CHAPTER 2: THE ASSIGNMENT
CHAPTER 2: THE ASSIGNMENT
That night after dinner, the couple went back to their condos. Kai slowly walked Cecilia to her door. “Our three year anniversary is coming up, what would you like to do?” he asked.
She crossed her arms in front and slightly tilted her head up to think. “What about a romantic dinner at my place,” she proposed.
“That’s it? Nothing exciting?”
She shook her head and smiled, “Not this year. Let’s do something different.”
He turned to face her and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Alright, but I’m cooking because your cooking skills suck.” He started to laugh which got her offended.
She playfully punched him on the shoulder for mocking her. “Excuse me if I don’t cook often!”
“Ok…ok…” he laughed some more.
She was about to give him another punch, but he grabbed her fist to stop her. “Aren’t you afraid that if you keep on hitting me like this, I can end up in the hospital?” he joked.
She yanked her fist out of his grip and crossed her arms in front again. “That is what you get for teasing me.”
He came forward and hugged her. Her rosy scent from her body overpowered his nose, making him enjoy the sweetness on her. He pulled back and kissed her soft tender lips. Then he whispered, “Goodnight.” She smiled and replied softly back to him, “Goodnight.”
Kai let her go and stood there while she turned around to unlock the condo door. Upon success, the door creaked opened to welcome her back home. Cecilia turned to look at him one last time and waved at him. He waved back and she finally went inside. He turned around to the other condo door right across from hers and entered his.
Cecilia walked inside to her place and the lights automatically turned on. She jumped in surprised to see a couple of unexpected visitors stood silently in her living room.
She recognized the two men. One was a man that she and Kai had encountered earlier this morning. He had a band aid on his nose and a purple bruise on his cheek. She grinned to see how pitiful he looked. Next to him was an older man in his 50’s-cleaned cut type of guy that has a thick ash mustache, and wore a black expensive suit.
She stared at the old man and scolded, “Mr. Cho, you know that breaking into someone’s place is a crime right?”
“I am your boss…” he replied.
“WAS…” she corrected him.
His cornered lip curled up as if it was funny to him. “Right…WAS your boss…Anyway, I won’t be long...”
The doorbell rang. He directed his left hand to her front door. “Answer it,” he said with a devious look on his face.
She became suspicious of this old man. Why is he here? What agenda does he have for her this time? Without questioning him, she slowly walked to the door.
When the door opened, she was surprised to see Kai with the same four men from this morning. They had him in an arm lock from behind. Kai’s shirt was missing some buttons and was half tucked in his pants, revealing his bare, muscular chest. He also had a couple of red bruises nearby his left cheekbone and right jaw. The other men were in more worsen condition than Kai. Their lips had been busted opened, showing a small tint of blood on the side, and parts of their faces were red from the punches. She knew that the boys just had gotten into a brawl not too long ago.
Kai smiled at her and said, “Hi,” like nothing had happened.
She got upset at Cho San and turned around to stare at him rebuked. “Really? Do you have to go this far?”
Cho San smirked and walked steadily toward them as he spoke. “You two didn’t need to beat your ex-colleagues this morning. All you had to do was come with them peacefully.” They stopped a few feet away in front of Kai and Cecilia.
Kai looked at the man next to Cho San and remembered him from this morning. He was the one that grabbed him by the arm.
“Well he started it,” he sneered.
Cho San shook his head in disappointment. He ordered his men to release Kai. They released him and pushed him inside Cecilia’s place. Kai staggered forward and Cecilia caught him before he fell to the ground. The men closed the door behind them and guarded it in case Kai and Cecilia decided to escape.
Cecilia crossed her arms in front and stared coldly at their ex-boss, “So, what do you want from us then?”
Cho San raised a yellow enveloped in front of him for them to see. “I have a proposition for you two…I know that you two had resigned from the Black Ops Force, but I have no one else for this kind of mission except you two. Do you want to hear it?”
Cecilia scoffed sardonically, “Well, we don’t have a choice do we?”
Cho San laughed, “It is up to you both if you want to take this mission or not.” Then he purposely taunted them by waving the envelope at their face, “Ten million dollars can go to…someone else…”
Both were surprised by the huge amount of money. Kai clarified, “What did you just say?”
Cho San grinned knowingly that he finally had their undivided attention. “You heard me. So, what do you say?”
“This mission must be very dangerous to be worth that much. Am I correct?” asked Cecilia.
“Correct. You two were my top agents that had shown very high success rate in all of your missions. With your talented skills and tactics, you two can assassinate these guys.” Then he waved the yellow envelope in front of them again, “So?”
Kai turned to nudged Cecilia on the arm and had a big closed smile on his face. She knew what he was thinking and it was the same vibe that she had also. She smiled at Cho San and answered excitingly, “Alright. We’ll take the mission.”
Cho San was happy to hear their answer. “Take this and read it thoroughly.”
Kai quickly took the envelope from Cho San’s hand and was stunned by it’s heavy weight underneath his hand. Cho San’s men opened the front door and left. As Cho San walked down the narrow hallway, he shouted back at Kai and Cecilia, “Welcome back guys,” and laughed happily. Cecilia closed the door and made sure it was locked from the inside. Like their ex-boss, she didn’t want any more uninvited guests over.
Kai and Cecilia didn’t wait a single moment of their precious time and went straight to work. They quickly ran to sit down next to each other on the living room couch and Kai pulled the thick documents out of the yellow envelope. Out came a bunch of thick packets mixed with papers, photos, and USB disk. They quickly went to their computer and inserted the disk.
Appeared on their screen was the Special Black Ops Force’s logo. Kai clicked on it and an automatic video played onto their monitor screen.
CHO SAN’S VOICE:
Special Agent Kai and Special Agent Cecilia. Welcome back to Black Ops Force. This mission was assigned to us from a third party’s request by CCIA. The mission is simple. Eliminate the two dangerous criminals, Tsui Man and Alex Wong (Their pictures showed on computer screen) on June 24th.
“That is a week from today!” Kai became bummed. “Oh well, I guess that will be our anniversary present then.”
Cecilia nudged him on the arm. “Well you wanted another exciting year, so there you have it,” and the both of them chuckled.
CHO SAN’S VOICE CONTINUED:
According to the informer, Tsui Man and Alex Wong are meeting at Mystic Mountain that night (A picture of Mystic Mountain appeared in replaced of the two criminals). Enclosed is more information of the assignment. I wish the both of you luck.
The Special Black Ops Force’s logo popped up on the screen again and then a female voice started to speak. The disk will be destroyed in 3. 2. 1.
The monitor screen showed the logo being dissolved and then everything one the screen turned black. Kai took out the USB, and to make sure no information existed, he took it to the fireplace and turned on the fire. The flames came out automatically like a gas stove and burned the USB until it became charcoal. He turned the fireplace switch off and the both of them went back to the couch.
Kai spread the documents across the coffee table. Most of the photos were pictures of the two men that they were assigned to find. She noticed that in one of the two men’s photos, the man had a permanent scar on his left eyebrow. For sure, that will help them identify him easily from the rest of the crowd. Cecilia grabbed that man’s profile packet and started to read it.
“Tsui Man…32 years old, 5 feet 8, 180 pounds, medium-built, short black hair, brown eyes…”
Then his skills caught her attention and she showed the profile to Kai.
“Look at this. Tsui Man was an ex-Black Ops also. He was an ex-sergeant in the military and in the Bomb Squad for over ten years…”
Kai took the profile packet from her to read it, while she picked up another stapled packet. “No wonder this mission is worth ten million dollars,” said Kai.
