The Jianghu is Full of Vests (GL) - Chapter 2
Old Man Fu frowned in confusion. “What are you all doing here?”
The sharp-faced, monkey-looking man stepped forward first. “Brother Fu, we’ve come to see you off. Also… I want to apologize for what I said earlier this evening. I—I can’t believe I said something like that. I was totally out of line. I couldn’t sleep at all after I got home. The shame was eating me alive. Please, Brother Fu, forgive me.”
Old Man Fu had never gotten along with this man—they’d always rubbed each other the wrong way. He knew what kind of person the guy was, so hearing such a heartfelt apology now caught him off guard. Still, the regret and guilt plastered all over Lao Liu’s face looked convincing enough. In the end, he believed him.
“It’s fine. I understand. No need to see us off—we’re leaving now. You should head back too.”
Just as he turned to go, Lao Liu panicked and rushed forward, stretching his long, thin arms to block Old Man Fu’s path. “That won’t do! Once we part today, we may never meet again in this life. If you don’t mind, please share a parting drink with us.”
Old Man Fu hesitated for a moment, then took the offered bowl of wine and downed it in one gulp. But Lao Liu wasn’t done. He had someone pour another bowl and handed it to Fu’s wife.
“Sister-in-law, all these years, you’ve looked after our daughter-in-law like your own. I’ve seen it all. I won’t say thank you—it’s not enough. All my gratitude is in this bowl.”
Old Man Fu moved to stop her, but Madam Fu raised her hand to gently push him aside. She took the wine with a smile. “Then you’d better treat your wife well from now on.”
“Of course, of course.”
Once the couple had drunk the wine, Lao Liu let out a relieved breath and waved his hand cheerfully. “The world is vast—take care, Brother, Sister.”
Old Man Fu returned the wave and turned to leave. But he had barely taken a few steps when his vision blurred, his mind went fuzzy, and he looked toward his wife—only to see her swaying in the same way. In that instant, realization struck. His eyes widened as he pointed at the trio.
“You! You—”
But before he could finish, his legs gave out and he collapsed to the ground. Madam Fu followed, crumpling beside him.
It happened too fast.
Fu Peibai froze, mind blank. She dropped to her knees and shook Old Man Fu. “Dad! Dad, wake up!”
He didn’t respond. She turned to her mother. “Mom! Wake up! Please wake up!”
Nothing. No response.
Little Fu Jiaxu had already been scared stiff. He fell backwards into the irrigation ditch and began to wail in terror.
The three men approached. Lao Liu rubbed his hands, muttering fake apologies while grinning. “Alright, tie the boy up first, then deal with the girl.”
“Yes, sir.”
The two men walked toward Fu Jiaxu, pulling ropes from their waistbands. But before they could get close, they were suddenly shoved hard from behind. Though caught off guard, the men were sturdy—after staggering a step, they quickly steadied themselves.
They looked up to see a teenage girl standing protectively in front of the boy, arms spread wide, eyes blazing. She shouted hoarsely, “What did you give my parents?! What the hell are you doing?!”
Her voice was loud, but her presence lacked weight—after all, she was only sixteen. Three grown men weren’t about to be scared off by her.
Lao Liu took a few steps forward, still smiling. “Relax, girl. Just a bit of knockout powder. I told you—you can’t leave. If you go, the whole village will suffer. So for everyone’s sake, you’ll just have to stay the night with your parents. Tomorrow, someone will come for your brother. After that, I’ll let the three of you go. You can leave, go wherever you like. I won’t stop you.”
Fu Peibai spat in his face. “Keep dreaming. You’re not taking my brother. Over my dead body.”
The spit dripped down Lao Liu’s face, and his smile vanished. He squinted at the girl—now like a little beast baring its teeth. His expression twisted uncertainly, flickering between anger and restraint. In the end, maybe some scrap of humanity held him back.
He wiped his face with a cold expression. “Tie them up.”
Two grown men against one boy and one girl—children, really. They didn’t stand a chance. In no time, they were bound tightly, arms and legs secured.
Fu Peibai screamed desperately for help, her cries ringing through the night sky. Loud enough for the whole village to hear.
But every household had shut their doors tight. Not a sound came in return.
She screamed until her throat was raw, her voice breaking. Her fists clenched so tightly her nails dug into her palms, drawing bl00d. Then they threw her into the cellar.
