CHAPTER 7: THE SWORN BROTHER

CHAPTER 7: THE SWORN BROTHER

Mu Village was a place that had everything-from small vendors on the side streets, restaurants and inns for people to dine and stay, to different entertainments for the crowds to watch. Although it was a small village, visitors from different ethnicities loved to travel there to experience the leisure lifestyle and foremost, their infamous 10,000 years old wine from Plum Blossom Inn.

Amazed by all of this, Cecilia pointed out little things shouting, “Look at that!” or “I can’t believe that!” to Xing Fu to see. She was like a little child experiencing the outside world for the very first time, making him enjoyed her company.

“So far, do you see anything that looked familiar to you?” he asked.

Looking around, she scratched her head sadly. “No.”

“Cheer up, this is only the beginning. We still have the world to venture off to,” and gave her a big smile, showing his teeth.

They finally reached the open gate entrance to Physician Wei’s clinic. She stared at the huge red signage that hung above and saw the some strange writings on it. She pointed at it, “What does that say?”

He glanced at where she was pointing; then he turned to her surprised. “You can’t read?”

Feeling dumb, her smile quickly faded to a frown and tilted her head down. He placed his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.

“Don’t worry. I can teach you how to read and write then.”

Her head rose up immediately from his words and was happy. He pointed his finger at her and gave her a serious look. “But promise me, no more frowning ok?” She gave an easy wide grin and nodded.

“Good.” He pointed at the characters from the signage and read it to her. “It says Wei.Chen.Clinic.” She carefully analyzed the strokes of the characters and repeated it a couple of times.

“Wei. Chen. Clinic.”

She clasped her hands together in excitement that she could read and Xing Fu chuckled at her reaction.

“So, shall we go in?” he said. She nodded happily and both of them walked inside the entrance gate.

As they walked through the front courtyard toward the clinic, Cecilia saw a young man sitting down across from an older woman. She saw that this man was youthful, possibly in his late teens at the most. The young man wrote something on a piece of thin paper. After he finished writing, he handed it to the old lady.

“Here is the prescription for your arthritis. Make sure to drink the medicine three times a day and come back for treatments.” The old lady thanked him and got up to leave.

Cecilia slightly turned her head to Xing Fu and whispered, “Who is he?”

“His name is Chen Guo Jing.”

“Chen Guo Jing…Isn’t he a little too young to prescribe medicine for patients?” she asked curiously.

Xing Fu laughed and she gave him a blank stare.

“He’s in his forties,” he answered.

Her jaw dropped, stunned by the young man’s age. She shook her head in disbelief. “Stop lying. He is NOT in his forties.”

“Trust me, he is. He aged very well.”

She crossed her arms in front and commented, “Too well!” as if she was a bit jealous of his youth.

Guo Jing saw Xing Fu and Cecilia stood a few feet away from him. He got up and walked gracefully toward them. As he got closer, she saw his skin-flawless to perfection with high cheek bones, his hair was longer than hers-silky jet black and half tied up with a silver head band, and his eyes-amber like wolf’s eyes. He was the most beautiful creature that she had ever seen. They met half way and the young man greeted them formally, extending his folded hands in front.

“Greetings Mr. Yu” and then he bowed his head at her and greeted, “Greetings Miss.”

Xing Fu greeted him back while Cecilia stood there speechless in awe of his beauty.

“She is a friend of mine, Xiao Xing. Xiao Xing, this is Chen Guo Jing, Physician Wei’s sworn brother.”

“It is my pleasure to meet you Miss Xiao. You can call me Physician Guo.”

He gave her a charming smile and she saw those dimples. Her heart thumped loudly and quickly covered her chest with her hands, hoping that he didn’t hear it. Guo Jing could tell that she was intrigued by his great looks and gave her a wider smile. Her eyes turned slightly away to avoid his stare and took a deep breath.

Then he looked at Xing Fu. “She must be the ‘Miss’ that lost her memories.”

Cecilia blinked profusely, surprised that her presence was already known by him. Anxious, she asked hastily, “How did you know?”

Guo Jing and Xing Fu laughed at her. “Brother Wei told me,” Guo Jing replied. 

STUPID! Of Course he would know! They are SWORN BROTHERS! She felt like digging a hole to hide now.

Guo Jing didn’t want to embarrass her anymore and turned to Xing Fu. “What brings the both of you here?”

“We wanted to see Physician Wei. Is he around?”