Kai saw a cut out newspaper clip that was dated two months ago. The heading read, “Hikers Found Treasure at Mystic Mountain” and showed it to Cecilia. They saw that a sentence was highlighted in yellow and read it.
“Hikers found an unknown, white object in the deep forest of Mystic Mountain and is being excavated by Professor Choi and his team of archaeologist from National Museum of Science and Research. At this time, the area is closed to the public until further noticed.”
Curious of what this had to do with their mission, they searched through the documents for more information. Cecilia came across a stapled packet that had a small picture of the other man and read his profile. As she read the general demographic information of the guy, she came upon something intriguing and got excited.
She quickly showed it to Kai. “I think I’ve found the connections. This guy, Alex Wong, is a fanatic in Antiques. I guess there is something in Mystic Mountain that he wanted.”
“Well whatever it is, that place must be heavily guarded, or else, Tsui Man wouldn’t have been involved then.”
She agreed with Kai and nodded.
They studied for a couple of more hours and then Cecilia got tired and yawned. She placed the papers down on the coffee table and got up to stretch.
“I’m going to go sleep now…”
There was no response from Kai. She turned and saw him still reading Tsui Man’s bio. She felt ignored and slightly punched him on the shoulder.
“Hey! I’m tired, so aren’t you going to leave?”
He turned and glanced at her with a cheesy grin on his face, “I can’t. The boys and I made a big mess in my place so…I may have to spend a night in yours.”
“You boys sure love to destroy things…”
He shrugged.
She shook her head and sighed, “Alright, I’ll get a blanket and pillow for you then.” She got up and slowly walked into the bedroom to go grab the stuff.
CHAPTER 4: UNFORGETTABLE NIGHTS
Up in the puffy white clouds, Cecilia flew gracefully like a heavenly fairy as her white, long dress trailed behind by the wind. She giggled like a child as the coolness of the wind as it blew on her face. Up ahead, the clouds started to move to the sides, revealing a mystical paradise. It had gigantic mountain peaks covered with green foliage, and numerous of waterfalls that poured out from the center of the mountains’ mouths, like clouds, into the deep blue sea. As she got closer, she saw transparent plants and flowers that glowed neon colors. It wasn’t like any other scenery that she had seen before. It was more. It was magical.
She landed on the paradise and felt the soft green grass underneath her bare feet. Excited, Cecilia ran through a field full of beautiful transparent flowers, laughing and twirling around with her white dress. Blue butterflies started to fly around her and she became amused by its friendly welcome gestures. One of the butterflies landed on her hand and felt it tickled in her palm, making her giggled.
Suddenly, everything that was once beautiful faded into darkness. In seconds, plants and flowers around her started to wither away, waterfalls poured out thick blood, butterflies vanished into thin air, and the animals around the valley morphed into horrific demons. Their teeth became razor sharped and their pupils turned blood red.
From distant, shadowy figures lurked from the dark forest. They stared intensively at her with their glowing red eyes, making her feel very uncomfortable and scared. She turned around and tried to fly, but her body wouldn’t let her. It grounded her on land, making sure she cannot escape. Then she heard an evil laugh from behind her. It got louder…and louder…as if it was right beside her. She panicked and covered her ears tightly with her hands so she couldn’t hear it, but it was too late. The evil laugh had already embedded into her mind. All of a sudden, the mystical paradise disappeared underneath her feet and she started to fall into the dark abyss, screaming in horror.
She quickly woke up, screaming from the top of her lungs and breathed heavily as she tried to catch her breath. Then she looked around and realized that she was in her dark bedroom. Relieved, she let out a sigh, realizing that it was only a dream. It had been a long time that she had nightmares, so why now? She shivered from the thought of it and quickly got up to put on her robe.
---
In Kai’s place, he was awaken by the doorbell and forced himself to get up from his bed. He stood up and yawned, while stretching his arms. Kai looked at the clock and saw that it was only three o’clock in the morning.
The doorbell rang again. “I’m coming!” he shouted being annoyed by it.
He dragged his tiring body to the door and opened it. To his surprise, he saw Cecilia stood there, dressed in her white cotton robe and trembled in fear. Worried, he helped guide her inside to his place. Kai closed the door and as he turned around to face her, she had already hugged him. Her hug was so tight that he felt her body shaken in him. He wrapped his arm around her and stroked her back to comfort her.
---
She lied next to him on his bed, staring at the bright stars from his opened window. Kai held her in his arms and pondered of a similar scene from their childhood years.
In the orphanage one night, he felt something pressed down next to him on the bed as he was sleeping. His little body started to tremble in fear, thinking that it may be a ghost. He wanted to sneak a peek at it, but was too afraid that it may stare back, grinning at him. Then a familiar floral fragrance filled the air around him and he knew who it was. Cecilia. He opened his eyes and saw her tiny, silhouette body asleep next to his. Relieved, his body tension lessened; but at the same time, he was puzzled by her strange behavior. He didn’t want to wake her up, so he let her slept next to him through the night.
The next morning, the boys saw them sleeping on the same bed and they didn’t dare to question them. After she left, they gathered around Kai and told him about her strange behavior. They told him about a boy who came into the orphanage a month ago prior to his arrival. He didn’t have a name, so they called him ‘Nameless’ and became Cecilia’s Gege.
One day, there was a ruthless boy who came into the orphanage and started trouble with all of the children. On one fatal afternoon, she and Nameless snuck up to the roof to eat some candies that they had stolen from the staff lounge. They met the bully there and he started trouble with them. He stole their candies and started to call them names. Then the bully pushed Cecilia and she fell to the ground, scraping her knees and cried in pain. Nameless got upset. He ran up to the bully and tussled with him. Since the bully was a bigger boy, he pushed Nameless away from him and he staggered backwards uncontrollably. Then Nameless’s small body fell off the cement rail and plunged to his death.
Nobody knew what happened next, but all they knew was that the bully was hospitalized after the incident. The staff and police questioned her about it, but she was too shocked and couldn’t remember what happened. At the end, they could only rule it as an accident.
After the incident, it was hard for her to go to sleep. She woke up in the middle of the night, screaming in terror, waking everyone up in the girl’s unit. There were many times when she snuck out of the unit to go sleep on Nameless’s empty bed as if he was still there to comfort her.
As months went by, her nightmares lessened and so were her nights, sleeping next to Kai. Although he missed her presence, he was happy that she was healing inside from the trauma. That was what he wanted for her anyway; to get better. If she was happy, he was also happy.
Tonight, he was surprised that she had nightmares again and wondered what triggered it this time. He snuggled closed to her to get comfortable. “Do you remember when we were young; you would come to my bed and sleep? It was the only way that you felt safe and protected,” he explained.
T
hose were the good old days. Just like ‘Nameless’, Kai was like her Gege who took care of her. He protected her, never judged her, and never asked questions. He made her forget her grief, her guilt, and her night terrors. Her eyes started to get heavy and yawned. The next thing he heard was her breathing heavily. She had fallen asleep and he smiled.
He leaned close to her ear and softly whispered, “When we’re married, I will promise to protect you with all my life. Then you won’t have any more nightmares…my lovely Cici.” He kissed her on the back of her head and continued to cuddle her until he fell asleep also.
---
The day of the Mission.
