The Legend of Chu Qiao - V1C6
Prologue 1- Major Chu Qiao
Prologue 2- A Storm is coming
Prologue 3- Time's up!
1- Royal Hunt
2- Zhuge, Wei, Mu, Jue, Che... and Yan
3- Fifth Brother
4- Fate is a Bitch!
5- Bloody Heart
6- Bastards
7- Snakes
8- Boundaries
9- Rocks and Plum Blossoms
10- Thank You, Sisters!
11- My name is 'None'
12- The Lantern Festival
13- Liar, liar!
14- The winner is the predator
15- Ambushed by a pervert. Saved by a Prince
Chapter 6
Bastards
Bastards
"Ugh." A small groan could be heard behind her. Xiao Qi barely made out Chu Qiao's features. Her voice was as soft as mosquitoes, and with paramount fear, she cried, "Sister Yu Er, Xiao Qi… is Xiao Qi dying?"
Chu Qiao crouched down and held the porcelain bottle in her hand. Her muscles tightened throughout her body, and she looked gloomily towards the main house of the Zhuge household. Slowly and firmly, she said, "Xiao Qi, I promise you, you will be okay."
Carrying Xiao Qi, she ran back to the slave's yard, rushed into the room, and cleaned the wound before bandaging it. The medicine Yan Xun had given her was very effective. It could not only stop the bleeding but also had a mild anesthetic effect. Xiao Qi let out several hums before falling into a deep sleep.
Xiao Ba, who had been feverish the entire time, finally woke up but was too weak to leave bed. The children were deeply traumatized by recent events. Silence filled the room as everyone watched Chu Qiao busily tending to Xiao Qi, who seemed not to notice anyone.
It was getting late. Chu Qiao wiped the sweat off her forehead, feeling the burn of the wound on her shoulder. She leaned against the wall, listening to Xiao Qi's soft cries of pain in her sleep. It was as if someone had tightly gripped her heart, yanked it out, and thrown it onto the freezing, snowy ground. Closing her eyes, Lin Xi appeared in her mind—the handsome, innocent kind boy who promised to protect her, the one who was beaten so badly he was unrecognizable.
Tears streamed silently from her tightly closed eyes, down her chin, and onto her cloth shoes.
·········⋆༺𓆩❀𓆪༻⋆·········
The following morning, a frantic voice could be heard outside the door. In shock, Chu Qiao opened the door and stepped out. A girl, about twelve or thirteen, stood in the yard. When she saw Chu Qiao, it was as if she had seen her savior. She cried and rushed forward, saying, "Yu Er! Zhi Xiang and the children from the Jing family were taken away by the men Housekeeper Zhu sent."
Chu Qiao frowned, and her voice grew quieter. "Taken away? When did this happen? They left early this morning.”
“I only managed to find Lin Xi and asked him to plead for forgiveness from the Fourth Young Master. A day has passed, but there's still no news from him. What should we do?" said the girl.
“Did they say what the children were doing?" Chu Qiao didn't bother to explain Lin Xi's death.
Wiping her tears, the girl sobbed, “They said… They said the children were being taken to the old Master’s house outside the city.”
“What?” Chu Qiao gasped, alarm bells ringing in her head. The unsettling rumors Lin Xi had shared recently about the Old Master’s cruel and perverted tendencies flooded her mind, draining the color from her face.
Xiao Ba stood at the door, listening to their conversation, and stepped forward in a daze. She tugged at Chu Qiao’s sleeves with a voice soft and trembling, like a wounded animal. “Sister Yu Er, where are Sister Zhi Xiang and the other children? Where did they go?”
Reacting swiftly, Chu Qiao turned and dashed out the door.
“Yu Er!” the girl called after her, but Chu Qiao didn’t look back, an unsettling feeling taking root in her chest. She wasn’t sure if she could reach them or if she had a chance of saving those children, but she pushed forward without daring to stop.
