8 8. 'Innocent' Flower

Rays of sunlight struck the outskirts of the town, busy carts and people seemingly hopping with work and the atmosphere had always been too lively--except that slaves have been too pitiful to see. The day have been too briskly, but the Liu mansion was too gloomy to exist.

"How can you all, a mere peasant escaped from the bed chamber?! And you dare to show me face?!" Minister Liu raged to the depth of his lungs, scorned at the bandits he hired to abduct the 'peasant' that they wanted to send from the General as a substitute for his daughter. His brain was so slow that he didn't even bother to change the 'peasant's' surname.

Minister Liu discovered Li Jie when he saw the latter at the Chen household, sitting on the balcony as his head sticking out to the window. He saw a delicate beauty suitable for his schemes, he didn't even bother that he was a man. He then thought of a way for his daughter to avoid marrying the General, by sending Li Jie to the manor as a substitute for his daughter. Feng Delun was always be the prospering and outsanding General ever existed in this era, making the old man so jealous about his achievements. Even if he will face death, he will not hand his daughter to be the General's concubine. His daughter was too precious for a concubine, he thought.

It's not like the General wanted to marry her daughter, in fact he doesn't want to marry that woman at all. But Minister Liu is obsessed about power and possession, all he wanted was a bed of gold and prosperity in which the General have.

The General always pondered about it, he should have gone to the emperor instead and make his daughter the emperor's 'precious' consort. Why would he go to him instead? The General brushed off his thoughts away and never thought about it again. After all, he knew that this Minister Liu hold a grudge against him and he don't want to mind it.

"Find that 'peasant' and dispose 'her'. Don't let 'her' body exist, including 'her' bones." The Minister ruthlessly commanded and the bandits he hired retorted.

"Yes Sir!"

After that, the bandits fleeted towards their mission as the problematic minister sat in the gordon chair whilst rubbing his temples. He never thought that the peasant managed to escape from the den as what he didn't expected.

He thought that 'peasant' was too delicate and didn't have strength to escape, but his imagination ruptured. He indeed escaped and managed to beat the General's shadow guards in just a punch.

"What should I do now?" If the General finds out, he would be chopped to death. He couldn't help but to clenched his fist, letting his surging emotions preventing from leaking out. He was angry and anxious, thinking of a way to dispose that peasant.

However, the bandits he hired faced even a bigger problem, not because they wanted to but they were all in the verge of death. The bandits who hired to abduct Li Jie was already cornered by Li Jie itself.

Li Jie was on his way on his brother's clinic, but after he encountered the five suspicious people and smelled the same familiar and stinky smell, he was sure that those people were responsible for hurting the owner of the body that he had been living.

Just as about they would pass themselves into the nearby alley, the bandits struggled and groaning in pain as Li Jie beat them one by one. The bandit who just was about to kill Li Jie was immediately killed by Li Jie himself. He twisted his knife into a clockwise rotation, resulting a huge damage towards the bandit's intestines. After that he kicked the bandit's corpse and looked at the remaining bandits with his sharp, cold-bloodied eyes.

The bandits were formerly 5, but now their comrade was killed brutally making them shaken their feet, feeling extremely afraid from the gruesome monster. The four remaining bandits can't even move their body from the numbness, they can only looked at the culprit whom they kidnapped this past few days.

They were sure that this young man they kidnapped was as delicate as a young flower, but how can he became a scary beast? He can't even fight back with them when they drugged him but now, it seems like the entire person changed completely.

Li Jie's gaze full of murder intent buried deeper into their chests. Fear and sorrow filled their hearts to the fullest. The young and gruesome man took of his eye patch revealing the cold sapphire eye that pierced his fear inside them. He grabbed one of the bandit's collar and pointed his knife to the bandit's chest.

"Who hired you?" The ill-boding voice of the young man rang into the bandit's ears as if he was a ferocious grim reaper. The bandit shivered and shrank himself from fear and told him the truth.

"H-he was Minister Liu! He ordered us to abduct you to be their daughter's substitute! We were only told what was done and we just simply obeyed it! Please spare me!" The bandit cried for mercy from Li Jie's hands, afraid if the knife will be buried from his chest sooner or later.

"Minister Liu..." Liu... Seems familiar.

Li Jie felt that this surname was a bit familiar to him, but he can't remember a thing of where did it come from. One thing from his mind is that, he knows that Liu must like a snake that wants to swallow an elephant.

"Say, where does he live?" Li Jie moved his knife slightly causing the bandit's soul flinched, afraid of losing his life.

"One kilometer to the right, find the loquat tree, beside it is the Liu mansion." The bandit's voice cracked, ensuring that he is too scared to die from the young man's hands.

"It's good that you're obedient, or else you'll be turned into someone like that." Li Jie pointed the dead bandit's body whose intestines have severely went out from his stomach. The bandit wanted throw all that entered his stomach, the horror and disgust swirled around his chest and he couldn't take it anymore.

"Now that you told me the truth, you don't want your life taken by the grim reaper right? Keep all your mouth shut or I too will turn your intestines hanged open just like your fellow comrade." Li Jie sneered at them, the bloodlust lurking inside Li Jie finally calmed down. The robe he wore was full of blood so he took off the outer layer of his robe and changed it into another one. The robe he wore was his own, not unlike the robe before that was a pitch black robe that was obviously from Min Zhe, right now he looked like an innocent and delicate goddess. He rubbed off the stained blood from his hands using an alcohol made by his brother Cheung Chao, and kept the knife from his spare bag.

The bandits looked at Li Jie who was now an innocent little flower, his evil and mean demeanor was completely covered by his face. Right now, he looked just like an outstanding immortal. He was more beautiful than a woman ever existed.

