"YOU WRETCH!!"
A voice growled from behind him.

Chilling shivers ran down his spine.

Renshu didn't dare look.

The hand that had been reaching out fell limply to his side of its own accord.

Right then, as if on cue, a large hand grabbed him by the forearm, making him wince at the crushing grip.

To his utmost horror, as soon as he was spun around, he came face to face with the brutal cause of his bottomless agony and despair, who began to pull him back to the same black hole with brute force.

"Let me go.... please," He whispered, only to receive a foul glare from those eyes towering over him, bloodshot with alcohol and rage.

A sharp yank made him cry out, as he was forced to his feet and dragged away.

Away from life.

Away from light.

His light.

His haven.

All this while, he was thinking that it didn't exist, and suddenly, almost magically, those doe eyes had opened it up for him.

He tripped and fell. The brute didn't pause, he simply hauled him up and continued.

"FIGHT BACK!!"

Did he imagine it?

Renshu looked back. No, he hadn't. The girl was shaking her fist in the air, gesturing him to hold on. Her face was drawn with worry and terror.

He gave her an apologetic, anguished look. The constellation of stars in his heart seemed to die one by one.

' I can't... Nothing ... I have nothing left to fight back with...'

"NOOO!!"

He heard her yell again.

A fresh tear rolled down the side of his face.

The hand clenched around his arm in a vice-like a grip. Out of reflex, his free arm latched onto it, probably in a wish to free himself from this tugging rope to hell.

A futile desire, for his little fingers, were of no match to it at all.

'No more... Can't take it anymore. Please...'

His eyes greeted the sight of the dark opening of the alley, his raw doom lurking in the shadows. Just a few yards away.

"LEAVE HIM!!! LET HIM GO!!"

' They won't... They won't listen to you... They didn't listen to my screams either...'

Renshu turned to look back at his light, expecting to see her glowing beams rapidly dissipating into the darkness.

'One last time... Before I...'

He almost fell apart with horror. His eyes, which were surprisingly not dry yet, brimming with tears. He was petrified, and yet a small part of his heart began to dance.

The light rays were shining brightly. They were coming after him.

Renshu shook his head.
'No! This shouldn't be happening!'

The girl who was swiftly making her way towards them didn't seem to have noticed that. Either that, or she didn't understand what he meant.

He wanted to shout, tell her not to come any closer.
But he couldn't do that, without making the thug see her as well.

He tried to convey the danger through his hazel orbs.

' Don't!!! Please... don't... Go away!!'

But the girl seemed to be determined to get to him somehow. Though she kept getting pushed back by the mad rush of the people around, her jaw was clenched tightly.

'Go away... Please... leave me and go away... Go somewhere where it's safe... don't follow.'

He stumbled over loose gravel and almost fell.
He didn't fight back any more. To his amazement, he felt like laughing when he heard the rogue mutter curses under his breath.
'I am already doomed...and yet you curse me.'

But he couldn't find it in himself to laugh. His main concern was the girl. His nascent sunray.
He bit his lips so that he wouldn't scream when he saw her keep up her pursuit relentlessly.

' GO AWAY!! WHY DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?? '

Yet he couldn't deny that a small portion of him was ecstatic that her warmth was closing in on him.

' I CAN'T BRING YOU DOWN WITH ME IN THIS... PLEASE GO AWAY...'

He promptly shut up the elated voice ringing in his head.

'IF I DROWN...'

His eyes were filled with anguish, desperation. He could feel a sudden strength, a renewed longing, under all those tears that were leaving his tired eyes.

'... WILL YOU BE STUPID ENOUGH TO DROWN YOURSELF IN THIS GLOOM ALONG WITH ME?? '

He would stop her. He would not let her sink into the same darkness.

'GO AWAY... Please... I beg you...'

He turned his head to look at the girl, in one last attempt to push her away from this endless ruination, into which he had been unwillingly dragged into, and she was willingly following him on his way back.

Renshu felt shattered. He wasn't even sure if he was still alive. He felt like an enormous void was engulfing him, starting from his entrails. It seemed like it would continue to envelop him, till there was nothing left, and still keep gnawing at the non-existent slices of him.

He longed to reach out to the single bright star which had lit up his whole existence.

'Why can't I... Why did he have to find me?... Couldn't it be different?'

