by Jeremy Bai
Yu Zhing and its noble clans were purged mercilessly. Numerous prominent members of many of the clans were called out as traitors, then tortured and executed publicly. Some were burned or skinned alive. Others suffered worse fates.
Whether or not the victims were innocent or guilty didn’t matter. The heart of the rebellion was ripped out, and the smell of the burning flesh would linger in the noses of the survivors for years to come.
Bao occasionally had nightmares about the things that had happened. Her mother had been one of the accused, and although Bao never found out whether or not she was actually part of the rebellion, it didn’t matter. She was tortured and then burned alive in a public square. Other relatives had their own bones extracted and sharpened into instruments of torture, which were then used to kill them. Bao’s father committed suicide shortly thereafter.
From then on, she was a ward of the clan, her basic needs cared for, but she was ignored for the most part.
Bao had always been pretty, and as she reached her teens, she began to blossom into beauty. However, there were many beauties in the noble houses of Yu Zhing, even in her own clan. A rose growing up in a cabbage patch will attract much attention, but a single rose in a bed of roses will not. Bao was the latter.
Perhaps because of the horrors she had witnessed and the oppressive nature of noble life in a city controlled by the Demon Emperor, Bao developed a love of reading. She read anything she could get her hands on, but she especially favored the tales of legends and myths that most nobles frowned upon. She didn’t care that people looked down on such stories, and truth be told, few people cared about her obsession or even noticed.
Of course, it wasn’t easy to keep up a hobby of reading, since books came almost exclusively in the form of bamboo or wood scrolls. Most stories were told by storytellers on the streets, but Bao wasn’t allowed to go wandering around the streets, so she really had no other choice but to read.
She would read any chance she could get, and that reading fueled her imagination with thoughts of adventure and reckless abandon. Everything that was the opposite of the drudgery of her actual life.
Eventually she began to itch for more, and it was at about this time that she realized that her greatest asset was the very thing she hated most: her boring anonymity. Since few people in the clan cared about her or even noticed her, she began to take advantage of that to go places a young noble lady shouldn’t go or do things that were technically forbidden.
It started in the clan estates, after she managed to get her hands on a servant girl’s dress. On one particularly dull evening, she found a discreet place to change her clothes and rub some dirt on her face, after which she snuck into the kitchens. Her heart pounded the whole time, but shockingly, nobody even looked at her. She pilfered some dried fruits and a small pot of wine, which she enjoyed later in the privacy of her room.
From the servant girl’s dress, things escalated. She used that very dress to sneak into the laundry room, where she stole a male servant’s uniform. As long as she kept her long hair tied up beneath a hat and made sure her chest was bound, nobody noticed that she didn’t look like an ordinary servant.
Eventually, sneaking around the clan estates got boring, and soon she identified one section of the clan gardens where a tree made it easy to shinny over the wall, after which she began going out at night into the city.
That day, her life got very exciting. And that was how she met Geng Long.
On her third excursion outside of the clan estates, she was prowling the streets dressed as a waif. Although homelessness and begging were officially outlawed by the Demon Emperor, in the sketchier areas of the city, such practices were alive and well. Those were the places Bao found most exciting to visit.
She was prowling through an alley when she happened to notice a tattered bamboo scroll lying in a pile of trash next to a door. She squatted down next to the trash and gingerly pulled the bamboo scroll out. It was so old and worn out that it was on the verge of falling apart, and many of the characters were faded into near illegibility. The title read: Romance of the Hen-Shi Knights.
Bao’s eyes lit up. Wiping the scroll off with her sleeve, she was just about to tuck it under her arm and hasten back to the clan estates when someone spoke behind her.
“Hey, Little Sis, are you really so desperate for reading material that you pick books up out of the garbage?”
She spun around to find a lanky young man leaning up against the wall across from her. She stood up and shrugged casually. “I just haven’t seen this one before.”
The boy chuckled. “If you say so. I haven’t seen you before. What’s your name?”
“I’m, er, Bao,” she replied.
“Bao? Is that your surname or your given name?”
“Just call me Bao,” she said. Bao was in fact her given name. She didn’t dare to tell him her surname, as it would reveal that she was from a noble clan.
“Bao it is, then,” the boy said. “I’m Geng. Geng Long. Long like dragon, you know?”
Bao nodded.
“Look,” Geng Long said, “I’m into books too. I know a place where you can get as many as you want.”
And that settled it. After a bit more chatting, Geng Long led her from this corner to that corner, until they were in another dark alley, in front of the door of a shop. The shop was closed, and the door clearly barred. Above the door was a sign that read “books.”
“A bookshop?” Bao asked. “But it’s closed…”
“Exactly,” Geng Long replied, grinning. He then proceeded to break into the shop, albeit carefully, in such a way that, after leaving, no one would be able to tell that they had come.
After slipping into the darkness of the shop, Geng Long said, “All right, take a look around and pick one or two. Old Man Guo is virtually blind. As long as we bring the books back in a few days, he’ll never be the wiser. Hurry up, I’ll stand watch.”
