Just as Ming was about to turn to leave, Ping suddenly pointed towards the bed as he screamed.
"I CAN'T ACCEPT THIS! JUST LOOK AT WHAT SHE'S DONE TO MY BROTHER!"
While they were busy arguing, Xing was silently staring at them with a blank expression while bleeding out a black and viscous substance from his eyes and mouth, which had started staining his clothes and bedsheets as it flowed down his chin and neck.
"NOT ONLY HAS SHE PREVENTED MY BROTHER FROM TAKING THE MEDICINE THAT HELPED HIM IN THE PAST, BUT SHE IS ACTIVELY TORTURING HIM NOW! HAVE YOU BEEN SO BLINDED BY HER BEING YOUR GRANDDAUGHTER YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE THAT?" Ping shouted, pointing at the black stained man covered in needles.
"Nox? Explain!" Ming ordered as he snatched Nox out of his wife's hands.
"Hey, I wasn't done cuddling with her! Give her back!" Ai complained, as her husband took advantage of his longer arms to hold her at bay when she reached for the little girl nestled in his other arm.
"Phew! Thanks, old man! Now make yourself useful and tell the muscle-maniac, rat-man, spoiled-sheep and crazed granny to leave already!" Nox said.
"WHO ARE YOU CA-!"
"SILENCE!" Ming shouted, cutting off his grandson's complaint.
"Yeah, shut the fuck up spoiled sheep!" Nox chimed in.
"I asked you a question Nox!" Ming said to Nox
"Huh? Oh, you want to know why your nickname is 'old man'?"
"No! I mean I do, but that's not what I asked about!"
"Huh?" Nox just looked confused.
She had been too preoccupied with trying to escape her biological grandmother's embrace and missed the question.
"I want to know why my son is looking like that!" Ming said, holding Nox up by the back of her collar as he directed her towards his son.
"I don't see what you're getting at! Hasn't the dumbass always had two-dimensional whiskers?" Nox replied.
"…"
Ming said nothing as he dangled Nox in front of Ai, who was breathing heavily with a perverted expression on her flushed face.
"FINE! I'LL ADMIT IT! I DREW ON HIS FACE! JUST GET THIS PERVERTED GRANNY AWAY FROM ME!" Nox screamed as she seemed disturbed by the bloodshot eyes of a starved predator before a slab of meat.
"I already knew that! I am asking about the liquid coming out of his mouth and eyes!"
"Noxy, come here so grandmama can give your little cheek a kissy!" Ai said, while making a kissy face.
"FINE JUST GET HER AWAY FROM ME!" Nox screamed before losing the shoe that Ai had managed to grab a hold of when Ming pulled her back.
"Now explain to all of us what is wrong with Xing, so we won't have any more misunderstandings!"
"You could have just asked, you know! You didn't have to threaten me with old-lady-cooties!"
"Ai! Why don't you spend the night here with little Nox! I'm sure Xing would appreciate the company!" Ming spoke, causing Ai's eyes to sparkle with joy.
"Have you no heart? You monster!"
"Stop stalling and explain!"
"Fine, but I'm not spending a night with your wife you pervy old man! So, basically the black stuff is the thing that's been clogging up his brain and making him go coocoo in the membrane!" Nox said, while pulling out a cuckoo clock.
"Huh? Ain't it because he's traumatized that he lost his marbles?" Ning asked.
"It's a factor, but no! The stuff you see coming out of his face is the residue from a highly addictive drug that latches itself to the veins causing major damage to your cardiovascular system while giving symptoms like, heavy breathing, seizures, hallucinations, and so on."
"What's a cardo-whatchamacallit?" Ning asked.
"Please, talk so that everyone can understand your explanation?" Ming asked, remembering the longwinded explanation he got last time he asked her to explain her process.
"Why should I-!"
"Noxy, which do you want to wear for our sleepover!" Ai asked as she had trouble deciding between the bear themed onesie and the dinosaur themed onesie.
"Okay, one dumbed down explanation coming right up! So, in short, the medicine you guys have been trying to feed him ever since the granny woke up, is a drug that makes you lose your mind by clogging up your brain!" Nox said as she pulled out a glass bottle of white pills.
"Oh! WAIT WHAT!" Ning shouted in astonishment as she processed Nox's words.
"NONSENSE! MY BROTHER'S MENTAL STATE ONLY STARTED SETTLING DOWN AFTER HE STARTED TAKING THAT MEDICINE!" Ping screamed in a panic.
