QingYu: A Wuxia Tale (Going Through Reediting)

The Woman from the Border

(Qing's POV)

"From that woman, in the SiChuan border,"

If I will think about it carefully and analyze it, I shouldn't be surprised at that.

I knew from the get go that that woman from that border was important. I knew from the start that she will somehow be in the core of all that had happened.

But still...hearing it straight from Dayu was still a surprise. And also the next words he will utter

"She was my mother," Dayu added. He smiled a little warmly, "People who knew her all say that I look like her. I got her eyes, her mouth, her hair, her smile..."

"She must be bery beautiful," I replied. "You are beautiful after all,"

He is. I think Dayu will remain as the most beautiful person in my eyes.

Dayu's eyes filled with tears again, "She was. Very beautiful. She had a golden voice too. She would sing for me until I went to sleep. My father adored her so much. He loved us so much. He died for us..."

His tears fell. "Do you know that we have a chest under my parents' wooden bed? But they never put anything on that chest. It was for me. We live in the border, the hometown of my father. Bandits and raiders will visit our village to pillage and rob us. Some were nice, they will just pass through, ask for what we can spare, they saw that it's a simple village, home to simple people. But others will destroy homes and sometimes will kill villagers. Those times, men in our village will be forced to fight, they are simple farmers and sheperds but they will take up arms to protect the women and the children,"

Dayu sighed.

"That chest, my parents will put me there when raiders and bandits approached our village. Telling me to be quiet as a silent mouse. Not make any sound. They put a hole in the side so air can pass through and I can breath. Then my mother will stay inside our home, my last line of defense as my father will guard our door, my mother and mine's first line of defense. He said he will die protecting his family. And he did..."

Dayu laugh again as tears slid down on his cheeks. "Sixteen summers ago. That raid, those soldiers. My father pushing my mother inside our home. My mother helping me to get inside the chest. Telling me..."

"Jian Yu, be quiet. Don't make a sound..."

Jian Yu? Is that his real name. It must be. It's a beautiful name to fit a beautiful boy. But he will always be Dayu to me.

Dayu's face turned grim, his brows furrowed, his eyes glowering dangerously. "That raid felt different though. I saw fire, smell smoke and heard too much screaming. This is no ordinary raid, dissimilar to the others I have experienced,"

An eight summers old boy experiencing too many raids to know that the last one sixteen summers ago was different from the rest.

Dayu...his boyhood was very different from mine.

While I was struggling to control my strength being taught by a Master, Dayu was hiding in a chest under the bed to avoid a raid.

"Then a soldier entered our home. Seize my mother by her hair and accused her of being a rebel's wife. Another soldier came in, called the first one General Zong,"

Dayu smiled bitterly, he stared at me. "That second soldier, my first glimpse of Coronel Wang."

My father. Dayu saw my father entered their home.