Thus, Bao made her first real friend.
In the following weeks and months, she spent most days reading in the gardens of the clan estate and most nights gallivanting with Geng Long. It was an exciting life, albeit slightly dangerous.
On one particular night, Bao met Geng Long in their usual meeting place, and she had a small sack slung over her shoulder.
“What’s that?” he asked.
She grinned. “I managed to get my hands on some nice food and wine.” Although Bao was used to the fine delicacies available at her clan’s estates, Geng Long was not. When she showed him the contents of the sack, his eyes gleamed with anticipation.
“I know the perfect spot,” he said. “Come on.”
He led her to the Yu Zhing docks, where they sat down beneath the eaves of a warehouse and began their late-night picnic.
They had been eating and chatting for only a few minutes when a shadow fell across Bao’s legs. She looked up to see a swarthy teenage boy looming over her, flanked by two other teenagers.
“Well, look who we have here,” the boy said, grinning maliciously. “Geng Long and his mistress.” He cracked his knuckles.
Geng Long and Bao both scrambled to their feet.
“Screw off, Peng Lin,” Geng Long said.
Peng Lin snorted coldly. “This is our territory. If you wanna have a tryst with this slut, do it somewhere else.”
Geng Long’s hands clenched into fists, and he took a step forward. “I dare you to say that again!”
Geng Long was about a head taller than Peng Lin, but Peng Lin had much broader shoulders and far thicker arms; if Geng Long looked like a race horse, Peng Lin looked like an ox.
Peng Lin spat onto the ground at Geng Long’s feet. “I said, if you wanna have a tryst with this slut—”
Geng Long roared and leapt forward, swinging wildly at Peng Lin. The blow just managed to graze him, causing him to stagger backward a few paces. He spat out a mouthful of blood, wiped his mouth clean, and then growled, “You’re dead, Geng Long. Boys, you get the slut and hold her down.
I’m coming for her next!”
As Geng Long and Peng Lin began to batter each other with fists and feet, Peng Lin’s two companions advanced on Bao.
Her heart pounded, and she backed up until she ran into the wall of the warehouse. The two boys chuckled as they closed in.
Bao was a young woman who had never been in a fight in her life. However, she had seen many an exhibition match between soldiers in the clan, and in her boredom had even spent some time watching them train. Even though she didn’t have a lick of experience, she knew how to fight, at least on a theoretical level.
As the boys reached out to grab her, something strange happened. Her pounding heart suddenly went completely calm. Everything seemed to slow down. Her eyes flickered down for a brief moment as she confirmed that lying on the ground near her left foot was a knife, which she had brought along to cut a slab of cured donkey meat.
Her eyes flickered back up, and she sprang into motion. Before either of the two boys could react, she lunged forward and grabbed one of them by the forearm, then kneed him in the groin with all the strength she could muster. The boy let out a muffled squawk, then dropped to the ground and rolled into the fetal position.
The other boy was so taken aback that he froze in place.
Bao whirled, ducking down to grab the knife, and then jumped toward the second boy. By this point, he had overcome his initial shock and just managed to dodge to the side and avoid the wild slash of the knife.
Then he swung out with his right fist, landing a blow directly on the side of Bao’s face. Pain lanced through her head, and colors flashed in her eyes as she was knocked off balance and toppled to the ground. The knife clattered off to the side.
Then the boy kicked her in the stomach, or at least he tried to. The kick actually connected with her hip bone, which hurt the boy’s foot more than it hurt Bao. Ignoring the pain, Bao tried to struggle to her feet, but her head was still spinning.
“You’re dead, bitch!” the boy growled, lifting his leg back to kick her again. Before he could, Bao forced her head to clear and then pushed herself into a lurching near-somersault, crashing into the boy’s legs, one of which was planted firmly on the ground, the other of which was just beginning to kick.
Caught off guard yet again, the boy tumbled to the ground, and as he did, Bao grabbed his shirt with her hands, pulling herself across his body toward his head.
“I’ll show you who’s the bitch,” she whispered. Grabbing his hair with her left hand, she jabbed her sharp fingernails into his right eye.
The boy screamed as blood spurted out of his damaged eye. He then tried to push Bao off of him. In response, she wrapped her legs around his waist in the same way the clan soldiers would do when wrestling, then slashed at his face with her fingernails.
Someone grabbed her by the arm. Geng Long. He pulled her off of the boy, who immediately crawled away from her, moaning and clutching his bleeding eye.
“Bao, let’s get out of here,” he said. “Constable Guo Minghan runs this part of the city, and he never lets anybody off the hook if he catches them fighting! Come on!”
Holding her hand tightly in his, he pulled her away, and they scrambled into a nearby alleyway.
They ran through the city as fast as they could, eventually finding themselves on a rooftop overlooking a river. As they sat there catching their breath, Geng Long said, “I can’t believe you ripped Xie Song’s eyes out! That was crazy!” He looked over at her. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. Somewhere along the way, her heart had begun pounding again.