She sprinted past the Qing Shan court, the stables, and the back gardens, heading straight for the five curved corridors of the front court. Suddenly, she heard hurried footsteps and paused, cautious.
“Sister Yu Er?” a small voice came from behind. Chu Qiao was taken aback and turned to see Xiao Ba standing dejectedly behind her, barefoot and confused. “Where did Sister Zhi Xiang and the others go?”
Kneeling beside a bush, Chu Qiao pulled Xiao Ba close. It was early winter, and all the flowers had withered. Fortunately, it was night, and the ground wasn't muddy from melting snow or heavy rains, nor did the snow fall enough to make walking difficult. The low light also made it hard to see them.
As the sound of footsteps grew louder, four figures came into view, pushing a cart. One was shoving it forward while the other three supported its sides. Chu Qiao was already in a secluded path meant for cleaners. She huddled closer to Xiao Ba, crouching in the bushes and waiting quietly for the group to pass.
The men reached their hiding place and paused. Xiao Ba, trembling with fear, held onto Chu Qiao’s clothes tightly, too frightened to move, knowing better than to make any noise.
One of the men grumbled, “Let’s take a break, guys. We’ve been walking a long way without stopping. I need a smoke.”
The others laughed, "Old Liu's opium addiction is here." After this, they lit their pipes with glee and started smoking.
Chu Qiao grew anxious, her brows furrowing tightly. As the cold wind swept past, Xiao Ba, dressed lightly, began to shake vigorously from the cold. With the northern winds picking up, the straw mat on top of the cart was blown into the air with a swoosh, swirling around before landing with a crunch. The yellow straw mat was now stained red, soaked in dark crimson blood.
Chu Qiao and Xiao Ba looked into the cart. Quickly, Chu Qiao grabbed Xiao Ba's mouth with her hand, holding it shut tightly.
The moon shone through the clouds, casting a faint white light across the area. They only saw small bodies of children stacked on the medium pushcart, like a pile of lifeless objects, radishes. Zhi Xiang's skinny body lay naked, with bruises all over it. Her eyes were still wide in shock, with blood clots at the corners of her eyes. Her lower body was a mess, and her limbs were still being tied together. Her posture was strange, and she had been placed in the most humiliating manner at the top of the pile of bodies.
Chu Qiao covered Xiao Ba's mouth tightly, her other hand hugging her tightly. The child seemed like she had gone mad, desperately wanting to break free from her grip. Enormous drops of warm tears rolled down Chu Qiao's arms, her teeth sinking mercilessly into Chu Qiao's palm. Fresh blood seeped out, flowing down her fair wrist and eventually dripping onto the blackened soil. Moonlight shone through the sparse trees onto them, casting mottled shadows as dismal as frost.
No one knew how much time had passed. The cart gradually moved further away, surrounded by complete silence. Chu Qiao slowly let go of her hand, revealing flesh covered in blood. Xiao Ba seemed to have become mute, standing silently in a daze. Chu Qiao gently patted her cheek and called her name cautiously in a hoarse voice.
The wind was freezing, and withered branches spun in the air. On this night of complete silence, music played from the main hall of the front courtyard as if it came from another world.
"Kill them…" the seven-year-old child murmured. Her eyes widened suddenly, and she continued, "I want to go and kill… Kill them!"
The child, with bloodshot eyes, was rummaging around as if she were searching for something. Suddenly, she picked up a stone from the bush, stood up, and tried to run toward the cart. Luckily, Chu Qiao reacted quickly. She held the child back, keeping her tightly in her arms.
"Kill them!" Kill them!" The child could not hold it back anymore as she roared in fury, her face twisted with hatred and despair, tears streaking down her face. She could collapse at any moment.
Chu Qiao felt as if a knife had been driven through her heart. She held this frantic child in her arms and finally surrendered to her overwhelming tears.
