Wild Creatures

Chapter 102

15.00pm Sunday

Quick as a flash, Wei Ying saw the silver metal of a blade as it twisted in the air and found its way to his grandmother's neck.

He was stepping forward even before he knew what his feet were doing, amid cries and protests hovering around them. Song Lan and Xiao XingChen had their swords at the ready, but Xue Yang was in a prime position to see them and keep an eye on Wei Ying's face.

Lan Zhan had a hand on Wei Ying's shoulder, restraining him.

A-Qing cursed, causing that maniac to smile.

"Ah, ah, ah..." he tsked, shaking his head. His dark eyes, black in this light, shone with curiosity. "How do you know me?" He aims that at Wei Ying.

It wasn't a command but Wei Ying understood the threat that it could have been. And since Compelling required eye contact and the maintaining of it, he purposefully stared at his grandmother instead, and was astounded to see her looking...bored?

"I asked you a question." Xue Yang says, letting the incredibly sharp steel nick the smooth skin under his butterfly knife.

That was why Xue Yang had twisted it in the air; not an elaborate showy move but a precise one on purpose to activate the weapon.

His grandmother rolls her eyes and then stares back at him, with a message in the glittering quicksilver of her eyes, imperceptibly shaking her head.

Did she mean for Wei Ying not to intervene? Or to carry on talking?

It would distract the delinquent and Wei Ying opted for that instead, trying to draw him out.

"I recognised your face from pictures." Wei Ying tells him, focusing on the collar of his black shirt.

Staring at his grandmother was too worrying, opening up possibilities that he wasn't strong enough to handle.

"And what pictures might these be?" Xue Yang sounds bored as well.

"Pictures collected by my parents. Possibly because," Wei Ying was going to say, because his mother might have seen this exact moment play out in her visions, and taken steps to ensure it did, but there was no need to give Xue Yang any more ammunition. So he changed it to, "they were gathering evidence against you."

"So they had a kid." Xue Yang replies in a second, connecting the dots in his head faster than anyone else.

Wei Ying thinks he must be clever, not only by evading capture for so many years, and staying out of sight for so long, but he was sharp enough to know about people, more specifically, about the ones who had been hunting him down.

But if Xue Yang can ask questions, then so can Wei Ying, and it might help to buy them some more time, if that's what his grandmother wants.

"Why were my parents after you?"

"I massacred an entire clan, back in the day." It is said nonchalantly on purpose, as though it wasn't important.

Wei Ying can feel Xue Yang staring at him, willing him to look at the knife wielder. But Wei Ying isn't an idiot, and even if Xue Yang tries to say more and more outrageous statements to attempt this, Wei Ying isn't going to fall for his ruse.

And at least, he's being honest.

"Why? Did they do something to you?" His curiosity is real, and Wei Ying wants to know whether what he's going to say will match up to what his grandmother told him about the psycho.

"Yes, they did. Well, one of them did. It was his fault that he and his entire family had to pay with their lives." Xue Yang grins, a casual, friendly smile, but his eyes are burning with rage. He cocks his head, thoughtfully.