It was not just the face….for Liuxing, it was the fact that Kenji never unveiled his face but he did that just now, in Liuxing's presence, in his presence.
Kenji had a scar projecting from his lower right cheek and extending till his jaw. Kenji looked at Liuxing, with a soft smile, a faint glow in his eyes. Liuxing could not breathe. The strands of hair touching Kenji's face made him look more and more ethereal.
Liuxing felt his words form a knot in his throats, his heart was pacing at a not so regular pace, he could feel himself get mesmerised by Kenji once again.
"Your highness…..you are-" before Liuxing could even finish Kenji put on his veil.
"The wind is so soothing, right?.....I just wanted to feel it on my bare face once." Kenji said while looking down.
Liuxing stared at him for a while and then he took a deep breath, a moment to bring himself back to his senses, "Your highness…..why don't we take a seat?" Liuxing signalled towards the lifted piece of black jade, carved into a beautiful chair.
Kenji and Liuxing sat down, "Your highness…..do you mind if I ask…how did you get that scar? A war incident or….." Liuxing hesitantly asked.
"No…..not a war incident Liuxing. When I was fourteen years old, my father decided to seal my core….so I would not be able to mount on as a guardian, god or even practise an cultivation and become a mere cultivator. But I did not agree with his decision, I was ready to even be out casted and be left to become a mere cultivator rather than being nothing. I fought with him to not seal my core, in return he whipped out his most powerful weapon 'Thousand chains' and thrashed me till I bled and bruised. On his first whip, it hit my lower cheek too, at first there was swelling, it was bleeding a lot too but soon it became a scar." Kenji said, looking down at the shallow water, he sighed.
Liuxing's eyebrows furrowed, he listened to Kenji with utmost concentration. It was like he never heard, the mortal realm, the immortal realm, everyone knew with how much care and affection, Kenji Huang was brought up by his parents. However, what Kenji was just now telling him was a completely different story.
"My lord.....it is known that you were brought up with utmost care and love by your parents….how-"
"I was...of course I was. Who said I denied the fact that I was brought up with such love and affection ?" Kenji interrupted, "But that love and affection, care and kindness soon disappeared when they realised they gave birth to a destructive, doomed being like me.....you know what they called me? A monster, filth, disgusting being." Kenji sighed, he took a deep breath and continued, "As soon as my fate and energy started showing a noticeable influence, which means when the downfall of Huang Kingdom started, my mother and father suddenly started hating me. It was ...…..unbearably painful to have your own mother and father who have treated you like a delicate lotus, treat you so differently, look at you so differently, a gaze dripping with hate and disgust. Their honeyed words soon turned into something that stings. The hands that caressed me so gently, was suddenly beating me, raising against me, they said ....it was a shame to have me as their son...I remember the same mouth saying, 'I am proud to have you as my son Kenji.' But then…..things evolve, don't they? Even my presence was unbearable for mother, she once threw her favourite, jasmine sherbet on me, because I had interrupted her calm and peaceful evening…..I became so disappointing to look at that she had to throw her favourite drink. I was served dinner not at the royal dining hall but in my room. I used to tip toe around my own house just to grab a book because if they heard me, they would once again have to tire their throats to shout at me and remind me again of what a disappointment I am to them. My father, Huang Haoran said, 'I would rather have no one rule my kingdom than have you rule it.' He would rather succumb the kingdom to nothingness than let it be ruled by me...…." Kenji took a deep breath, a drop of tear fell from his eyes. Liuxing was listening to him very carefully and silently, his eyebrows furrowed, he was extremely focused, it was nothing like what he heard about Kenji's childhood.
"You know...…I hated …I hate-" Kenji felt as if his throats were being choked by a throny rope, he could get any words out of his mouth. The tears could not stop flowing from his eyes, Kenji hated it, he hated the fact that no matter how much he thought that he had grown out of it, it would not affect him anymore, it affected him with much more increased intensity than before. He wanted the tears to stop, this feeling in his throat to disappear, the silent ache in his heart to dissapear, but instead, sobs came out, he could not help it. He felt chills run down his spine as he felt the ache surface over his heart, as he felt the same pain surface over him with more and more intensity. He felt himself cold, just like he felt it years ago when his father and mother beated him.
Liuxing's eyes teared up, he could not bear watching Kenji like this, he could not …..he was unable to endure the pain he felt upon realising how much pain, how much grief, how much sorrow and torment has Kenji been bearing.
Kenji felt a pair of arms pull him into a tight embrace. Warm, huge, safe, protective. He felt all of his thoughts go silent, only the sound of Liuxing's heart pacing, and the water cascading down the huge and tall black jade cliffs.