anxiously.

"You know I'll never tell anyone." Jin Ling vowed. "But I'm really glad you told me. I wouldn't want there to be any secrets between us."

SiZhui nodded, eagerly.

"All that talking must have made you thirsty." JingYi said, pushing a cup of water into his face.

And with that, SiZhui knew he was forgiven.