Zhu Guyu knelt before the mound of earth, digging her fingers deep into the sand. The blood seeping from her fingertips stained the fine grains red.
“Father, Mother, why did it have to be like this...”
“Why is it so hard just to stay alive...”
Her voice was already hoarse, and her entire body was curled into a ball, her ribs poking sharply against her thin hemp shirt.
Zhu Jingzhe knelt beside his sister. He suddenly reached out his hand, palm up, and slowly closed his fingers.
Their grandfather had once been a famous illusionist in the town.
Since the age of three, he had followed his grandfather to learn illusions. By five, he could conjure butterflies, and by seven, he could conjure half a bowl of rice...
But those were all fake. His grandfather had once said, “Illusions can fool the eyes, but they cannot fool the stomach.”
Right now, he just wanted to fool his sister.
He gently pinched his fingers in the air. An invisible current of air swirled in his palm, and the light distorted for a brief moment.
A pale, steaming steamed bun appeared out of thin air in his palm.
“Guyu,” he said. “Look, a steamed bun.”
Zhu Guyu raised her head through her tear-blurred vision. The moment she saw the steamed bun, her primal hunger overrode everything else.
Without a second thought, she snatched it away.
Opening her mouth, she bit down hard. Her teeth slammed into a hard object with a dull thud.
A sharp pain shot up from the roots of her teeth.
The metallic taste of blood instantly spread through her mouth.
Only after a long moment did she look down.
There was no steamed bun at all. What she held in her hand was clearly a round stone covered in mud and sand.
“Are you stupid!”
Zhu Jingzhe slapped the stone out of his sister's hand. “You clearly knew it was fake! Why did you try to eat it!”
Zhu Guyu hung her head.
Of course she knew it was fake, that it was just an illusion.
Ever since they were little, their father had conjured candied hawthorns, their mother had conjured new clothes, and her brother had conjured little rabbits.
But in the end, the candied hawthorns were just leaves skewered on a stick, the new clothes were just old sackcloth, and the little rabbits would dissolve into a clump of light as they ran.
“Let me see if you chipped a tooth.” Zhu Jingzhe tried to check her mouth, but she shied away.
“Brother, I'm hungry...”
Just those few short words were even more heartbreaking than her wails for her parents over the grave.
Zhu Jingzhe could no longer hold it in. His eyes stung, and he pulled his sister tightly into his embrace, sobbing, “I'm sorry. I'm useless. All I know are these deceptive tricks...”
His tears fell onto his sister's messy hair.
“Guyu, I can't conjure a real steamed bun...”
The two children clung to each other, weeping bitterly.
Just then, a sudden scream echoed from the village, followed by the loud, clattering crash of objects being smashed to the ground.
Then came the sound of hooves trampling through the mud, mingled with coarse, wild laughter and vulgar shouting.
Zhu Jingzhe shuddered.
He knew those sounds all too well.
The pirates from the sea had landed again.
Those pirates rode scrawny horses and carried massive cleavers, plundering the village the moment they entered. They stole grain, cloth, pots, pans...
When there was absolutely nothing left to steal, they stole people.
Last winter, Old Man Wang's little grandson at the edge of the village had been taken by them, and no one knew what they had done with him.
Later, someone found a pile of bones washed up on the beach. They were human bones.
At the thought of this, Zhu Jingzhe decisively covered his sister's mouth, pressed her into his chest, and shrank behind a large reef rock.
He held his breath, peering out through a crack in the rocks.
Sure enough, seven or eight mounted pirates charged in from the village entrance, their eyes fierce and their hands gripping blood-stained cleavers.
The leader was a burly man. He reined in his horse, surveyed the empty village, and spat on the ground. “How unlucky! This miserable fishing village doesn't even have a single rat!”
“Boss!” a skinny, monkey-like pirate beside him suddenly pointed over. “Over there! There are two of them on the rocky beach!”
He had no other skills, but he was incredibly sharp-eyed.
The pirate leader squinted and looked over.
Zhu Jingzhe's heart sank heavily.
He instinctively tried to hide his sister behind him, but what could his scrawny frame possibly conceal?
“Heh, two brats. They're a bit scrawny, but they still have some meat on them,” the pirate leader grinned. “Take them. We'll stew them when we get back to nourish the brothers.”
The horse hooves clattered over the rocks, drawing closer and closer.
“Don't take the children!”
A hoarse, elderly cry echoed from the village entrance.
Everyone froze for a moment.
A hunchbacked, white-haired old man came limping over, throwing himself in front of the Zhu siblings.
“Uncle... Uncle Wang...” Zhu Jingzhe recognized him. He was the old man whose grandson had been taken and eaten by the pirates.
Uncle Wang spread his withered arms and looked up at the pirate leader's face. “Chief! Chief, I beg of you! These two children are still so young! Have mercy and spare them!”
The pirate leader looked down at him as if looking at a piece of garbage. “Move, you old geezer!”
“Chief!” Uncle Wang fell to his knees with a thud. “Take me instead! The children are too skinny, they have no meat!”
“No matter how skinny a brat is, their meat is still tender! You, on the other hand, are just a bag of old bones. It would be a chore even using you as firewood! And you want me to take you back to the stronghold? In your dreams!”
The pirate leader waved his hand impatiently.
“Kill him quickly. He's an eyesore.”
Hearing this, a pirate lackey raised his blade and walked toward Uncle Wang.
“Wait!”
Zhu Jingzhe dashed out from behind the reef. “Let Uncle Wang and my sister go, and I'll go with you!”
Forcing down his terror, he stared directly at the gang of pirates.
The pirates burst into uproarious laughter.
“Do you think I'm stupid? I can take both you and your sister. Why should I let her go?”
Zhu Jingzhe's face instantly flushed red. He wanted to use illusions to scare off these pirates, but his skills were lacking. He could only conjure minor parlor tricks, which were far from enough to intimidate anyone.
Not far away, many villagers were clutching hoes and sickles, hiding behind the reefs, but none of them dared to step forward.
These were bloodthirsty pirates who killed without blinking. The villagers were just fishermen who made their living by fishing; they naturally lacked the courage to clash head-on with the pirates.
Everyone knew the Zhu siblings were doomed.
“Don't... don't come any closer!” Zhu Jingzhe shielded his sister behind his back, his own back pressed tight against the reef. There was nowhere left to retreat.
Zhu Guyu clutched her brother's clothes, her strikingly large eyes reflecting the twisted, menacing faces of the pirates.
Seeing that the siblings were about to be dragged away, Uncle Wang summoned a sudden surge of strength. He lunged forward and grabbed the pirate's leg, turning his head to shout at the hidden villagers, “These are children of our village! Are you really going to watch them get dragged away by pirates and boiled alive for food?!”
“You're asking for death!” The pirate leader raised his foot, intending to kick away the troublesome old man.
But right then, a sudden, piercing whistle sliced through the air.
Whoosh—
Everyone saw a dazzling golden light fly over from the distant sea, carving a clear trajectory through the sky.
In the next instant, with a sharp pfft, a glowing arrow pierced right through the pirate leader's chest, entering from the front and tearing out from his back.
The cluster of crimson flames attached to the arrowhead exploded with a loud boom the moment it penetrated his flesh.
Rate on N.U.