It was a clear night at Mystic Mountain. Only billions of stars shone in replaced of the moon to be its light. Tsui Man and five of his men stood outside in front of the forest, waiting for the other parties to show up. A couple of minutes later, they heard faint footsteps and turned to see Alex Wong and his five men walked toward them. Comparing to him and his men’s outfits-black muscle shirts and camouflaged pants, Alex Wong and his men all wore expensive suits as if they were going on a business trip. The most ridiculous thing was that out of all the men, Alex Wong stood out the most, wearing his bright white suit. Tsui Man placed his hands on his hips and scoffed by their outfits. He felt like he was working with bunch of newbies that needed to be taught.
“Tsui Man, you must have waited for a while,” Alex Wong said as he and his men stopped in front of them.
Tsui Man smirked, “Let’s cut to the chase. Where is my money?”
Alex waved his hand to signal one of his men to come forth. The man came up to the front with a black leather suitcase and opened it to reveal millions of dollars in cash in front of Tsui Man. Tsui Man’s face lightened of excitement from the amount of money in front of him. The man closed the suitcase and handed it to him. Tsui Man took it and gave it to one of his men.
“Alright, now that’s done. Let’s go in shall we?” said Alex Wong.
Alex Wong and his men started to enter into the forest, but Tsui Man stopped them. “Wait, don’t rush in there too quickly. You may need these.”
One of his men handed Tsui Man a night vision goggle. It looked like a pair of small binoculars that had a band wrapped around it to secure it in place. “We need to see in the dark, and at the same time, be invisible for the cops…” Alex Wong thought that was a genius idea and happily nodded.
Then Tsui Man stared down at Alex Wong’s expensive white suit. “I suggest that you change also. You will attract the cops with that fancy outfit of yours.”
Alex Wong put his hands on his hips and scoffed upsettingly. He thought about what Tsui Man said, and then stared at one of his men. “Give me your clothes.” His man didn’t hesitate and did as he was ordered.
After the exchanged of clothing and putting on their night vision goggles, they were ready to enter into the forest. They stepped inside, and a gust of wind blew at their face as if the forest was angry at them for disturbing the peace. They weren’t bothered by it and continued to move inward.
Tsui Man was curious of Alex Wong’s agenda. All he knew was that Alex Wong came to him for help. “Tell me, what so interesting about this pillar and cave s**t?”
Alex Wong smirked, “As an antique collector, I have stolen many old scriptures. There was a scripture that talked about this Mountain thousands of years ago. It said that this place holds mystical places to different dimensions and the pillar is a gateway to it. So if I get my hands on that pillar, I can travel to other dimensions as pleased.”
Hearing his ridiculous reason, Tsui Man started to laugh out loud. “You are full of s**t do you know that?”
Alex Wong huffed angrily and pulled out his gun to aim at him. Both of their men pulled out theirs also and aimed at each other. Alex Wong stared dead straight at Tsui Man with his cold eyes and Tsui Man knew this crazy fool was serious.
“Dare to laugh at me again s**thead? Just remember who have the upper hand around here,” warned Alex Wong.
Tsui Man huffed angrily and replied coldly, “Just remember this too. I am your source of getting what you want. If you kill me and my men, then you get nothing.”
Alex chuckled and nodded. “This is what I like about you Tsui Man. You fear nothing.” He lowered his gun down and the rest of the men did the same also. Then he continued, “If I didn’t have to worry about these s**tty cops, I wouldn’t need you. But since I know this is going to be big, I do.” They continued to walk through the dark forest.
Tsui Man wanted to know more about his fairytale. “So, what are you trying to achieve with this then?”
Alex Wong smirked. “Fortune and Power.”
Tsui Man raised a brow. Alex Wong saw his confused look and smirked. “Just imagine the endless possibilities…selling it to the highest bidder or go and rule other dimensions…” He grabbed something underneath his shirt and pulled out a necklace. On the necklace was a circular pendant made out of the purest green gemstone, and carved on it was the celtic diamond-shaped symbol. “I stole this pendant five years ago at Mu Gala. According to the scripture, this pendant was Princess Ru Lan’s of the Celestial Realm. If I am correct, this little thing is the key to that dimension and more.” he explained excitingly.
Tsui Man contained his laughter by not wanting to upset the crazy fool, so he nodded instead. He didn’t really care what Alex Wong’s purpose was, but he knew that the pendant was a rare piece of jewelry that may worth a fortune and he would love to get his hands on.
---
At the excavation site, twenty mixtures of CCIA agents and police officers guarded the whole premises, making it impossible for anyone to enter in. A bomb went off two yards away from the excavation site, alarming the officers and agents. Some of them ran to check it out while others stayed behind. Then another bomb went off on the opposite side and more ran to check it out, leaving a few of them to guard the site.
One of the officers scoped around the area when suddenly, a bullet pierced through his forehead, killing him instantly. His body dropped to the ground, alarming the other officers and agents. They quickly raised their guns to aim at the dark forest and saw nothing. Suddenly, a couple more bullets came out of the dark and shot two more officers dead. The other agents ran for cover and tried to figure out where the shots were coming from. They started to shoot in the dark in hoping that they hit the person, and then they paused. From the distance, they heard gun shots fired and their colleagues’ dying cries; they knew that they were ambushed.
One of the Agents that hid behind a tree yelled out to the dark forest, “COME OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF!”
Suddenly, the agents heard footsteps coming out of the forest, crushing the dead leaves and twigs as the person made his way toward them. The agents came out of their hiding place with their guns aimed at the person. It turned out to be Alex Wong. He walked calmly toward them and took off the night vision goggle.
They saw that he had a gun in his hand. One of them yelled, “Drop your weapon and put your hands up!”
Alex Wong smiled and did as he was told. He dropped his gun onto the ground and put his hands up for them to see. As the agents got closer to him to make an arrest, out of the blues, shots were fired from the dark. Bullets went through the agents’ bodies, killing all of them on site. Alex Wong snickered at the dead bodies on the ground and thought that it was too easy. His men came out of the dark with their night vision goggles and guns in their hands.
Seconds later, Tsui Man and his men ran out of the dark forest toward them after killing the others and took off their night visions as well. Tsui Man saw dead bodies on the ground and turned to Alex Wong. Impressed, he clapped his hands sarcastically, “Not bad.”
Alex Wong smirked and then they turned to look at the excavation site. They were amazed by its massive size. The cave was nine feet high and ten feet wide. The team of archaeologists had done a great job in digging that the cave and the pillar were fully exposed from the ground up. Excited, Alex Wong ran to touch the pillar and felt the rough sand texture.
“This is amazing!”
Tsui Man walked toward the pillar and looked at the carving. “Do you know what these shapes mean?”
“No. All I know is that it’s not from this dimension,” he answered.
Alex Wong took off his the necklace around his neck and felt the pendant’s smooth gemstone against his hands. He compared the two symbols from the pillar and the pendant and saw its similarities; he began to laugh excitingly.
Tsui Man looked around and asked, “So, where’s your portal then?”
Alex Wong stared at Tsui Man and smiled, “Inside.”
They each took out their flashlight from their belts and turned it on. Tsui Man turned to his men, “Keep a watch outside while we go in.”
“Yes boss.”
Tsui Man’s men watched as their boss and the others’ bodies engulfed by the cave’s darkness. Suddenly, they heard deadly echoed cries inside followed by some shots fired. Out came Tsui Man and Alex Wong from the cave, stumbling backwards as if they were hit. Both men fell onto the ground and the pendant was dropped close to Tsui Man. He saw the pendant and quickly turned to see if Alex Wong noticed it. Alex Wong was still busy trying to get up, so he quickly grabbed the pendant and put it inside his back pants pocket.
