Wu Xie
This time, all three of them were allowed to hear the story, not just Wu Xie, so they sat around the long table and waited for Panma to start telling his real story, hoping for no more interruptions from other people like last time.
"Like I said before, thirty years ago this village was very poor when the team came, bringing into the village a very tempting supply of food we usually will not have access to it otherwise. The temptation was so big that it leads me and a group of friends into committing our greatest sins."
"One night, we went into the mountains unannounced. We knew in which tent the supplies were been kept and when no one was around, we sneak in with the intention of stealing some rice to feed our families. It was not something to be proud of, but for the situation of our families, we were willing to steal a bit with no regrets."
"I said to steal just two bowls for bag of rice, so the team will not notice what we stole too much in one go, but my friends got greedy, taking more bowls than I had told them. I couldn't blame them, because once you started stealing the rice, it was hard to stop with just a handful when there was so much in front of you. That, of course was our doom, because the more we stole, the more time it took and we were discover by a member of the expedition."
"Of course, he was surprise to find us stealing their food and I told him it will not happen again if he let us go, but he wanted to take us to their leader, which we couldn't let it happen. In our panic, one of my friends took his carrier bag and put it over his head and affix him to death. I watched as everything happen in the blink of an eye... one moment we just wanted to steal some rice to survive and the other we became killers out of our own greed."
"I was shocked at first... but what was done could not be taken back and we did what we could do at that time. We carry the body to bury it in the woods, but once again we were spotted and in our crazy state, we decided to kill all of them, so they will not tell anyone in town of what we did that night. We spared no one and after everything was done, we throw the bodies into the lake and went back home carrying as much rice as our backs could hold."
"We were become blood-lust that night, beast and demons guided by greed and necessity... but... that was not the end of it as we thought..." Panma told them and Wu Xie could not help himself but to ask.
"Why not? You said you had kill them all... well, at least the ones who were in the camp at that time. Did the others came back and find out what you had done?" Wu Xie asked.
"Oh, no... it was far worse than that. No one came knocking on our doors when we come back to our homes, but in the next morning, I went back to the camp, to see if the rest of the team who were out that night came back and were looking for their teammates, but what I saw that day was terrifying..."
"What was it?" Wu Xie asked again.
"All those men we killed with our own hands... there were walking around the campsite like if nothing had happen. All of them were alive and well and with no recollection of what we did the night before... like if they were demons that aroused from the deeps of the lake in were we throw them. I was scare to death and I fled the campsite, thinking that the demons were going to come after me for what I did."
"Wait, are you sure they were the same men, not just alike?" Wu Xie interrupted.
"I was sure they were the same, there was not the slight difference of the ones we killed and the ones I found in the morning. They even recognize and treat me the same way they usually did... there was only one difference... they smelled like the dead... just like him..." Panma said as he looked at Xiaoge and Wu Xie did the same unconsciously. Of course, he didn't believe that Xiaoge was either a demon or the undead, but he didn't want for Panma to stop the story midway again.
"So that's why you believe that Xiaoge is dangerous." Pangzi said.
"You said he has the same smell, so you think he is an undead like those you killed, but that doesn't mean Xiaoge is set on harming us, so why where you so scare of them? What happen afterwards?"
"All my friends come back to the lake later that night to see for themselves if we had been discover, when the demons came out of the lake one by one and soon, after they went back home, they die."
"Die? How?" Wu Xie asked.
"Er Fu and Cai Wang were found hanging from their respective gates. Ding Fu die from drinking pesticide."
"Then they committed suicide..." Pangzi pointed.
"That's what all the villagers believed, but I knew it was the work of the demons from the lake. I was so terrify that I hide in the mountains for three whole years... so they could not find me..."
"So... that's why Panma doesn't know you, Xiaoge... he was hidden in the mountains when you were here and by the time he came back, you were already gone." Pangzi added.
"What were the metal ingots?" Qiling asked.
"I have no idea. I was too scared to go back to the town and at one time I went back to the lake and found an old shirt that had the metal ingot inside. I had no idea how it got there or if it was left behind by mistake when the team left... I only know that it had the same smell of the demons, but the sent faded with time."
"Then do you know why the slope-shoulder man want to kill us?" Wu Xie asked.
"No, but he know of all that happen that night and what I did. He said he will keep the secret, but if someone else came to investigate the disappearance of the expedition team, I must lure them into the Buffalo Trench, to be killed by the spiders." Panma ended.
"Then, he is indeed the keeper of the secret the expedition team came to find out..." Wu Xie concluded and after everything was said, Wu Xie decided it was late enough, so they returned to Mr. Gui's house and sat outside with their heads filled with more questions than answers.
At some point, as Qiling also ponder about his own existence Pangzi had the brilliant idea to pock Xiaoge's face.
"Stupid Pangzi, what are you doing now to my Xiaoge?" Wu Xie protested.
"I'm checking if Xiaoge is a human or a demon." Pangzi said simply and Wu Xie rolled his eyes.
"Demon." Qiling whisper and Wu Xie sighed.
"I think so too... let me check again on what kind of demon you are...."
"Si Pangzi, let him be, he is not a demon and you know it. Panma was just imagining things out of guilt and fear. No dead can come back to life, so there are no demons in that lake."
"Then how do you explain about the undead of the expedition team?"
"Logically speaking, those who came back from the mountain were not the same as those who went up."
