The rusted metal door clanged loudly. Its crackling resonance echoed grandly throughout the damp and filthy corridor, upon which a guard grunted aside. Dressed in matt black garments and gray leather paddings, the middle aged custodian extended his hand forward, signaling for the lady to enter in towards his lifelong workplace, one of which he was indifferent of the condition it was in.
“...”
But the lady did not move a muscle and instead turned a glaring side glance towards him, lightening those dead eyes, derived from sunlight for most of his life.
“You know the toll, don’t you, Young Lady?”
“_”
Giving a light nod, she carefully reached out for her pouch within her draping garment. Carefully avoiding any made sounds, the lady gently handed him several silver taels which were considered way much more than what he himself could have earned in half a year. While one cope to continue this miserable work was his lack of antipathy for general hygiene, underhanded bribes such as these were what made this job such an incentive for the man, but as risky as the crimes were recorded, even he could gain much more from this favor especially from what he saw, was an immature and well kept maiden like herself.
And so as she took a forward step through the metal door frame, the guard halted the lady in her tracks, making another greedious threat.
“I can only hold their attention for a meager 15 intervals of the upper burning candle, my dear young Ma’am. I pray to you my-AH!”
A pair of gold taels was what was felt within the grasp of his blocking palm as she continued to stare down at him.
With a tinge of joy, the guard made one last look at the lady, bowing deeply for her decisiveness.
“Thank you for your cooperative patronage, my fair Lady,” he sneered with slit eyes. However, the more he continued to glimpse at her stoic impression, suddenly a part of his hair readily stood on edge.
‘Damn these women are the most troublesome.’
Though those were his honest thoughts, his business facade remains strong willed.
“Take as much time as you need, and let me know if you need anything extra…” were the final words spoken by the guard before he made his retreat back up the underground dungeon. The clacking of his hard-soled sandals quickly dwindled, leaving the only sounds of muffled flowing water and the sporadic slithering of heavy chains across the coarse rocky floors from the other side of the narrow corridor.
Tightening her grip against the handles of her medicinal bag, the young lady exhaled a heavy breath, steeling herself for what was to come.
“Elder Brother…”
---
The more the lady approached closer to the jail cell at the end, she felt her heart beating the heaviest ever since the day the ‘false’ charge was given to her beloved brother. And…this was the jail cell he was temporarily placed into.
Luckily, all the other barred cells on either side of the hallway were deserted, not that it was a coincidence since it was most obvious this was another one of those psychological tricks at play with the feeling of isolation upon her poor brother. With short glances at each individual cell she passes, the lady accounted for the common conditions of those claustrophobic pig pens.
Damp unevenly tiled floors and dripping ceiling, the stench of decomposing rats and fecal matter, and a bundle of unkempt straw nestled deep within the pitch black interior. It was a nightmare branded all over and her brother’s cell was no better. Besides the small barred window at the very top of the 2 story height ceiling, there was no other opening of sunlight nor ventilation.
“Achoo!...Smmnh!”
Rubbing herself warm from the cold draft of air that breezed in from above, the lady slid aside the unlocked handle and roughly shoved it open; the door’s joints screeched in high-pitched shrieks. Steadying herself afterwards, she quickly scanned across the dimly lit room for her brother with the only light coming from that tiny opening, illuminating the center of the jail cell. After a few moments, she manages to find him, placed disheartenedly at the deepest and darkest edge of the caged pen.
Overall, he was in no way better compared to that day at the trial. All his four limbs were locked up to long chains and his skin turned a dark blue hue around the place the chains were clamped in place. Apart from a light sandy robe that only sheltered his bony upper and lower torso, his extremities were shivering like infected with an uncontrollable disease.
“...”
The sister covered her mouth in absolute fear and disgust.