These animals, these beasts, a thousand deaths wouldn't be enough to wash away the sins of those bastards. She had never felt such intense hatred, nor had she ever experienced such a desire to kill someone. An overwhelming amount of hatred consumed her. She hated them, despised the cruelty of those people, and loathed this barbaric world. But she hated her weakness and helplessness even more. She hated that she could only watch these events unfold and couldn't do anything about them.
The child in her arms was about to collapse. Her cries felt like knives slicing through Chu Qiao's heart. If she could get a shotgun, she wouldn’t think twice about rushing into the Zhuge household and killing every single one of those bastards inside.
It was a shame she had nothing. She possessed nothing—no money, no power, no background, no skills, and no arms. She was simply a spirit from another world, confined within the small body of Jing Yu Er. Despite having the intelligence and knowledge that were thousands of years more advanced than her current time, she could only hide quietly in the bushes at that moment. She hadn't even summoned the courage to see them one last time.
Chu Qiao slowly lifted her head, letting the cold moonlight shine on her face. She secretly promised herself that this would only happen once. She never wanted it to happen again. She never wanted to live without anything, and she never wanted to live without the ability to protect herself. Never again!
The cold moon looked like it was liquid. In such a large household, two weak and humble slaves crouched in the bushes in the backyard like two shy puppies lying close together. Still, they harbored enough hate to destroy the world.
By the time they reached the slaves' yard, it was already midnight. Before going through the gate, she noticed the door was wide open. Chu Qiao's heart sank. She released Xiao Ba's hand before running into the house.
The room was a mess. The top of the bed-stove was covered with blood stains, and adult footprints were scattered across the floor. There was no sign of Xiao Qi.
"Yu Er, you’re back!" The girl she had met earlier crawled out from the pile of firewood in the corner of the room.
Chu Qiao hurried forward and pulled her back. She asked in a deep voice, "Where is Xiao Qi? Where did Xiao Qi go?"
The girl cried and replied, "Housekeeper Zhu brought his men over and took Xiao Qi with him. He said that she could no longer work without one hand. They carried her out and planned to throw her into Ting Lake to feed the crocodiles."
Chu Qiao fainted and lost consciousness, her heart overwhelmed. She grasped the girl's robes and, with a hoarse voice, asked, "How long have they been gone?" Then, panicking, she shouted, “How long have they been gone?
It was nearly an hour ago. Yu Er, it's already too late to save her.
Chu Qiao turned to look at Xiao Ba, who was standing at the door. Her eyes were red from crying, and she lifted her head to look at Chu Qiao as well. When their eyes met, tears began to roll down their cheeks, but neither of them made a sound.
“Yu Er, I have to go back. You two need to be careful. From what I heard from people in the laundry room, Housekeeper Zhu is intentionally targeting you. Did you do anything to offend him?
There was pin-drop silence inside the hut. The courtyard looked like a vast white space. Both children stood there silently for a long time.
When the clock struck 3 a.m., the drum sounded. The last two children of the Jing family silently snuck through the Qingshi forest and reached Ting Lake behind the Zhuge house. The cold wind rustled the bamboo trees, and the lake was silent. Its tranquil surface looked no different from any other day.
Chu Qiao kneeled on a hill and said to Xiao Ba beside her, "Xiao Ba, get on your knees. Give our brothers and sisters a kowtow."
Xiao Ba was barely six years old, but she had gone through a traumatic experience tonight. Her small face had lost the innocent look it should have had. She knelt quietly beside Chu Qiao, bowed deeply toward the lake, and knocked her head heavily three times on the ground.
"Xiao Ba, do you hate this place?"
The child nodded without uttering a word.
Sounding calm, Chu Qiao said softly, "Do you want to leave?"
The child said in a deep tone, "Yes."
Chu Qiao looked ahead, her voice calm and composed. She squinted her eyes and frowned, gently saying, "I promise you, I will bring you away as soon as possible. But before we leave, we still have some unfinished business. After all that is over, we will leave this place."
