Chapter 23 - Malice

At this moment, the unconscious Jin Ling suddenly sat up. In front of the two, he clumsily stood up with closed eyes.

"Ooh, quick, it's starting again!" The cultivator's idle chatter and gossip quickly stilled as the story started up again and they all stared with rapt attention at the board.

Sizhui leaned forwards, anxious to see how his friend was doing after being dug out of the wall. He nudged Jingyi, "What's wrong with Jin Ling? Is he awake? Why are his eyes closed?"

Jingyi rolled his eyes and replied in a sarcastic tone, "Calm down, Sizhui. Jin Ling's clearly sitting beside us right now, healthy as a princess, so nothing irreversible happened to him." Zizhen gave a well-timed snort of laughter that concealed the sound of Jin Ling grinding his teeth in irritation.

Wei WuXian wanted to see what he was going to do, so he didn't do anything as Jin Ling slowly walked around him, took one stride, and stepped back into the wall where he stood just a while ago. He placed his arms flat beside his body. Even the position was the same as before. Wei WuXian pulled him out of the wall again, feeling that the situation was both hilarious and strange.

"Hilarious? How is that funny?!" one younger disciple cried out. "Jin Ling's clearly being possessed!"

There were the usual sheep-like murmurs of agreement among the audience, muttered reproaches of Wei Wuxian's immoral behaviour. However, the murmurs seemed to be getting increasingly more vague and half-hearted. Wei Wuxian's bizarre and immoral behaviour didn't really seem so evil from this perspective.

This was a considerable threat to the reputations of Sect Leader Yao and his lackeys, who still stubbornly hated Wei Wuxian.

'This show is clearly on Wei Wuxian's side...' fumed Sect Leader Yao in his head, 'What can I do to save my face and get rid of it??' He sat there, brooding and plotting, but absolutely no ideas came to his head.

Meanwhile Jingyi, even though he'd seemed all nonchalant before, found Jin Ling's zombie-like behaviour extremely unnerving. Still, with both Senior Wei and Hanguang Jun there, what could go wrong?

As he was about to tell Lan WangJi that it was best not to stay here for long, he suddenly quivered out of fright, hearing a few barks that came from afar.

Jingyi resisted the urge to laugh out loud - of course, the dog being there would change everything.

"Oh, of course, you're all amused by Jin Ling being possessed by some demonic being, but then shake with fright when you hear a dog barking." Jiang Cheng said, voice laced with sarcasm. "Really got your priorities right there, huh?" But he didn't really have the heart to really have a go at Wei Wuxian, the flashback scene of a toddler Wei Wuxian kicking desperately at stray dogs still fresh in his wind.

Ever since they went in, the blackhaired spiritual dog behaved itself, wagging its tail as it sat before the entrance. It waited for them to bring back its master in an anxious yet pathetic way, without barking anymore. However, right now, its barks were fiercer than ever. Lan WangJi spoke, "Something is wrong outside of the castle."

"Outside the castle too??" muttered a Jiang disciple. "The inside seems plenty wrong enough."

His friend laughed briefly, then said hopefully, "Maybe the man-eating beast is outside?"

"But will we get to know the purpose of all the sabers in coffins?" sighed a Lan disciple who seemed to be friends with these Jiang disciples.

As he reached out to help Jin Ling, Wei WuXian beat him to it and carried Jin Ling up on his back, "Let's go out and see!"

It looked really weird to Jin Ling now to see Senior Wei carrying his unconscious self on his  back- especially as he had no recollection whatsoever of any of this.

Wei Wuxian brushed Lan Wangji away and reached for him so confidently to sling him over his back that it made Jin ling wonder if that was just something uncles are meant to do often.  Then then image of Jiang Cheng carrying him on his back popped into his mind, which he thrust aside in horror. Definitely not all uncles -maybe just Wei Wuxian, then.

The two quickly went back the same way they came. Bending down to exit, they saw the spiritual dog face them with its back, growling with the bottom of its throat at a certain direction. Although Wei WuXian managed to come over, he really couldn't bear this type of sound, and involuntarily took a few steps backward. When the dog turned around and saw that he had Jin Ling on his back, it instantly dashed over, causing Wei WuXian to scream.

"I never thought I'd see the legendary Yiling Patriarch scream." Guo Wanxin shook her head in admiration. "But now that I have, it's not really such a momentous occasion. It's just Jin Ling's spiritual dog."

