Wu Xin: The Monster Killer

Chapter 78 Last Letter

Saiwei and Shengyi knelt side by side on the floor, their faces buried in their hands as they sobbed. Both were dressed in shirts, which revealed their similar thin shoulders and slender necks. Their slender necks supported their round heads, which trembled as if they could no longer support them.

He sat cross-legged opposite them, unsure how to comfort them. He had no handkerchief or anything like that on him, only his two palms, but wiping anyone's face seemed inappropriate. Only when the siblings both sniffled and looked up in unison did he seize the opportunity to ask, "Where's a towel?"

Saiwei and Shengyi pointed in a direction. Wuxin walked over and pushed open the door, revealing a modern bathroom with white tiled walls. He went inside and pulled down two soft towels. Suddenly, Xiaojian poked his head out from under the door, tilting his head to reveal half of his bloodied neck: "What happened to them?"

Wuxin waved his hand at him and lowered his voice to the lowest level: "Don't make a scene tonight, their mother just died."

Xiao Jian nodded knowingly and pulled his head back through the crack in the door.

Neither Saiwei nor Shengyi spoke, they held towels and leaned against the wall, their four thin legs stretched out in a messy manner, making Wuxin feel as if there were legs all around her.

They cried for a while, rested for a while, and then even snuggled together and dozed off. When they were truly awake, it was already past midnight. Saiwei forced herself to get up and went to the kitchen, finding a bottle of strong orange juice in the refrigerator. Suddenly, she turned around and vaguely saw Wuxin.

With one foot inside and one foot outside the door, he asked her earnestly, "What do you need? I'll help you."

Saivi was mediocre in every way, and having always attended an all-girls school, she had almost no male friends. She immediately sensed Wuxin's slightest kindness towards her. Placing the cold glass bottle on the counter, she tried her best to open her swollen, red eyes wide, and replied in a thick, nasal voice, "I'd like to make some hot orange juice."

He turned the kitchen upside down without thinking and finally found the thermos. He made three steaming glasses of orange juice and carried them to the living room on a tray. Saivi followed beside him, choking back tears, suddenly forgetting about class issues and only feeling that he was very kind.

The three of them sat around on the floor, each holding a cup of hot orange juice. Sheng Yi silently sipped a few mouthfuls, his energy slightly restored. Gazing at the pale dawn breaking outside the window, he asked in a hoarse voice, "Sister, is Big Brother still in Tianjin?"

Saiwei nodded: "He said he'd be going back to Beijing soon. Dad went to Japan last month, so there's no one to manage things at home."

Shengyi blinked her dry eyes: "Let's go straight to the train station when it's fully light!"

Then he turned to Wuxin: "Thank you for staying with us all night."

Wu Xin shook his head and smiled, knowing that his path to making money was cut off, but there was nothing to complain about. Compared to the other party's grief over losing his mother, his own hunger and cold, though urgent, were not a big problem.

Suddenly, Saiwei spoke up: "Master Wuxin, if you'd like, we can bring you a ticket when we buy it."

Sheng Yi turned to look at her in surprise, while she continued, "Anyway, you're already adrift and helpless in Shanghai. If you go to Beijing, you might find it easier to make a living."

She then turned to Sheng Yi: "Now it's the same in the north and south. Even if Shanghai is more fun, it's all for nothing if you don't have money, right?"

Sheng Yi had never seen Saiwei show any particular concern for any man before; this was the first time. But after thinking it over, he felt it was impossible. Although the siblings looked down on each other, he thought that no matter how unwanted Saiwei was, she wouldn't fall in love with a poor, destitute monk and charlatan.

Wuxin just smiled, a hint of hesitation in her heart. To leave was easy, of course; at most, it would just be a waste of two months' rent. But should she really go north? Going north might not be bad. The last time she was in Beijing and Tianjin was ten years ago. After that, she headed south, hoping to go back, but with the constant fighting, it became difficult.

The outside world gradually awakened, and food vendors began to appear one after another on the street below. After drinking her orange juice, Saiwei planned to pack her things and head north. But just as she stood up, leaning against the wall, she heard a loud knocking on her door.

The maid who came once a day had a key, so there was no need to knock. Saivi and Shengyi exchanged another glance, then went to open the door. It turned out the person knocking was the building's handyman, delivering an urgent letter that had just arrived. Saivi took the letter, closed the door, and turned around while looking down at the envelope. After taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

She raised her head, her face pale, and whispered, her gaze unfocused, "Strange."

Sheng Yi looked up at her: "What's wrong? Who sent the letter?"

Savi stood there, his hands trembling slightly: "It's...it's Mother."

Upon hearing this, Sheng Yi was also stunned. It turned out that the second concubine of the Ma family had very limited education; she couldn't recognize many characters, couldn't even understand songbooks, and had never properly picked up a pen in her life. She only corresponded with someone once every hundred years, always relying on the old gentleman in the accounting office to write for her. So, setting aside the content of the letter, the act of writing it was already extremely rare. Looking at the handwriting on the envelope, it was crooked and incomplete, definitely not the old gentleman's work, but rather seemed to be the second concubine's own handwriting—the Ma siblings had also occasionally seen their mother's account book, and the messy accounts written on it were exactly the same as the handwriting on the envelope, ridiculously clumsy.