The men gagged her with strips of cloth wrapped again and again around her mouth, knotted tightly until she couldn’t make a sound. They checked every corner, making sure she couldn’t escape, then climbed out.
The wooden lid of the cellar creaked shut, cutting off the last sliver of moonlight.
Fu Peibai bit her lip, forcing the tears in her eyes to stay put. She repeated her father’s words in her mind, over and over: Even if you’re a girl, you must be brave. You must be strong. In danger, stay calm. Think clearly.
She clung to those words like a lifeline, chanting them silently. Eventually, her tears stopped. Her eyes adjusted to the dark.
She looked around—nothing. Not a single tool, no way to break free. Worse still, they’d separated her from her parents. Escaping now was nearly impossible.
She slumped to the ground, eyes closed, and the memories came—her little brother Fu Jiaxu, the times they’d spent together.
When he was born, all wrinkled and red, she’d been only seven or eight, already wild and headstrong. She’d frowned and said, “So ugly,” and her dad had nearly had a heart attack.
When Jiaxu was five, she’d taken him to the river. He’d fallen in. She jumped in after him, hauled him out of the current, and braced herself for a scolding. But her father had only looked serious and asked if she was hurt. Told her never to jump in like that again. It was the first time she’d cried in front of him.
At eight, she brought Jiaxu to the county town, bought him candied hawthorn, sugar figurines, took him to a shadow puppet show. On the way back, he waved his candy stick and shouted, “My sister is the best! She’s the best!”
So many memories, one after another. Her time with Jiaxu, her life with her parents—they played in her mind like a dream.
Eventually, her eyes drooped, and she fell into a deep, heavy sleep.
Boom!
A thunderous crash jolted Fu Peibai awake. Her heart pounded like a drum. The sound had come from above, but she couldn’t tell what was happening. She let out muffled cries, voice trapped behind the cloth.
She stared at the slits in the wooden planks.
Another loud crash—and this time, the last sliver of light vanished. It was as if something had fallen onto the cellar door.
A scream—raw, piercing—ripped through the air. Then came chaos. Voices shouting, men and women pleading, begging for their lives.
Then—shhk—the unmistakable sound of a blade sliding into flesh.
Silence.
Fu Peibai stared, horrified, at the cracks in the wooden planks above. Bl00d began to seep through them—at first in drops, then in a steady stream. It fell to her feet, the metallic stench quickly filling the cellar.
Above, chaos erupted again.
Men roared in fury. Women screamed in terror. Babies cried. The sound of blades stabbing into flesh again and again assaulted her ears.
She sat frozen, staring into the darkness, unable to move. Desperately, she told herself she hadn’t heard her parents’ or Jiaxu’s voices—they must have been spared. They must be in another cellar. They must be safe.
But that illusion shattered with a single, anguished cry.
“Fu Ming!”
Her mother’s voice.
Then came a child’s terrified scream.
“Daddy! Mommy!”
Fu Peibai’s bl00d boiled. She leapt to her feet. The bl00d dripping through the cracks landed on her forehead, traced a slow line down her face.
Her eyes burned. She blinked frantically, trying to clear them. She jumped, slamming herself against the planks, trying to break through. Useless.
The bl00d didn’t stop. It coated her face completely—only her eyes still visible, dark and wild.
Time crawled by. The noise above gradually died down. The sound of blades being sheathed sliced straight into her heart.
Though her eyes were open, they stared into nothing. Hollow. Lifeless.
Finally, silence returned to Huailiu Village.
The bl00d had stopped dripping. The one who’d bled above must have run dry.
Fu Peibai collapsed. Her gaze landed on the pool of bl00d beside her.
Her mind began to go blank, thoughts slipping away. Maybe it’s time, she thought. Time to go find Dad, Mom, Jiaxu. We can be together again. That’s not so bad.
…
She woke again—because of hunger.
Her stomach growled loudly in the empty cellar, the sound eerie and jarring. She blinked, groaning, and forced herself upright.
Dad. Mom. Jiaxu.
Their faces flashed through her mind once more. She shut her eyes tight, waiting for death to take her.
But death didn’t come.
Instead, her stomach twisted with burning pain. She was still alive.
Her pupils slowly turned, eyes landing on that pool of bl00d. But now, it didn’t look horrifying at all.