Guo Jing shook his head, “He left up north to see a patient and won’t be back for a few weeks. Can I assist the both of you of anything?”

“Since you know about Xiao Xing’s serious head injury from Physician Wei, I won’t go much into details then…” Xing Fu directed his hands to Cecilia’s head for Guo Jing to see. “…It’s been only three days from the incident and already, her wound has healed greatly. I don’t understand how and hope you can shine a light upon this matter.”

From hearing the situation, Guo Jing got curious about her. “Come inside,” Guo Jing said calmly.

He took them into the clinic and she sat down next to the table. He looked at her and asked politely, “May I check your head wound?”

She blushed and nodded. He got up and stood behind her. With his fingers, he delved into her silky, black hair to locate the wound on her scalp. He found the wound and became astounded. The wound showed only a linear pink scar as if it was at the end of the last stage of healing. He saw no traces of stitches that his sworn brother Wei had told him before. Odd, he was lost at words.

He looked at her, “Let me check your pulse.”

She knew what to do. She pulled her sleeves up and laid her wrist on the table. He placed his fingers on her wrist. Then, he felt what Physician Wei had felt before, but MORE.

Guo Jing felt something strange happening to him. His eyes bulged out like it was going to pop out of his eye sockets and started to hyperventilate, so he quickly let go of her wrist. Then his perfect body crumbled to the ground in front of them to see. Xing Fu and Cecilia quickly got up from their seats to help Guo Jing up and grabbed his arms. Guo Jing felt Cecilia’s touch on his arm and violently pushed her away from him.

“DON’T TOUCH ME!” he yelled angrily at her.

She backed away and stood frozen in confusion. Xing Fu got upset at Guo Jing and let go of him to run to Cecilia’s side. Guo Jing dropped onto the ground again.

“Are you ok?” he asked her.

She nodded, “Go and help Physician Guo up.”

Xing Fu hesitated at first, but seeing her cared for Guo Jing’s wellbeing made him have no choice but to go help him. Xing Fu grabbed Guo Jing from the ground and helped him up to sit back on the chair. His breathing began to stabilize normally but narrowed his eyes at her.

She saw his hands on the table trembling uncontrollably and felt guilty. “I’m sorry…I…”

Guo Jing held his hand up to interrupt her. “Speak no more…”

Xing Fu asked Guo Jing, “What happened to you?”

Guo Jing carefully tried to find the words to answer Xing Fu and exhaled. “Brother Wei was right…” Xing Fu and Cecilia looked at each other puzzled. Guo Jing swallowed and continued, “Miss Xiao, unlike others, your qi is very special. If I had prolonged it any further…I would have…” His voice started to shake, “…died…”

A sudden coldness hit the core of her body. How could she have the capability of killing? It was one thing that she didn’t want it to happen. She shook her head as tears started to well up in her eyes. She promised Xing Fu that she would not frown anymore, but after hearing this, she could not control it. Xing Fu saw her troubled expression and walked toward her to comfort.

“Stop!” she warned Xing Fu. He yielded at her command.

“Xiao Xing…”

He took another step but she stopped him again. Her voice started to choke as tears started to roll down her cheeks.

“Don’t come any closer. I…I might kill you too…”

Guo Jing sighed in frustration. “Miss Xiao, your special qi can’t kill him, so you don’t need to worry!”

Both looked at Guo Jing confused. He continued, “…I’m not going to say anymore but trust me. Whatever you are, we fear.”

Cecilia pondered about his last sentence. “What does he mean ‘We’ and why did he identify her as ‘What’?” It didn’t make any sense to her so she needed to know.

“I don’t understand.”

Guo Jing didn’t want to talk anymore and waved his hand at them. “Please leave. I need to recuperate from the loss of my qi.”

Cecilia refused to leave until she got some answers. She took a couple of steps forward, but Xing Fu blocked her way, staring straight at her.

“Xiao Xing, let’s just go and wait until Physician Wei comes back.”

She wiped her tears and glared at Guo Jing coldly. Guo Jing was too afraid to look at her and stared at the far wall to avoid eye contact.

“Fine,” she said angrily.

They left the room and disappeared from his sight. Guo Jing buried his face in his trembling hands and repeated, “What is she? …What is she? …What is she?” He thought of all the possibilities of her identity. Only a god has that power…but she’s not one of them. His head started to pound heavily from thinking too much and massaged the temples of his head.