The morning sun rose up greeting all life on mother earth. The birds came out of their nests, stretching their feathers in the warm morning light. Other animals too started waking up from their sleep.

At the edge of a sparkling lake stood a beautiful house. The interior of the house were pearl white and scented with the smell of flowers from a peach tree. Every room was built and carved from the most exquisite nanmu wood and in a particular room the scenery of the lake stretches out into a splendid scenery reflecting the heaven above; the lake was covered by a thin mist floating on top of the lake, filled with blossoms of many lotus flowers floating on top of the serene waters of the lakes as fishes swam between them.

Every inch of the room was decorated with hundreds paper cranes hanging and wavering slightly from the breeze flowing into the room. At the centre of the room, a four-poster bed stood, hiding behind cream-coloured curtains, cradling its important occupant from waking up.

The occupant was a maiden, her features were divine; her lips were a rosy red, a little curved at the edge with a slight of playfulness. Long eyelashes splayed across her sleeping face. Her silky jet-black hair was tousled from the night, making a backdrop which focused and contrasted her fair, pearly skin.

The girl was none other than Mistress Zhen. She was already a beautiful lady in spite of her illness but now colours have returned to her cheeks as she recuperated from her almost near-death experience and the woman looked even more alluring than before. Her health has improved and her body felt stronger than she was in her whole lifetime.

However, the lovely features were beginning to change as her brows furrowed and her face tightened, and her comfortable sleep was being disturbed and with a cry she woke up.

Just as she cried out, an old maid came in through the door on the left, carrying a bucket of warm water for Mistress Zhen to wash her face. She placed it on the bedside table and hugged her. “Did you have that dream again?” she asked.

The lady nodded.

“It was the happiest day of my life. And then my surroundings changed. There were corpses everywhere and they were staring at me with their white eyes. Everything was burning. It made me felt sick the sight, the smell, the noise everything seems so real. And… and there was a woman and a man who kept calling me their daughter, but they died too, killed by a single man. And-” there was a long pause before she continued. “I died too. Someone stabbed me. The pain felt so real. I felt that if I looked behind, I could see a scar at the back of body.”

“But there is no scar,” comforted the old maid. “You can see it yourself every day in the morning. There isn’t any scar. You skin is as smooth as a baby.”

Gently she separated herself from the lady. Madam Wong walked over towards the bucket of water on the table, wet a cloth and wrung it dry and handed it to the lady.

Mistress Zhen took the damp cloth and began wiping her face.

“There is nothing to be worried about. It is just a dream,” said the old maid confidently as she stood beside her. “Things that happened in dreams can only be dreams.”

“They seem so real,” replied the lady as she handed the towel back to the old maid. The old maid placed the towel on the table next to the bucket and went towards the drawer.

“But they cannot hurt us,” said the old maid while searching for matching clothing for the mistress.

The lady only nodded. She still felt the recurring dreams were bothering her, not physically but mentally, at the back of her mind, something important, kept tugging at her. But there was nothing she could do about it as there are only dreams as advised by Madam Wong. She pushed away her thoughts like her blanket and got out of bed. She tidied up her bed and opened all the windows in her room.

The warm morning sun shone brightly, lighting the room with its radiance. Mistress Zhen was appreciating the warm light on her face, when a blue bird suddenly flown into the room, disturbing the peaceful paper swans in the room and also the old maid. “Shoo, shoo,” she said to the bird while using her hands to drive out the bird.

“Wait. Let me do it,” said Mistress Zhen. The girl who was still standing beside the window, spread her hand towards the bird, and started singing. It was a simple song which sang about the beauty of spring. The bird stood there quietly watching her, staring at her; its head moved from side to side before it slowly inched closer to her until the bird was perched on top of her far stretched hand. She cupped the bird in her hand and then she let it fly out across the open sky through the opened windows.

Mistress Zhen wat it until it can no longer be seen. “I never knew that she had just a talent in you. You used to be so afraid of animals,” said the old maid where Mistress Zhen only smiled in reply. She can't understand herself, but she seems to understand the bird. It was just worried about her. And she sang in reply. It knew that she was fine, and it knew that she would lead it away, so it gently rested on her hand.