In fact, it looked… almost enticing. Like spring water in a desert.
She sniffed. The coppery scent filled her nose. She jolted awake, realizing she’d somehow crawled forward—her face just inches from the bl00d.
Eyes wide, she jerked back and retched violently.
Nothing came out. She hadn’t eaten in days.
Death was right there, but it refused to take her. She lay flat on the ground, staring blankly, ready to fade away.
Just as she was about to lose consciousness again—voices. From above.
She snapped awake, listening intently.
“Another village… This damn demonic cult! They’re monsters, all of them!”
“Peak Master, we’ve checked. No survivors. What should we do?”
A woman’s voice, cool and clear: “Bury them on the spot.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Her eyes flew wide.
She rolled over, scrambled to her feet, jumped and clawed at the planks above. Her throat let out muffled sobs.
She wanted to live.
She had to live.
She had to live long enough to avenge her family.
She would kill every last one of those demonic bastards.
That was the only thought in her heart. She had to live—to take revenge. Only then could she go down to meet her parents and brother.
Otherwise, she could never rest in peace.
Perhaps, as if heaven had mercy, her faint heartbeat was finally noticed. That cold, clear female voice sounded again, “There’s movement over there. Go check it out.”
Soon, someone approached with heavy footsteps. The body pressed against the wooden planks was moved aside, and as the planks were lifted, light flooded into the cellar. The harsh sunlight made it impossible for Fu Peibai to keep her eyes open. She furrowed her brow, closed her eyes, and heard someone above her say, “Report to the peak master, there’s someone still alive here.”
When her eyes finally adjusted to the light, she opened them and looked up. Through her blurred vision, she could make out a faint figure of a woman standing in the backlight. The overlapping shadows made it hard to see her face clearly, but as her sight cleared, Fu Peibai was able to glimpse the woman’s true appearance.
The young woman was dressed in simple white clothes, her long, slender eyebrows and eyes gave off an ethereal and distant look. Her shallow brown eyes were like two pieces of crystal-clear amber, sparkling and translucent.
For a moment, Fu Peibai was dazed. In the sixteen years of her life, she had never seen someone so beautiful. To call her a celestial being would not be an exaggeration.
The woman in white glanced at Fu Peibai, who was covered in bl00d, before her gaze finally settled on her eyes—dark and bright, like two pools of ink.
Their eyes met, and the woman fell silent for a moment. Then, she tossed a dagger toward Fu Peibai without saying a word. The meaning was clear.
The dagger clinked as it hit the ground, snapping Fu Peibai out of her stupor. Sitting on the floor, she reached behind her to grab the dagger, skillfully cutting through the ropes binding her hands, then yanked the cloth from her mouth. When she looked up again, the woman in white had her hand extended toward her.
The woman’s hands were exquisitely beautiful—fair, long, with defined knuckles.
Fu Peibai unconsciously swallowed and rubbed her palms on her pants several times before placing her hand in the woman’s, allowing herself to be pulled out of the cellar.
Back above ground, the bright sunlight nearly blinded her, causing her to squint. It took her a while before she could open her eyes again.
What she saw was bl00d—bl00d everywhere. On the muddy ground, the eaves of houses, by the water tubs—bl00d splattered across everything. Her vision was drowned in a sea of red.
Amidst the bl00d, corpses of various shapes and sizes lay scattered.
Her mind went blank, and she stumbled toward a body, flipping it over. It wasn’t them. She moved to the next one. Not them either. Another one. Not them. None of them were her family.
Then, her hand froze on another body, her whole body stiffened. In the distance, she saw the bodies of a middle-aged couple and a young boy. It was her father, mother, and little brother.
Old Fu was leaning against the dirt wall, one arm around Mrs. Fu and the other around Fu Jiaxu. The three of them were nestled together, their backs to the wall, their expressions serene, as if they were merely sleeping.
Fu Peibai’s teeth chattered, and she scrambled to her family’s side.
Their bodies were cold, each with a single sword wound to the throat. The bl00d had soaked through large patches of their clothes.
Fu Peibai looked at them, her mouth opening and closing as if trying to speak, but no sound came. She trembled, reaching out, but just as her hand was about to touch her father’s body, she suddenly recoiled. Her brows furrowed and then relaxed, her expression twisted—half crying, half smiling, an incredibly strange look.
