Late at night, the entire Zhang family had retired to bed except for one person. Zhang Xiyu sat in his study along with an unexpected guest. He put down the papers in his hand and looked at Heng directly.
"Who is this?" Zhang Xiyu pointed at a tall bearded man standing in the corner of the room.
Heng waved his hand dismissively and said, "Just a bodyguard."
"A bodyguard? Who would want to put a hit on you?"
His voice dripped with fake concern but the mockery was evident. You are not important enough to even be on a hitlist.
This disrespectful brat...
Heng put on a wry smile to hide his displeasure and said, "He runs other errands as well. Servant would be a more apt term."
The "servant" quietly rolled his eyes.
Zhang Xiyu sighed, "So, why are you here so late?"
Heng played with his sleeves while leaning forward. "It's no use playing a fool in front of me, Zhang Xiyu."
Zhang Xiyu's eyes suddenly became cold and met Heng's sinister gaze. They stayed in this locked position, one annoyed and the other arrogant.
"The emperor told you." He stated.
Heng chuckled, "You caught me. I come here bearing a message."
He then rolls out a scroll and presents it proudly. "This is your life saving grace."
Zhang Xiyu snatched it out of his hand and went through the contract swiftly.
"Let me be clear, your recent stunt has made the emperor very unhappy. It would be in your good graces to concede with these small demands and his majesty will benevolently forgive you."
"Small demands?" He gave an incredulous expression.
"You want me to back off on my stand, write you a letter of high commendation, surrender my property in Jiangning, give you fifty Mio. Ounces of silver and- "
"Let you marry my sister?! Are you intoxicated or did you hit your head while coming in? Why would I let my fourteen-year-old sister marry you, a senior citizen?"
He rolled up the paper and threw it on his bald head.
A vein popped up on Heng's forehead. You fucker, I am only 32.
"Stop with the jokes, you bastard. I will see your face tomorrow in court. Let me see for myself how unhappy the "emperor" is."
"Zhang Xiyu! You arrogant brat!" Heng's face huffed and puffed like a fish. His complexion turned red with anger.
"You have no idea what a huge mistake you're making by rejecting my offer!"
Zhang Xiyu rested his chin on his right hand and looked at him with bored eyes.
"Hmmm? Is that so?" he dragged his words.
Heng was rendered speechless. He wanted to curse his entire ancestral line twice and back and yet he was speechless. His mind simply blanked out in anger. He stood up and walked towards the door.
Zhang Xiyu did not pay him any mind and went back to his work.
Suddenly, Heng turns back to look at him. Zhang Xiyu raised his eyebrow questionably.
"I don't think you will have the privilege to look at my face tomorrow." Heng smirked.
Zhang Xiyu looked at him silently for a while as if rethinking his actions.
Ha! Look at him! Speechless with fear!
But Zhang Xiyu simply exhaled and whined.
"Will you get out already?"
Heng slammed the door with a humph. "Haoran."
The bearded man walked towards him. Heng looked around like a thief to make sure that no one else was present.
"Well, there you go. He refused your ridiculous conditions. What else would you expect of a first-class scholar?" Haoran scoffed at him.
"You just had to write down your demands with your head in the clouds. Honestly, you have fumbled a really big opportunity. It's like the devil gave you such heart but forgot to back it up with a brain- "
"Enough you brute! What would you know about scheming?"
Haoran made the same expression as Zhang Xiyu had a while ago.
"That arrogant, rude, and ill-mannered rascal...I will not let this slide. Haoran, let's get to plan B"
"You mean…." Disbelief evident in his voice.
Heng did speak anymore. His eyes had darkened with malice as he walked away into the darkness.
It was going to be a long night.
_______________________________________________________
It was way past midnight and Zhang Xiyu was still cooped up in his study. In this silent atmosphere, a painful scream pierced through. It sounded like...…. his sister…
Zhang Xiyu rushed to open the door. He pulled back his hand in shock. It was a little too warm.
Frantically, he kicked the door open. Sweat crept down his neck. He stepped back in time to avoid being crushed under a burning pillar.
His hands were shaking. "What…?"
Zhang Xiyu felt absolutely lost as he realized that his ancestral home was now burning to the ground.
How did this even happen?
He did not get any time to think, another wail resounded through the hot air. Zhang Xiyu rushed towards his sister's room. Yes, he needs to focus right now on saving his family. He does not have the comfort to think about the other implications. How many people are here right now?
His elder brother was probably out in a tavern reciting poems. The ones who were left were his sister, sister-in-law, nephew, mother, father, and his grandfather. Apart from this there are also the servants. Zhang Xiyu has never been more frustrated with his life. He kicked down his sister's bedroom door too.
"A-Yu!" Zhang Xiwei wailed.
Zhang Xiyu found her sister clutching the body of an older woman.
"Ayi…. she…. she…. she isn't breathing." Xiwei quivered. Black soot covered her and fat tears rolled down her delicate face.
Zhang Xiyu's heart dropped. This Ayi, she was as close as family to these siblings. He wanted to drop down and cry just like his sister but he suppressed his feelings and hardened his resolve.
He pulled his sister up from the ground and pushed her out of the door.
"Run! And get help!"
