Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4 - 7 2018 | Page 215

He pulled his sword away, wiping it in the sand. Then he nudged the body with his foot and it
rolled over with dragging limbs, revealing the bloodstained face of Jing.
“He must be a bandit,” Wu announced disgustedly. He prodded the leather garments Jing was
wearing and said smugly, “I told you he seemed unusually strong. Probably got those robes from a real
monk he attacked. Stabbed him in the back — that explains the slit.”
“Bandit or not, you shouldn’t have killed him,” Sen said reproachfully. “That’s bad karma. It’ll
come back to bite.”
“You think that’s the worst thing I’ve done?” Wu laughed as he kicked the body away. They
watched it roll down a slope with sickening thuds at every turn.“We gotta move. The scent of blood attracts
wild animals.”
As Wu disassembled the tent, Sen said, “He killed our horse.”
“Probably because he has a crew of bandits following close by, who were gonna pick him up.
Otherwise he’d have left it alive so he could escape on it,” Wu explained matter-of-factly. “All the more
reason why we need to start moving now.”
Sen p