"Ask me that again." Tan Huizhong spoke. His voice was full of rage, and pain. In the backyard of his house, stood Chen Bohai and himself. A week had passed since Tan Ying had intruded, ever since then it had been awkward between the teacher-student duo. "I said," Tan Huizhong yelled, "ask me that again!"
"Did you kill my grandfather?" Bohai yelled back with tears in his eyes. Tan Huizhong was the last remnant of his past, he didn't want to lose him too. But, he had to know if what Tan Ying said was true.
Tan Huizhong turned red as Bohai cried. A thick vein was beginning to bulge out of his sloping forehead, and he was pacing around. As he paced, a table came into his path. He shoved it out of the way. Due to his anger, he didn't care to hold back his strength, and the table shattered the instant he touched it.
"Hah. Ha. Ha!" Tan Huizhong began to laugh to himself. "That bastard." He cursed at the late Tan Ying - who he had just found out that he was dead, no thanks to his ungrateful pupil. "You think I killed your clan?" He shouted.
"No." Bohai responded firmly. "I just want to know who did, and if you played any part to what led to the genocide of my clan!" Bohai cried, the tears finally streamed down his face.
Tan Huizhong's frustration dispersed as he saw the pitiful boy cry. In the years since he met him, he had only seen the boy cry once, despite all of the hardships he'd gone through. To see him cry now, a confused and hopeless cry, was heartbreaking for the tough old man.
"Get up." Huizhong said, all of his prior anger already gone. "Get up." He repeated himself. Bohai slowly began to stand up, still sniffling as he struggled to stop crying. "Let's go."
"W-Where?"
"Just shut up and follow me."
What took a thirty minute walk, ended up taking two hours. Tan Huizhong, who usually was always rushing, was walking incredibly slow. He led them to an edge of a cliff, that overlooked the capital. It was so close to the capital walls that a skilled Art user could possibly jump over, what they'd do to stop their fall would be up to them though
"This is the last place I saw my wife's face." Tan Huizhong suddenly said. His voice was full of painful, and happy, memories. "I came here for a week, to look at it, before I finally went crazy. All I wanted to do was give her a proper send off the the after life," he said slowly. "But they wouldn't even let me do that.
"Your grandfather was there that day. He tried to tell me not to do anything stupid, but I didn't listen. I jumped from right here, to get her beautiful head. When I went to remove it though, it was already gone. Your grandfather had grabbed it, and told me that I shouldn't have to do it myself.
There's not really anywhere to stand there, you see, so we fell immediately. Since he had helped me, it was my task to get us down safely. Which was relatively easy. But, we got caught in the end.
They charged both of us with some silly stuff. I don't even remember what it was at this point. Nevertheless, it got both of us in some trouble with our clans.
That was also the last day I saw your grandfather. Since we had gotten in trouble, we were being confined to our houses. Not shortly afterwards, the Chen clan fell apart. The official report came out, and I knew it wasn't my fault. But, I felt like something could've been different. Thats probably why that brat thinks that I felt responsible for it."
"Oh."
"Oh? Oh? What! I told you what you were curious about and all you can say is 'Oh.' ?" Tan Huizhong yelled. "Oh. Oh. Oh." He teased. "When I was feeling a bit down, I got a letter. It evaporated the second I read it."
"The Lee clan?" Bohai asked suddenly.
"Yep. They knew something, I couldn't decipher it though. It evaporated before I could figure it out." Tan Huizhong said with a sad smile. Bohai remained silent, due to all the meddling thoughts in his head. He had taken in a bunch of information in a very short amount of time. He needed time to process it. By the look on his face, Huizhong knew he was confused. "You can't find them, they find you. Don't even try looking for them."
"You don't remember what was on their letter?"
"Of course I do. It was this weird character thing written in blood. I've never seen the character before, and before I could analyze it the blood began to shift into another character. It was a masterpiece of a secret letter, but too much of one. I couldn't decipher its meaning."
"But maybe I could?" Bohai suggested after a while. His eyes were full of determination, and Tan Huizhong knew that there would be no convincing him otherwise.
"Maybe. But I want to be there to see if you can." Tan Huizhong said with a soft smile. "Shall we do the unexpected, and find the Lee clan?"
"Yes!"
As they left the cliff, Huizhong glanced back at the wall. 'I'm sorry.' He apologized to his late wife, and late friend. He knew that he shouldn't be leading this kid on the wrong path, but he too wanted clarity.