2. Broken.

Chen still kept calling. God knows how many times he had dialed. It rang and rang and rang again. No answer. He bit his nail unconsciously, biting until it started to bleed. The rest of his father's men stared in silence.

They had all seen the footage. The murderer clearly had Dian's face. Dian's skill in martial arts was not at a human level; it was far too superior. Like a sudden passing wind, all six of them were dead in seconds under his blades. Nobody stood a chance. They all knew that.

Chen, however, had declared, "CCTV footage is prone to manipulation." He didn't believe a single part of it. He needed to hear it from the horse's mouth; only then would he believe. His men gave up trying to reason with him.

"Tell me what's going on... tell me what's happening... why aren't you picking up..." 

He spoke to himself like a madman. Anxiety and fear had taken the best of him. He had never prayed before, but he prayed earnestly for it to be a big misunderstanding. He would never do that to him; he would come back and explain, and the truth would come out. Right?

"He won't pick up! Stop calling!" 

His uncle begged him all night. But Kamman had placed all his faith in Dian.

Four days passed, and still no response. News had already spread throughout the organization. The hunt had begun. All bases in every country were on high alert. A traitor and a murderer were on the loose, and the orders were to put him down the moment he was found.

Within these four days, Chen did not shed a single tear. Even when his father's body was being taken out of the crime scene, he stared, but no emotion could be seen on his face. People started calling him crazy behind his back, and whispers about him circulated. Others called him unfilial; some called him psychopathic.

Some even claimed that he had colluded with Dian to murder his own father so he could take over the empire. His father was, after all, the Head of the Order and the leader of the entire Bronze Orchid. 

His stepmother wasn't helping the situation. All the vile hatred she had been keeping in her heart was unleashed on him. She was only scared of touching him; otherwise, she might have killed him with her own hands. Chen Kamman knew all this, but none of it bothered him at all.

His life started to crumble on the fourth day, when it finally began to dawn on him that Dian was not coming back, that his father was truly dead. He started to appear lifeless, an empty shell.

Gwen was normally a crybaby and the most spoilt child to ever exist. She was loved by her father the most. She was his precious angel, so naturally, his death was a major blow to her. She might have cried, passed out, or wanted to die, but looking at the state of her brother, how could she? She had never seen him so broken.

Everybody knew how much Dian meant to him. Everybody knew how much he adored his father. Now, one was gone, murdered in cold blood. The other was on the run for murdering his own father. He had lost two people in his life he could never have imagined living without, all in one night.

At first, it was hope, hope that Dian would come. After some time, that hope mixed with fear of the impending reality: the reality that he had murdered his father. With fear came anxiety, then pain. Extreme pain clawing at his heart, almost physical.

Four days. He had held back for that long, not shedding a single tear. On the fourth day, however, he started to seriously hurt. The past pain from his mother's death also came back, like a healing wound being reopened. He locked himself in his room and broke down.

He cried until he lost his voice, and his eyes were swollen, but with every thought of them, floods of tears gushed out afresh. It was honestly too much for anyone. When he had no more strength in his body, his limp form dropped to the soft carpet on his floor, and for a whole day and night, he did not move, as if he were dead.

On the morning of the fifth day after the murder, people still hadn't stopped coming to relay their condolences. His father's subordinates came, mainly to look for chances to gain favors, but still, at least they came. All other families of the Bronze Orchid came as well, probably to look for more gossip to spread over tea.

He did not see anyone. His bodyguard, Rei, stood outside, faithfully guarding the door. If Rei was worried, which he obviously was, he couldn't do anything about it, and he couldn't show it either.

Gwen came around seven in the morning and spent thirty minutes crying outside his door, begging him to come out and eat. Auntie Long eventually managed to drag her away after convincing her that he would be okay.

 In reality, Gwen wasn't doing fine either. It was just that she couldn't cry and make a fuss, as at a time like this, the whole household needed her to be strong.

At noon, Rei and Liang couldn't take it any longer. They stood outside Chen's door and desperately begged their young master from outside, since they wouldn't dare to force their way in.

"Young master... you've been there for almost two days, huh? Please come out and eat..." Rei began.

"Yes, young master... nobody can stay on an empty stomach for that long..." Liang added worriedly, but then a thought hit him, and he stared at Rei in panic. 

"Do you think he might...!"

"Quiet! Don't jinx it!" Rei snapped, smacking the back of his head.

If Liang's implication of his young master's death were true, Rei would have no reason to live, his purpose having been solely to serve Kamman.

The begging was futile. Kamman remained motionless, his breathing so faint he appeared almost dead. His condition was, in fact, perilously close to it.

Finally, on the night of the sixth day, news came, enough to get him out of his room, enough to bring him slightly back to life. But only for a short period.

"Sir... they... they found Dian...!" Rei ran up the heaps of stairs, fighting for his dear life. He banged his fists violently on the door.

Kamman had already moved on to the next stage of emotion: anger. When they had left the house that night to go meet the traitor, he had sworn with everything in him that he would kill him with his own hands. His eyes sparked with rage as confirmation.

When his uncle saw this, he smiled with satisfaction and remarked, 

"That's the spirit! Tonight, we avenge your father!"

His uncle was worried that he wouldn't be able to do it. After all, Dian was not a person anyone would touch if they wanted to live. Only Kamman could do that.