Peony Town 3 years ago
Mo Chou walked carefully toward the shed which her brother used to store his tools. Other than his farming tools, there was something else that she secretly decided to hide from his brother in the shed.
As her brother’s movement is still limited due to his foot injury, he had no clue about the stranger that she brought back to their house. Mo Chou was still wondering why the stranger asked her to hide his existence from other people? Was he chased by dangerous men? He was wearing intricate gear befitting of a soldier. Mo Chou heard that there was a small battle occurred not far from their village between their soldiers and Tang Empire’s. Peony Town was located at the border between these two countries. Finding themselves caught in the middle of altercation between the two countries was, unfortunately, inevitable.
‘If he was a soldier, which country did he belonged to? They would get into trouble if the authority knew that they were hiding their enemy’s soldier! But, helping a helpless man was a good virtues right?’ Mo Chou tried to reason with herself.
Nevertheless, hiding a man in the shed was not particularly a difficult task. Mo Chou and her brother lived quite far from her their neighbors’ house. Their closest neighbour, Yue Liang and her younger siblings, was the only guest that they have ever received throughout their ten years living in the hut.
She stopped her track right in front of the shed’s door. She took her sweet time prepping her hair; pulling the untamed baby hair back to its proper place. She dusted away any dirt on her clothes and pulled them downward in effort to try to make them look presentable. Mo Chou realized that she had been acting like 17 years old young girls and it was quiet embarrassing. But the heart wants what it wants right?
After she was satisfied with her appearance, Mo Chou softly knocked on the door. The voice of the man that she had rescued a week ago, echoed from inside giving her permission to enter the shed. As soon as the door was open, Mo Chou saw the man in his proper cloth calmly sitting on the shift made bed at the right side of the shed.
This can only mean one thing.
“Are you leaving?” Mo Chou’s eyes were scanning the mysterious man and the bundle that he kept to his side.
“Yes.” The man replied shortly. He never really spoke more than what is necessary. His eyes were much more expressive than his mouth can be actually be.
“Ouhhh….” That was the only thing that came out from Mo Chou’s mouth. Disappointed? Of course! But deep down inside, she knows that this day would one day come and she has no right to impede him from leaving their place.
“Do you want me to show you the way out of this village?” Mo Chou offered. That way, she can spend a little bit time with before they separated for good.
The man suddenly raised from the bed. He reached for his bundle and wrap it around his left shoulder. He then slowly moved closer to her before stopping right In front of Mo Chou’s face. He did all this without taking of his eyes off from her even for a second. Mo Chou’s heart was beating harder and louder. Their close proximity almost made her knees went in nimble. She had never been this close to a man except for her brother.
He lifted his free right hand and began to caress Mo Chou’s left cheek. The hand then snaked its way down to her neck and finally rested on her right ear.
“I’m going. You don’t have to see me out” He walked out of the shed as soon as he uttered the sentence. Without even saying goodbye. Mo Chou was left still standing on the same position for five minutes. She wanted to scream and follow him wherever he wanted to go, but Mo Chou knew she could never leave her brother alone.
Her life since then seemed to move slower than usual. Her brother kept complaining that she was not being attentive and looked lost all the time. Probably she was. She had lost someone special for her.
After recuperating for almost two months, her brother finally had gotten back to his feet. That morning, he was energetically looking forward to resume his usual routine collecting herbs in the forest after being home bound for a long time.
He went to the shed to retrieved his scythe. It was not long before he frantically ran back to their kitchen with a white jade dangling from his clutch. The man’s white jade! Why did she never found the jade in the shed before?! Now , her brother would know that she sheltered a man in their shed!
“What is this?! Why did I find this in our shed?! Did you hide anyone there without my knowledge?! Answer me!” Mo Chou was taken aback seeing her brother’s strong reaction upon seeing the white jade.
“Yes. And calm down. He was only a mere mercenary.” She explained. Her brother’s face went pale as if he was looking right at the devil himself. He closed his eyes and tried to compose himself. Failing to do so, he began to prowl toward the direction of their family’s cupboard.
“Pack your thing! We need to go!” he spread a large cloth on the table and frantically shoved anything that he could reach onto the cloth.
“Why?”
“Don’t ask! Just do it!” throughout her ten years living with her brother, she had never seen him yell at anyone, what more toward his only younger sister. Mo Chou was extremely frightened by her brother’s behavior.
Their little escape plan was however cut short by the sound of horses’ hoof beating the ground. Without them realizing it, they were already surrounded by Tang’s soldier. Her brother tried to fight them off but he had no chance when it was him against a group of elite enemy soldiers. He was easily subdued, dragged away from her and never been seen again. The scene was, however, vividly imprinted in her mind. The sight of her brother being beaten and her, pleading to the mysterious man - who was sitting on a black horse - to let both of them had been haunting her ever since.
**********
Concubine Rong jolted on her bed. She slowly opened her eyes as the sound of thunder had woken her up from her recurring nightmare. Her robe was wet with sweats coming out from every single pore. The dream again!
It had been three years. She had been dreaming of the fateful day ever since she was pregnant with her first child. Her brother would never know that he would become an uncle in matter of few months. The brother that had been taking care of her whole life. Tears started to roll down her cheek.
‘Brother Gao…where are you?’
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