"So, you said that no one returned to life, but that they were... replaced?" Pangzi asked.
"Exactly. For some reason, those who were killed were replaced and fooled Panma. That kind of conspiracies are not unheard off, especially when it involved deep secrets and there is someone else out there who is willing to keep killing for it... perhaps it was already planned for the original team to be replaced when Panma killed them unexpectedly, giving the intruders the opportunity to sneak in unnoticed. Thus the second team came to be as if nothing happen and those demons Panma talked about coming out of the lake, were probably Chen Wenjin and her most trusted teammates which were probably exploring the lake when the killing happen. So, they mistook them as demons."
"The main team however, the ones that were not there, didn't know about the replacement, thus they set things in motion in order for them not be discover." Wu Xie finish.
"Then... they went after Panma's friends and make sure to silence them, so the replacement will not be found out. Panma was spared because he hide in the mountains and came back the next day, thus everything was already settle in the lake with a fake team that later join Chen Wenjin in the expedition to the Parcel Island... it does fits of what happen to them later. Xie Lian Huan and Wu San Xing switch, was perhaps done when they found out about the replacement of the team and the ones in their expedition where mostly fakes..." Pangzi added to the reasoning.
"Most likely. Everything points out that it was here when things begin to go wrong for the expedition team of the Parcel Island. The replacement team wanted something from that tomb undersea and came along to retrieve it. Of course, they did it by putting to sleep those from the original team that knew nothing of the exchange... then they wake up in the Golmud sanatorium."
"Yeah... it sounds about right... but I wonder, back them that kind of plastic surgery to make one person to resemble another so precisely was possible?" Pangzi asked.
"Who said it was done with surgery? I myself had someone who resemble me and he was also in the sanatorium, as it was showed in that video." Wu Xie said.
"Then... he was an original member too or a fake? But why using a fake mask to resemble you?"
"I don't know."
"Tianzhen, it sounds quite good, but at the end, this is all speculation... there is no real proof that it happen like that."
"What are you talking about no proof? If we go to the lake and find the remains of the bodies that were thrown in there, then there is enough proof that everything started just like that." Wu Xie explained and Pangzi assented.
"Then we really need to go to the lake as soon as possible. Let's try talking with Uncle Gui tomorrow and see if he can find us someone to go there. I think we had already prove to him that we are quite capable to come back alive."
"Yeah... you try that. We are quite close to finding something this time... Xiaoge... just hang in there for a little longer. I think your memories are around the corner... and so are some of the Mystic Nine mysteries." Wu Xie said and Qiling stared at him, hoping he was right.
That night, Pangzi sleep in his own room, leaving them along to cuddle during the cold night. Wu Xie was too excited to fall asleep right away, so he didn't mind when Xiaoge claimed his mouth in sensual kisses that make his blood boil. They were not going to repeat that daring stunt of the last time, but Wu Xie was satisfy with Xiaoge's love.
"Xiaoge... we are very close to find what happen to you in the Parcel Island... or at least the reason for your disappearance..."
"I still believe this place is too dangerous..."
"We can handle the slope-shoulder man..."
"It's not him..."
"Hum... we will find our way around the danger. We had manage so far..."
"Wu Xie..."
"Xiaoge, I know you worry about me, but I'm not as fragile as you take me for."
"I never said you were..."
"But you think I am and honestly I can't blame you for thinking like that, because, hell... I can't really deny that I am a danger magnet, but I think I was involved in this mess for a reason. If the Mystic Nine find me so incapable they would had not bother to push me into their plans. They could had choose Xiao Hua instead of me, yet I am the one running around like this and that without stopping. I believe there is a good reason for it, whatever good or bad... I only want to help you get your memories back, to make you whole again and most of all to be with you."
"I don't know the reason you keep disappearing before we finally get into a romantic relationship in Tamutuo, you never shared the secret and I didn't ask you for fear you may never come back, but now that we are together I want you to stay, not matter what it takes. I may not be strong physically, but my will is very strong, I'm stubborn and obsessive and I will never give up so easily."
"So yeah... we may face danger tomorrow, or the day after or the one that follows and our fate may not be the best out there either... but I want this, I want to be with you and even if it bring me death, at least I want it to be trying to give you life and your sense of humanity back..." Wu Xie confessed and Xiaoge simply could not hold himself any longer after such heartwarming confession that went so deep into his core.
He kissed Wu Xie next for dear life and nothing else matter more than that beloved man that was offering him everything that had been deny it, in his entire life.
Right in the middle of that huge bed was not the best place to make love to Wu Xie as he deserved, because Qiling wanted Wu Xie unrestrained like he was back in Wushanju, but he wanted for Wu Xie to feel how much he loved him back, how much he meant for him and how badly he will do anything to keep him safe. So he kissed his man with no filter in his emotion that were mostly hidden deep inside his chest, which only turn on Wu Xie faster... but he can handle his desire, clinch the lust even if it was in a lower degree this time...
It was only a matter of time before they could go all out to their hearts content and when that time come, he will give himself to Wu Xie, as he deserved it and as he want it.
AN: Oops guys, don't be too laud, okay? LOL. Thanks for reading and I will give a fair warning in case of another chapter with intense fire on a switch. It's not that this story is based on smut, but that it happens naturally when soooo in love with your partner and Xiaoge is really head over heels about Wu Xie now more than ever. Until next time, please take care.