He looked back at the beaten bandits and finally covered his blue eye with his eye patch. He gave them a meaningful glare and walked away, not even turning back.

"What should we do now?" The other bandit cried, he doesn't know what to do. If they go to the Minister Liu's mansiom, they will be killed, if they escaped, they will also be in danger too. The bandits were about to lose their minds, but all of them decided that they will flee from the place, never to return again.

On Jiang Hua's clinic, he was about to panic that Li Jie was still not coming over. He knew that Li Jie will come at this hour but seeing the other didn't come over yet, he was worried. Cheung Chao told him that Li Jie wanted to go to his clinic instead of Cheung Chao's pharmacy so he prepared foods and snacks in order not to starve and exhaust Li Jie.

He kept walking back and forth, uneasiness racked his entire body. Whn he managed himself to go out from the clinic, he saw a familiar figure rushing towards his clinic.

"Brother! Brother!" Li Jie's smile was so bright that the young nobles who just managed to see him was so fascinated by his beauty. Jiang Hua was delighted seeing his brother coming to him, at the same time he glared at those people who kept staring at his 'adorable' little brother.

Li Jie then jumped at his brother and gave him a hug. The people who witnessed such fluffy scenes was envious at Jiang Hua for having such a great little 'sister'.

They thought that he was a woman, so they thought Li Jie is such an adorable 'little sister.' Jiang Hua was handsome too. His manly and tanned figure attracted many women. They also wanted him to be their husband. Sadly, they were all rejected by Jiang Hua causing their dainty hearts shattered.

"Come, let's go inside. I have a guest right now so you should rest inside my office okay?" Jiang Hua pampered his little brother again and the other one smiled 'innocently'. Jiang Hua looked at the black spot that was on Li Jie's hand and got curious.

'Did he burn something?' Jiang Hua thought. He just brushed his thoughts away and led Li Jie inside.

"By the way, what's that on your eye?" Jiang Hua asked while looking at Li Jie's eye patch.

"Brother, my eyes is quite weird than the original ones. What if they'll get afraid of me?"

"Nonsense! Who dares slander my younger brother? My brother is the most beautiful person in the world!" Jiang Hua exaggeratedly praised his younger brother, making the other sighed amd grabbed his brother to the clinic.

Inside the clinic, Lim Hao was looking at Jiang Hua's doctor tools, examining them as if these were precious jewelries. He then averted his gaze to the door of the clinic when he saw something interesting.

"Li Jie, go to the office first. Big brother have something to do first."

"Brother, I'm not a kid anymore. Stop petting my hair!"

"In my eyes, you will always be my baby brother. Now, off you go!" Li Jie pouted and looked at the so called guest. Lim Hao squinted his eyes, not believing what he has seen.

'Isn't thid the male concubine? Isn't he Guard 4's brother? Don't tell me, this excellent doctor is also Guard 4's brother.' Lim Hao thought.

Li Jie smiled at Lim Hao and proceeded his way to Jiang Hua's office.

'So beautiful! Damn I don't want to commit sin from the General.' Lim Hao crazily thought and shook his head. He then locked his gaze on Jiang Hua. As he checked those brothers, these brothers were blessed with looks. There's no doubt that Guard 4 and these brothers of him was as handsome and beautiful as the Gods and Goddesses. No wonder the General was curious about this runaway concubine.

"So, how may I help this young dandy?" Jiang Hua asked that made the other snapped back from his thoughts.

"The General wants a check up. He was just arrived from the war and wants his body checked if there were toxins inside his body." Lim Hao said as he keot glancing at the office's door.

"Hey, do you have a brother working at the General's place?" Lim Hao asked making Jiang Hua puzzled.

"Uh yeah. How did you know?" Jiang Hua is still a little bit confused but he never mind this matter and looked at Lim Hao, puzzled.

"Nothing. I just saw that you two were both alike."

"Oh, okay. About that matter, when is the date for his Excellence's check up?" Jiang Hua kept painting letters on the scroll as he spoke. The strokes of the brush danced like a fine calligrapher, Lim Hao couldn't help but to praise the Doctor's penmanship.

"Tomorrow at twelve. We will be waiting inside the manor."

"Okay, I'll be there at the exact hour." Lim Hao reluctantly went out of the clinic and heaved a sigh. It seems that his brother really didn't know the past situation of this young man. If he would tell him that his younger brother beat more than 6 guards in the manor, hw would have fainted from the shock.

'This concubine is really something.' He thought.

On the Jiang Hua's office, Li Jie kept staring at his hands. He didn't know why, but his heart trembled upon killing one single man. He killed several people in the past, but this is the first time that he was reluctant at killing that one bandit.

"My strength remained the same, but my feelings weakened. Is it because it's not my body?" Li Jie was sweating heavily. Seeing the horrid scene he caused earlier made him feel dizzy. His brother just went inside the office when he saw Li Jie seemed unwell.

"Brother are you okay?" Jiang Hua hurriedly ran to his brother's side and patted his back.

"Brother, I think I'm going to vomit." Li Jie grasped Jiang Hua's shoulders tightly.

"Wait here, I'll get a cold compress and a bucket. Lay down for a while."

Jiang Hua hurried his pace and prepared immediately. When he arrived at Li Jie, Li Jie quickly grabbed the bucket and vomited inside. Jiang Hua grew worried of the situation and soothed Li Jie's condition.

"Sleep for a while. You need to rest."

"Um."

Li Jie closed his eyes, the feeling of anxiousness and fear devoured his entire soul.

What should I do? Will I became a weak young man? I am even afraid of blood now. What should I do if something really happened to me?

Li Jie panicked, clasping his hands.

I tainted this innocent hand, and now I'm paying the price.