Xiwei stood cluelessly and simply wept.
Zhang Xiyu gritted his teeth in frustration. "Run-away already! I will bring her out!"
He carried the old maid out of the room, paying no heed to Xiwei anymore. He carried her out and placed her down in the courtyard and then sprinted towards the sleeping quarters.
"Mother! Father!" he kicked the burning door away. His mother lay unconscious on the floor while his father struggled to crawl out of the room.
"A-Yu..." his father coughed. His thin frame collapsed to the ground.
Zhang Xiyu rushed to catch him. That is when he noticed a strange smell covering the entire room. Was it coming from under the Kang bed?
He put that thought in the back of his head and carried his parents out of the burning building. Zhang Xiyu could not stop coughing over the dense fumes. His breathing turned nothing short of suffocation, added on to it was the fact that he was carrying two people.
Just get it over with.
He gets them out of the house where he finds the servants trying their best to tamp down the raging fire. They stood in a functional line which steadily fetched water from the very pond his dear fish lived in.
Oh well. At least the servants are safe.
"Second Young Master!" The steward rushed towards him and grabbed his arms.
"It- It wasn't my Little Bai's fault. We checked. We checked!"
"Listen Uncle Chao. I will deal with that later- "
"There was a strange sphere jammed in the smoke pipes that run under the flooring."
"What?" The steward pulled out the deflated sphere out of his rough clothes.
Zhang Xiyu had a bad feeling about this. He moved the limp sphere in his hands to find a peculiar tube peeking out of it. The sphere slipped out of his hand.
This is...
Back in Heng's residence, Haoran walked in with two masked men behind him.
Heng giggled creepily and slapped the desk. "Genius! Brilliant! As expected of a former army soldier! What was it exactly?"
"Have you heard of the 'soul-hunting-fog'?" He sat down across from him.
Looking at his clueless face he continued, "It is a poison gas bomb which is also a fabulous explosive. The original concoction contains 83 percent saltpeter, 9 percent sulfur, and 8 percent charcoal, arsenic sulfides, and lethal animal poisons. Dilute the ratios down a bit and you get an excellent flammable gas and a trustworthy poison."
"No matter if he lives through this day."
"The poison will definitely never leave his body."
Zhang Xiyu had no time to spare. He had his hunches. Being with General Qi and many veterans over the years, surely gave the ability to recognize a smoke bomb.
His sister-in-law and her son were still trapped inside. He covered his face with a wet cloth but it did not make any difference.
At this time, Zhang Xiang had finally reached back home with Zhang Xiwei. He brought with him several guards and a physician, who promptly worked on controlling the scene.
"Mother…. Father…." The physician checked their pulse.
"They are alive. Just unconscious. But I am afraid they have been poisoned."
"What?"
"The exact source is unknown for now, it could be the fumes from the burning wood. But the erratic pulse suggests something else."
Zhang Xiang's mind blanked out as he stared straight at the fire.
"Yuxi. Xiaobo. My wife and son!" He rushed towards the flames. A guard held him back and tried to calm him down.
"Yuxi! Xiaobo!" Zhang Xiang had completely lost it. His knees buckled under him as he wailed, trying to push the guard out of his way.
"Baba?" a small voice came from behind.
"Xiaobo?" he whipped his head around and saw his baby son with injuries all over him. Even his hair had been burned to crisp.
"Xiaobo!" He hugged the boy tightly in his arms and wept with relief. "Yuxi. Where is your mother, boy?"
"She's right there." He pointed to his right.
Yuxi, who in daily life would look as untouchable as jade, was also not spared. She was covered in black from head to toe while her clothes had burnt away from the edges.
"Yuxi- "
She did not listen. With tears clouding her eyes, she kneeled on the cold ground and bowed down her head in guilt.
"What the hell are you doing? You- "
"Zhang Xiyu, he was the one who saved us."
"A-Yu? He is here?! I thought he would be outside at the afterparty."
This made Yuxi cry even more. Zhang Xiwei was starting to feel short of breath.
"Where is my brother Da Sao?" her voice trembled. Yuxi further rubbed her nose in the ground as she wept.
"He saved us and led us out of our room. When we reached the hall, he suddenly pushed me out of the way. When I looked back- I looked back he- "Yuxi choked on her sobs.
"A wooden frame had broken over him."
"The thing burned and burned and he was still trapped underneath it."
She wiped her face. "I reached to help him out of it but with Xiaobo in my arms I could only do so much." Yuxi banged her head on the ground.
"Leave me! Run! I will be with you soon! Go! Go!"
Even my last words were a lie.
Zhang Xiyu felt that he was already in hell. All around him were flames that danced for his impending death. The poison had already made its way to numbness and so he calmly watched his arms burn away. The red flame travelled up his torso and made its way down to his legs. Apart from a little tingling, there was no pain. Only a fascinated focus on his burning body remained in his mind.
Eventually his mind burned away too. And so, there was no trace of Zhang Xiyu left.
Zhang Xiwei broke down in hysterics while Zhang Xiang held a strong fear for what she was about to say next. It brought Yuxi too much pain to say this out of her own mouth but still, she bitterly concluded,
"Zhang Xiyu is dead. He died saving our lives."