The child understood the meaning behind the words and nodded quietly again as she kowtowed, muttering each word clearly, "Sister Zhi Xiang, you have always prayed for the Gods’ blessings, but I don't think you knew they were blind. Take our brothers and sisters with you and move on. Wait and see, as Sister Yu Er and I will avenge you all."
The cold wind howled through the night. Two small bodies rested close together on the hill in Qing Shi Forest, holding hands tightly, tears streaming down their faces.
Chu Qiao crouched down and held the porcelain bottle in her hand. Her muscles tightened throughout her body, and she looked gloomily towards the main house of the Zhuge household. Slowly and firmly, she said, "Xiao Qi, I promise you, you will be okay."
Carrying Xiao Qi, she ran back to the slave's yard, rushed into the room, and cleaned the wound before bandaging it. The medicine Yan Xun had given her was very effective. It could not only stop the bleeding but also had a mild anesthetic effect. Xiao Qi let out several hums before falling into a deep sleep.
Xiao Ba, who had been feverish the entire time, finally woke up but was too weak to leave bed. The children were deeply traumatized by recent events. Silence filled the room as everyone watched Chu Qiao busily tending to Xiao Qi, who seemed not to notice anyone.
It was getting late. Chu Qiao wiped the sweat off her forehead, feeling the burn of the wound on her shoulder. She leaned against the wall, listening to Xiao Qi's soft cries of pain in her sleep. It was as if someone had tightly gripped her heart, yanked it out, and thrown it onto the freezing, snowy ground. Closing her eyes, Lin Xi appeared in her mind—the handsome, innocent kind boy who promised to protect her, the one who was beaten so badly he was unrecognizable.
Tears streamed silently from her tightly closed eyes, down her chin, and onto her cloth shoes.
·········⋆༺𓆩❀𓆪༻⋆·········
The following morning, a frantic voice could be heard outside the door. In shock, Chu Qiao opened the door and stepped out. A girl, about twelve or thirteen, stood in the yard. When she saw Chu Qiao, it was as if she had seen her savior. She cried and rushed forward, saying, "Yu Er! Zhi Xiang and the children from the Jing family were taken away by the men Housekeeper Zhu sent."
Chu Qiao frowned, and her voice grew quieter. "Taken away? When did this happen? They left early this morning.”
“I only managed to find Lin Xi and asked him to plead for forgiveness from the Fourth Young Master. A day has passed, but there's still no news from him. What should we do?" said the girl.
“Did they say what the children were doing?" Chu Qiao didn't bother to explain Lin Xi's death.
Wiping her tears, the girl sobbed, “They said… They said the children were being taken to the old Master’s house outside the city.”
“What?” Chu Qiao gasped, alarm bells ringing in her head. The unsettling rumors Lin Xi had shared recently about the Old Master’s cruel and perverted tendencies flooded her mind, draining the color from her face.
Xiao Ba stood at the door, listening to their conversation, and stepped forward in a daze. She tugged at Chu Qiao’s sleeves with a voice soft and trembling, like a wounded animal. “Sister Yu Er, where are Sister Zhi Xiang and the other children? Where did they go?”
Reacting swiftly, Chu Qiao turned and dashed out the door.
“Yu Er!” the girl called after her, but Chu Qiao didn’t look back, an unsettling feeling taking root in her chest. She wasn’t sure if she could reach them or if she had a chance of saving those children, but she pushed forward without daring to stop.
She sprinted past the Qing Shan court, the stables, and the back gardens, heading straight for the five curved corridors of the front court. Suddenly, she heard hurried footsteps and paused, cautious.
“Sister Yu Er?” a small voice came from behind. Chu Qiao was taken aback and turned to see Xiao Ba standing dejectedly behind her, barefoot and confused. “Where did Sister Zhi Xiang and the others go?”