From the dark cave, came out Kai and Cecilia. They stood cool with their cornered lips curled up. Tsui Man recognized them and grinned, “So it’s the love birds, Yang Kai Li and Cecilia Lin.”
Alex Wong was surprised to hear Tsui Man knew their names and turned to look at him, “You know them?”
Tsui Man nodded, “I use to work for the Black Ops so I know everything.”
Alex Wong thought about his pendant and searched his neck area. He started to panic. “My pendant! Where is it?!” He started to search around on the ground like a mad man while Tsui Man secretly smirked at him.
Kai and Cecilia glanced at Alex Wong strangely, wondering what this ‘pendant’ that he was desperately tried to find. Enraged, Alex Wong stopped searching, pulled out his gun, and shot at Kai and Cecilia. They dodged the bullets in time and quickly pulled out their guns and shot back at them multiple of times. Tsui Man, Alex Wong, and two of Tsui Man’s men dodged the bullets, but the other three men weren’t as lucky. The bullets had pierced through their head and chest areas, killing them instantly. All of them ran for cover and exchanged gunshots through the night until there were no more bullets left.
Tsui Man took out a small bomb that he made and threw it at them. They saw what it was and quickly dodged it, but the bomb exploded in mid air, forcing Kai and Cecilia to fly a couple more feet away. They landed hard onto the ground and became dazed by the explosion. Kai got up, but Tsui Man was already in front of him. He punched Kai’s stomach a few times and then threw a side hard punched to the right cheek. Kai staggered backwards and met Tsui Man’s other two men. The men teamed up with Tsui Man and continued to fight with him.
Meanwhile, Cecilia and Alex Wong exchanged fist fights. Alex Wong swung a couple of punches at her but she swiftly dodged them. Then she punched his abdominal followed by an upper cut to the chin. Alex Wong flew backward and hit the ground. He became dazed by the blow and shook his head to refocus. As he got up, small tint of blood was on his cornered lip so he wiped it with his thumb.
Upset, he charged toward her. They exchanged more punches and kicks, bruising each other along the way. Then he secretly pulled out a big pocket knife from his back pocket belt and slashed her side arm. It started to bleed but that didn’t stop her. She ignored the pain and continued to dodge his knife strokes. He tried to stab her in front, but she grabbed a hold of his wrist and hit his chest area a couple of times. Weakened by her hits, she finally grabbed the knife from his hand and slit his throat. Blood started to ooze down as he gasped for breath. Then she ended it by stabbing him on the stomach with his own knife. He fell to the ground dead.
Cecilia saw that Kai was still fighting with the three men and ran to join the fight. She jump kicked one of the men from the back and he fell uncontrollably to the ground. She helped Kai fought one of the men while he fought with Tsui Man and the other.
As Kai was fighting with them, Tsui Man took out his huge knife that hung from his side belt and slashed Kai on his collar bone and chest area. Tsui Man then tried to stab him, but Kai got a hold of the knife and knocked it out of his hand. The knife dropped to the ground and then Kai did a couple of combo hits on Tsui Man’s chest area, forcing him to stagger backwards. The other man charged at Kai, so he quickly picked up the knife from the ground and threw it like a dagger. It flew with great speed and protruded into the man’s chest. He fell to the ground and died instantly.
Cecilia was punched a couple of times on the face and body by the man and fell to the ground. As she was trying to get up, he picked her up by the neck and lifted her tiny body off the ground. Losing air circulation, she tried to pull his fingers out from her neck but his grip was too strong. Then she gave a hard kicked to his groin area and he instantly let her go. She fell to the ground gasping for air while the man held onto his groin in pain. She saw that this was her opportunity to kill him, so she quickly ran behind him and wrapped her arm around his neck in a lock position. She tightly squeezed his neck with her arm and the man started to lose air circulation. He raised his arms to try to grab her but couldn’t, and his vision started to blur. She then yanked her arms to the side hard and heard a ‘SNAP’. His neck broke and died.
Cecilia let go of the dead man and was sore and exhausted. She turned to see that Kai was getting beaten badly by Tsui Man so she ran to help him. She intervened and started to fight with Tsui Man while Kai recuperated for a bit. Tsui Man finally kicked her and she flew, hitting the pillar. She bounced off of it and was on the ground, bleeding from the mouth by the hard impact. Kai saw that she was injured and charged toward Tsui Man. Although Cecilia was seriously injured, she got up and ran to join the fight.
All three of them got into a lock position, unwillingly to release each other’s grip. Suddenly, the hieroglyphic writings from the pillar glowed a bright, white light, and where the celtic, diamond-shaped symbol was, it glowed a bright green light. They turned and stared at the bright lights frozen in awed. The lights became so bright that they began to squint their eyes. Then their bodies started to shine as bright as the lights until no outline of their human form were left to see. A couple of seconds later, the lights disappeared and everything was back to normal. However, the three of them had disappeared.
CHAPTER 5: ANOTHER WORLD ANOTHER TIME
White clouds hovered slowly across the blue sky like floating cottons in the Valley of Mystic River. This river ran southward to all kingdoms, becoming one of the largest and deepest channels. It has a massive waterfall that was more than five hundred feet drop. Mortals called it, Mystic Falls that was knowingly by its enchanted beauty and destruction. Its clouded mists soared from the bottom like heaven, yet lied hidden beneath were deadly rocks, making it hard for anyone to survive if fallen. In the horizon, heavenly mountains filled the whole valley’s background like a huge painted canvas, making it breathtaking to be viewed. Different wildlife of species ruled this valley. Some were unknown and hidden in the eyes of Mortals for they do not want to be found, while other were friendly or curious lurkers when saw an unfamiliar face.
Up in the blue sky, it sliced opened by an invisible sharped object. A bright beam of light shone down at the raging river and spat Cecilia, Kai, and Tsui Man out into the Earth’s surface. At the same time, a huge surge of invisible energy shot across the blue sky. It was so powerful that the clouds moved away from the area with great momentum. The light disappeared and the opened sky mended itself closed.
The three of them splashed into the raging river and struggled as they swam to fight the current, but it was useless. Their tiny bodies meant nothing to the massive river, so it took them wherever it wanted them to go. Since Tsui Man was closer to the shore, he saw a dead tree laying at the edge of the river and quickly swam with all of his strength toward it. He grabbed a hold of the end of its trunk with one of his hands right before he passed it, and pulled his heavy body towards it. Finally, his body got close to the trunk and he quickly hugged it tightly with his dear life.
As for Kai and Cecilia, they were in the middle of the river, so their percentage in being saved was slimmer. Up ahead, they saw the huge waterfall and knew that they were in deep trouble. Their anxiety amped up and they started to panic.
Kai tried to find Cecilia in fear that I may be the last time he would see her; however, splashes of water kept covering his face repeatedly, forbidding him to reach her. Minutes later, the raging river threw them off the edge of the earth. It was a long drop, but it felt like seconds as they splashed into the water beneath them.
Underneath, Cecilia’s right side of the head hit hard on a sharped rock and opened a huge gash. Blood spurted out from her side head and mixed with water, creating a red trail with the current. She lost consciousness and the current swept her unmoving body away.
Kai survived the ordeal and slowly swam to shore. He pulled his drenched body out of water, and helplessly plopped onto the earth soil as he tried to catch his breath. He could smell the moist from the green grass and was relieved that he survived. Exhausted and weak, his vision began to blur and slowly slipped into unconsciousness as well.