"Just  a spiritual dog??" Wei Wuxian muttered. A spiritual dog was plenty  reason to scream in his mind. But louder he said, "I usually scream in a more dignified way, but Jin Ling's dog caught me off guard. I can do a better scream now, if you like."

Guo Wanxin choked, then laughed.  "I'm fine, thanks."

Lan WangJi shifted in front of him just as he was about to throw Jin Ling down. The spiritual dog immediately stopped, its tail between its legs again.

Jin Ling looked extremely unimpressed. Senior Wei was really going to dump him on the ground like that? Thank god for Hanguang Jun's reasoning skills that he didn't get humiliated in front of half the cultivation world.

The reason why it didn't stick its tongue out was that it held something inside its mouth. Lan WangJi went forth, bent down, took out a scrap of cloth from between its teeth, and handed it over to Wei WuXian. It seemed like it was part of a piece of clothing. Before this, there must have been someone either roaming or spying around the area, and they must have appeared suspicious, or else the dog's barks wouldn't have been teeming with hostility.

"Ah! What a clever dog!" Suddenly the room was overflowing with praise for Fairy, Jin Ling's spiritual dog. Jin Ling sent a smug smirk at Wei Wuxian's peeved expression.

Nie Huaisang fanned himself more vigorously. That damned dog! It couldn't even tell the difference between 'hostile' suspicious and 'working for the greater good' suspicious.

Wei WuXian declared, "They haven't gone far yet. Let's go after them!" Yet, Lan WangJi responded, "That is not necessary. I know who they are." Wei WuXian, "I also know. It must have been the same group of people who spread rumors of the Xinglu Ridge, let out the walking corpses, set up the maze array, and built the stone castles. And those sabers. But, if we don't catch them now, it'd be a bother to find them later."

"And, are you going to say out loud who they are?" a cultivator said sourly. "Or will we have to find out in another twenty episodes."

"Probably in about...uh... 2 episodes?" Wei Wuxian said, trying to judge in his head the timeline of when they confronted Nie Huaisang. The chunks of story seemed to be divided between interesting events - and quite a couple of interesting events happened before the confrontation. Then again, he didn't know if the pictures would suddenly plunge into a flashback or if they'd randomly skip past the whole confrontation with Nie Huaisang entirely. He had absolutely no control over it. If the story did skip over them revealing Nie Huaisang's activities, then he might have to start suspecting Nie Huaisang for orchestrating this whole event.

Lan WangJi, "I will go after them. What about you and Jin Ling?" Wei WuXian, "I'll take him down the Xinglu Ridge and settle down somewhere in Qinghe, around where we met that charlatan. Let's meet up there." The pace of the conversation was extremely fast. Lan WangJi only paused for a moment, and Wei WuXian added, "Go. Any later and the person would have run away. I'll be back!" Hearing the 'I'll be back', Lan WangJi took one deep look at him and walked off without any more words.

"Haha, Lan Zhan, now I can see how worried you looked! Were you scared I'd run off and ditch you?" Wei Wuxian teased.

"...Yes." Lan Wangji admitted. "How was I to know whether you'd really be back?"

Wei Wuxian pouted. "Didn't you trust me?" He was mostly joking, but Lan Wangji answered very seriously,

"I trust you, but you always attract disasters. Before, I waited for you for months, and then for 13 years. I didn't want to risk anything, after you'd just come back."

Wei Wuxian's heart softened. His arms still looped around Lan Wangji's elbow, he murmured, "I'm sorry. I'll never leave you like that again, I promise."

The spiritual dog wanted to throw itself over again. Wei WuXian immediately shouted, "W-w-w-wait! Take the dog away! Take it!!!" Lan WangJi had to come back again.

He looked down at the black-haired spiritual dog. Too scared to put up any resistance, it yapped as it trailed behind Lan WangJi, turning around to look at Jin Ling once in awhile. Wei WuXian wiped a few drops of sweat from his forehead. After he looked at the group of white castles once more, he picked up Jin Ling again and went down the Xinglu Ridge.

"Yeah, take that, Fairy!" Wei Wuxian cheered, wiping the present sweat off his forehead.

At the moment, it was already near dusk. With a boy on his back and both of them covered in dirt, they received a lot of attention from passersby.

