Soul Lock

The First Life

Wen Lan opened his eyes and closed them back immediately. Luckily, the people near him seemed not to notice he was awake. With a pounding heart, he groped around silently and tried to find his bamboo hat, but his hands encountered nothing more than the mat under him and some stones.

"You are awake?" A gentle voice asked above him and Wen Lan froze. Noticing his clenched fists and tightly shut eyes, the voice tried to calm him, "don't worry, we won't hurt you, we are soldiers from the Kingdom of Xi, mind to tell me who you are?"

Wen Lan didn't understand why, but he trusted the man although the man misunderstood the reason for his fear. He unclenched his fists, yet his eyes were still closed. "D-Did you see a b-bamboo hat around?" he asked with a shaky voice.

"A hat?" the voice asked and there was a movement next to Wen Lan's lying figure as the man sat down on the ground. Wen Lan couldn't help but flinch. Even if the man saw his reaction, he didn't comment on it, he rather said "we didn't see a hat when we saved you from the ruins, was it important for you?"

Hearing his answer, a big lump stuck in Wen Lan's throat. Indeed, the hat was extremely important for him as it was his only way to wander around people. But it was gone... Why did he have to survive? He should have died under the ruins as well.

"Wait a bit," the man stood up as he couldn't get a response from Wen Lan.

As there was nothing else he could do, Wen Lan waited obediently. After an incense stick of time later, the man returned and sat back at his previous spot. Two hands grabbed his arms and pulled him up gently into a sitting position. Then, one of the hands moved from his arm to his messy hair and arranged his long bangs in a way to cover half of his face before a familiar object was placed on his head.

Wen Lan's frozen body came to life, feeling his bamboo hat on his head. Quickly, he ran his hands around it in order to check if the blue veil was still around it. It was! Sighing with relief, Wen Lan lowered his head towards the man, "thank you so much my lord."

"It is nothing, really," the man said cheerfully, "now, can you tell me about yourself?"

As his bangs and the tattered bamboo hat were covering his face until his nose, Wen Lan saw no harm to open his eyes to look at the man. Although his vision was blurred, he was able to see how handsome the man was. He had long brown hair tied into a neat bun, his face was slightly toned and his light brown almond eyes were looking friendly. There was a cute mole under his left eye and his thin lips were curved upward, forming a nice smile. The silver armour on him was completing his look.

As Wen Lan had never seen such a handsome man before, suddenly he felt shy and tilted his head down. Although they must have been around the same age, the man's majestic aura was too much for him to handle.

"Don't you want to talk?" the handsome man asked with sympathy.

"Oi General, let him be, come and eat," one of the other men called out, but Wen Lan didn't want the man, ahem the general to go away, so he started to talk.

"I am not a villager, I just wanted to help when I heard the cries and saw the smoke," he said while looking down at his bandaged hands. He wondered who patched him up. The general, maybe?

Oh come on! His mind yelled at him.

"Hmm," the general rubbed his chin, "then where do you live? Close by?"

"I..." Wen Lan started but couldn't finish.

"You can tell me, I won't judge," the general reassured him.

"I live in the forest," he said in one breath.

"I see. Then can you tell me what happened here as far as you know?"

As the general didn't push him for the details or he implied suspicion, Wen Lan gave out the breath he was holding. "I was fishing when I saw the enormous black smoke, wandering, I came closer and heard villagers crying and shouting. The smell of burning and ashes covered everywhere. I wanted to help so I entered the village from the forest path and saw that mounted soldiers with red armours were killing the villagers," he stopped when he saw an agitated expression on the general's face, his hands clenched into fists.

"Please continue," the general smiled forcefully.

"Then I rushed to the tea house..." Another pause. How much could he reveal?

"Why?" A pair of curious eyes were fixed on him and Wen Lan felt like he was drawn to them. As a result, he spilled everything out.

"Because the owners have a ten-year old girl, I pushed her out of the burning tea house, but the roof collapsed on me," then suddenly it occurred to him. Grabbing the general's arm with his trembling hand, he asked "did you see Lei Lei? Is she alive? She is wearing a pink dress..."

The general saved his arm from his grip, "I am so sorry," he whispered and left him alone with his grief in the half damaged diner.

After the general ran away, Wen Lan cried his heart out, not caring about the soldiers sitting outside. Lei Lei was the only one in the village who cared for him truly and knowing that she was gone in such a cruel way made his world collapse. When he was out of tears, he attempted to go out to look for Lei Lei's little body, but he couldn't even stand up because of the pain. He half opened the battered garment on himself and saw his whole body was covered with bandages.

Like a mummy, he continued to sit there, his eyes blank until the general returned with a bowl in his hands.

"Here, eat this," he reached the bowl to Wen Lan, but he didn't move an inch. Therefore, the general sat next to him and forced the bowl into his hand. He patted him lightly on the shoulder, "you were unconscious for the whole day, so you should eat something... for Lei Lei's sake."

Hearing the last part, a lonely tear fell from Wen Lan's eye and he hastily stuffed the food into his mouth, swallowing it without even chewing.

When he was done, the general took the bowl from him, but he didn't walk out. He looked at Wen Lan with sympathy and said "tomorrow we have to set off."

His words stabbed Wen Lan like a blade, but he just nodded. What else he could do?

"I want to ask you," the general continued, "whether you would like to come with us. There is nothing left in this area and you are injured, so it could be better for you to come with us until we find a secure village for you."

His tone was so pacifying and full of care that unwittingly Wen Lan grabbed his arms, repeating "thank you so much, General," again and again.

The general chuckled softly and patted his hand, "my name is Ju Xin, you can call me by my name."

"Ju as giant and Xin as heart?" Wen Lan thought it was the most suitable name for the general as he was living up his name.

"Yes, it is," the general replied with a smile, "and yours?"

"Wen Lan," he answered. He didn't have any special meaning behind his name other than Lan meaning blue. What a joke mother...

After that night, the group left the village and started to move towards the capital. Being all alone for almost all his life, Wen Lan was following them behind with his tattered bamboo hat covering his face, not talking to anyone other than Ju Xin. He never thought that there would be a person willing to talk with him except Lei Lei, but the general proved him wrong. He was always very friendly and attentive towards Wen Lan. He was personally changing his bandages and bringing his food. At night, he was sitting with him separately from his soldiers. They were talking about everything and anything, but not even once Ju Xin asked him the reason why he was covering his face.

As the general was overly handsome, polite, funny, intelligent and friendly, let alone he was the only person who was willing to talk with him, it wasn't a surprise that Wen Lan fell in love with him, and if the following happenings didn't occur, he had the potential to devote his life to Ju Xin without expecting anything in return.

But something happened and it changed everything...