Kneeling beside a bush, Chu Qiao pulled Xiao Ba close. It was early winter, and all the flowers had withered. Fortunately, it was night, and the ground wasn't muddy from melting snow or heavy rains, nor did the snow fall enough to make walking difficult. The low light also made it hard to see them.
As the sound of footsteps grew louder, four figures came into view, pushing a cart. One was shoving it forward while the other three supported its sides. Chu Qiao was already in a secluded path meant for cleaners. She huddled closer to Xiao Ba, crouching in the bushes and waiting quietly for the group to pass.
The men reached their hiding place and paused. Xiao Ba, trembling with fear, held onto Chu Qiao’s clothes tightly, too frightened to move, knowing better than to make any noise.
One of the men grumbled, “Let’s take a break, guys. We’ve been walking a long way without stopping. I need a smoke.”
The others laughed, "Old Liu's opium addiction is here." After this, they lit their pipes with glee and started smoking.
Chu Qiao grew anxious, her brows furrowing tightly. As the cold wind swept past, Xiao Ba, dressed lightly, began to shake vigorously from the cold. With the northern winds picking up, the straw mat on top of the cart was blown into the air with a swoosh, swirling around before landing with a crunch. The yellow straw mat was now stained red, soaked in dark crimson blood.
Chu Qiao and Xiao Ba looked into the cart. Quickly, Chu Qiao grabbed Xiao Ba's mouth with her hand, holding it shut tightly.
The moon shone through the clouds, casting a faint white light across the area. They only saw small bodies of children stacked on the medium pushcart, like a pile of lifeless objects, radishes. Zhi Xiang's skinny body lay naked, with bruises all over it. Her eyes were still wide in shock, with blood clots at the corners of her eyes. Her lower body was a mess, and her limbs were still being tied together. Her posture was strange, and she had been placed in the most humiliating manner at the top of the pile of bodies.
Chu Qiao covered Xiao Ba's mouth tightly, her other hand hugging her tightly. The child seemed like she had gone mad, desperately wanting to break free from her grip. Enormous drops of warm tears rolled down Chu Qiao's arms, her teeth sinking mercilessly into Chu Qiao's palm. Fresh blood seeped out, flowing down her fair wrist and eventually dripping onto the blackened soil. Moonlight shone through the sparse trees onto them, casting mottled shadows as dismal as frost.
No one knew how much time had passed. The cart gradually moved further away, surrounded by complete silence. Chu Qiao slowly let go of her hand, revealing flesh covered in blood. Xiao Ba seemed to have become mute, standing silently in a daze. Chu Qiao gently patted her cheek and called her name cautiously in a hoarse voice.
The wind was freezing, and withered branches spun in the air. On this night of complete silence, music played from the main hall of the front courtyard as if it came from another world.
"Kill them…" the seven-year-old child murmured. Her eyes widened suddenly, and she continued, "I want to go and kill… Kill them!"
The child, with bloodshot eyes, was rummaging around as if she were searching for something. Suddenly, she picked up a stone from the bush, stood up, and tried to run toward the cart. Luckily, Chu Qiao reacted quickly. She held the child back, keeping her tightly in her arms.
"Kill them!" Kill them!" The child could not hold it back anymore as she roared in fury, her face twisted with hatred and despair, tears streaking down her face. She could collapse at any moment.
Chu Qiao felt as if a knife had been driven through her heart. She held this frantic child in her arms and finally surrendered to her overwhelming tears.
These animals, these beasts, a thousand deaths wouldn't be enough to wash away the sins of those bastards. She had never felt such intense hatred, nor had she ever experienced such a desire to kill someone. An overwhelming amount of hatred consumed her. She hated them, despised the cruelty of those people, and loathed this barbaric world. But she hated her weakness and helplessness even more. She hated that she could only watch these events unfold and couldn't do anything about them.
The child in her arms was about to collapse. Her cries felt like knives slicing through Chu Qiao's heart. If she could get a shotgun, she wouldn’t think twice about rushing into the Zhuge household and killing every single one of those bastards inside.