The woman in white and the others remained silent, standing a few steps away, watching the scene.
Fu Peibai didn’t cry. To be precise, she didn’t make a sound. Her tears fell like raindrops, mixing with the bl00d on her face, but no sound escaped her throat. She swallowed the lump in her throat, the bitterness in her nose, biting down on her tongue to force the pain, the despair, and the hatred that should have poured out back into her.
She turned her back to the others, her head hung low, her body hunched. From behind, she looked frail and solitary.
The once bright, energetic voice now sounded hoarse. “Why?”
The others exchanged puzzled glances, unsure of what she was rambling about.
Then again, she said, louder this time, “Why?”
A young man holding a sword stepped forward and asked, “What do you mean by why? What are you saying?”
In the next moment, Fu Peibai seemed to have lost all control. She turned around and grabbed the man’s clean, untainted robe, shouting with bloodshot eyes, “Why?!”
The man, startled by her sudden movement, instinctively drew his sword. The sharp blade was only an inch away from Fu Peibai’s throat, but she didn’t flinch. Her grip on the cloth was like holding on to the last straw of life.
The man’s patience wore thin. Sheathing his sword, he said with an impatient tone, “What’s wrong with you, kid? If you have something to say, then say it. Don’t keep asking ‘why,’ why should I know what you’re talking about?”
Covered in bl00d, her voice hoarse, Fu Peibai was mistaken for a man. She didn’t care about that, though. Her eyes flickered with resentment as she shouted, “Why? Why did you only show up now? I know, I know you’re martial artists from the Wulin, from a prestigious family. You came to punish the Falling Shadow Sect, but why? Why did you only come now? Why?!”
The man was taken aback for a moment, then frowned and answered coldly, “Punishing them is a serious matter. It requires careful planning and consideration, not something that can be done in a day.”
Fu Peibai let go of him and sat there in silence, isolated and lonely, utterly desolate.
The woman in white watched all this from a distance. She called over a woman in black and whispered something in her ear. The woman in black then walked over, pulled out a heavy pouch of money, and handed it to Fu Peibai. “Given the circumstances, little brother, take this money. It will help you get by and live your life.”
Fu Peibai slapped the pouch away. It landed on the ground with a crisp sound.
“I don’t want it.”
The woman in black was a bit embarrassed but eventually picked the pouch up and offered it again. “Please, take it.”
Fu Peibai raised her head, her eyes fixed intently on the woman in black. “I don’t want this.”
The woman in black was taken aback, not knowing what to do. She turned to the woman in white for guidance.
The woman in white’s expression was calm as she asked from a distance, “What do you want?”
Fu Peibai’s eyes brightened suddenly, and her voice was firm. “I want to learn martial arts!”
“I want to learn martial arts! I want to follow you! Teach me martial arts!”
The young man who had spoken to Fu Peibai earlier laughed, “Little brother, do you even know who we are? Ever heard of Tianji Sect? The number one sword sect in the world? Every year, people from all over, including royalty and noble families, try to join, but only a few get in. You say you want to learn martial arts? You better think carefully if you’re qualified. Not to mention your age is already past the best time to start, you wouldn’t even be able to pay the fees for apprenticeship. Listen to me, take the money and go somewhere else to live. As for your revenge, Tianji Sect will take care of it for you.”
Fu Peibai ignored the man and stubbornly shouted again at the woman in white, “I want to learn martial arts!”
The woman in white frowned slightly but said nothing. She spoke to her subordinates and then began walking toward the village’s edge.
Fu Peibai couldn’t follow because she still hadn’t buried her family’s bodies.
In the end, Tianji Sect buried the villagers who had been killed, while Fu Peibai insisted on burying her parents and little brother herself. She carried their bodies one by one, alone and weak, to the willow tree outside the village. Then, silently, she began digging the grave. Her nails were worn down and her fingertips bled, but she didn’t flinch. Her eyes remained fixed on the ground, and her hands didn’t stop.
Tianji Sect had already packed up and prepared to leave. The woman in black stood by the carriage and said, “Peak Master, it’s time to go.”
At the sound of her voice, the woman in white withdrew her gaze from the willow tree, lowered the curtain of the carriage, and spoke emotionlessly.
“Let’s go.”