"A Touch of Zen – Beyond the Dragon's Eye"
Introduction, List of Characters and Prologue
Based on the cinematic masterpiece of director King Hu, "A Touch of Zen", and historical facts, my story starts after the movie's famous Bamboo Forest Fight and before the Haunted Fortress Battle, narrating the untold story of Yang Hui-zhen, daughter of an outlawed noble and loyal to the Emperor, and Ouyang Nian, Captain of the guard of the Eastern Agency and loyal to the corrupt and power-obsessed Eunuch Wei Zhongxian.
List of Characters:
Wei Zhongxian: High Eunuch, Head of the Eastern Agency and First Minister of the Realm
Nie Qiu: High Eunuch Wei's aide and confidant
Xu Xianchun (Hsu Hsien-chen): Head of the secret Police, later Commander of the Eastern Agency
Men Da (Mun Ta): Commander of the Eastern Agency
Yang Lian: Leader of the Donglin Party
Yang Hui-zhen: Yang Lian's Daughter
Yang Chien-cheng: Yang Lian's son
Shi Wenqiao (Shih Wen-chao): General of the Imperial Army
Lu Ding'an (Lu Ting-yen): General of the Imperial Army
Lu Qiong: Lu Ding'an's Grandson
Ouyang Dongfeng: Chief Magistrate of the City of Changzhou
Ouyang Nian: Ouyang Dongfeng's youngest Son, later Captain of the Guard at the Eastern Agency
Gu Shengzhai: Scribe and Calligrapher
Madam Gu: Gu Shengzhai's Mother
Xu Zhengqing: Magistrate of the Border Town in the Mountains
Hui Yuan: The Golden Abbot of the Mountain Monastery
Guan Dao: Captain of the Guard at the Eastern Agency
"A Touch of Zen - Beyond the Dragon's Eye" (extended)
Less does young Ouyang Nian know, how encounter the children of the Emperor's high ranked minister, Yang Lian, will change his life. Especially, as his father wants him to serve the High Eunuch Wei Zhongxian, who follows his own political aims and plans of regency. Caught in the middle of intrigues and plotting, the young man finds that there is more than only one truth.
Prologue: The Look into a Broken Mirror
Beijing – The Eastern Agency – December 1627
A slight breeze, not much more, than a hint of movement in the air at this early hour, got lost within this well hidden part of the High Eunuch's City Palace which was better known as the headquarters of the Eastern Agency.
It got told nothing happened here without the knowledge and the will of the Emperor's first minister and that all would choke in here from oppression, from fear and from the firm grip the secret police kept everything and everyone within.
Aside the icy wind nothing else breathed and moved within the silent corridors, but the flickering torches settled in their mounts.
Shadows of their flames got thrown at the walls, dancing to an inaudible sound and to an unknown melody composed out of sighs and whisper, of sadness and sorrow.
Still a couple of hours were to go till the sun would send some few rays of light in here to spend a little hope and comfort where elsewise all hope was lost, where there was no relief, no way out but one and where getting to see the sun again only had one meaning – death!
Those few rays of sunlight! Not enough light, though, to dispel the darkness that soaked through the walls and into the hearts and minds of those waiting for their fate to finally fulfil itself at the end of everything once having had a meaning – strength and faith and hope and trust and...
Love!
Within one corner of their cell sat two lonely figures, arms wrapped around each other, clinging to each other, holding each other tight to endure what they knew would be their last night amongst the living.
They did not complain, neither did they cry or scream. All they did was holding each other close, staring at each other as if this would provide a last chance for them to achieve to get the image of one sketched to the other's memory.
The young man shifted a little that he would be able to tuck a strand of hair back behind the young woman's ear.
"It escaped from your bun", he whispered in a soundless voice.
She lifted her gaze and looked at him while she tried a little smile: "Do you really think it still matters?"
"It does", he replied and returned the smile: "To me, it matters. It always will, as long as I'll breathe."
He beheld her out of tired eyes before he reached out again to caress her cheek.
It caused him inward pain to see it hurt and bruised, with her eyes swollen from crying and her face covered with dried blood from wounds, he knew they'd not heal before...the break of dawn...
His thumb gently fondled her lips and he let out a sigh when he leaned his brow against her temple, breathing a kiss on it still tried to not let her sense his own despair.
"Forgive me", he whispered.
"I did long ago", she answered
He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes: "It is more than I deserve and more I could ever wish for. I cannot dare to ask for more."
They kept silent for a while and he tried to focus on anything pleasurable he was able to remember just to forget about the white hot pain that ran through his body whenever he dared to move.
Wei Zhongxian's torturers knew how to break their captives, no matter if guilty or innocent, if noble or commoner. He would not tell her what they used on him to break him, but it did do to him to know by himself.
His hair was soaked in blood, his lips were bruised and swollen and he would not dare to count the black and blue marks he had carried away since they had dragged him down to the dungeons.
There was no use for him to belie himself: He longed for this to end...
He longed for a cup of wine to numb if not his body so at least his mind, but he feared he would not even remember the taste of water, let alone the taste of wine.
"Why did you come", he suddenly asked under his breath, keeping his eyes closed: "You and General Shi were both welcome with Abbot Hui Yuan."
She buried her head within his shoulder and replied: "We still are, but how could I agree to save the one who loves me and leave the one to die, whom I once considered the one to be my spouse?"
He smiled: "Is that so?"
"Yes!"
"Your spouse?"
"Yes!"
"If this is the only reason, then, I fear, they will not grant us such a favour." He turned his head and looked at her when he added: "Will you wait for me on the other side?"
She nodded at his shoulder, but kept silent. It was not necessary to see the tears streaming down her cheeks, he knew, she was crying, and he also knew he had no words able to comfort her.
Another sigh escaped his lips.
Tired! It was all he felt. Tired!
But he did not dare to close his eyes to grant himself some sleep. He had to stay awake. No matter the cost. It would be his last chance to behold her and he would do so till he would close his eyes for the last time.
It was within this moment that his gaze met the small window high above his head and he knew the break of dawn was close.