"Not that the King of shamelessness would give a thought to passerby's looking at him covered in dirt." muttered a cultivator, still remembering Wei Wuxian's antics pretending to be a lunatic.

Wei WuXian went back to the street where Jin Ling used the dog to chase him and found an inn. Using the money he fished out of Lan WangJi, he bought two new outfits and got a room. He first took off Jin Ling's sect robe, which had been crumpled after it was buried in dirt, then pulled off his boots. Suddenly, his movements came to a halt. There appeared to be an area of shadow on Jin Ling's lower leg. Squatting down and rolling up the boy's trousers, Wei WuXian discovered that this wasn't a shadow, but a black bruise. And, it wasn't a bruise that came from being injured, it was a Curse Mark.

Veins stood out on Jiang Cheng's neck and forehead. "JIN LING! HOW DID YOU GET A CURSE MARK?! YOU IDIOT!"

"I don't even know what that is, I don't remember having it, how is that my fault??" Jin Ling screeched back.

Lan Xichen said in a placating voice, "Sect leader Jiang, I know you are worried about your nephew's wellbeing. However, this Curse Mark clearly had not long-lasting effect, so there is no need to get too overwrought."

Jiang Cheng's face was garnet red, but he conceded Lan Xichen's statement with a respectful, albeit a bit curt, nod.

A Curse Mark was a marking made by an evil being on its prey. If it appeared, it meant that the person had offended something of extreme malice. If it left a mark, it would find you no matter what, possibly after a long time, and possibly tonight.

The consequences ranged from having the body part with the marking taken away or just death.

There were gasps of alarm. "What??" Zizhen exclaimed in horror. "Jin Ling, you had to fight off some evil being that had it in for you?"

Jin Ling stared down at his leg, which seemed fully intact. He certainly had no recollection of fighting some vengeful spirit, but maybe his memory of this time was still a bit impaired?

Jin Ling's whole leg had turned black, and the bruise was still stretching upward. Wei WuXian had never seen a Curse Mark in such an intense shade of black and covering such a large area.

There were more gasps. The Curse Mark certainly did look malicious. Even Lan Xichen looked very concerned by the size and scale of the Mark - this evil being must have had a lot of power and resentful energy. Jin Ling was utterly confused. Could the Curse Mark have gone away by itself? If not, why did he have no recollection of it?

The more he looked at it, the sterner his face grew. He put Jin Ling's legs down and undid Jin Ling's undergarment. He only felt relief after he saw that his chest and stomach areas were all clean, not affected by the Curse Mark yet.

The fact that even Wei Wuxian had a grave expression said a lot about Jin Ling's situation. Jin Ling knew he had bigger problems to worry about, but he also couldn't help but notice his bare upper body was being shown to half the cultivation world right now. He also had now just realised what Wei Wuxian had been doing before he had woken up - which he should be doing any time now.

At this moment, Jin Ling opened his eyes. He was confused for quite a while. With his body naked and cold all around, he came to at once. He immediately got up and roared with a flushed face, "Wh-wh-wh-what are you doing?!"

The tense atmosphere immediately broke as everyone realised what a comprising situation it looked like to Jin Ling, who had chosen the absolute worst time to wake up. His expression was priceless.

Wei WuXian grinned, "Oh hey, you're awake."

Appearing as if he had encountered a great shock, Jin Ling shut the front of his undergarment and shrunk toward the corner of the bed, "What do you want?! Where are my clothes?! Where's my sword?! Where's my dog?!"

"And those are Jin Ling's top three priorities, right there." muttered Jin Chan. "It's solid proof - right after waking up and not knowing what is going on, he asks for his clothes, sword and dog."

Normally, the juniors had a bit of a rivalry with Jin Chan and the other young Jin disciples who liked to harass Jin Ling, but Jin Chan did have a point here.

Wei WuXian spoke, "I was just about to put on your clothes for you." His expression and tone were as kind as those of a grandmother who wanted to put on a jacket for her grandson.

Jiang Cheng and several other cultivators snorted and snickered in amusement. Wei Wuxian could be compared to a lot of things and situations, but not once had anyone thought to compare him to a kindly grandmother. Perhaps someone who pretended to be a kindly grandmother, but then pulls a pie from their sleeve and throws all over the robes of a clean-loving person.