---
At the Black Forest of Wu Mountain, there was a tiny, yet long piece of red string tied from tree-to-tree all across the entrance of the forest. It acted as a fence barrier to forewarn anyone who stepped into its forbidden territory. It extended miles away through the vast forest, so wherever the forest stopped, that was where the red string would end also.
Up in the sky, the invisible surge of energy traveled to Black Forest and instantly broke the red string. Massive amount of demons in forms of different colors of ball trailed-smokes shot outward from the forest in every direction like missiles and disappeared.
A middle-aged man in fine red and gold clothing, along with his cohort of warriors, flew in front of the Black Forest and started to cast the “Wu Sealing Spell” on it. They did a hand scrutinized formation and out came a glowing yellow light along with a circular shaped seal from their hands. Inside the circle, it was divided into eighths and in each section were different strange-looking symbols. The seal expanded as it came out from their hands and blanketed the forest to trap the remaining demons. It was a struggle at first between them and the demons, but a couple minutes later, the forest was resealed again and the broken red string snapped together like magnets. Everything was back to normal, but puzzled faces grew among the group as they tried to figure out what just happened.
A broad shouldered man with scruffy beard walked toward the middle-aged man. “Your Majesty, what caused the string to break?”
The middle-aged man, Wen Jian Tao, was the King of the Wu Tribe in Zu Mountain. He wore the Wu crown made of gold that wrapped around his head to secure his long black hair, framing his squared face. In the middle of the crown, was the Wu’s tribal symbol of two red swirls that vertically mirrored the opposite from each other.
He has two trusted Chiefs that helped him run the Wu tribe. One was his blood cousin, Chief Wen He Ping, a very loyal and dedicated man in his early forties that oversaw the Wu people’s well beings. The other one was Chief Li Kang -the broad shouldered man with the scruffy beard. He was a loyal and ambitious man in his late forties that oversaw the Wu warriors and borders of Black Forest.
Jian Tao replied, “I don’t know. But whatever it was, I am afraid that most of the Demons had escaped from the Black Forest. Priest Grandmaster Huang will need to be informed about this.”
Jian Tao turned to his Chiefs and ordered, “Chief Wen, I want you to go check on the Demon Realm’s Seal and report it to me. I also want you to gather a couple of men and come with me to Mount Songgao.”
Chief Wen bowed his head, “Yes.”
Then He turned to Chief Li and continued his order, “Chief Li, I want you and the Wu warriors to guard the border of Black Forest while we are gone.”
Chief Li bowed his head also, “Yes.”
Jian Tao patted them on the shoulders and the Chiefs and the Wu warriors quickly walked back to the Wu tribe to prepare the orders. Jian Tao stood silently as he looked at Black Forest and pondered, “What would be that powerful to break the red string?”
It took ten years to finally capture every demons trapped in the Mortal Realm for the Realm to become peaceful again. Now that most of the demons had escaped, it was unknown if among, were some of the strongest and most powerful ones. He started to get worried, knowing that this was going to be another chaotic time for mortals again. He let out a big sigh and slowly paced himself back into the black forest to Wu Tribe.
---
Inside the secluded and hidden place of the Black Forest, Chief Wen stood in front of the thick vines that were filled with thorns and poisonous snakes. He waved his hands sideways at the area; the snakes slithered away quickly while the thorny vines opened like curtains to welcome him. He walked inside the area and the thorny curtains closed behind. Chief Wen reached to a dark area where there was no plant or animal life anywhere. There were only tall dead trees that looked like creepy creatures and dirt that was dark as night. It reminded him of how Demon Realm may have looked like from the stories that he had heard as a child-a place only cold and darkness existed. There was no life or rules. Death and sorrow was all that was there, making it one of the most tortured realms of all.
He finally reached to a lake that was filled with blood-like waters. They called this lake, “Bloody Devil Lake” because of its color and like the Demon Realm, there was no existence of life in the water also. As he got closer, a cold gust of wind blew onto his face and his hairs on his skin rose. Bravely, he focused on his task to now let fear take over him.
To see the Demon Realm’s portal, Chief Wen used the “Wu Eye Enhancement Spell” to open the hidden spiritual realm. When activated, he looked down at the Bloody Lake and saw the invisible portal. It was a circular-shaped sealed that had a gold-glowing light over it. He looked closely at the seal, observing to see if he found anything unusual. There was nothing odd from his observation, so he deactivated the spell and left the area to go back to Wu tribe.
Underneath the sealed portal revealed a small and well hidden crack that he had missed.
---
In the Wu palace bedroom, Jian Tao was getting ready for his departure. His queen, Fan Li Hua, walked in and saw him putting on his common robe. She was a woman in her late thirties, but looked far younger. Beautiful as a peony flower, she walked elegantly by taking small strides as her long red robe trailed on the ground behind her.
She came toward him and fixed his clothes to make sure he looked presentable to his people. He stared at her and smiled warmly while he stroked her soft porcelain cheek lightly with his fingers. She finished his clothes and raised her hands to grab his, feeling his warm flesh against her cheek one last time before he departed.
“Be safe out there my king,” she said.
He pulled her close to his chest and held her in his arms. He could smell her sweet mixture of floral fragrance from her body and already, he missed her. He held her even tighter as he kissed her on the forehead and replied, “I will, my love. Watch our people while I’m gone.” She smiled and nodded.
---
In the front of the palace, the Wu warriors and Chiefs stood patiently with the four horses. Jian Tao and Li Hua came out of the palace and were greeted by their men. Chief Wen walked in front of Jian Tao and bowed his head to report.
“Your Majesty, I didn’t see any signs of the Demon Realm’s seal being disturbed.”
Jian Tao nodded in relief. “That’s good news then. Let’s not waste any more time now.”
“Yes,” said Chief Wen. He turned to his side and extended his arms to direct his King down the steps to his horse.
Jian Tao turned to Li Hua and bid his farewell. Everyone bowed their heads and wished their king a safe journey. Then he walked with Chief Yao to join with the other two guards and rode off to Mount Songgao.
CHAPTER 6: MYSTERIOUS BEAUTIFUL STAR
CHAPTER 6: MYSTERIOUS BEAUTIFUL STAR
“Stay alive for us…”
Cecilia woke up from hearing Kai’s voice. She tried to sit up on the bed, but was dizzy and plopped back down again. It took her a couple more tries until she finally sat up. She inspected the room and founded herself in an unfamiliar setting. The room was small and didn’t have much-only a wooden square table with four long rectangular chairs placed on each side, on the opposite corner were a couple of big wooden chests placed neatly against the wall, next to it was a blue blanket that covered the doorway, a window made out of squared rice paper, and the hard bed that she was on.
Then she started to have migraines. It felt like someone had taken a hammer and pounded hard on her head. She touched her right side of the head and felt a sharp pain. She yelped, and at the same time, felt a cloth wrapped around it.
Confused, she pondered, “What happen to me?”
Suddenly, a young man entered through the blanketed door carrying a tray with a small bowl on it. He saw her sitting up on the bed, “You’re finally awake,” and smiled.
Her eyes fixated on him, trying to figure who he was. The men looked as if he was in his early 20’s, slim body, and have an elongated face with sharped cheekbones. His black hair tied highly up into a bun and as for his clothes, he wore a brown rugged shirt tied with a black sash, and black pants.
“Where am I?” she asked.
He walked to the table and placed the tray there.
“You’re in the Yu residence of Chu Kingdom.” Then he picked up the small bowl and carefully walked toward her.