Roughly laid upon a hard splintered wooden table, there the brother laid, down flat on his stomach, in silence, half dead and deep in sorrow. His arms and legs were left dangling over the narrow plank that was his bed. And with that life threatening injury of a 100 beatings, the brother could barely feel anything below his upper torso, leaving himself hopelessly motionless in this horrid and uncomfortable position. Such agony, that his once sharp, snake-like pupils devolved into a duo of dilated and beady drops of glossy black ink, failing to be aware of the presence of his sister.
A gulp.
A crease of her eyebrows.
And a clenched fist, the lady steadily addressed him.
“Elder Brother, Elder Brother!”
“...”
There was no response, aside from a ruffling of chains and cloth. However, this was enough to know she caught his attention.
Placing down the medicinal bag beside one of the legs, she folded her sleeves and carefully untied the light robe over his body. She then took a quick examination of his condition which made her blood boil.
“Elder Brother, who was the apothecary that was assigned to you?”
“...”
He gave her back a dull side glance.
“YiuSun,” he muttered softly. His cold breath formed mist as he spoke.
“Idiot!...You do know that he was always in your opposition. Why still let…Oh…”
A hard realization hit the enraged Xiao Tian.
“Was it-”
“Yes…” Mr Xu weakly affirmed, “I had no say in who to treat me.”
“Regardless of that, Dear Brother, at this rate, you will be on a chair till death. Hold still, I’m sure I got something…here.”
“...”
Crouching under and fastening her hair into a bun, Xiao Tian began to prepare her ingredients and utensils.
As she did, Mr Xu listened closely to the sounds of wrapping leather parchments, the opening of wooden cabinets and the ting of high-pitched metal tunes. He groaned in response.
“...Xiao Tian, how are things going for the past two months in my absence, especially yourself?”
The table shook back a moment after, startling him.
“Worry about yourself first, Dear Brother,” she replied coldly, getting up with an ointment he surely recognised.
“....”
“Tell me, where do you still feel the pain?”
“...well, ain’t that hypocritical”
“What’s that?”
“Oh, it's nothing, Xiao Tian…Preferably, you should oversaturate everything to provide a response. Do you get me?”
She smirked, “You still haven’t lost your touch, Elder Brother,” before proceeding with his instructions.
Aside from minor twitches from some parts of the back torso, the application was running smoothly, too smoothly that the both of them started to worry.
“It’s really worse, isn’t it?”
“Now, as long as I can still sense all the lower meridians, it’s not irreversible. We can only hope for the best.”
“...You can still say that?”
“Xiao Tian, I see to it that there is a lack of much cinnamomum cassia. What’s going on up-”
“Don’t keep changing conversations, dear brother!”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“THEN WHAT THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?”
“JUST SHUT UP!”
“...”
“Just…shut up already, please.”
“I…Alright.”
.
.
.
.
The whole cell soon fell into silence with the occasional sounds of scraping metal on a roller over coarse dead skin being the routined beat of rhythm.
Soon after, the guard broke the tranquil nature, carrying in a bucket of hot water in hand.
“Please let me know if you need anything extra,” he gleefully informed, before scurrying his way back up the stairway.
.
.
With his front positioned feebly in front of the rundown tiled wall, Xiao Tian readied a soaked cloth towel, slowly rubbing the grim out around the lotioned area. And as she soon found her way reaching his arms, they both made eye contact to which they frozed in fright. None of them budge a move.
“I’m sorry”
“Eh?”
Handing out his other arm, he gave Xiao Tian a relaxed smile.
“...”
Frowning deeply, she gave in to his request.
Reaching forward to his forearm, she decided to answer his earlier question.
“How did you know I was lacking ingredients?”
“The color of the ointment. It had more of a clearer hue to it than it’s brown.”
“As expected of my talented Elder Brother…”
“What’s happening currently at the Xu residence?”
“Aside from the most important assets, artifacts and documents that I was able to rapidly smuggle out of the village, the place is vandalized way beyond your disappointment.”
“How unfortunate, aren’t I?” I even wonder if Father will descend down to kill me or drag me out to see the Black and White Impermanence.”
