Cracks (?)

"ah, yes? Did you call me, fatty?" asked Ruan Gao.

"no, no, no. I simply wanted to know if you could kill my poor sibling, San. He went crazy from seeing his unrequited love, Si, die in front of him, and killed Er, Si's underground lover, in rage."

"y-yes?" she replied coquetishly.

"so, as the princess of our Shensheng Diguo, you must uphold justice, no matter when, or where, and kill the scum of society as so."

"kill San? I don't think I can do that, though?"

"then what if San fights back and tries to kill you?"

"then... I guess I'll kill him?" she smiled.

"wow..? Are you okay? But that conclusion is something I approve of."

Not long before saying so, he took a huge step forward and kicked San with enough force to break apart bones. As expected, San, who had never been trained in combat, against Pangzi, who was raised purely to be a warrior, was sure to lose.

Due to the force of the devastating blow, San was sent rolling. Though the impact only knocked him off his feet into a roll, the momentum from the kick carried him on, far too long to not sustain injury.

Walking closer to the fallen San, he started kicking at him as hard as humanly possible.

"my dear San, what are you doing? At this rate, you will simply end up looking like a victim? Do you dare place the blame on this master?" threatened Pangzi.

"YES I DO, BITCH!" spat San.

"uncouth. You dare use such language in front of me?" he paused for a while to think. "no, you dare use such language against my wife?!" he demanded.

The princess, who for a while was simply standing idle due to shock, snapped back into the world, as she heard him call her his wife.

"ah? Pangzi, isn't that enough? I think San has suffered enough?"

"how could I forget of my wife?" he responded sweetly.

"thank my wife for her mercy, bastard." he said, looking at San before killing him with a quick blow to the neck.

"thank y— hk!"

The stunned soft cake simply stared at him for a while. She acted as if it were normal occurrence — for Pangzi to kill so much.

"scream, unless you feel like joining them." he said, pointing at the bloodbath before him.

*70~79 dB scream*

I changed my mind. Wu, or rather, Yi can become the culprit for this brutal scene. We came in to see Yi beat in this faces of former Wu, Er, San and Si. I defended the princess when he lunged at us and got this wound from his blade. As for Yi sustaining no injury...

Pangzi gave Yi a somewhat hard kick, that knocked him to the ground.

Very good. Very nice. It should work, right? Grandmother is biased, so she won't suspect me, high commander is no fool, so he won't confront me in front of the emperor. Ruan Gao might say something, but she seems pretty blasé, so...

"young master! Princess! Are you two okay?!" asked a servant who came rushing in.

"we were attacked by one of them." I said, pointing at the four corpses and unconscious Yi. "I was able to defend Ruan Gao, albeit, minimal injuries."

"we should head back to the main house. Breakfast must be done by now. I'm sure father has brought out some red rice, as today is the deciding of our wedding." he said, while internally sighing.

I made a big mistake.

"yes, b-but what about them?" she asked, pointing at the four dead and one idle.

"princess, th-there's no dirt, is there? I know we cleaned the mansion very well yesterday, so— no, leave it." muttered the servant. "why don't I lead you to the main house? Breakfast is done."

"see? There's nothing to worry about, I hope. I shall escort you to the main house." I reassured. "go tell father we are coming soon."

The servant left without responding, as there was no need to do so. Pangzi led the princess to the main house, though they took a detour on the way, delaying them a bit. Thought not significant, the emperor made a fuss of their lack of punctuality and did not miss the opportunity to ridicule Pangzi, blaming their tardiness on him, though it was not wrong to say so.

"also, Pangzi," continued the princess. "about Hao, Er, San, Si and Wu – why did he act like that?"

"like what?" he asked with 'genuine' curiosity. "though I have no idea of what you say, it has not been a bother to you?"

"of course not! Nothing too big."

"great."

Truth is, neither Pangzi nor the servants and slaves in the Jia family mansion understood what was wrong with what was done. Murder, whether by Pangzi, or anyone else in the mansion, it was acceptable.

Pangzi, or as he is tricked into believing, Yang Cheng, is very familiar with murder. After all, living in a place like the slums is sure to corrupt morals. The worst part is, both 'Jia Pangzi' and 'Yang Cheng' were very blasé to murder. There was no need for Yang Cheng to pretend to be shocked when someone was murdered in front of him, because Pangzi wouldn't be fazed either.

Though mentioned lightly before, Pangzi's father occasionally did have meetings with him inside the palace. But even then, it was once month, and strictly professional. It was training for Pangzi to become the next high commander, and the head of the Jia family, whereas Shuaiqi would retreat to the countryside of some other plane, and live a peaceful life with his family.