Her brow raised, “Chu Kingdom?”
She tried to recollect her thoughts, but her head hurts. The man sat next to her on the bed and handed her the bowl. “Here, drink this medicine while it’s still hot. It will minimize the headaches.”
Cecilia glanced down at the bowl and then back at him, hesitant in taking the medicine. He saw that she was unwilling and understood.
“I mean no harm, Miss.” He took a spoonful of medicine, blew to cool it down, and then sipped it to show her that he didn’t tamper it.
“See?” and gave her a big, goofy grin.
Cecilia searched deep into his umber eyes to see if she could find any faults in him, but there was none. He seemed harmless and took the bowl from him. She blew the medicine to cool it down and then sipped it. Her face scrunched up from the bitter taste.
He saw her facial reaction and chuckled, “I guess you’re not the type that likes to drink medicine.”
Then she did the unexpected. She placed the spoon down on the bed and forced herself to down the drink fast like a thirsty beast.
He got worried, “Be careful, you may burn your mouth.”
She ignored his warning and continued to drink from the bowl. Her mouth and throat burned as she took each gulp, but it was the only way she could taste the bitterness all at once. He was in awe to see a daring woman that would drank hot liquid down in seconds and didn’t retract. She handed it back to him and wiped her wet lips with her sleeves.
She cleared her throat. “How did I get here?”
“I found you unconscious nearby the shore and took you in,” he answered.
Unconscious? She pondered.
“My name is Yu Xing Fu. May I know your name Miss?”
She was going to answer him, but somehow she couldn’t. Her mind was blanked and couldn’t figure out why. She looked at him in distraught.
“Wh…why can’t I remember my name?”
She began to panic and grabbed a hold of his right arm tightly with her hands. His cheeks flushed red and felt his body getting hot.
In desperation, she demanded, “What’s my name?!”
Xing Fu didn’t know what to do. “D…Don’t worry. Physician Wei will be coming here shortly to check up on you, ok?” That was all he could say to comfort her.
He lightly grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her hands off of his arm, but her grip was too strong. She noticed what he was trying to do and immediately let him go.
“I’m sorry…” she shied away.
He shook his head and smiled, “It’s ok,” and rubbed his arm where she held.
Then an old man entered in the Yu residence, carrying a wooden box full of medicine on his back. He looked around and saw no one.
He stroked his grey beard and shouted, “Xing Fu, are you home? …Xing Fu!”
Back in the bedroom, Xing Fu heard a familiar voice calling his name and got excited. He turned to Cecilia. “He’s here. Wait here while I go get him.” He quickly got up and walked out of the room.
A few minutes later, Xing Fu came back in with the old man. She saw them and stared at the man to see if she recognized him, but nothing came to her mind.
They stood at the side of the bed. “This is Wei Li Yi. He is the Mu Village’s physician. ”
“It’s my pleasure to finally see you awake,” said Physician Wei.
She gave a nod to acknowledge his presence. Xing Fu explained to Physician Wei of Cecilia’s situation and his eyes widened in surprised.
Stroking his beard, he asked politely, “Miss, may I check your pulse please?”
Cecilia didn’t hesitate and extended her arm. He placed his index and middle fingers on her wrist and focused on her pulse. Shocked by what he found, he quickly let go of her wrist and openly stared at her, wondering who she really is.
His stare made her nervous and uncomfortable. She gulped and asked, “Is something wrong with me?”
He brushed off the thought and answered, “Your injury to your head caused you to lose your memories. That is why you didn’t remember who you are,” he explained.
Appalled by what she had just heard, she slumped against the wall. She felt pain from the impact but didn’t care. The pain actually made her felt relieved, knowing that she wasn’t dreaming all of this.
Concerned, Xing Fu turned to Physician Wei, “There must be a way for her to regain her memories right?!”
Physician Wei noticed that Xing Fu seemed to care a lot for the woman’s wellbeing and had a huge grin on his face. “There are some ways…” he paused for a second and then continued, “…One thing you can do is to take her around the kingdom to see if her memories triggered anything.”
Xing Fu thought Physician Wei’s suggestion was brilliant and smiled excitingly. “I will do that!” Physician Wei laughed at Xing Fu’s enthusiasm and stroked his beard again.
Then he looked at Cecilia. “Flashbacks of your memories will come to you unexpectedly, so my suggestion is for you to record it on paper if can. It may help you on your journey to recovery. I will come once in a while to check on your progress. Make sure you drink the medicine that Xing Fu provides for your headaches daily.”
She nodded and thanked him for his help. Xing Fu happily escorted him out of his residence. While they were gone, Cecilia tried to recollect her thoughts again, trying to remember her name and how she got injured. Nothing came up in her mind, so she slammed her fist on the bed in frustration.
“What happened to me?!”
Xing Fu came back into the bedroom and saw her frustrated look. He walked and sat next to her.
“Don’t worry, you will regain your memories again,” assured Xing Fu.
She glanced at him and saw his warm smile. She relaxed and thought to herself, if he hadn’t found her on the shore, she would have been dead. She owed her life to him and slowly nodded.
“Good. I have a pair of clothes for you to get changed in.” He quickly walked to one of the wooden chests and opened it. Xing Fu grabbed a yellow folded outfit out of the chest and walked back to hand it to her.
“This was my late sister’s that I’ve kept. It’s never been worn by her. Take it”
She took the outfit from his hand. “Thank you.”
“I’m going to step outside so you can change. After you’re done, come out and eat.”
He turned around and left the room. One by one, she unfolded parts of the outfit and was baffled by the design. The clothes looked unfamiliar to her, so she let out a big sigh.
Thirty minutes later, she came out of the bedroom wearing the yellow outfit. From a distance, she saw Xing Fu setting the table with plates full of delicious meat and vegetables. She could smell the different aroma sauces that were used to prepare the food and was heavenly taken by it.
Xing Fu glanced up and saw her stood across the room, wearing his sister’s outfit. The sunlight snuck through the opened windows and shone uupon her, illuminating her whole body. He stood frozen and speechless with the last plate of food in his hands, wondering if he had saved a heavenly fairy instead. He snapped back to reality and placed the plate on the table.
He quickly walked toward her with a big smile on his face. “My sister’s outfit suits you well.”
She shyly thanked him for his compliment. Xing Fu then escorted her to the dining table and had her sat down. She stared at the colorful food and her mouth started to water.
“You’ve cooked all of this?”
He proudly admitted, “Yes I did.”
“It looks delicious,” she complimented.
Then her stomach growled, loud enough for Xing Fu to hear. He chuckled and she felt a bit embarrassed.
“I don’t blame your stomach for crying. You’ve been unconscious for a couple of days.”
She was in disbelief for being unconscious that long. Xing Fu noticed she was bothered by it and changed the subject. “Let’s eat.”
Each bite that she took from various dishes mesmerized her. The taste of herbal spices from the meat and the vegetable’s sweet sauce were delicious. Xing Fu watched her gobbled down each plate like nothing, and laughed slightly from her unlike lady behavior. As they ate, he kept glancing at her.
She caught him staring, and with her full mouth of food, she asked, “What?”
“I was wondering. I can’t call you ‘Miss’ all of the time, so how about giving you a name?”
She swallowed her food. “What name do you have in mind?”
Xing Fu started to think for a while, and then he got a name for her. “How about…XIAO in ‘Beautiful’ XING in ‘Star’…Xiao Xing. What do you think?”