“What a silly exaggeration, Elder Brother. Our Father is a wise individual. He would never break to see the end of a burning candle that reaches the stars.”
“Hah! That’s certainly something he could do…So, these ingredients…Are they from your trading company?”
“No, shortly after your imprisonment, I was hastily fired from their branch and rejected from employment elsewhere. To put it simply, I was living off my previous efforts.”
“Then the sparganium stoloniferum and the three Radix variants, the bribed guard, did you?”
“...Yes, I’m on a restricted diet now.”
“W-what of Father’s fortune?”
“...”
“Xiao Tian?”
“The Bank Guild halted any further transactions.”
“Damn it all!”
His face swelled in an obvious red frustration.
‘It was all due to my inability to defend ourselves. Fuck it! Where did I go wrong…’
…
Seeing his distressful bloodshot eyes, Xiao Tian grimaced at what she really intended to do. Treating and seeing him for the first time in 2 months was not the primary objective of this visit though it was equally important for Xiao Tian personally. Even if she wanted to postpone this news for another day…
‘There would never be another day. If that was all it took to silence that awfully suspicious guard, I can’t imagine doing that for the second time since even my emergency funds are running dry and I have to keep a sufficient amount for ‘that’.
Yh, there’s no turning back now. We are far too deep within to settle this alone.”
“Dear Brother?!”
“What’s the matter now, Xiao Tian?”
“Once we are done here, I would like you to be prepared for what I’m about to say before I leave.”
“O-ok?”
“Just promise me that you will be the level headed individual that you always were.”
“...I-I’ll try. It just depends on what you’re gonna say, Xiao Tian. But, I trust that you will make the right choices. You are not the little, naughty TianXing that you once were any longer.”
She blushed.
She looked away.
And she gritted her teeth.
‘Damn it, Brother. Why did you have to add that last part?’
---
The light that shone straight through the tiny barred window dimmed into a redder hue from a dominant yellow. It was already sunset.
The last drawer was closed shut, empty of its contents. This was the same for the rest of the now hollow bag. Resting rather comfortably on some dried straw on the wooden table, Mr Xu watched on as Xiao Tian finished packing her stuff before turning on her heel towards him.
“So what was it you were gonna tell me?”
She slowly tucked her hair behind her ear and loosened the bun fastening.
“I’ve already decided on this, Dear Brother…I-I’m going to ShanWei.”
.
“What?...”
He was speechless.
“Hold on for a moment there!”
Mr Xu knew that it was his sister’s dream to one day travel to that bustling city of urban life.
“Why!”
And he also knew that this day was one to nearly come soon.
But..
“WHY NOW!”
But he did not want to send her off, especially at a time like this.
“Brot-”
“XiaoTian, if this case were to have never happened, I would have first gone there myself, gathered information on the local life there and decided on whether it was deemed worthy and safe for you to travel alone as you wished. But now, I can never accomplish that. At least at this very moment.”
“BROTHER, do you hear yourself? This isn’t for that selfish desire of mine to strike wealth there to prove myself. I’m doing this now for you!”
“Me…I do not see any connection--wait, no, NO!”
“Listen, Elder Brother. With my skills, I will work my way up the societal ladder of ShanWei, all the while, gathering influence and funds for your cause of innocence. Now that all our assets are placed against us, we will be doomed if I do not do something about this. Barely anyone else is in your support and you yourself are locked up in here, in this shitty pig pen. Even half-paralyzed to fuel the flames.”
“Despite this, Xiao Tian, you and I have never been anywhere as far East as ShanWei. Without anyone to back you up, even myself, you are all alone! And I…I…I can’t bear watching you leave, not knowing that you would be safe from harm!”
“…”
Her face started to darken once more.
“So please, Xiao Tian. You might die out there! Who’s gonna look out for you and save you?”
“...”
“You are the only one I have left that I loved dearly for…When everyone’s cast me aside in this rotting cell, you are the only one who visits. ”
“...”
“DON’T LEAVE ME LIKE FATHER AND MOTHER DID!!!”