Sobs began to shake his little figure.

'I can't watch you sink... disappear... Your light... I can't let it go out... Please don't come after me....'

Oh, how his eyes craved the light, how he wanted to cocoon himself in its warmth.

He turned back again, to tell her that it was useless. When he couldn't see the girl anymore, only a tiny little voice in his head whispered, 'There, she has understood what you wanted to say. She is safe. She is gone.'

Then why did his heart feel like it was in bits, each fragment screaming in agony, each trying to be louder than the rest?

Where did this new voice come from? Why was it reprimanding him? Why was it saying that he had killed himself with his own hands?

The man pulled him into the narrow pitch-black alley. He could see her no more, even if he wanted to, and it was then that he felt like the last bit of his existence had slipped through his fingers, making spacious room for numbing despair.

Just as they disappeared into the darkness, Renshu knew that all the ways to freedom had finally closed. There was nothing more left for him, other than blackness.

The next thing he knew was a splintering pain on his back which reduced to a dull throb. Renshu found himself clinging to a wall. He had been flung against it, the sudden harsh contact had caused the ache.
It had also served to snap him out of his daze.

He looked up, finding himself surrounded by the three cruel brutes, their silhouettes looming over him. He cowered in fear, as his eyes caught the upward movement of a monstrous arm, readying itself to thrash him.

He couldn't run. There was neither space nor opportunity. There wasn't any other choice either.

He closed his eyes, waiting for the blows to descend.

But the blows never came.

"HEY!!! STOP RIGHT THERE!!!!"

They all turned to find the owner of the voice.

Renshu saw a hooded figure standing a few metres away from them, expertly balancing itself on a moderately high ledge. It held a flaming torch in its hand.

"WHO ARE YOU?" One of the males asked.

It didn't reply.

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?"

"Nothing."

"THEN, WHY ARE YOU HERE? GET OUT, OR I WILL KILL YOU. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, AND LET US MIND OURS."

The figure didn't budge.

Something occurred to them, and the three brutes began to whisper among themselves. Renshu didn't know what to think. He could only gaze at the light from the torch playing a mysterious game of shadows on the heavily cloaked body of the mysterious person perched on the ledge.

"Hey, you up there!" One of them called.

No reply.

Taking the silence as an affirmation to continue, he continued, "Do you wanna play?" He smirked as he said this.

"Yes."

"Come down then, let's begin the game."

There was a whizzing sound. A bow appeared in the hand of the figure. It lifted the bow. The silver ring on the index finger of its left hand glittered.

"Hahahaha!!"

"Who said that we have to begin the game? I'm already playing it."

"That bow doesn't look good on those pretty hands... Hahahahaha!! Your hands would look prettiest when they hold clothes, the ones that will soon come off your body."

The figure simply waved its hand and with a flash of silvery light, three shining arrows appeared on the stretched bowstring.

"Oh wow, arrows? Hahahaha!! Put those down, kid, come down. Let's play."

This time, the figure laughed. It started with a low chuckle at first and slowly rose to full-throated laughter.
It shook its head, still laughing.

"You're all so naive. You still haven't realised that once Ruan Caihong mounts an arrow onto her bow, it never comes down without missing its  target."

With that, she removed the hood that had been hiding her face.

Renshu couldn't believe his eyes. His heart started hammering inside his chest.

' It's you!'

' Why... How....'

'Are you here to... take me away?'

" Pity, you rotten bitter gourds didn't realise this earlier. We're playing the same game, just different levels."

The hood fell off her head completely, exposing the strands of her glossy hair to the wind.

"We're dealing with the same hell, just different devils."

She gave them a lopsided grin and stretched the bowstring taut.

One of the men lunged at her with a cry, intending to bring her down from her perch.

Renshu thought he saw her eyes widened for a second before she smirked. She simply leaned down, an arrow in her hand, and stabbed the man's shoulder with full force.
The man screamed with agony and writhed in pain for a few moments before going completely still on the ground.

The already existing nausea hit him, making his head spin. He slid down the wall, feeling the bile burn his throat.

He puked.

And puked.

He couldn't stop. His mouth tasted so horrible that it made him want to vomit even more. The more he retched, the more his head spun.

