Aoki Kengo came after the county was captured by the j.a.panese army as a young officer. Failing to prove himself in battle, he was rea.s.signed to the military administration of the county as a compound adjutant, which made Aoki Kengo very discontent.

The county was still covered with the smoke of battle, and after seeing the resident commander of the garrison, Suda Ibuki, Aoki Kengo was dragged off by several of his colleagues to the best recreational place in the county - the Fan House.

To tell the truth, Aoki Kengo"s first impression of the Fan House was not good. It was the first time that he, a boy lover, fell in love with someone, but they turned out to be a girl pretending to be a boy. Aoki Kengo felt greatly deceived and ashamed and was about to teach her a small lesson, but one Fan House wh.o.r.e went and asked his chief, Suda Ibuki, for help, which etched his humiliation ever deeper into his heart.

However, Aoki Kengo got lucky. Commander Suda Ibuki was soon transferred to the front, leaving Aoki Kengo, as compound adjutant, as the county"s most powerful man. Unfortunately, the town was too small. There were too few handsome boys, which drove Aoki Kengo to spend his time in the company of wines and liquors while waiting to be called up to the front. After all, the battlefield was the best place for a soldier to show his bravery.

Bored with the long days of waiting, Aoki Kengo was suddenly reminded of a game that he had seen played in another city, especially after the news of Suda Ibuki"s death in battle.

The twisted game was very simple: A few local women were selected, and each j.a.panese soldier could bet on which woman could survive being forcibly taken longer. The game ended when there was only one woman still alive.

Aoki Kengo"s luck might have been over. With each bet, he would lose a large sum of money. Aoki Kengo didn"t care about the money, since the county"s treasury was all his, but losing his prestige was unbearable to him.

There were many women in the county, but not enough j.a.panese soldiers. Not to mention the ordinary soldiers, like Aoki Kengo, who didn"t touch women, killed over 500, until he got so tired he couldn"t straighten his back.

What else would be fun? Aoki Kengo was stumped, watching the naked women pinned to trees, lost in thought.

All of a sudden, an idea came to him. The woman who had prevented him from punis.h.i.+ng someone who cheated him, the woman from the Fan House! He left one of his lieutenants in charge and went to the Fan House.

Thus, the Fan House disaster began. Aoki Kengo asked everyone in the county to come up with a form of corporal punishment. If the punishment was not cruel enough, the one who proposed it would be executed. If cruel enough, the punishment would be used on a Fan House woman"s body. In the end, he compiled 108 forms of cruel torture, implementing them to ma.s.sacre everyone in the Fan House.

When he saw the last person in the Fan House breathe their dying breath, he was finally relieved. The woman named Xiaozui died, and the insults and cheating he"d suffered were punished. Unfortunately, there weren"t a lot of people left who would hear of this.

Aoki Kengo soon found a new occupation for himself. He felt that he should write down the punishments he"d used, and wrote a book called "The Travels of An Xing". This had at last quieted him down, but by then the whole county was quiet, for it was already empty.

Aoki Kengo never finished his book, because the order to retreat came. He thought that whoever gave such an order should commit seppuku, because the great j.a.panese Empire should never retreat!

Therefore, he cut open his belly at night in the Fan House"s back yard, intending to use his own blood to tell all the j.a.panese warriors that there could be no retreat from the war.

Lulu spoke very briefly about Aoki Kengo, reluctant to go into detail, but I was still chilled to my core. From my research of the raunchier kind of j.a.panese anime, I figured there were a lot of psychopaths in j.a.pan, but the story of Aoki Kengo truly astonished me.

After a long time, I asked with a dry voice, "So he killed Kitty? Why are you…?" I didn"t finish, because it suddenly occurred to me that, with the female ghosts" hate for him, they would never let Aoki Kengo go if not for some special circ.u.mstances.

Sure enough, Lulu told me very calmly that Kitty did die by Aoki Kengo"s hands. Aoki Kengo was in a frenzy before he committed seppuku. His obsession with the war turned him into the strongest clinging ghost they knew, not to mention he was the one who killed everyone at the ghost house. The ghosts did not dare provoke the butcher.

We were both silent. I wanted to avenge them, but I couldn"t say anything, because I didn"t believe I could.

Lulu seemed caught up in memories, her eyes blank and her expression constantly changing. After a long time, she smiled sadly, "Just forget it for now. We"ll just bide our time until the opportunity presents itself, right?"

Lulu"s words were not clear, but we both understood. There was too much frustration and grief in that sentence.

I nodded silently, and chatted with Lulu for a while longer. When the c.o.c.ks crowed, the guests had already gone, and I promised Sister Hua that I would go to Grandpa Huang"s office today as I was leaving.

At the courtyard of the ghost house, I glanced towards the back yard. It wasn"t very bright yet so I couldn"t make out much, but somehow, I could feel there was a devil back there, reaching out with his endless evil tendrils. I thought I would be afraid, but I wasn"t. I was filled with a sense of sadness and anger, there was no place for fear.

It was a long time before I slowly walked away.

I had trouble falling asleep, tossing and turning in bed for a long time. When sunlight hit my face, I suddenly woke up. It was already 3 PM.

After a quick was.h.i.+ng up, I called Wu Jian, but he just rejected my call. Then he sent a message with the word "busy".

I had to go see the pretty lady by myself. I got dressed and took a taxi straight to the address Grandpa Huang gave me. To be honest, I was still a little nervous. Although I"d seen many beauties, they were all on TV or on the street, or simply weren"t alive.