"It's true! Xing's panic attacks were way worse, and more frequent before! He only started calming down after he started taking those pills!"
"I'm confused! What are those pills, you've been feeding my Xing?" Ai asked.
"It's called the 'Yang mind calming pill'! It's unique grade pill that is supposed to help calm your thoughts." Feng told his grandmother.
"I can't say anything about the name since I'm not up to date on the local terminality for different substances, but that is not what this thing does! The way this thing works is that small amounts of it latches on to your blood cells! I mean, it mixes with your blood to make this black stuff that will stick to the inside of your veins! Then whenever, there is no more of the pill freely floating around your body, the black stuff starts to grow bigger, clogging your veins until you take another pill to make it shrink back down! The symptoms can be seizures, difficulty breathing, decreased awareness, hallucinations, organ failure, and pretty much anything else you might experience if you lost a crap ton of blood!"
"This is nonsense! If that was true, then my brother wouldn't have gotten any better after he first started taking it! This is a clear example of how you are not qualified to take care of my brother you quack!" Ping spoke.
*Clap**Clap**Clap*
"Nice joke rat-man!" Nox said while clapping in applause of Pings words, while the rest of them just stared at her in confusion.
"…"
"Hey, what's with all the awkward stares? You still think of him as family, so even if you didn't like his joke, you should support his dream of being a comedian one day!"
"…"
"Just give him a pity laugh at least!"
"I don't understand why you think he's jokin! Ain't what he said true?" Ning asked
"Huh? Well, the muscle-maniac might not understand, but you do old man, right?" Nox said in an uncertain tone.
"Could you just explain it? I am growing tired of standing here all day!" Ming spoke.
"Then what about you spoiled she-? Nah, never mind, you definitely don't understand! How bout you gran-!"
"WE DON'T KNOW SO JUST SAY IT!" Ming shouted, as he seemed to be getting a headache.
"*Sigh* You guys are slower than the poison, you know that? It's not that he got better after taking the pills, it was that he went back to normal after taking those pills, or in other words, he has been taking this stuff way before you guys started forcing it down his throat! The insanity was just him not getting his next dose on time, which is why he started to come back to his senses once you gave him another quick fix!"
"WHAT?!" Ming, Ning and Ai shouted in unison.
"Why are you so surprised? Anyone with a brain could figure this shit out if they thought about it hard enough."
"Then how did it get inside Xing's body?" Ming asked.
"Shit, he's having a heart attack! The how and the who is obvious to anyone with a less damaged brain than this guy, so go figure it out on your own! NOW, ALL OF YOU, LEAVE! THAT'S AN ORDER!" Nox said, using her soul contract to make Ming and Ai drag the others out, as she tried to restart Xing's heart.
"WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TO ORDER ME-! WHOA! MOTHER?!" Ping said in bewilderment as his mother suddenly picked him up in the middle of an angry rant and dragged him out the door.
*Slam*
As the door to Xing's room slammed shut, Ai and Ming released their hold on their family members.
"Did an assassin sneak through our defenses?" Ming muttered as he pondered how his son came into contact with the drug.
"It could be possible, or maybe he was force-fed it when his cultivation was crippled! The enemies might have hoped to throw us into confusion by making our next clan head go mad!" Ai chimed in.
"Grandfather, grandma! I think I know what my cousin meant!" Feng spoke up.
"Hm? You know something little Feng?" Ai asked.
"I think she's aware of Uncle Xing's true nature back then!"
"What nonsense are you babbling about this time?" Ming asked, feeling a little disgruntled at his grandson.
"I think its best if I let father explain!" Feng said, turning everybody's attention towards Ping.
"Huh? What?" Ping, not expecting to be put on the spot drew a blank as he didn't know what his son was getting at.
"Father, I know you don't want them to think less of Uncle Xing, but the truth can't be hidden forever! So, it's time you told them what kind of person he really was!"
"Ping, explain yourself!" Ming said in an angry tone as he started to suspect something.
"Pft! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Ning just laughed as she already guessed what was going on.
"N-Nothing! Feng, go home!" Ping stuttered in a panic as he finally remembered all the lies, he had filled his son's head with to make himself look better.
"But father, y-!"
"NOW!" Ping shouted as his sister's loud laughter made him feel embarrassed, while his father's judge full look made him feel shame.
From that day on. Ming was not allowed to go near Nox, nor Xing. He was also ordered to tell the truth to his son, but fortunately for Ping, Feng had already left the estate by the time his father finished scolding him, allowing him to avoid having to admit to an inconvenient truth, for now that is.