“You’re bleeding,” Geng Long said. He reached over and touched her jaw, tilting her head so that he could see the side of her face. Where the boy had struck her, a little tear had opened up near her ear.
“It’s nothing,” she said, reaching up and brushing the blood away. “I’m fine.”
Then Bao realized that Geng Long’s face was only a few inches away from her own, and he was looking into her eyes.
For some reason, she found herself leaning forward, and a warm explosion of heat bloomed from her lips as he kissed her.
Chapter 7: A Finger
Bao had read that a girl’s first kiss can change everything. In her case, though, things didn’t change in the way she had expected.
That night, when she finally found herself back in her bed at the clan estates, she lay there, staring up at the ceiling, head aching a bit but filled with wild thoughts of romance and adventure.
She imagined running away from Yu Zhing with Geng Long. They would travel far to the south, away from the Demon Emperor. They would get married, have children, and live near the ocean, where they would eat fresh seafood every day and spend their time reading on the beach.
The following day, when the bruise on the side of her head was noticed, she made an excuse about falling during the night. She could hardly wait until the following evening, when she snuck out of the clan estates to the place where she and Geng Long usually met.
Except Geng Long wasn’t there. She waited for three hours before finally giving up and returning to the clan. This wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened. Occasionally Geng Long had other matters to attend to, although he never told her exactly what he did. In fact, sometimes she was the one who missed one of their meetings for some reason or another.
However, the following day, the same thing happened. And again the third day.
Where are you?
By the fourth day, Bao had slipped into a deep sadness. It wasn’t until the seventh day that Geng Long finally appeared.
When she saw him leap over the nearby wall and then hurry up to the spot beneath the peach tree, she wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Or maybe smack him across the face.
Before she could say anything, though, and before he even reached her, he spoke.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Instantly her heart softened.
“I wanted to send a message, but I couldn’t.” Then he was in front of her, slipping his hands around her waist. He kissed her again, and that wild heat once again raced through her body.
Finally, she pushed him away. “What happened?” she whispered somewhat breathlessly.
He shrugged. “Business. And I have some more bad news. I need to go away again. A few weeks. Maybe a month or two.”
She nodded, declining to press him with any questions. “Okay,” she whispered. “I understand.”
He nodded back. “All right, this is our last night together for a while. Come with me. I found a new place where we can watch the moon reflecting on the water.”
He clasped her hand, and the two of them dashed off into the night.
Over the following year, time progressed in this same fashion as Geng Long came and went. They devised a method to leave messages, and whenever he was available, they would spend time together, although it was usually no more than a day or two every few weeks or months.
Every time they met, he would kiss her, and it felt like lava scorching her mind and heart.
When Geng Long was away, she prowled the streets on her own. After the fight with the three boys at the docks, Bao realized that she needed to be prepared for the unexpected. One night she visited the clan’s woodworking shop, where she appropriated a few carving knives from a drawer. Then, with a bit of clever manipulation of some leather strips she found, she fashioned some sheaths to keep them in her sleeves.
She also spent more time observing the clan soldiers training and even began to memorize the fighting forms they practiced, which she would then imitate in her room when she was alone. Sometimes they didn’t feel right, maybe because they were designed to be used by burly, sweaty men wearing armor, so she made adjustments here and there.
Throughout the months, she only got into three dangerous situations. One of them was resolved by simply drawing her knives threateningly. In another situation, she didn’t have time to draw the knives, as someone tried to jump her from behind. Thanks to her time practicing the
clan fighting techniques, she managed to throw her attacker to the ground. It was another young girl, clearly a homeless beggar, who immediately scurried off into the night before Bao could even say a word to her.
The third dangerous situation was when she ran into the same three boys she and Geng Long had fought months before. One of them wore an eye patch now, and he had three pale scars running down the opposing cheek. As soon as the boys saw her, they began to give chase.
It was a situation in which neither her knives nor her slight increase in knowledge about fighting would do her any good. They chased her for the better part of twenty minutes before she finally managed to lose them.
She began to grow familiar with some of the others who roamed the streets at night. Generally speaking, they were beggars, pickpockets, and the like. At most, she knew their names and knew which ones were territorial or aggressive.
She even began to venture outside of the city, although that was more difficult because of the sheer distance involved.
Time passed.
One night, she found a message waiting for her from Geng Long.
Meet tomorrow night. Alley behind the pork butcher.
Bao’s heart lifted, and she smiled. It had been nearly two months since she’d seen him last.
The rest of the night and the following day passed in a slog that seemed to last forever. When it was finally safe to sneak out into the night, she hurried through the city to the appointed spot, her heart pounding harder and harder by the moment.
However, the person waiting for her wasn’t Geng Long.
It was an older man, wearing the clothes of a working man, along with a broad smile. As soon as she realized it wasn’t Geng Long, her hands moved toward the knives in her sleeves.
The man held his hands up in front of him placatingly. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m a friend of Geng Long. He got tied up at the last minute and won’t be free for another hour. He sent me to bring you to him.”
Her brow furrowed. “Where is he?”