"Emotions?"
Yang Che was no fool. Thinking about all the events that led up to this, he was starting to piece the puzzle together.
"Still can't understand?"
"Tch, tch, tch..."
Pouting her lips, she came close to Yang Che before sitting beside him. Caressing her hair softly she spoke again.
"Poor Che'er... Never a bright kid. Let momma help you understand."
"You see, originally when I came to this town, I was looking for a suitable target. Someone who fits the criteria for my Bloodheart Art. And perhaps it was fate that I met your father."
"You see, the time I met him, he was full of negative emotions. Poor guy had just lost his wife and got kicked out of the family. With a child to feed, he was the perfect target."
.
.
.
"But you see... If I had sacrificed him at that time... The benefits would have been minimalistic."
"So...
I helped him to get back on his feet. I helped him to feel the warmth of a woman again. I helped him build this entire industry."
"By helping him, you mean fattened him like a pig to be slaughtered."
Gritting his teeth, Yang Che looked at the woman in front of him.
"OH!!! HOW SMART CHE'ER." In an instant, she moved her face closer to his before giving him a deep long kiss.
"hehe." Separating her tongue from his, she licked her lips before continuing further.
"Well, everything was going perfectly. But at that moment, I realized your presence."
Giving him a deep gaze she spoke further
"You see. By that time, you were blossoming into a wonderful young man. At that moment, I noticed your gaze towards me. A gaze that was filled with lust and possessiveness."
Yang Che didn't refute her but just closed his eyes in pain.
"So, I changed the target from an ordinary old man like your father to a young and talented person like you."
"After all, sacrificing someone in the Qi condensing realm gives much better results than any ordinary person."
"You... You could have just taken any Qi condensing in the world... Why this fixation on me?"
"Aww... My poor Che'er, did you already forget what the requirement for the Bloodheart Art is?"
Gritting his teeth, Yang Che spoke the words with great difficulty. "Strong negative emotions."
"Hahahahaha... That's right. STRONG NEGATIVE EMOTIONS."
"And what could be a better source of strong negative emotions than a son who killed his father for a woman only to be betrayed by the same woman?"
"Huff... Huff..."
Yang Che's breathing suddenly became erratic. At this moment, he finally understood why everything turned out the way it did.
"Was... Was anything between us... Ever real?"
Two drops of tears slowly fell from his closed eyes.
"Aww... This is what I like about you the most. Always being so optimistic."
"As for the matter of something between us, well, at least we both had fun. Even if it was for a short time."
The last ray of hope in Yang Che's heart died at that moment. Till now, he was willing to believe her. Till now, he was willing to forget about everything that she did if she just said she loved him. But, alas! As a great man once said, 'Reality is often disappointing.'
These final words of hers were the last nail in the coffin for him. In front of Song Jia's eyes, his body began to tremble uncontrollably. Right now, he just wanted to kill the woman in front of him. Strangle her with his own hands. But, alas! No matter what he did, he just couldn't move his lower body at all. Not to mention his lower body, he couldn't even gather strength in his hands. He was just sitting there helplessly. Other than shedding tears, there was nothing he could do.
"My mother..."
"What you said about my father being the killer of my mother..."
"Was it true?"
This was perhaps his last shred of sanity. One that he was desperately clinging onto.
Killing his own father was an act done in the heat of the moment. He needed a desperate reason to believe what he did was right. What he did was justice.
So, this was his last hope. The hope of redemption.
"Ha... Haha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA..."
Roaring with laughter, Song Jia looked at Yang Che with a mocking expression. She didn't say a word, yet the face of Yang Che went ashen as time passed.
"No... No... This is a dream... Wake up... This is a bad dream..."
Not daring to accept reality, Yang Che closed his eyes while shouting desperately. At this moment, he didn't dare to think further, he didn't dare to make a guess. Right now, his entire focus was on shouting those words. It was as if he didn't dare to accept what he had done.
"Aaaah... Haaaa..." Regulating her breathing, Song Jia looked at him before laughing again.
"Haha... You see... That fool didn't want to marry me at first. It was only after I told him that you needed the love of a mother, that he decided to agree."
"Well, even after agreeing, his condition was not to have any child."
"CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? HE DIDN'T WANT TO HAVE ANY CHILD BECAUSE HE WAS AFRAID THAT HIS LOVE WOULD BE DIVIDED BETWEEN YOU AND THE OTHER CHILD."
"Pfff... Hahahaha... He didn't want to make your future difficult. So he opted not to have any children with me."
"Hahahahaa...."
"OH, THE IRONY..."
"THE VERY PERSON HE WANTED TO PROTECT AND GIVE EVERYTHING, WAS THE ONE TO KILL HIM."
"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA"
Yang Che didn't speak or open his eyes. The wild laughter of Song Jia nudged the memories in his heart, making him recall his past.
In the depth of his memory, he remembered how he used to be when he was young. When his father was strict, rebellious thoughts would bubble up in his heart and he would grumble inwardly: "Would you just stop blabbering!?"
However as years passed and the figure of his father grew old before finally lying in the pool of his own blood, he cried silently in his heart "Father... please, just talk to me again, okay?"
Yang Che opened his eyes. As he looked around him, pain rose up within him. He thought about home and the lone figure of his father standing there with a smile.
"I want to go home..." he murmured.
At this moment, all the feelings of love and regret gradually overtook him like a tide. Right now, he didn't care about the woman in front of him, or the Xuanwu academy, or revenge or ambition. The only thing he wanted to do right now was to go back to his father and laugh with him.
His eyes seemed to blur, as he saw the figure of his father standing in front of him.
His father was right there, with a pipe in his mouth, his face covered in wrinkles. And as he turned his head, he smiled in a way that calmed him. Then he tussled his hair.
Yang Che seemed to turn into a small child at this moment, sitting on his father's shoulder, laughing happily...
"Hahahahahahahhahhahahahahahahahahahaa."
Looking at the figure of Yang Che who was roaring with laughter, Song Jia went silent for a long time.
"He has finally gone mad."
Shaking her head she picked him up with one hand before walking toward the red beam. Compared to before, her face was incomparably serious.
Reaching in front of the red beam, she placed Yang Che on the ground and took out a knife. This was the very same knife that Yang Che used to kill his father.
Placing the knife on his chest, Song Jia looked at the old man who nodded his head.
Taking a deep breath, she was about to plunge that knife deep into his heart before she suddenly stopped.
"Sigh...."
At this moment, a sigh echoed throughout the mountain. It was a sigh that was filled with helplessness and pity.
The moment this sigh reached her ears, Song Jia immediately felt a chill rushing through her body. Dropping the knife to the ground, she instantly retreated toward the old man before both of them looked in the direction from where the sigh came.
In the pitch-black darkness of the night, amid the manic laughter, the figure of a young boy in his sixteen slowly walked towards the centre.