She thought about the name, “Xiao Xing…” then she nodded, “I like it.” She gave him a big smile, showing her teeth, and was happy to finally have a name.
Xing Fu laughed joyfully, “Great!” He picked up some more vegetables from the dish with his chopsticks and put it in her rice bowl. “Here Xiao Xing, eat more.” She nodded and started to eat the vegetables that he had given her.
---
Cecilia stood in the center of all-white scenery, wearing her ivory satin nightgown. All she saw around her were thick white fogs and wondered where she was. As she slowly paced through the fog, she looked around to try spotting anyone that might come to view, but there was no one. She was alone.
Suddenly, images of her past memories projected from the fogs in front of her like a movie. She saw the time when Yang Kai Li kissed her on the cheeks, him putting the diamond necklace on her neck, them laying on each other’s shoulders, their passionate kiss, and his words “I love you”. However, in all of these images, their faces were blurred and unrecognizable for her to tell who they really were.
Then the images abrupt in flames and she jumped in sudden fright. The deadly flames began to spread everywhere around her. Frightened and disoriented, she tried to find an exit but it was too late; she was trapped. Flames got closer… and closer…until it finally engulfed her by its fiery wrath. She shrieked in agonized pain as it crept its way inside of her, devouring her flesh and tissue organs.
Cecilia woke up and quickly sat up on her bed, expelling in shuddered breath as a pool of sweat dripped down from her face and onto her clothes. She started to check her body for flames and found nothing. Relieved, she realized this was just a dream.
---
The rooster crowed, alarming everyone of a new day. Xing Fu woke up and sat on his bed half dazed. He yawned and stretched his arm. Then he sensed something was on his bed and quickly glanced to his side to see Cecilia sleeping there. He jumped back and hit his body against the wall, covering his mouth with his hands, and tried not to scream. He was bewildered by her strange behavior, but at the same time, stared at how peaceful and cute she looked sleeping. Careful not to disturb her, he got off the bed. Upon success, he pulled the blanket up to cover her and grabbed his day clothes. As he headed out of his bedroom, he turned one last time to look at her and thought about his reaction a while ago. He thought it was funny and chuckled silently. Then he turned around and left the room.
Hours later, Cecilia woke up from her peaceful slumber and looked around. There were more stuff in the room-painted pictures hung from the walls, more chests, a couple of bookshelves against the walls, and the on the bed, it was more decorative with white and blue cloths. She realized that she wasn’t in her room and panicked. She got out of bed and left the room in a hurry. As she opened the blanketed door, she recognized the parlor, relieved she was still in the Yu’s residence.
Questions started to float in her head as she tried to figure out how she slept in Xing Fu’s room. Then she remembered her nightmare from last night and how she felt afraid. Cecilia concluded that she must have come into his room and slept there, knowing that she felt safer being with him, than alone in her own bedroom. Xing Fu entered in from outside and saw her stood there in silence. Cecilia turned and saw him at the doorway. In his hands, he held a basket full of different fresh herbs that he picked up.
Embarrassed by the bed scene, she apologized. “I didn't mean to sleep in your room.”
“Don’t worry about it. You have your reasons. Now go and get wash up. After that, I will dress your wounds.”
She was surprised to see how nonjudgmental and calmed he was. She shyly nodded and walked straight to her room. Thirty minutes later, she came out and saw Xing Fu pounding the herbs he picked earlier with a pestle in a small, clayed mortar.
He glanced up and saw her stood there and stopped pounding. “Come here and take a seat,” and continued to pound the herbs.
She walked over and sat down next to him. The pungent smell from the herbs quickly stung her nose, so she leaned back and covered her nose with her hands.
“I know the smell is strong, but it is very effective to treat open wounds like yours,” he said.
“Are you also a physician as well?” she asked.
He laughed and shook his head. “No. Physician Wei had taught me some surviving skills when young.”
She became curious and wanted to know more about him. “Where’s your family?”
He stopped pounding and thought for a bit about his life. He responded in a sad tone of voice, “They died from sickness…Physician Wei tried to save them, but there was nothing he could do.” He continued pounding the herbs while talking to her. “After my parents and sister died, he took me in and taught me basic medicine skills to survive.”
“I’m sorry to hear of your losses, but why didn’t you stay with him in Mu Village?”
He finished pounding the herbs and grabbed a cleaned white cloth from the side. He laid it flat on the table and started to scoop the mixed herbs on top of it.
“I wanted to enjoy a simple life of being independent,” he answered while scraping the rest of the herbs from the mortar onto the cloth.
She understood and respected his decision. Xing Fu finished and turned to her. “I wish I can ask you about your life, but due to your circumstances, I know you cannot.”
She felt bad and sat silently with her head tilted down.
“Don’t worry about it.” Then he pointed at her and stared straight into her hazel eyes. “That is why I’m going to help you regain your memories. Now, let me replace the old herbs from your head wound,” he said.
She sat still while he came behind her. He carefully unrolled the cloth from her head. After it was off, he gasped. His eyes widened in shock and his body shuffled away a step or two from her.
His voice trembled and stuttered to find words. “H…How c…could this be? Y…Your wound…”
She saw Xing Fu’s face was white as a ghost and started to freak out. “You’re scaring me! What is it?”
“Your wound…the stitches…are gone…”
It was her first time feeling her bare wound so she raised her hand to touch the side of her head. She felt a long bump on her scalp and traced her fingers on it. There were no stitches and only a linear scar.
Her brows rose in confusion and affirmed, “Are you sure that there were stitches in the first place?”
His bobbled his head. “That day when I found you, your wound was opened and you had lost a lot of blood. Physician Wei came over and stitched your wound together. Since then, we’ve only applied herbs on it.” Then Xing Fu remembered her other wound and pointed at her arm. “You had a wound there also.”
She looked down at her arm and touched it puzzling. She shook her head, “I didn’t recall any wound there. In fact, after yesterday, my body didn’t ache anymore…”
“What about your headaches?”
She shook her head again, “No…it’s gone”
He looked dumbfounded and collapsed onto a nearby chair. He thought to himself, “How could somebody healed so quickly?”
He couldn’t explain it and stared at her, trying to figure out the cause. Feeling uncomfortable, she looked down to avoid his eye contact.
“Let’s go visit Physician Wei,” he said promptly.
CHAPTER 7: THE SWORN BROTHER
CHAPTER 7: THE SWORN BROTHER
Mu Village was a place that had everything-from small vendors on the side streets, restaurants and inns for people to dine and stay, to different entertainments for the crowds to watch. Although it was a small village, visitors from different ethnicities loved to travel there to experience the leisure lifestyle and foremost, their infamous 10,000 years old wine from Plum Blossom Inn.
Amazed by all of this, Cecilia pointed out little things shouting, “Look at that!” or “I can’t believe that!” to Xing Fu to see. She was like a little child experiencing the outside world for the very first time, making him enjoyed her company.
“So far, do you see anything that looked familiar to you?” he asked.
Looking around, she scratched her head sadly. “No.”
“Cheer up, this is only the beginning. We still have the world to venture off to,” and gave her a big smile, showing his teeth.
They finally reached the open gate entrance to Physician Wei’s clinic. She stared at the huge red signage that hung above and saw the some strange writings on it. She pointed at it, “What does that say?”
He glanced at where she was pointing; then he turned to her surprised. “You can’t read?”
Feeling dumb, her smile quickly faded to a frown and tilted her head down. He placed his hand on her shoulder to comfort her.
“Don’t worry. I can teach you how to read and write then.”
