The Voyage In The Blizzard - Chapter 46
Xing Fu, listening intently to Lei, fixed his cold gaze straight ahead. The words spoken from Lei’s mouth drifted past his ears, leaving faint traces in his memory. Without changing his expression, Xing Fu was sitting in a chair with his back straight. A thick book lay in his lap. He stroked the dark red binding of the book with one hand, and propped up his chin with the other. His long black cape perfectly fitted his tall and slender body for his age. And a small fur collar at the base of his neck gave him an aristocratic look. From time to time, tapping his fingers on the arm of the chair, he slightly nodded his head.
When Lei stopped speaking, Xing Fu looked at him. In his eyes, one could read the deepest discontent. But the lack of any skills to show complex human emotions was alien to him, and therefore he chose a slight discontent concealing further anger.
Lei, standing in front of him with a certain sadness on his face, silently awaited his reaction. After all, what he said was nothing more than an apology and goodbye..
Looking as if they were reading each other’s thoughts, for a while it was just an empty gazes. Without blinking, they let the silence speak for them.
Thinking that he had said everything, that he had played his part as it should, Lei made a bow and turned away but Xing Fu’s voice made him stay.
Without moving, but clearly showing his anger Xing Fu said loudly, “I sent you on a mission to find out what Sun is up to, and instead, you came back and now telling me that you want to leave my clan and become a warrior of the Second Clan. I cannot believe what you are saying.”
Lei stood silently with his back to him.
“What happened that you made such a decision abruptly. Lei, what prompted you to take this step?” Instead of raising his voice, Xing Fu, on the contrary, lowering his voice tried to suppress the sadness and resentment in himself. “I know you very well. And I know that you don’t do anything just like that. Every step you take makes sense. You will never do what you do not want. And because of this, you became great. But what happened now? I can clearly see that you are hiding something from me. But what, you don’t want to tell. Perhaps I spoiled you too much. You are now going against me. Against the First Clan.”
Getting up from the chair, Xing Fu walked around Lei and stopped in front of him, stretched out his hand and a light veil of resentment slightly clouded his eyes.
Looking at him with a question in his eyes, Lei said, “This decision was made by myself. And the reason for this is my desire to help the Second Clan become stronger. Because as you already know the largest number of dead soldiers is in the Second Clan. I wish to teach them everything that I know myself. I just want to help them.”
Holding out his hand, Xing Fu said earnestly, “Return the sword. This belongs to the First Clan.”
Unfastening the sword from his belt, gently, as if holding something fragile, he handed it to him.
After making another bow to Xing Fu Lei, trying not to show emotions, walked quickly towards the door.
But then Xing Fu suddenly asked, “What if I don’t let you go? I have every right to do so. You belong to my clan. You are my warrior. I can deny you your desire to leave this place.”
Looking somewhere on the floor, Lei answered, “In this world, no one is able to hold anyone. Here, no one belongs to anyone. The battlefield decides everything. I could have died long ago in a fight with those creatures. So how can I belong to someone?”
After leaving the room, Lei met Longwei in the hallway.
Longwei, noticing that he did not have his sword, looked at him with condemnation in his eyes. Walking past him, he brushed his shoulder and left the burning sensation in Lei’s melting heart.
Knowing that Xing Fu expects at least some kind of explanation from him, Longwei appeared before him and wanted to tell about everything. The words were hardly keeping themselves in silence. Anger and an uncontrollable desire to say everything completely covered him. And only the realization that because of his words Lei could be punished held him back. And instead of saying what he heard and saw, Longwei said sheer lies.
“During the days we watched Sun, we did not notice anything strange. Everything was as usual. Only, sometimes, Sun severely punished his soldiers for being incapable and inept with a sword. And why he sent his soldiers to our clan is because of a simple curiosity about how the teachings in our clan are going. And for the most part, Sun was motivated by envy. I’m sure he was plotting something, but what exactly I couldn’t find out.”
Without hearing his own voice, Longwei with a downy head said all this without a single hesitation.
Xing Fu seemed to feel that something was wrong so he asked, “Is that all?”
“Yes. That’s all I understand.”
Xing Fu took him by the shoulders and made him stand up. Raising his chin with the hilt of his sword, Xing Fu peering into his eyes as if wanting to read something in them, asked another question that made Longwei feel the shame and all the baseness of his nature.
“So what then prompted Lei to leave my clan? What or who made him do this?”
To which Longwei lowered his eyes shook his head and quietly said, “Perhaps the soldiers of the Second Clan are most exposed to dangers on the battlefield due to lack of proper skills, that is why he decided that he should train them a little bit.”
And then Xing Fu, unable to contain himself, threw Lei’s sword aside. Now anger completely painted over his cold face.
“Why don’t any of you tell me what’s going on?! I’m the head of the clan! Why are you acting like I’m some kind of empty space! Longwei, tell me what happened now!”
“I have already said everything that was needed. As for Lei, it was purely his decision.”
Xing Fu sighed heavily and sat down on a chair. Covering his face with his hand, he froze in this position.
Longwei, having managed to regret a million times that he had come to this clan, and now feeling himself guilty and ashamed for ruining everything, he suddenly fell to his knees.
“Excuse me Master.”
“Do not think that I will leave everything just like that. I know the three of you are hiding something and I will definitely find out what. But if you are lying to me, then you should know Longwei, your father always hated lies.” Saying this, Xing Fu waved his hand and Ye Ying came out of nowhere and took Longwei by the elbow and led him away.
Ye Ying, noticing that Longwei was hardly dragging his feet, he with his rough and loud voice, said, “The Master will now be sad and angry for a very long time. He treasured Lei very much. And his sudden departure became a strong backstab for Master.”
Longwei was unable to say anything. All he felt was guilt, which was getting stronger and stronger every second.
“This is all because of me.” he repeated to himself. “If I hadn’t come here, Lei wouldn’t have had to leave. And there wouldn’t be these feelings.” Pushing away Ye Ying’s hand, Longwei ran towards the forest. And in the blink of an eye he had already disappeared behind the closely spaced trees.
After spending the night in the tree, Longwei never closed his eyes.
And only when the eternally cloudy sky began to become lighter because of the first invisible rays of the Sun, Longwei, deciding to confess everything, jumped from the tree and ran towards Xing Fu’s house.