美雪 × Beautiful Snow

[一]

Sweat dripped down the sharp features of the masculine face. With each slash of the blade his silky black hair danced around him as smooth and wavy as water. His footwork was gentle, but firm and steady.

The oponent of this lean figure was quite the contrast. His footwork was clumsy and unbalanced. He gripped his sword with both hands and relied on brute strenght only.

It didn't take long before the lean man overpowered his oponent.
The man - who was called scarface - cursed and threw a small leather satchel on the ground, he hastily grabbed his stuff and got away from this bitter defeat he had faced.

Before he could make his leave into the forest which was on the border of the town, the man shouted something to the victor, "You're lucky now pretty boy, but next time we see each other, I'll make sure your face won't attract as many whores as it does now!"

The man, by the name of Zeng Shau, smirked at his pitiful oponent. "You better keep your word, can't wait to punch more gold out of you!".
Zeng grabbed the satchel, filled with golden coins, and happily passed the crowd who had been watching the fight unfold in front of their eyes. Little boys stared in awe, and ladies from the brothel giggled as Zeng's brown eyes slid past their faces.

But Zeng didn't really care. He knew he was handsome, and he acted that way too. But all that happened was scarface getting upset at Zeng for bumping into him, and before he knew what was going on he and scarface were fighting.
Zeng was smart enough to bet some money on it, to make sure atleast something useful would be won from the stupid violence.

In the Ying empire people were much different from Zeng. Myths and legends were believed in, magic was claimed to exist, slavery and torture was more than common, and life was harsh the less money you had. Zeng was merely the son of a hardworking couple on the rice fields, along with two more younger brothers, Yun and Len, and one younger sister, Xi.

The money they earned was horrible, and thus Zeng stopped believing in miracles, magic, and what-not. He believed in simply one thing, himself.
He hated the concept of slavery and hated the fact that torture was so easy to commit.
He hated the easy violation of children and hated the fact that respect was so hard to find. Taxes were worse the less money you earned and nothing was fair. This made Zeng vengeful, out for wrath, but he knew he could never oppose the Ling dynasty and its emperor directly.
Zeng did have his mind set on joining the rebel army, and making somewhat of a difference. But he couldn't leave his family yet, not until his brothers were old enough to earn better money.

And thus Zeng lived - working alongside his family - in the simple and small city of Zu-Han. Known for its rice fields and it's borders next to a forest and a few mountains.
The mountains were linked to another of those ridiculous myths, a myth about a witch so beautiful, that her appearance alone had men enchanted, they would mindlessly follow her and eventually plummage to their deaths in one of the mountain cliffs, or freeze to death. Either way the men didn't return alive.
Every year, when first snow falls on a winters day, this lady roams around the rice fields, rivers, and the town. It is traditional for all citizens to stay inside their homes and close their windows. For Zeng? It was another waste of time and work on the fields.

Zeng entered a small house on the outside of the city, the house of his family. His father and two brothers were working on the fields, while Zeng's mother was preparing a dinner. Xi was cleaning the table and room in order to have a comfortable meal.
He smiled and ruffled Xi's hair. "Working hard?"

Xi nodded happily, she loved helping their mother out and did whatever she could to make her life easier.

Zeng opened the satchel, grabbed five golden shimmering coins and handed them to Xi.
"

Buy something nice for yourself with this Xi, you deserve it."

Golden coins were of highest value throughout the empires, 5 golden coins could buy a pretty hanfu or beautiful silver hairpins.

The rest of the golden coins he placed in a small wooden chest with a lock on it. Zeng's mother smiled and made her way over to Zeng, studying his face for any injuries and cleaning of dirt.

"I got 30 gold pieces out of that smugface bastard!" Zeng exclaimed happily, this was enough to provide them with proper food for several days.
His mother smiled even brighter. "Your language Zeng, but well done, father will be so proud, and I think Yun en Len will be exceedingly happy with the meat that this could provide!" She laughed a bit more, but her laugh dissapeared as she started coughing. Zeng immediatly held onto his mother and placed her down onto a fur blanket, her bed.

"Don't strain yourself so much mom." Zeng worriedly said, Xi immediatly rushed over to their side in order to help.

Zeng's mother had been dealing with illness for quite some time now, and without money her condition was only getting worse.

"I wanted to suprise you all with some delicious mochi." Zeng's mom smiled weakly.

Zeng smiled back. "I'll finish it for you, you just rest here. Xi take care of mom!"

Xi nodded and smiled at her older brother, and continued tending to the weak woman laying next to her.

×××

As evening fell over the city, the once busy streets and paths now slowly became more quiet.
It was tradition for Zeng, Yun and Len to sit outside the door and gaze at the stars, talking about what happened that day and pointing at possible constellations.

Yun stared in awe at his older brother who was telling a story about how he beat scarface, Len was listening too, but his eyes were focused on the sky.

.."And that's how I beat scarface!"

"Awesome! Right Len???" Yun called out to his 2 year older brother, who got snapped out of his thoughts and stared at the youngest.

"Uh- Yeah, of course, good job Zeng."

Zeng smiled at the confuzed Len. "What's on your mind, Len?"

Len shook his head, and pointed up to the sky. "It's nothing on my mind really.. I just got an odd feeling when staring at that constellation, the one next to Yun's snake."

Zeng stared up at the sky, trying to pinpoint the constellation. When he found it, a weird sensation rushed from the tip of his toes to his head. The constellation had brighter stars than most, and was shaped like a snowflake..