Renshu felt a pair of warm arms wrap around him, and rub soothing circles on his lurching back. He felt fingers hold the tresses of his hair away from his face.
All the time, he heard a voice coax him.
" I'm here. I'm right here."

'Her voice... It's her... You... It's you..'

"See? They're gone. They won't beat you anymore."

Renshu let go in her warm embrace. He lay there, with his eyes closed, panting for breath. He must have shivered, for he felt a warm fabric wrap around him.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the three rogues, lying on the ground.

Unconscious.

He heaved a sigh of relief.

All at once, his eyes seemed to become as heavy as lead.

"Nooo!! Stay awake!!" He felt the arms shake him.

'Can't... So sleepy...'

In the last effort, he cupped her face with his hands and whispered hoarsely, "Please... Take me home..."

After that, his eyes saw no more. The last thing he saw was her eyes glowing in the dim light of the flames. He couldn't be more thankful for this sweet oblivion.

*****

Caihong took out two more of her little weapons. Now, she had six of them in her hand. She quickly poured their contents onto the three arrowheads.

She dispersed her bow and the three arrows and plucked a flaming torch from a nearby stall. She needed the light, now wasn't the time to go groping in the dark.

When she arrived, she found that there were three of them. So she quickly swung herself up on a sturdy ledge which had been jutting out from the wall. She would've been no match to their strength on the ground, at least, the height would give her an added advantage.

When one of them tried to attack her, she promptly plunged an arrow deep into his shoulder.
With an agile leap, she shot the remaining two arrows at the other men at once. Both the arrows hit them in their shoulder, and they dropped in a dead faint.

Now that the boy lay unconscious in her arms, Caihong decided that she would take him to the palace. He needed a lot of treatment.

As he started shivering, she took off her cloak and draped it over him. She put the hood over his head so that his ears and neck wouldn't be cold from the steady draught.

Caihong pushed him to a sitting position and put his arms around her neck. It had been difficult at first since he was unconscious, but somehow, she managed to hoist him onto her back and held both his legs firmly against her waist.

She stumbled a bit under his weight at first, but slowly she got used to it.

It was quite late in the evening. But the market was still busy. Normal. Very normal. Besides, there was a huge festival within a few weeks. Of course, sales would skyrocket now.

' We will look weird with him on my back, hidden by the cloak and all. Plus, I may get recognised. Someone might ask who he is. Tch tch... Now that's a big problem aiyaa... I think I should keep to the shadows and bylanes.'

Caihong stuck to her split-second decision and started walking with as much speed as she could, with Renshu on her back.

' I must get back home soon. My friend needs treatment... Aiyaa it's so late, GuanYin knows what tantrums must be afoot at home. I will be punished severely... bitter gourds...'

She turned and started walking down a lane.

' But yeah, what an adventure I had today!'

Her thoughts were rudely interrupted by a cool finger pulling her right ear.

"OUCH!!" she yelped.

The fingers pulling her ear wheeled her around. Thanks to the lamp over their heads, she could see the person who was still assaulting her ear.

"AIYAA!!! Zhang Gege!! At least, change the side, will you? Don't you all get tired of pulling the same ear all the time?"

Zhang Taio complied and twisted Caihong's left ear hard.

"OOOWWWW!!"

"You ran away. Drugged the guards and ran away."

"Ah... Haha yeah, I did. I'm sorry. I didn't want to do that... I just..." She ran out of words to say.

She looked over his shoulder and found their palace guards behind Zhang.
"Oi, you, yes you, get me a carriage. Right now!" she ordered.

"Yes, Second Mistress Ruan." One of the guards bowed and left.

Zhang was shocked. Never had Caihong asked for a carriage.

"And you, go and get the Royal Physician to my bed-chamber. Go, run, right now!"

"Mèimei!!" Zhang was at his wits' end. He couldn't understand head or tail of what the girl wanted. Was she injured? Was she sick?
"What are you trying to-"

He forgot to complete his query when he finally noticed her standing in a stoop and two pair of limbs around her. He narrowed his eyes to look properly under the dim light.
There seemed to be a huge bundle of sorts on her back.

"Mèimei, what's that on your back?" He tried to reach out to check what it was.

Imagine his dumbstruck face, when Caihong nimbly stepped away from him, gave him a glare that could probably reduce him to ashes, and growled.

"MINE!!"