Yue Mian and Yu Sheng stood in a room where they kept the bodies of the dead lined up that washed up on shore recently. All the dead bodies belonged to females around the ages of ten to fifteen-year-olds who all had a similar trait – a red mark on their foreheads.

Besides the mark on their foreheads, they had black marks similar to veins under their skin that indicated that whatever it was must have travelled through their bodies and killed them, if not then how could such ugly marks show on their skin? Just what did they ingest to have an appearance such as this?

A total of seventeen bodies all varied in size and age. Pale in complexion due to being in the water for too long. Yue Mian opened one of the bodies eyes and noticed that the whites of the eyeballs were pitch black – this adding on to her confusion.

"Sheng, what do you think?" He came up to stand beside her adding, "According to what the physician said, the black vein marks must have been caused by either ingesting something or they were injected with some drug, besides that after examining further we found that all those who seemed to be over thirteen were sexually violated and more than once to boot. So if I might say then the harsh of reality, they were disposed of because they became useless or something must have gone wrong."

He continued, "We did a thorough investigation and asked if there were any young females missing from their families but its either they died already or ran away. The parents of those who ran away gave descriptions of their children and none match the girls in front of us."

Yue Mian undressed one of the younger girls examining her body. There were faint red and blue spotted marks and bruise marks on the body under her arm and on her back. Feeling along the joints of her body she said, "Besides all the physical marks we see there's also internal damage, the skin is stuck to the bones as if there aren't any organs in the body, have you noticed?"

Looking at her hand that glided over the dead girl's body he said, "I was waiting for you to ask permission to cut open her body. The physician did puncture her body with his acupuncture needles and they came out black indicating that there was some poison in the bodies and also that the needles did not reach any organs, to be specific he tried checking the lungs, kidney and liver but it seems like there is nothing inside their bodies."

Raising a knife she looked at him then turned to look at the body in front of her. Piercing it then dragging the knife down her stomach the liquid inside her body came flooding out. Yu Sheng stepped back while Yue Mian continued to cut down the stomach and stopped once she hit the pelvic bone.

Cutting a curve opening the right side of the body she yanked it open and wasn't surprised. Yu Sheng took the knife from her and handed her a cloth to clean up with. She wiped her hands and the liquid that splattered against her face. Looking down at the black liquid that pooled by her feet she hummed in understanding.

"Get someone to clean this all up and collect the liquid into a clan pot for me, there's something strange about all of this." Acknowledging her command he leads her out and helped her onto a horse. She rode off leaving him behind.

Yu Sheng instructed a few under his command and went back to the office with the clay pot of black liquid. Yue Mian was nowhere to be found! Taking a deep breath in he placed it down on the desk and walked out.

Not too far from their base was a small house with a garden that Yue Mian owned. Arriving he heard giggling and crashing here and there. A moment later little Chushan came running out yelling at the top of her lungs while giggling.

Yu Sheng saw this and his heart jumped into his throat. Stepping lightly on his feet he rushed to her quickly reaching her with in the second! "Shan!" His daughter caught a fright from suddenly being caught by her father and his yell. The tears were ready to fall when Yue Mian came walking out of the house.

"Yu Sheng, love, why are you so worried about her, don't you know that if she doesn't experience life, fall or gets hurt then she won't develop fully." Standing up with his daughter in and he looked at his wife and said, "Do you know how it hurts to see you get hurt and how you make as though you don't feel pain? Forgive me for wanting to keep my daughter safe when I cannot protect my wife!"

"Annoyed?" she teased him. Looking at his frustrated gaze she stroked his face and pecked his lips. "I understand that it's not easy being with someone like me but Sheng remember, Shan isn't my first child and she needs to develop wholly, or else what will she be like when she grows up? A young lady who knows nothing but to rely on you, me or Xinxi? Or will she be someone who relies on one herself if and when we are not around?"

Feeling the weightless child in his hands Yu Sheng couldn't answer her only thinking to himself, 'But she's so small.' [Here Chushan can be said to weigh 1.8kg when she was born and currently only 10kg's because she barely ears and is very small but don't get me wrong, she eats enough to fill her up but not to gain weight.]

Placing her down, the little human ran away giggling again. Jangmi came out of the house with a baby in her arms greeting Yu Sheng. The baby she gave birth to is a beautiful baby girl, dark skin in colour, had the same nose as her father and the same eyes.

Yu Sheng was mad in love with this beautiful baby girl making both Yue Mian and Jangmi speechless. Leaving with the baby in hand Yue Mian went back in to drink her tea. "My husband is an idiot!"

Yue Mian and Yu Sheng stood in a room where they kept the bodies of the dead lined up that washed up on shore recently. All the dead bodies belonged to females around the ages of ten to fifteen-year-olds who all had a similar trait – a red mark on their foreheads.

Walking out of the fridge-like cell she said, “Gongzo Zhucheng.” Behind her, Yu Sheng smiled, “Mn, all these girls seem to be from the neighbouring kingdom Chengzhu Zogong. I’ve sent news to our allies to find out about what’s happening, hoping that they bring us good news soon.”

“Then why am I needed here?” … ”Because princess, your subordinate will always report to you even if it’s a minor matter.” Walking up to her he placed his hands on her shoulders gripping firmly he whispered into her ear, “My wife, although you are not needed here, you are needed at home and tonight in my arms!”

Shaking his hands off she turned to look at him, “Have you not figured out yet why I keep running away?”

Shaking his head Yu Sheng shrugged. Walking past her he grabbed her hand, pulling her off. The two of them arrived at home and Yu Sheng had his way with his wife yet again!

 Few days passed before they received good news. Their guesses were correct. The girls that drifted onto the shores of Jilei were from the neighbouring kingdom Chengzhu Zogong across the sea.

On the shores of Jilei, not only did they find the bodies of the girls but also the wreckage of a ship. It’s believed that the girls were in this ship before they died or thinking along the lines of Yue Mians thoughts – the girls could have been shipped somewhere but something must have gone wrong.

Laying on the bed on her stomach beside Yu Sheng she lazily looked at the reports while leaving the busy hands of her husband to glide on and pinch her buttocks as he pleased. “Why do you think those girls were on the ship?”

Sighing he brushed the stray strands of hair out of her way, “Slavery?”

“Well… maybe or it could be witchcraft!”

“Witchcraft?”

“Maybe – this is just a guess, there could also be the case where they sold he girls for slavery in which they could be used as sex-slaves, house slaves but what can explain the amount of black liquid found in their bodies?”

“Should I have them search for things related to drugs and other illegal substances?”

“That’s a sound idea… let us see what comes up.”

~

Looking at the report in front of her while she sat on her husbands lap, “Sheng, this doesn’t make sense but on the good side, we now know that there are many girls missing but the drugs being distributed in the kingdom does not leave such a result such as melting the organs into a liquid black in colour – what is it really?”

She continued, “Sheng, let's travel to Chengzhu Zogong, maybe we’d able to get a better feel for what is happening when we get there.”

Yu Sheng, “I’ll arrange for our leave.”