Jin Ling leaned against the wall with disheveled hair, "I am not a cut-sleeve!!!"

Wei WuXian beamed, "What a coincidence—I am!!!"

The eyebrows of many audience members twitched. Was that really the best response Wei Wuxian could have given? Did he mean to deliberately give the wrong impression to Jin Ling just to make fun of him??

Then again, compared tp the pranks Wei Wuxian had pulled on lan Wangji so frequently as a teenager, this was really not that much.

Jin Ling snatched the sword that lay beside the bed in a manner so courageous that it seemed if Wei WuXian walked one more step forward, he would kill him and then commit suicide to prove his innocence.

Wei WuXian finally managed to stop laughing, "Why are you so scared? It was only a joke! I spent so much effort to dig you out of the wall, and you don't even thank me."

Amid the ruckus, Jin Ling combed his hand through his messy hair so that it looked a bit more decent, and continued to rage, "If not for this, the fact that y-y-y-you dared to take off my clothes w-w-would've gotten you killed for thousands of times!"

"Oh, really? And how would you have done that?" snorted a cultivator, "The whole cultivation world had to join forces to kill the Yiling Patriarch once. And even then, he still came back anyway, so we clearly didn't kill him properly."

Lan Wangji turned around slowly to send a death-glare at the speaking cultivator, remembering the face so that he could watch and blacklist that person, who seemed to imply that they were involved with the second seige of Burial Mounds and killing his Wei Ying. It was a stout, Jin clan disciple with wide shoulders and an disproportionately small head.

Wei WuXian, "Please don't. Dying once was already painful enough. There, there. Put the sword down." With a muddled look, Jin Ling did as he was told and put the sword down.

"Hah! Obeying your uncle, good job." grinned Wei Wuxian.

Jin Ling scowled at him. He remembered that he had thought that Wei Wuxian had been joking or making some sort of reference when he said 'dying once was already painful enough.Now in hindsight he could see how oblivious he was.

When they played Inquiry, although Jin Ling's soul left his body and he couldn't remember a lot of things, amid the haze, he knew that it was the person in front of him who dug him out and carried him down the mountain. For some time, after he was buried in the wall, he had been conscious for a while, the fear and despair in his heart at their height. Yet, he really didn't expect that the one who freed him from his fear and despair was this person whom he had hated ever since the first time they met.

Sizhui felt deep sympathy for his friend. He shuddered at the thought of being buried alive in a wall, knowing that no one would know where to come looking for him, and so no one would be able to rescue him.

He also realised this internal dilemma of Jin Ling's, of being saved by 'Mo Xuanyu', whom he hated was very similar to his later dilemma of becoming close with  'Mo Xuanyu', who later turned out to be Wei Wuxian, the one he had hated fiercely for causing the deaths of his parents ever since he learned to talk. Sizhui really didn't know how Jin Ling was going to react.

The color of his face switched back and forth between white and red. He was also both dizzy and embarrassed, his thoughts still fluttering everywhere. Suddenly, his eyes went toward the window and was shocked to see that the sky was already dark, with a few stars scattered here and there. Coincidentally, Wei WuXian bent down to pick up the new clothes that fell on the ground. Jin Ling hopped off the bed, put on his boots, grabbed his jacket, and sprinted out of the room.

'...Of course.' Sizhui sighed to himself, 'He runs away! Better than stabbing him, I suppose.'

Wei WuXian originally thought that, after going through so much, he would probably stay listless for a while. Who knew that young people were so energetic, as he disappeared into the distance like a gust of wind.

The audience laughed at that last comment. Lan Xichen sighed, thinking, 'Tell me about it. Raising Lan Jingyi was an absolute nightmare."

Remembering the Curse Mark on his leg that was no trivial matter, he quickly shouted, "What are you running away for?! Come back!" Jin Ling ran as he put on his soiled, crumpled sect robe, "Don't follow me!" He was light on his feet and stepped out of the inn in a few long strides.

"Can he run with his leg in such a state??" asked a cultivator in shock.

"Wait, I thought Senior Wei was going to  heal your Curse Mark somehow!" A junior said to Jin Ling, confused.

Jin Ling had been privately assuming that too, but it seems that that wasn't the case.

