Friday 25 August 2017

Chapter 29 The Black Widow


 “I’m impressed, I have totally misjudged you, young man!”
Jin Feng frowned deeply and said.
She kicked off her shorn boots and circled around Se Cai, looking for a break.
Se Cai stood still and went as far as putting his hands behind his back, looking at Jin Feng with condescension in his eyes.
This was all a front to put Jin Feng off because if she knew he only had an eye that could help him see things in slow motion, he would be dead meat!
“You… *sshole, aren’t you underestimating me a bit too much?!”
Jin Feng said in a low growl, provoked by Se Cai. She was furious because this was the first time someone was so visibly cavalier in her threatening presence. She was used to the fear in her victim’s eyes before she snuffed them out so Se Cai’s challenging gaze unhinged her.
She arced her leg and leaped at Se Cai like a loosened arrow. Instead of utilizing her legs, she pulled her arm back, aiming to land a sideway elbow blow at Se Cai’s chest.
Se Cai could feel the force behind her action from the vibration in the air.
“Come at me!”
Se Cai teased as he leaned and took a step backwards.
 The elbow jab narrowly missed Se Cai.
Jin Feng smiled because she had predicted as much. She swing her arms back open in a wide arc and Se Cai saw a little bit too late the glint of the dagger that she hid in her palm.
“Now die!”
The dagger shot of out her hands carrying her previous momentum. The first elbow jab was a decoy intended to unbalance her opponents for when she shot out the dagger that she stashed in her palm. This sly trick was the skill that cemented as her name as the Black Widow because it was akin to the unexpected moment when the spider bared her fatal fangs.
“F*ck!”
Se Cai cursed, leaned into gravity and fell to the floor on his back!
Se Cai landed heavily as the dagger sliced the air above him. Se Cai avoided the fatal hit but he was feeling light-headed from the impact.
Jin Feng saw the advantage and leaped into the air to commit an elbow drop.
The elbow drop was a common wrestling skill. While the ones shown on tv were all show with no punch, Jin Feng’s elbow drop was meant to crush Se Cai’s trachea.
If hit, Se Cai would die on the spot from internal bleeding and asphyxiation.
Se Cai gritted his teeth and rolled desperately out of the way.
Jin Feng landed on the carpeted floor with a massive thump. Based on the dent in the floor, Se Cai believed more than a few wooden planks of flooring underneath were broken.
Jin Feng deftly turned her body around and tried to grapple Se Cai with her legs.
“A lock down this time?”
Se Cai knew he would be left to Jin Feng’s mercy if he was chained by her legs.
In the nick of time, he pushed against the floor and leaped into a wobbly standing position, narrowly escaped death.
“We’ll see how long you can keep up!”
Jin Feng spat. She realized Se Cai was weak at close-quarter combat. She too leaped off the floor to continue her pursuit, unwilling to give Se Cai the chance to recollect himself.
The attacks came like lightning… Jin Feng utilized every parts of her body to assault Se Cai. He was pressured deeper and deeper into the room.
Se Cai retreated with heavier steps, his eye was useless in close combat. Jin Feng was too close for him to lock her down in his sight. Her attacks came from way too many angles of her body.
Eventually, Se Cai felt the wall on his back and his heart sunk with despair.
“Am I going to die here today…?”
Se Cai closed his eyes to prepare for death when his hands found the light switch.
“Right, the same trick could work again!”
He flipped the switch and the room descended into darkness.
As the saying goes, don’t fix it if it ain’t broken. Darkness had aided Se Cai in his last physical confrontation. It leveled the playing field for him.
Jin Feng was temporarily dazed because normal human eyes needed some time to adapt to the sudden change in lighting.
This was a hindrance that Se Cai was exempted from.
He swooped behind Jin Feng with a slick movement. Grabbing a vase that was conveniently on the bedside table, he swung it at the back of Jin Feng’s head.
Like déjà vu, Jin Feng crumbled to the floor following a scream.
“One more fell with a smack on the head. Maybe this is my special skill?”
Se Cai said as he stared at the broken vase in his hand.
He chuckled mirthlessly because without an aggressive combat skill, a blunt force trauma to the back of his opponent’s head seemed like his best bet at winning a physical altercation. In fact, it seemed tailored made to fit his passive ability.
Xin Yu poked her head out cautiously from under the covers when she heard the sound of combat stopped.
“Se Cai, are you okay?”
She implored as her hands found the switch to the table lamp. Looking at her ruined bedroom, and the ceramic pieces that littered the floor, she added, “That’s my Grecian Wedgewood Vase, it’s an authentic antique piece…”
Se Cai scratched his head awkwardly as he set the broken vase gingerly back down on the table.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t realize it was so expensive.”
Se Cai noticed the coloration and engravings that ran outside the vase and realized it was probably worth more than his whole asset combined.
“I’m sure you can replace another one easily right? There are vases being sold practically all over the country, and many are much prettier than this!”
“This is an artisanal piece that can only be found outside of China… Never mind, now is not the time for an art lesson.”
Xin Yu shook her head and sighed, “It is a piece of object after all, the important thing is that you’re safe and sound!”
Se Cai was trying to save her life, he could have leveled the whole house and her father probably won’t even bat an eye.
She crawled out of bed with the cover draped over her body to check up on Sister Xu.
“Be careful of where you step, there are broken glass everywhere.”
Se Cai warned kindly.
“Sister Xu is like my stepmother… I really couldn’t believe she would do this…”
Xin Yu said sadly. With everything simmering down, the reality of her closest companion’s betrayal struck her once more. Sorrow framed her expression as she looked down at Sister Xu’s face.
“People change and greed could corrupt a person easily!”
Se Cai said offhandedly since he didn’t share a history with Jin Feng.
“Her accomplices are still around, let’s go before they return.”
Se Cai added when he heard other people moving nearby with his enhanced hearing.
“Right, we’ll take the elevator to the garage!”
Xin Yu buttoned the Burberry coat she had on and pulled Se Cai out of the room.
As they raced to the elevator, Xin Yu’s coat keep fluttering in the wind, revealing intermittently the slip of a dress she was wearing underneath.
Xin Yu caught Se Cai’s reflection in one of the hallway mirrors and asked curiously.
“Why do you keep looking down at the floor?”
“Nothing!”
Se Cai quickly stared fixedly ahead and replied.
The piece of clothing Xin Yu had grabbed from the closet was a negligee gown and a coat. The gown was halfway to her knees and the coat was barely longer. Needless to say, they proved to be quite a distraction for Se Cai.
“Hello, my eyes are up here and you’re going to trip if you don’t keep your eyes on the path.”
Xin Yu said warningly after she caught Se Cai’s wandering gaze again.
She pulled her coat down as far as she could.
“Well, to be fair it’s not every day you’ll get views like this.”
Se Cai joked.
It was the third time Se Cai had saved Xin Yu in a 2 day’s period but she wasn’t above gouging his eyes out there and then.

Next Chapter

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