Concubine - TRUE STORY [English Version]

8) Wang ChengGong

-236 v.C.-

Two weeks have past since she met Yan Tao. Mama was some day better, some day worse. But she kept herself strong.

At night, her father asked Li to stay up and stand guard outside. He told her that the rabbits come out of the woods and eat the crops. She would have the first watch and he would take over after midnight.

"Don't worry" he told her.
"I'll take your place very soon."
Fine for her.
With a nice warm blanket around her and some walking would keep her warm.

The bowl with oil burned a comforting warm light. Time for another little walk around.

Li Yu stood up en rearranged the blanket around her shoulders. It wasn't unusually cold. But if you sit still for quit a while, it makes you feel chilly.

Li Yu has the long stick she chose to scare rabbits ready in her hand. She walked in between the crops en with the stick she went through the crops to get rabbits frightened. Meanwhile doing that she whistled loudly. Screaming would wake her parents.

Without any trouble she walked up and down the field. Again, no rabbits in sight. Are there rabbits on the field actually eating away crops? There was no sign of it.

She walked back to her warm little light and sat herself down. She warmed her feed near the flame. She didn't have shoes in years. Didn't need them in fact.

Li Yu started drifting. She tried to keep herself awake but lack of things to do made her feel sleepy. The voice of men talking to each other made her wide awake again.

"Hello!?"
Of course no answer came. What did she expect? That unknown people would come over and have a chat with her?

En what about? Imaginary rabbits?

Li Yu stood up and took her stick again. Not as a weapon. But just to be sure.

"It's night" she shouted.
"Nothing to steel here. Continue your path!"

The voices stopped. But not the sounds of plants rustling.

Li Yu now started walking toward the sound. It stopped.
"Yeah know you can run! Scared as rabbits you are."

She turned around and walked back. She shouted a muffled scream when a hand pulled her back around her waist with another hand in front of her mouth. Someone else held her arm.

"Mmh!" she protested. It didn't help. What else to do? She felt how she was pulled backward. She was pulled away, away from her trusty candle, her house, her life her everything.

She stretched out her arm like she wanted to grasp at least as much memories of everything she could.

In the night and chaos, the little oil light disappeared quickly.

Her mouth got free for a moment. Li Yu didn't know what to say. She got out a few words without meaning to the sentence. Right after that she felt a piece of cloth in front of her face and someone tying a knot at the back of her head.

Her hands were tied as well. This is abduction!

Li Yu tried to kick around her. She wouldn't come without protesting. Brutally she was thrown on a chariot. She smelled an ox and heard him breathing.

Li Yu ended up in the back of the chariot. And the two men up front made the ox moving. She tried to stood up but the wobbly fields made it very difficult. Jumping out of the car was impossible. It had raised sides.

Li Yu tried everything to get herself loose or at least do anything. The shortest of the two man turned around to look at her.

"Li Yu try to be quiet know."
Li looked with a face of surprise at the man she spoke to her with such a soft voice. Not even angry.

It's master Wong. Wang ChengGong from the great rice farm. And above that he's an old friend of the family! He learned her how to write! This is betrayal.

"Li Yu listen. Everything will be fine. We won't hurt you or bring you trouble. You will get better from it.

So that was their way of comforting her?