Bryce's view

I was putting away the children's play things when it felt like my mother was in the room, and she said to me, "Goodbye, son. I hope you can forgive me and have a happy and blessed life. I am sorry for letting you down. Turn to Jesus, and he will help you overcome my mistakes." It then felt like she kissed me on my forehead and ruffled my hair.

I thought I was imagining things as I knew my mother was alive and well in Xin's room. I never understood his relationship with my mother - why would a young man want an older woman like my mother? I wondered for perhaps the hundredth time.

My children broke in then, clearly upset. "Baba, Yeye Shushu is scary. Is it true that his children will inherit this estate and not us?"

"I do not know, but I would assume so; after all, he is the official head of the house, so it only makes sense that his oldest male child would inherit the role," I said to them.

"Are you not the eldest male child?" my eldest boy asked.

"I am the oldest child of my mother. However, I was not adopted by Xin like her other children were, so the role does not go to me. My brother Maelgwyn is the oldest adopted child of Yeye Shushu. He has taken on some of the roles of the eldest being a General," I tried to explain.

"Will we get to meet him?" my youngest asked.

"I do not know," I shrugged, "Are you not happy here?"

"Yes, Baba," they chimed and stifled a yawn.

"Ok, time for you to have a rest," and I shooed them off to bed, singing them a random song that came to mind.

After I left them, I felt hungry, so I thought I would go to the kitchen and make myself a snack and something to drink, when I came across Xin walking the halls in a zombie-like state, all covered in blood. 

"What have you done, Xin?" I asked him in horror, "What has happened? Have we been attacked?"

His eyes seemed unfocused and swollen, and as he looked at me, his eyes began to focus, "Bryce." he acknowledged my presence at least.

"Xin, what happened? Why are you like this?" I was beginning to feel alarmed; Xin was nothing like the strong man I had admired when I met him years ago or even yesterday. It was like he was shattered inside, a hollow man.

"Your mother," he started and fell to his knee, crying before pulling himself together.

"My mother?" I prompted.

"Your mother is dead," he said.

"Dead? She's dead? How? Show me!" I said, now alarmed.

"I can't show you," he said, "An angel took her body to my manor."

"What!?" I could not believe my ears, "Are you kidding me? I do not believe in angels."

"I am not kidding you," he said, "It is the truth, you could look all over this manor for her, and you will not find her. She is gone."

"If you say so, it must be true," I humored him. Quite frankly, his bloody visage scared me, and I was not frightened easily. "So what happened to you?"

"I fed my mother and ChungLi rice cakes made from the rice they gave your mother," he said emotionlessly as if he was talking about the weather.

"How does feeding rice cakes equate to looking like you stepped out of a Horror movie...err house," I corrected myself.

"They were poisoned, and her lackeys' attacked me. They are now dead," he said, getting up and starting to turn away as if disinterested in conversing with me any further.

I was starting to realise the horror that had happened, "Xin, can you please verify what happened? What I am hearing is your mother, and ChungLi poisoned my mother, and she is now dead. You used the rice that killed my mother to make rice cakes and fed them to your mother and ChungLi; now they are dead. Their guards ran in, and now they are dead?"

"That is correct," he said, frozen in his half-turn.

"Is there anyone left alive in this manor?" I wondered.

"Well, you are," he said dryly and walked away, although his movements were like that of a drunk. He did not smell drunk, nor was he holding a wine bottle, so he could not have been drunk, perhaps then it was grief causing him to walk that way.

As shocked as I was, I hurried through the estate looking to see who was still alive, avoiding Min's Mums room. It seemed that only the immediate family was still alive, and some of the staff were too. It appeared all the dead staff was employed by Xin and Min's mother, and everyone else was spared, as they hid in fear of their lives, "Is it over?" they would ask upon seeing me, whereupon I would nod and they would sigh with relief and get up to finish whatever it was they were doing.

As I walked around, I heard a palanquin be ordered. I went out, curious to see who would be leaving at such an inauspicious time. To my surprise, it was Fergus.

"Why are you leaving, Fergus?" I asked.

"Because Mum has died," he responded, "and all of us under her care do not feel safe or welcomed here, so we are going back home. You are welcome to come with us, or Xin later, to bury your mother."

"Are you taking her body?" I asked as I did not believe it had gone.

"No, an angel took it, and it is waiting for us in the cold room at home," Fergus explained, "We are hurrying back to bury her before her body goes rotten."

"An angel? Really?" I questioned again. The idea was still as preposterous as before.

"Really," Fergus nodded, "I saw the light as I left, Ying and Xin both saw it, and Mum is definitely not here anymore. It has made me reconsider my beliefs. All this time, I thought Mum's beliefs were a bunch of hocus pocus, but they weren't. They are real. Anyways, you will have to excuse me; I need to pack this so we can leave."

I nodded and steeled myself to go view the room I had previously avoided. As I headed there, I noticed Xin just sitting outside the bathhouse in a kind of stupor. A little maid was encouraging him inside, but he had not moved so far.

Nothing prepared me for the sheer carnage that was in that room. Bits of blood and bodies were everywhere, and Min's mother and ChungLi were lying like serene dolls amidst it. It seemed that Xin had straightened them before he left the room. I stood there for a while, contemplating what to do. 

Having come to a plan of action, I headed to where the maids could be found and set about burying the dead and cleaning the room. We buried them all that day in a mass burial plot except for Min's mum and ChungLi. They were buried in the ancestral family plot. ChungLi was not family, but she had treated Min's mother that way, and being of noble blood, it was only right she was given special treatment.

Once he was cleaned up, Xin was present but did not speak. Min's father spoke and ruled that this would not be spoken of, and if it was, we were to say a group of bandits broke in and killed everyone. Xin's involvement was covered up, as it seemed his father was aware of the actions of his first wife and was ashamed.

Things took a while to stabilise within the estate. Xin went before his father and begged leave to bury his wife, which was granted. I was to accompany him to bury my mother. I was a little reluctant as I still could not believe my mother had died. It was more appealing in my mind to believe she had secretly returned to Xin's estate.

When we arrived at the manor my mother had been living in all this time after leaving the Fang family estate, we were taken to where the angel stored my mother. She was wrapped in white burial wraps, only her face was exposed, but that too could be covered as there was a flap that seemed designed for this purpose.

"Did you wrap her?" Xin asked those that were gathered there in the store room.

"No," Fergus said, "We found her like this when we returned. No-one here had been this far back, so they did not know her body was even here. We prepared a plot for her when you are ready up near Dr. Hack."

"Thanks," Xin said, kneeling and putting his head on my mother's wrapped body, "I'll come back later. You need to say goodbye," and he looked at me then.

I nodded. He was right. I did need time to say goodbye to her. 

A/N If you enjoyed this chapter, please take the time to vote by pressing the star. Please let me know if you see any errors, as this is unedited.