After chasing for a few blocks, Wei WuXian actually lost him. After searching for a while, twilight came, and the people on the streets also lessened. Wei WuXian was quite annoyed, "Damn. How can this child do such a thing?!" As he was about to give up, the angered voice of a young man came from in front of him, at the far end of the street, "I only said a few things about you, and you disappeared into nowhere. Are you some young mistress? Your temper has been growing worse and worse!"

Jingyi let out a peal of laughter. "Young mistress Jin! Hahahahaha... ow!"

Jin Ling had stomped on his foot.

Jiang Cheng! Wei WuXian immediately slid into an alleyway.

A hush descended on the audience as they realised the importance of Wei Wuxian staying hidden from Jiang Cheng, who would no doubt be looking for the excuse to drag "Mo Xuanyu" away for questioning and inevitably a painful death.

A second later, Jin Ling's voice also appeared, "I already came back with nothing wrong with me, didn't I? Stop nagging!" It appeared that Jin Ling didn't come to Qinghe alone. Well, no wonder. Last time, at Dafan Mountain, Jiang Cheng had been there to assist him, so why wouldn't he have come this time? However, looking at this now, it seemed that the two had a quarrel in the town of Qinghe, which was why Jin Ling went up the Xinglu Ridge alone. The reason why he hastened to run away was probably that Jiang Cheng threatened to do something to him if he didn't come back before dark or something like that.

Both Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling went a marshy shade of red at Wei Wuxian's shrewd guesses, which were, in fact, 100% accurate. Then again, Wei Wuxian had grown up with Jiang Cheng and had now gotten to know Jin Ling's personality quite well, so it wasn't that surprising that he'd been able to deduce what happened so easily.

Jiang Cheng, "Nothing wrong? You look like you just rolled around in a muddy ditch, and you say there's nothing wrong with you! Don't you think that it's an embarrassment to be wearing your sect's uniform? Hurry back and change into something else! Speak. What did you run into today?"

Jin Ling replied impatiently, "I already said that I didn't run into anything. I tripped, and it was a waste of time. Ow!" He shouted, "Don't tug on me like that! I'm not three-years-old!"

"You tripped, huh?!" Jiang Cheng yelled out in a brash voice. "You just wait for the punishment you're gonna get when we get home!!"

Jin Ling slunk back down in his seat. Jingyi patted his shoulder sympathetically, "Ah, such bad luck, this magic board thing just exposed you."

Jiang Cheng spoke in a harsh tone, "Is it that you think I can't discipline you any longer? Let me tell you that, even if you're thirty, I'd still be able to tug you. Next time, if you dare to run around without telling anyone again, the whip waits upon you!"

Jin Ling, "I went alone exactly because I didn't want anyone to help or discipline me."

Wei WuXian considered, I don't know about anything else, but Jiang Cheng was quite right when he scolded that Jin Ling had the temper of a young mistress.

Jin Ling could feel steam practically coming out of his ears, while Jingyi, Zizhen and even Sizhui rocked with laughter around him. This joke about 'young mistress Jin' and 'princess Jin' was getting way out of hand now!

"Even Senior Wei agrees!" chortled Jingyi, "What do you say to that, huh, Jin Ling?"

Jin Ling huffed in irritation and turned away.

Jiang Cheng, "So, what now? What did you catch? Where's the spiritual dog that your uncle gave you?" It was chased into some random corner by Lan Zhan. Just as Wei WuXian was thinking, two familiar barks came from the other side of the alley. Wei WuXian's demeanor changed at once. Legs moving on their own, he rushed outside as if he was chased by poisonous arrows.

"...Oh no..." The cultivators winced, resisting the urge to hide their faces behind their hands as they waited for the inevitable to happen, which was for Wei Wuxian to end up right in front of Jiang Cheng.

Lan Wangji felt wracked with guilt watching this sequence of events. He should have waited until he knew where Wei Ying was before letting Jin Ling's dog go back to its owner. Without that dog chasing Wei Wuxian out of his hiding place, he wouldn't have gotten hurt by Jiang Cheng.

The black-haired spiritual dog sprinted over from the other end, passed Wei WuXian, and threw itself toward Jin Ling's legs, affectionately brushing him with its tail. With the dog appearing here, it must have meant that Lan WangJi had already caught whoever was spying near the stone castles and went to point of rendezvous that they settled on earlier. However, at the moment, Wei WuXian had no time to think about these things. As he ran, he just happened to end up right before Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling, and a bunch of other Jiang Sect's disciples.