Saiwei tore open the seal, pulled out a letter, and unfolded it. The writing was jet black, neither from a brush nor a pen. He rubbed it with his fingertip, leaving a black mark – it was an eyebrow pencil. The second concubine had never written a letter in her life before; this was her first time, and it was filled with incoherent, colloquial language. The siblings leaned over and read it together, then looked up at each other, staring wide-eyed at each other.

In her letter, the second concubine complained about two things: first, the eldest son and the master had a fierce argument that nearly came to blows again; second, she had recently developed a strange heart ailment, plagued by nightmares every night. She had consulted a fortune teller to interpret her dreams, but the interpretations were all very ominous. Finally, she advised her children not to rush home, as her heart was pounding and she needed rest, but the house was too restless. If possible, she also wanted to go to Shanghai to spend the autumn with her children.

Three things made the second concubine write in a jumbled mess; at the end, she emphasized again: "Don't go home, if you don't have enough money, your mother will give you some."

Holding the letter, the Ma siblings sat back down on the floor, completely bewildered and stunned—first, the second concubine had actually written them a letter herself; second, the second concubine had actually had sleep problems; third, the second concubine had actually not urged them to go home; and fourth, the second concubine had actually offered to give them money.

Finally, Sheng Yi spoke first: "Big brother went home again?"

Saiwei looked at the letter. There was no date written on it, so he could only guess the date of the letter from the postmark on the envelope: "It was probably sent back before Dad went abroad."

Sheng Yi gritted her teeth and cursed, "You cripple, you cause chaos wherever you go!"

Saiwei immediately reached out and slapped him, seemingly annoyed by his careless remark. After silencing Shengyi, she thought for a moment and couldn't help but explain, "Our eldest brother has some difficulty walking. When Dad was young, he had a violent temper; one day he got drunk and shot him."

He nodded knowingly without saying anything.

Saiwei added, "Our mother... has always been very healthy."

This is no exaggeration. The second concubine could be described as carefree and plump. Her only purpose in life was to please Master Ma, and her greatest achievement was giving birth to a pair of lively twins. After giving birth to her son and daughter, she felt her status was secure and she would never be driven away or neglected, so she confidently began to gain weight. Her only exercise all day was playing mahjong. Since Master Ma had no intention of visiting her again, she simply played, ate, and slept. Because of her plumpness, she snored loudly with her mouth open, and once asleep, she was completely still. Her children and her secret stash of money were her talismans. She strongly disapproved of her two children traveling far away together. If she kept her word and her children were obedient, she would definitely keep Saiwei and Shengyi locked up at home. She couldn't keep the children locked up, but she could keep her savings locked up. The second concubine had quite a bit of savings, which she never touched because she felt insecure in the large family. Once Master Ma was gone and the Ma family fell apart, she could buy a small house and continue to live her good life as a plump wife.

Sheng Yi took the letter and read it again. After reading it, she muttered to herself, "Is it true that people speak good words when they are about to die? Why does Mother seem to have changed her nature?"

Savi immediately glared at him: "Don't talk nonsense! Did Mother know all along that I was leaving? Mother was worried about us—"

Sheng Yi stopped her from saying the rest of her sentence: "When I said 'change of heart,' I meant the letters Mother wrote to us. Look at what's in those letters; they're all things that really happened at home. There's nothing to hide! Besides, don't you know Mother's personality? She even feels like Tianjin is a world away. Why would she come to Shanghai for no reason? Would she really leave her little house, her little courtyard, and her little mahjong table?"

Saiwei blinked, and after hearing Shengyi's words, a chill suddenly ran down her spine. The little devil was mysterious and unpredictable, quite frightening; the numerous suspicious points in the letter also hinted at something terrifying. Turning to look at the letter in Shengyi's hand, the ink on the pristine white paper was glaringly black. Although the second concubine was semi-illiterate, she was skilled in makeup; she shouldn't have used an eyebrow pencil to write a letter. Unless…

Saiwei glanced at Wuxin, seeing him sitting quietly to the side like a rock, and felt a little more at ease, as if he were her and her brother's guardian angel. She drank the last bit of orange juice in her glass, lowered her head in thought for a long time, and finally looked up and said, "Shengyi, is it that Mother has something on her mind, but doesn't know how to say it, how to write it down? So…"

Sheng Yi, with her swollen eyes, looked at her and asked, "What?"

Savi lowered his eyes and slowly replied, "Did Mother have some strange feeling, but she had no evidence, so she could only write down what happened in the letter? Did she not want us to go back because she sensed something was about to happen at home? Was she secretly writing to us because someone was watching her and forbidding her from writing? Eyebrow pencils are very soft; after writing a few words, the tip wears down and has to be sharpened again. Even if Mother couldn't find a good pencil, a simple pencil for drawing patterns would be better. Mother isn't stupid; why would she wear down an eyebrow pencil to write letters?"

Sheng Yi nodded slowly: "Sister, you've thought of everything more thoroughly than I have."

Saiwei and Shengyi had originally planned to leave early in the morning, but after receiving the letter, they became increasingly confused and lingered in their room. As for Wuxin, since he hadn't been expelled, he shamelessly stayed by the siblings' side, basking in the sun and listening to people talk. After lunch, Shengyi realized that simply overthinking was useless, so she rallied her spirits and decided to buy train tickets home. However, before they could set off, the postman delivered their second letter of the day.

The handwriting on the letter was ugly, but it was still the second concubine's own handwriting. Saiwei tore open the seal and took out the letter, finding only three black characters on it: Don't go home!

(End of this chapter)