It was a shame she had nothing. She possessed nothing—no money, no power, no background, no skills, and no arms. She was simply a spirit from another world, confined within the small body of Jing Yu Er. Despite having the intelligence and knowledge that were thousands of years more advanced than her current time, she could only hide quietly in the bushes at that moment. She hadn't even summoned the courage to see them one last time.
Chu Qiao slowly lifted her head, letting the cold moonlight shine on her face. She secretly promised herself that this would only happen once. She never wanted it to happen again. She never wanted to live without anything, and she never wanted to live without the ability to protect herself. Never again!
The cold moon looked like it was liquid. In such a large household, two weak and humble slaves crouched in the bushes in the backyard like two shy puppies lying close together. Still, they harbored enough hate to destroy the world.
By the time they reached the slaves' yard, it was already midnight. Before going through the gate, she noticed the door was wide open. Chu Qiao's heart sank. She released Xiao Ba's hand before running into the house.
The room was a mess. The top of the bed-stove was covered with blood stains, and adult footprints were scattered across the floor. There was no sign of Xiao Qi.
"Yu Er, you’re back!" The girl she had met earlier crawled out from the pile of firewood in the corner of the room.
Chu Qiao hurried forward and pulled her back. She asked in a deep voice, "Where is Xiao Qi? Where did Xiao Qi go?"
The girl cried and replied, "Housekeeper Zhu brought his men over and took Xiao Qi with him. He said that she could no longer work without one hand. They carried her out and planned to throw her into Ting Lake to feed the crocodiles."
Chu Qiao fainted and lost consciousness, her heart overwhelmed. She grasped the girl's robes and, with a hoarse voice, asked, "How long have they been gone?" Then, panicking, she shouted, “How long have they been gone?
It was nearly an hour ago. Yu Er, it's already too late to save her.
Chu Qiao turned to look at Xiao Ba, who was standing at the door. Her eyes were red from crying, and she lifted her head to look at Chu Qiao as well. When their eyes met, tears began to roll down their cheeks, but neither of them made a sound.
“Yu Er, I have to go back. You two need to be careful. From what I heard from people in the laundry room, Housekeeper Zhu is intentionally targeting you. Did you do anything to offend him?
There was pin-drop silence inside the hut. The courtyard looked like a vast white space. Both children stood there silently for a long time.
When the clock struck 3 a.m., the drum sounded. The last two children of the Jing family silently snuck through the Qingshi forest and reached Ting Lake behind the Zhuge house. The cold wind rustled the bamboo trees, and the lake was silent. Its tranquil surface looked no different from any other day.
Chu Qiao kneeled on a hill and said to Xiao Ba beside her, "Xiao Ba, get on your knees. Give our brothers and sisters a kowtow."
Xiao Ba was barely six years old, but she had gone through a traumatic experience tonight. Her small face had lost the innocent look it should have had. She knelt quietly beside Chu Qiao, bowed deeply toward the lake, and knocked her head heavily three times on the ground.
"Xiao Ba, do you hate this place?"
The child nodded without uttering a word.
Sounding calm, Chu Qiao said softly, "Do you want to leave?"
The child said in a deep tone, "Yes."
Chu Qiao looked ahead, her voice calm and composed. She squinted her eyes and frowned, gently saying, "I promise you, I will bring you away as soon as possible. But before we leave, we still have some unfinished business. After all that is over, we will leave this place."
The child understood the meaning behind the words and nodded quietly again as she kowtowed, muttering each word clearly, "Sister Zhi Xiang, you have always prayed for the Gods’ blessings, but I don't think you knew they were blind. Take our brothers and sisters with you and move on. Wait and see, as Sister Yu Er and I will avenge you all."
The cold wind howled through the night. Two small bodies rested close together on the hill in Qing Shi Forest, holding hands tightly, tears streaming down their faces.
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