No Repeats

Yu Li's dreams

(Warning- graphic themes)

In the carriage both the general and the little girl are silently fuming, each lost in their own thoughts. The only sounds that can be heard is the rapid galloping of horses and wooden wheels circling on the paved roads.

The tense atmosphere inside the carriage also infects the servant boy and the driver. The party of four rode silently outside the city, even the horses are well behaved and neighing less than usual.

Brooding, the general occasionally glances at the girl next to him, whose body and face is fixed to the other side of the wall. He is upset at his inexplicable actions today, which has been totally been irrational.

This girl brings out a weakness in him, if he is not careful, his enemies will once again use to their advantage.

Ever since he could remember, his dreams have plagued him and yet it has shaped his personality and actions growing up. He was disgusted by his wayward ways and the weaknesses that his lifestyle exposed.

He learnt through his dreams that living a carefree lifestyle and draped in luxury with all that money can buy is not enough. Without character, smarts and especially power, his family unknowingly walked into traps and snares.

The result was the execution of all nine generations of his clan. He could see that when he willingly hid his talents and clothed it under the cover of philandering, he became an easy target.

No matter that he excelled in businesses, bribed the proper officials and even took in women gifted to him as spies, he was not able to escape the big target sign on his back.

The Huang's wealth and reach was too vast. It was both tempting and threatening to those in power. In the end, when he realised that they had caught him and his family in a well deadly
trap, it was too late.

They executed his clan and secretly spared him and his beloved woman as a final mockery. Leaving a crippled man to survive the rest of his days relying on the survival wit of this powerless little woman.

But, they were much crueler than he imagined, the woman, they did not spare.

When he remembered those twisted nightmares he would wake up in sweat and fear. He saw how they easily bounded and gagged him in the trunk that they had placed in his room.

With small holes cut out in the side of the trunk, with just enough width so that he could breathe and see, they moved the trunk to make sure he could see everything.

Even worst, they forced a pill down his throat so he was paralysed, unable to move or make a sound. They made him witness it all, yet unable to make a small sound or movement. The only thing he could do was silently cry tears of pain.

He witnessed the inhumane torture inflicted onto her fragile frame. His soul cried out in pain as if he was pierced by a thousand daggers when he saw her lifeless eyes and wounded naked body. The woman he cherished and loved was tormented and lied to.

They poisoned her mind with the lies that he sold her out.

No, not even the risk of death would he be willing to hurt her!

Despite his love for her, or more accurately, because of his love for her, she had suffered time after time in the hands of  jealous women and his enemies.

When she sat there lifelessly, hope extinguished and believing that he had abandoned her, his deep sorrow plunged to greater depths.

His heart broken into pieces as he looked at his beloved. He cried silently, unable to make a sound.