Her head rose up immediately from his words and was happy. He pointed his finger at her and gave her a serious look. “But promise me, no more frowning ok?” She gave an easy wide grin and nodded.
“Good.” He pointed at the characters from the signage and read it to her. “It says Wei.Chen.Clinic.” She carefully analyzed the strokes of the characters and repeated it a couple of times.
“Wei. Chen. Clinic.”
She clasped her hands together in excitement that she could read and Xing Fu chuckled at her reaction.
“So, shall we go in?” he said. She nodded happily and both of them walked inside the entrance gate.
As they walked through the front courtyard toward the clinic, Cecilia saw a young man sitting down across from an older woman. She saw that this man was youthful, possibly in his late teens at the most. The young man wrote something on a piece of thin paper. After he finished writing, he handed it to the old lady.
“Here is the prescription for your arthritis. Make sure to drink the medicine three times a day and come back for treatments.” The old lady thanked him and got up to leave.
Cecilia slightly turned her head to Xing Fu and whispered, “Who is he?”
“His name is Chen Guo Jing.”
“Chen Guo Jing…Isn’t he a little too young to prescribe medicine for patients?” she asked curiously.
Xing Fu laughed and she gave him a blank stare.
“He’s in his forties,” he answered.
Her jaw dropped, stunned by the young man’s age. She shook her head in disbelief. “Stop lying. He is NOT in his forties.”
“Trust me, he is. He aged very well.”
She crossed her arms in front and commented, “Too well!” as if she was a bit jealous of his youth.
Guo Jing saw Xing Fu and Cecilia stood a few feet away from him. He got up and walked gracefully toward them. As he got closer, she saw his skin-flawless to perfection with high cheek bones, his hair was longer than hers-silky jet black and half tied up with a silver head band, and his eyes-amber like wolf’s eyes. He was the most beautiful creature that she had ever seen. They met half way and the young man greeted them formally, extending his folded hands in front.
“Greetings Mr. Yu” and then he bowed his head at her and greeted, “Greetings Miss.”
Xing Fu greeted him back while Cecilia stood there speechless in awe of his beauty.
“She is a friend of mine, Xiao Xing. Xiao Xing, this is Chen Guo Jing, Physician Wei’s sworn brother.”
“It is my pleasure to meet you Miss Xiao. You can call me Physician Guo.”
He gave her a charming smile and she saw those dimples. Her heart thumped loudly and quickly covered her chest with her hands, hoping that he didn’t hear it. Guo Jing could tell that she was intrigued by his great looks and gave her a wider smile. Her eyes turned slightly away to avoid his stare and took a deep breath.
Then he looked at Xing Fu. “She must be the ‘Miss’ that lost her memories.”
Cecilia blinked profusely, surprised that her presence was already known by him. Anxious, she asked hastily, “How did you know?”
Guo Jing and Xing Fu laughed at her. “Brother Wei told me,” Guo Jing replied.
STUPID! Of Course he would know! They are SWORN BROTHERS! She felt like digging a hole to hide now.
Guo Jing didn’t want to embarrass her anymore and turned to Xing Fu. “What brings the both of you here?”
“We wanted to see Physician Wei. Is he around?”
Guo Jing shook his head, “He left up north to see a patient and won’t be back for a few weeks. Can I assist the both of you of anything?”
“Since you know about Xiao Xing’s serious head injury from Physician Wei, I won’t go much into details then…” Xing Fu directed his hands to Cecilia’s head for Guo Jing to see. “…It’s been only three days from the incident and already, her wound has healed greatly. I don’t understand how and hope you can shine a light upon this matter.”
From hearing the situation, Guo Jing got curious about her. “Come inside,” Guo Jing said calmly.
He took them into the clinic and she sat down next to the table. He looked at her and asked politely, “May I check your head wound?”
She blushed and nodded. He got up and stood behind her. With his fingers, he delved into her silky, black hair to locate the wound on her scalp. He found the wound and became astounded. The wound showed only a linear pink scar as if it was at the end of the last stage of healing. He saw no traces of stitches that his sworn brother Wei had told him before. Odd, he was lost at words.
He looked at her, “Let me check your pulse.”
She knew what to do. She pulled her sleeves up and laid her wrist on the table. He placed his fingers on her wrist. Then, he felt what Physician Wei had felt before, but MORE.
Guo Jing felt something strange happening to him. His eyes bulged out like it was going to pop out of his eye sockets and started to hyperventilate, so he quickly let go of her wrist. Then his perfect body crumbled to the ground in front of them to see. Xing Fu and Cecilia quickly got up from their seats to help Guo Jing up and grabbed his arms. Guo Jing felt Cecilia’s touch on his arm and violently pushed her away from him.
“DON’T TOUCH ME!” he yelled angrily at her.
She backed away and stood frozen in confusion. Xing Fu got upset at Guo Jing and let go of him to run to Cecilia’s side. Guo Jing dropped onto the ground again.
“Are you ok?” he asked her.
She nodded, “Go and help Physician Guo up.”
Xing Fu hesitated at first, but seeing her cared for Guo Jing’s wellbeing made him have no choice but to go help him. Xing Fu grabbed Guo Jing from the ground and helped him up to sit back on the chair. His breathing began to stabilize normally but narrowed his eyes at her.
She saw his hands on the table trembling uncontrollably and felt guilty. “I’m sorry…I…”
Guo Jing held his hand up to interrupt her. “Speak no more…”
Xing Fu asked Guo Jing, “What happened to you?”
Guo Jing carefully tried to find the words to answer Xing Fu and exhaled. “Brother Wei was right…” Xing Fu and Cecilia looked at each other puzzled. Guo Jing swallowed and continued, “Miss Xiao, unlike others, your qi is very special. If I had prolonged it any further…I would have…” His voice started to shake, “…died…”
A sudden coldness hit the core of her body. How could she have the capability of killing? It was one thing that she didn’t want it to happen. She shook her head as tears started to well up in her eyes. She promised Xing Fu that she would not frown anymore, but after hearing this, she could not control it. Xing Fu saw her troubled expression and walked toward her to comfort.
“Stop!” she warned Xing Fu. He yielded at her command.
“Xiao Xing…”
He took another step but she stopped him again. Her voice started to choke as tears started to roll down her cheeks.
“Don’t come any closer. I…I might kill you too…”
Guo Jing sighed in frustration. “Miss Xiao, your special qi can’t kill him, so you don’t need to worry!”
Both looked at Guo Jing confused. He continued, “…I’m not going to say anymore but trust me. Whatever you are, we fear.”
Cecilia pondered about his last sentence. “What does he mean ‘We’ and why did he identify her as ‘What’?” It didn’t make any sense to her so she needed to know.
“I don’t understand.”
Guo Jing didn’t want to talk anymore and waved his hand at them. “Please leave. I need to recuperate from the loss of my qi.”
Cecilia refused to leave until she got some answers. She took a couple of steps forward, but Xing Fu blocked her way, staring straight at her.
“Xiao Xing, let’s just go and wait until Physician Wei comes back.”
She wiped her tears and glared at Guo Jing coldly. Guo Jing was too afraid to look at her and stared at the far wall to avoid eye contact.
“Fine,” she said angrily.
They left the room and disappeared from his sight. Guo Jing buried his face in his trembling hands and repeated, “What is she? …What is she? …What is she?” He thought of all the possibilities of her identity. Only a god has that power…but she’s not one of them. His head started to pound heavily from thinking too much and massaged the temples of his head.