He did not reach out to touch her since he knew she would become angry in an instant and not give him another moment of her time. Instead, he turns and asks her this question hoping she would answer him and not continue walking away. All he wanted was a clear answer. Zhou Hua Fan seemed to pause in step as if contemplating turning back around to answer him or not. Huang Gou Heng held his breath while waiting anxiously for her answer. "Do you hate me?"
The girl stood in place as a tense atmosphere took place between the two. Feigning calm Hua Fan did not turn around but asked him coldly from over her shoulder. "Why does it matter to you?" Gou Heng was shocked by her question since he was expecting a "yes" instead. But this was better.
This was much better than a look of disgust and glare of hatred as he thought she would give him. "I did not want to take away your home from you." "I know." He held back a breath of relief and continued his soft explanations seeing as the girl was willing to listen to what he had to say. "I do not plan to take away your birthright." Hua Fan's eyes flash with a hint of sorrow he could not see since the girl was not facing him.
His voice was very gentle like he was afraid she would become frightened if he raised it any louder than now. Though it was not a man's voice it was in the process of developing that deep humming tone from back then that made her toes curl and her heart flutter with each syllable. She felt the left side of her chest squeeze painfully, "My intentions towards you are not malicious." "But mine are." She cut off his words before he could say more and gave him a chilling look. "Huang Gou Heng."
"Do not think that you and I are from the same world just because you were taken in by Zhou Feng Ming and allowed to live because of his pathetic efforts. You will never understand my thoughts or feelings. You were born a commoner, a poor street rat who crawled your way up the ladder using your slutty mother's connections." Her delicate nose crinkles, "Do not approach me so casually just because you have become Feng Ming's "son". You make me uncomfortable."
Her voice was as sharp as a knife, he could feel each word she spit out cut up the hope that had grown just moments ago. Not even leaving him a second to breathe Hua Fan quickly ran away while he was stuck in place. Do not look back Hua Fan. She concentrates on her feet so she would not trip over herself. A biting pain echoes through her upper chest, her nasty tone of voice, and the words she spoke.
How could she? No, she had to. She had to do it. She had to make it clear to him he was not welcome in her presence. She had to make sure he stayed away.
Each insult hurt herself as well but she refused to show the pain deep down. He did not call for her again. Even when she had turned the corner and disappeared from his sights she did not turn around and he did not call out to her. Hua Fan's eyes blur for a moment, she furiously wipes the tears that threatened to rain down. "Stop that." She hisses to herself.
"You do not deserve to feel this way." You did this to yourself. A strange chill runs down her spine, she could feel its breath on her left ear making the neck on the back of her neck rise. "So you have chosen this path? Let us see if you have chosen correctly or not then. Girl, once you say something unlike physical objects they can never be taken back or repaired. Malicious memories remain with us forever, whether our brains remember them or not our body and soul will remember."
It's pale invisible hands wrap around her neck causing Hua Fan's doe eyes to widen with fear. "For a favor to be given and nothing returned, a price must be paid whether by force or will. Though intentions are pure the heart is sullied and no one wins. You will face a punishment far worse than this if we do not take matters into our own hands." It seemed to sigh in her ear, she could hear its apology but she was too frightened to care.
"We are sorry, little one." The being tightly grasps her throat and unhesitantly squeezes her thin white neck. With her airways blocked she could feel her lungs burn almost immediately as her body was not the fittest since coming back. She was fragile, annoyingly fragile as it did not take much for her vision to blur and the pain to set in. Her trembling lips open in a desperate attempt to take a deep breath to no avail as the hand painfully wrings her fragile neck.
She did not try to call for help as she knew its intentions. She was terrified! But who would help her? The tears she had wiped away came back flowing down her deathly pale face. Hua Fan closes her eyes as a warped whimper fell from her bloodless lips and accepts the "price" she traded for her revenge.
Though she was in pain and afraid Hua Fan knew she would not regret her decision. She was already dying. To drag those people down with her to hell was better than letting them live happily once she was gone once more. Heng would be much happier and safer if all of those people....if all of us disappeared... It seemed to understand her and whispers by her ear sadly once more even though it knew the girl may hence not hear it through her pain. "We know, little one. We know the painful path which you choose to take, to take a life one must pay an equal price. For what humans fear is death but what the dying fear is pain. Revenge is not always sweet..."