Everyone groaned. When dogs appeared, Wei Wuxian really did seem to lose all ability to think straight. Of all directions to run in, he subconsciously chose to run towards Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling, the two people who probably hated him the most at that time.

After both sides stayed still for a moment, Wei WuXian silently turned around and fled. Having only managed a short distance, he heard a sizzling noise, and a purple electric current wrapped around his lower leg as if it was a snake. Numbness and pain surged through his body from bottom to top, and he fell at once, after a pull from behind.

The cultivators sighed. "Nice try, but you're so screwed now. I'm surprised you're in one piece right now, Wei Wuxian. Did Hanguang Jun find you and save you?"

"Uh..not quite..."Wei Wuxian replied, with a shifty look at Jin Ling.

Jiang Cheng wanted to go back into the past and throttle himself. All the antagonistic things he'd done to capture and kill Wei Wuxian seemed so pathetically stupid, now that he knew the truth. About his golden core, about the real reason behind the deaths of his sister and her husband...

And to be fair, he'd always known deep down what type of person his brother was  - a good person, not someone who would intentionally cause harm to anyone innocent, let alone to Jiang Yanli, whom they both adored. But Wei Wuxian had left him, chose the Wens over him, then died and left him all by himself - and the resentment had poisoned his judgement. And now nothing could erase all the horrible things he'd done, in the name of punishing Wei Wuxian.

Then, someone picked him up with the back of his collar. Wei WuXian immediately tried to find the Spirit-Locking Bag, but the other grabbed it before him. Jiang Cheng walked a few steps while holding him, entered the nearest shop, and kicked open the wooden bolt that was already half-latched. The owner was getting ready to close the shop for the night. Suddenly, seeing that a fancy-clothed, dark-faced young man kicked open the door and walked inside with someone in his hand, appearing as if he was going to disembowel the victim right here, the owner was so frightened that he couldn't speak.

"And people call me rude..." Wei Wuxian muttered. "At least I've never done that."

"But you've killed 3000 cultivators in one go with your Stygian Tiger Amulet at Nightless City." a cultivator said disdainfully.

Wei Wuxian opened his mouth to argue, before realising there wasn't any point. He settled more comfortably against Lan Wangji's side, burying his face in Lan Wangji's long, fine hair.

A disciple went up and whispered a few things in his ear. With some silver pushed into his hands, he quickly fled to the back of the hall and never came out again. Without any further instructions, the Jiang Sect's disciples instantly spread out from the inside to the outside, making it so that nothing could enter or escape the place.

"...How did you get out of there alive, Senior Wei??" exclaimed a junior disciple, mouth wide open.

"Um..luck and a nice person?" Wei Wuxian said with a high-pitched laugh. He felt really bad for Jin Ling, who he knew was about to get exposed in front of his uncle and the whole cultivation world for freeing Wei Wuxian. He could imagine the horrible punishments that Jiang Cheng would be able to inflict on the poor kid.

Jin Ling stood on the side, seeming as if he wanted to say a few things, but was too shocked to do so. Jiang Cheng glowered at him, "I'll take care of you later. Stay here!" From the beginning of his memory until now, Jin Ling had never seen such a look on Jiang Cheng's face before.

"So, Sect Leader Jiang knows for sure, now?"

"It seems so... perhaps he recognised Wei Wuxian's fear for dogs?"

"Yes that must have been it!"

The hushed whispers of the cultivators died down as there was a close up of Jiang Cheng's face, dark and vengeful music crashing in the background.

This uncle of his who led the prominent YunmengJiang Sect ever since a young age had always been cold and dark. When he spoke, he was willing to neither show mercy nor do good. Yet, right now, although he was trying hard to suppress unnecessary facial expressions, his eyes were alarmingly intense. Although his face had always been clouded, marked with arrogance and satire, it seemed as if every corner of it had come alive. It was difficult to determine whether it was vengeful wrath, fathomless hatred, or raving ecstasy.

When the screen faded to black, the room was still in a sort of paralysed state of fear and unease. So, was Sect Leader Jiang happy or not that his long-lost shixiong was alive again, and not actually dead  at his hands? Or was he just anticipating finally getting the violent revenge he'd been harbouring for 13 years? Either way, that expression was nothing short of terrifying.