Yunchen peered over the wall. The darkness began to descend, making it difficult for him to be seen. But that meant he will have difficulty in seeing what was happening inside the courtyard. There were a couple of torches hanging along the walls that spread light around them.
He waited laying on top of the wall patiently for an opportunity to eavesdrop for information as to who the persons involved in this affair were. But, after two hours of waiting, everything was still quiet and nobody came out of the house. He was starting to have second thoughts about returning to the Wei family. After all, he wasn't fond of them, to put it mildly.
But there still were a couple of people who didn't do him any wrong. Hesitating, he finally decided not to waste any more time and just get on with it. After all, he still made the way back despite the heavy words he exchanged with his father through the hologram. He climbed down the wall and started walking towards the door.
As soon as he entered the courtyard, though, people came pouring out from all directions, surrounding him.
Seeing them, he didn't know how to react. On the one side, the Wei family was safe, on the other he was screwed.
A man came out the door and walked slowly towards him sneering. The ones surrounding him made way for him.
Yunchen simply watched him approaching in a sedated pace. God, how much he hated that man and his smirk. He sputtered seeing him come closer.
"Dongyi, get moving faster! I have no time to watch you swagger like that. As I can see here, there was no disaster, no loss of lives as far as I can see. It was cruel of you guys. For a moment I hoped I would see your dead bodies and have the pleasure of relieving myself on your cold corpses. Alas, it was but a dream. It was fun though, while it lasted..."
The man stopped walking. His smile disappeared.
"Boy, after all this time, you still have that big mouth of yours. But no worries, soon your tongue will be used to polish my boots. You're still talking big when there's nobody around to protect you."
Yunchen shook his head, in mock sorrow.
"You know, for once, I agree with you. There isn't anyone around to protect me. Along the years, I kept waiting for someone to stand by my side. I thought that at least my parents wold do that. But life thought me otherwise time and time again. No matter what happens, there was only one person I could always trust to be at my side when I'm in trouble."
Dongyi looked at him, smirking once again.
"If you're talking about your grandpa, you're going to be disappointed this time as well as in the future boy. He's not going to be back any time soon. If at all."
Yunchen looked at him for a moment, then shook his head.
"That's good to know. I suppose you have something to do with it." seeing the smile spreading on his face, Yunchen shook his head again while licking his bottom lip. "And you're not even denying it. Good to know that too. But you're wrong about the one I can always trust. It's not my grandfather. In fact starting this very moment, all ties between him and the Wei family cease to exist."
Dongyi looked at him puzzled for a moment then started laughing.
"You're not talking about yourself, are you? Because if you do, it doesn't matter if you're Wei family or not. What matters is that you'll remain here bound in chains from now on to atone for the fact that you attacked Danxuan."
Yunchen looked at him with a mocking smile.
"So let me get this. You went through all this trouble just to make sure that your pampered son had a boo-boo and you're kissing it better just the right way by putting me in chains. It's good to know the lengths you're willing to go in order to protect your family. I can even respect that. Damn, maybe I would have liked to have someone like you as a father. At least you have the necessary equipment for the job, not like someone I know."
At that moment his father burst through the door and started walking towards him menacingly.
"And what do you mean by that, boy? Do you think so little of me as your father?"
Yunchen looked at him for a moment and then turned his attention back to Dongyi.
"Now, let's get back to our previous talk before we were so rudely interrupted..."
His father lunged at him, grabbing him by the neck. He didn't struggle in his grasp, only looked at him with a shit-eating grin on his face, which infuriated his father even more.
"What were you talking about, boy?"
He gave him a couple of shakes making him lose the shirt around his waist, which dropped to the ground and left him in all his naked glory for all to see. His father looked at him dumbfounded for a moment before throwing him away.
"God damn it, boy! Why are you naked?"
Yunchen stood back on his feet clapping his hands of dirt.
"Well, I don't really know. Whenever I woke up lately, I was naked. All I had left was that piece of cloth which you shook me out of. And about your previous question. We were talking about balls. Balls are a piece of anatomy, something you are seriously lacking."
The slap landed before he could say anything more. What surprised him was that it wasn't his father who slapped him. Shang Yunfei, his mother, stood in front of him, furious. She threw him a long robe.
"Put some clothes on you first. I truly am disappointed in you. I didn't think you could go even lower on the ladder of filth until just now. The way you're disrespecting your father and this whole family with your actions and your words is mind-boggling. But this ends right now. Do you hear me?"
Yunchen caught the robe with a hand while with the other he traced the red print of her hand on his cheek. He passed his tongue through his mouth and finally spit on the ground the mixture of saliva and blood. He bit his tongue when she slapped him. He watched her eyes start to narrow in anger and her teeth starting to show in a snarl of both disgust and anger.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up. It's good to see you're still alive and well, mother. You even try to keep me in line. Did you just try to recover the lost time you ignored me? Let me say this to you. It's too late for that now. Where were you for the last almost ten years when I needed you? Oh, you were there, but what did you tell me when I came at you with a problem? Suck it up, you're a man. You have your head, use it. Why do you keep pestering me? Go seek your grandparents for this, I don't have the time right now. Well, guess what, mother. I sucked it up and started using my head. I stopped pestering you. I stopped pestering anyone, but somehow you still wasn't happy with that. You kept pestering me. And now you come here to reinstate your lost dominance over me for talking like that after the way this family treated me? And my father? As I said previously, you really lack the required equipment for that. Your wife is wearing them right now. But whatever. That's not my concern. Not anymore. I was stupid enough to fall in this trap. But that won't happen ever again. I can promise you that."
He looked at everyone around him who were looking at him with mouths hanging open, unable to react in any way.
"You know, you should close your mouths. Some flies might enter while you are like that."
He looked at Dongyi.
"Dongyi, I hate you from the bottom of my heart. But at least you fight for what you hold dear. I can respect that. As the rest of you lot, you're just pissing me off."
He looked at the sky and started to smile as the moon started coming out of the clouds. He muttered to himself.
" Well, let's hope you're doing your magic again. I hope I'm not wrong in my assumptions of what happened to me the last couple of days. Either way I'm sure it's going to hurt like hell."
He started laughing like a lunatic as the first rays of moonlight illuminated him and the flames appeared. He was right in his assumptions. He laughed as he was engulfed in flames under the frightened eyes of everyone. He laughed until he started to cry. But it wasn't his howls of pain that sounded all across the courtyard.
The thirst for vengeance was maddening and he felt invincible under the moonlight while covered in flames.