05. A Departure of a hero

General Jiang had been shot by three arrows. Seeing that none of his men are surviving further, he desperately continued the fight until he felt someone stabbing him behind. Vomiting a mouthful of blood, he fell on his knees slowly looking at the masked man who stabbed him. That man came in-front of his eyes with his rest subordinates. He removed his mask and that is when General Jiang couldn't believe his own eyes.

"You…" General Jiang managed to ask.

"yes…it's me."

It was General Huang who had stabbed him and now was standing in-front of General Jiang.

"why?” General Jiang wanted to know.

"You colluded with enemy to harm our great Qing empire. As a general of Qing army, as a subject of Qing empire you have committed treason. All the members of Jiang family are to be slayed by beheading as per imperial order" General Huang announced.

He looked at the fatally wounded General Jiang Lin scornfully…or was it the satisfaction in his eyes after seeing how his lifelong rival is going to die,

Anyone could not differentiate how Huang Song was feeling right now.

Blood was oozing out of General Jiang Lin’s mouth and wounds and that made Jiang Lin very weak. With his blood shot eyes, the vision was blurring.

He was totally confused.

“What nonsense this Huang Song was talking? Clearly this was abnormal. This was not the way to execute an imperiall decree even for a betrayer of country. Even a traitor would be given a trial before execution.”  Amidst all the unbearable pains and difficulties, he still tried to figure out the situation. Finally, he understood that something was terribly wrong.

Looking at the changing expressions on General Jiang's face, General Huang put on a cynical smile in his face and lowered himself until he reaches General Jiang's face level who was on his knees.

"Let me guess your thoughts this time as your friend "

Huang song said sarcastically.

"You think Something is definitely wrong. right? something amiss is going on here which you can't figure out, right?" He continued with his sarcastical tone.

"You are absolutely right. I was supposed to take you into custody and bring you to the capital for punishment. But now I'm going to report that you rebelled against the imperial order and we had no other option but to carry on the imperial edict right on the spot" he explained.

Reaching another few steps near General Jiang, he lowered his voice.

"You should not have showed off your skills all the time. You shouldn't have defeated me all the time making me feel inferior to you..."General Huang's voice was impulsive.

"It was always like taking charity from you. You never let me own any victory for myself. You were always there offering help." he was raging.

"I always felt discouraged, being second to you throughout my life. You shouldn't have done that" his lowered voice was raising now.

"It was all your fault. You were too good. So I couldn't find any fault with you to take you down. Otherwise I wouldn't have to drag your family into this." he continued.

"For the sake of our old friendship, I'll try to make your family members' lives spared. When you go to hell or heaven, don't resent me" General Huang said to General Jiang.

Giving the final fatal blow to the General Jiang, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.

"At last..."he shouted. "At last..,I got rid of him" He started laughing like a lunatic.

After few moments, he left leaving all the traces of that tragedy at that desolate forest.

Wang Wei saw and heard everything. He was so sorry and disappointed that he couldn't do anything for his master at the moment. When enemies disappeared from the sight, he again started crawling towards the master. When Wang Wei reached him, Wang Wei knelt in-front of his master.

"Master. Master "he called the General anxiously.

General Jiang was lying there, his eyes shut. There were traces of blood, flowed out on his face. There was a deep cut on his chest which must be the last fatal blow.

Taking his master in his arms, leaning master's body over his body, he called master again in a shaky voice.

General Jiang's hand moved a bit, shut eyes opened slightly, slight groan of pain emerged from his mouth. He could see a blurred silhouette in-front of him. He felt that it was familiar but couldn't identify the person in-front of him. He tried to speak but couldn't utter even a word.

Seeing his master, opened his eyes, Wang Wei felt happy.

"Master, master, it's Wang Wei here, "he said eagerly.

"I failed you. Master, I deserve to die "

General Jiang tried lifting his head up, ended up coughing mouthful of blood, his handsome face was weary and pale like a white paper sheet.

Wang Wei helped him lift his head. General Jiang looked at him with his blood shot eyes.  Gathering all his strengths,he managed to murmur some words.

"Wang Wei...."

"protect..." gasping for breath, he murmured the last word.

"...my family"

Issuing his final order to his loyal subordinate, General Jiang breathed his last and left the life he managed to hang on until now. General Jiang's head and the hands which were on Wang Wei's hands fell on to a side indicating the departure of a valiant hero.

Wang Wei lost all the reasons he had. His mind was clouded with so much sorrow. He felt so much pain as if a dagger was piercing through his heart. Overwhelmed by anger and desire to revenge, his wail reverberated throughout the woods.

     *                    *                   *                    *                    *               *

It was drizzling.  Wang Wei buried his master's and other fellow soldiers 'corpses. Among those corpses, he managed to find another two soldiers who had been unconscious but survived and regained the consciousness. Though they were severely wounded, they were still alive.

With them, Wang Wei offered his last respect to his master and fellow subordinates and left for capital as soon as possible because now he had a new mission to complete.

It was drizzling throughout their journey to capital. When they reached the capital, it was already dusk. After dropping his severely wounded fellow subordinates at a doctor's place, Wang Wei left for his master's residence even without having treatments for his own wounds.

The drizzle had turned into a heavy rain. When he reached the master's residence, even before entering the gate he got an ominous feeling. After entering the gate, he saw on the path from the entrance to the courtyard, corpses of the guards of the Jiang household were scattered everywhere confirming his ominous feeling. He rushed towards the inner courtyard wishing that what he is thinking right now might not have happened. But as soon as he reached the courtyard, all his wishes came to an end seeing the pile of corpses scattered everywhere. 

All the servants had been killed and their corpses were scattered in a side. Beside those, there was a delicate little figure of a girl lying, drenching in rain. And near that little corpse, there was another slender figure lying in a pool of blood.

He was too late. A sudden unbearable pain surged through his mind. He had failed his master again.He had failed to protect the young miss who was the living heiress of family. He had failed to protect the Lady Jiang who was carrying the unborn heir of the family.

He was frustrated, he was angry, he was disappointed terribly. He knelt in-front of the corpses of Lady Jiang and young miss apologizing, without even minding about the pouring rain.

After sometime, when he finally thought of getting up, he saw among the corpses of servants, someone was moving. He hurriedly got up and rushed towards that moving body. That was a female servant who was serving the lady of the house. She was trying to lift herself up. Wang Wei helped her to get up by taking her head to his lap and talked with her. Although she just gained consciousness, she seemed to identify him or it seemed she wanted to relay a message.

She started muttering some words very hardly. There was a cut near her throat. She muttered some words few times repeatedly in a very faint voice.

"Young...miss...Young....miss....,young .....miss...."

before completing what she said, she again become unconscious .After figuring out the words she was saying, Wang Wei put her there for a bit and went near the corpse of young miss.

After close inspection, he could identify that although these clothes were young miss’s this was not her but her maid Xin er. A tinge of hope surged to his mind.