“IT’S THE ONLY WAY!”
“Xiao Tian?”
“This is…the only way.”
She hung her head low. A shimmering stream could be seen running down her cheeks.
“No, no please.”
“Goodbye.”
And with that she handed him a letter before shoving his grip off her.
“XIAO TIAN!”
She dashed her way across the corridor, past the incoming moonlight and pitched black, deserted jail cells. Carrying her heavy feet and agonizing heart onto the staircase and out of the dungeon, never to be seen again by the brother she treasured the most in her life for the next several decades of their lives.
“don’t. leave me. alone.”
A loud clang of a rusted metal door was all that came for his reply.
.
.
.
.
Back inside the cell, under the now bright and chilly moonlight, dust particles could be seen floating, random and quick in sporadic fashion. Some eventually landed on the fallen tears of the man above. Stuck, immobilized in this disgrace of a makeshift bed counterpart, Mr Xu laid down in sobbing silence. And in his bony hand was the letter.
“...”
Although fed up with everything up until this point, he remembered to feel the creases and surface of the paper in question. To which he knew that this was weak to digestive properties, suggesting its importance of secrecy. On it was a hastily written note that said:
“I will be back soon, beloved Brother. If you were wondering where I hid all our solid assets, it’s in the hands of the former Commander Yu. Don’t worry, he’s on our side.
Yours dearly,
TianXing”
In his eyes, they returned, a bleak beady mirror of pupils, as he crushed the paper into a crumpled mess before forcibly ingesting the tasteless piece of edible parchment.
After a slight gag reflex, Mr Xu managed to get rid of any form of communication.
Just in time for a set of footsteps to be heard across the corridor, clacking down the stairs. It was the middle-aged guard, up in his highest spirits, alongside three enforcers to keep the daily observation records. In his near comatose state, a single thought came to his mind as they unlocked the door to the corridor.
‘I pray nothing worse happens to either of us. Have a safe trip, Xiao Tian.’
.
.
.
…
Deep within a bustling harbor south of DongBu village, several piers of various lengths sprouted out against the currents of the main Bai River that all the villages resided along. Some were docked with cargo ships and lugsails; their red folding sails shone brightly in the backdrop of numerous large fire torches placed throughout the piers. One particular ship was currently docked at the pier second to last from the main warehouse. It was a dedicated passenger vessel.
Along its pier, there were carts loaded with wooden chests and rolls of cloth. Using a light crane, workers were in the midst of finishing to load all the planned goods. However, at the entrance before the pier, there housed a medium-sized cement cottage. Within it, rows of passengers were preparing for their journey, checking their luggage and having final goodbyes with fellow family members. After all, for most of these passengers, this will be their last chance to see their families forever to find better work in the rumored big cities. One such city which was infamous for these attractive offers was ShanWei and this passenger vessel would take them there.
Most of these passengers were young men, donned in their finest civilian clothing, which consisted of a newly sown tunic and pants of a bright, light color and cleaned of any farm work they had done for most of their livelihoods. Amongst the male dominant group, a lone woman was in their ranks. With only a single medicinal wooden bag and a western style wooden suitcase once belonging to her father which attracted quite a few stares early on within her arrival here, she fastened her Hanfu tightly against the chilly night wind.
In her hand, a small red pouch was opened.
‘Thirty silver taels left. I wonder if this could be enough until I find employment there.’
She breathed deeply. Mist forming in front of her still reddish eyes.
‘Well, this is all I have left.’
That was when a bell rang loudly, bringing the attention of all the people in the cottage. Silence enveloped all of them.
“WE’RE READY FOR BOARDING!” screamed the captain.
And in that instance, a rapid torrent of people began sprinting towards the ship like dogs to a bone. Such a myriad of screams and shrieks that it could wake an entire herd of cows. It was chaos. Luckily, TianXing was able to keep up, given that she had quite the lighter luggage compared to the others.
‘Well, this is off to a rocky start, Dear Brother.’