A Western Romance
Pre-story notes: WARNING: THIS STORY IS REALLY CHEESY, I can't write romance any other way. This is western because is a fanfiction for a japanese show, and China is west of Japan. Shaolin is Soifon's Chinese name, and her origanal name. Li Fanghuang is the chinese looking fracción, but this is the name I gave him. I know a lot of people have tried to think of a reason of why the look alike. More notes about traslations at bottom.
-November 1943; Nanjing, China1; Nanjing orphanage; The hour of the sheep2:
Dressed in a beautiful hanfu3, red silk cloth and black satin lining, the heir to the Feng name, Shaolin, stood in front of the town as she walked down the street. She was being escorted by her father's servants.
"We're here," Feng4 said stoping before an large building.
"Feng-taitai5, now that you have turned nineteen, you get to have your own servant," Mufang told Shaolin. Ding Mufang is her father's most loyal servant. "Take your pick of any of the orphans."
Shaolin is a spoiled Chinese noble's daughter. She looked at the orphans in the Nanjing orphanage. She was disappointed at the look of all them. They were all skinny little girls. She spotted a small, thin little boy with messy black bangs and his hair tied into a braid.
"I'll take him," she pointed to the boy.
"Hm, Li Fanghuang? Not a bad choice," Qimei said bowing to the noble's daughter. Qimei is the one who runs the orphanage in Najing, China.
"Fanghuang? That's too long, it's hard to remember. I'm going to call you Huang6."
"Li Huang, he's all your's, Feng-taitai. Good day to you, taitai."
The servants escorted Shaolin back to Shanghai, to her mansion, a traditional, very large siheyuan7. The walk was long, at least it was for the servants carrying the noble's daughter in a one-man carriage.
-November 1943; Shanghai, China; Feng Siheyuan; the hour of the dog:
Once at the Feng household, Shaolin grabbed her new personal servant and dragged him to her room. In her room, she began to undress. The boy's face turned bright red as he held his hands over his eyes.
"What are you doing?" She glared at him. "Help me undress, Huang. I want to take a bath."
Li, saying nothing, walked over to the noble's daughter. He hands were shaking as he reached to untie the ribbon that help her hanfu together. His face turning redder as she pulled the robe-like dress off and grabbed a towel.
"Well? Aren't you going to get the water? Geez, you are so useless," She frowned at the red faced boy.
"Y-yes!" Li ran of to fetch the boiling water for the bath. When he got back she had already bathed in her father's bath, using his female servants. She had changed into a red qipao8 with gold embroidery of a dragon.
"You were too slow," she glared at him.
"S-sorry," he stuttered turning to the ground, a look of failure glued to his face.
"Don't apoligize, just be faster next time. And don't spend so much time staring at me."
His face turned red again, "I-I wasn't s-staring!"
"Are you saying I'm not worth looking at?"
"N-no! I-I don't k-know what I'm saying, I'm sorry, Feng-taitai," He bowed his head so low his head touched his knees.
"I said stop apoligizing," She pouted and looked away. "And don't call me 'Feng-taitai,' that's my mother. It makes me feel old."
"Feng-xiaojie9?"
"Better, can I call you Xiaoli10?"
"O-of course!"
"Of course I can, Xiaoli, I don't need your permision to call you what I want. Now, clean my room and make my dinner, I'll be in the town."
"Um, Feng-tai-xiaojie, I can't cook."
"Not my problem. Ask one of the older servants."
"Y-yes, Feng-xiaojie."
Shaolin walked away. Sure, she was messing with him, but he seemed to be keeping up. He was a good boy. She could learn to like him.
-June, 1946; Shanghai; Feng siheyuan; the hour of the dragon:
But in three years she never expected to fall in LOVE with him. Li was a servant and she is a noble's daughter, whose father was now ill. She would have to be married soon, before he father passed away at least.
As the time drew closer to her arranged marriage with someone she still didn't know, she found herself watching Li a lot. She would stare at him while he did small chores for her. Sometimes he would notice, but he never said anything about it. The twenty year-old servant-boy had started doing chores for more than just her. He had start working for her father and he was allowed to go outside the siheyuan's walls, but only for shopping, usually for groceries for the family. He enjoyed that though. He had really started to enjoy himself there. In three years, Li had easily become a favorite amongst the others.
"Feng-xiaojie, is something wrong? You keep staring off into space," he had stopped stuttering a long time ago, sometimes Shaolin missed it.
She blushed. "I was just thinking."
"Don't worry, I know your father picked a good man for you." He smiled sweetly to her. "Linma-xiansheng11 will be a great, honorable man."
"You know his name?"
"Xiaohong told me."
"Oh." He knew her future. She wondered if he was jealous of this Baiyu guy for being the one to marry her. She could imagine him fighting a faceless man for her, and a smile appeared on her face.
"See? Better already. You have such a beautiful smile."
-December, 1946; Shanghai; Feng siheyuan; hour of the monkey:
Shaolin stood at the north entrance of the siheyuan, where she was going to meet the man her father was going to have her marry. All she knew was that: 1) his name was Linma Baiyu and 2) he was not Li 'Huang,' the man, that, by an unlikely coincidence, she had fallen for.
"Linma-xiansheng, Feng-taitai is waiting," She heard Li call out to her future husband. She was disappointed to see that this man was atleast twenty years older, and that all he had for her was more money. "Feng-taitai," Li called using his polite tone that he used when others were around. "This is Linma Baiyu, your betrothed." Li hurried out to the garden to start watering the flowers for Shaolin.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Xiaofeng-taitai12," Baiyu made a deep bow and reached to kiss her hand, but she pulled away. His dark eyes looked up at her with an evil, yet polite, desperate look in them. "I understand," he stood straight up, "you're still not comfortable with me. I will be living here for a while so you will be able to get to know me, okay, Xiaofeng-taitai."
She stroled out of the room without so much as a sencond glance at Baiyu. She sat in her private garden watching Li water the flowers.
"Xiaoli, what do you really think of Baiyu?" She asked him, watching his every move. She hoped he would say some bad about Baiyu, but that wasn't going to happen.
"He seems like a nice man. I wouldn't say he's got your best interests, but I think he cares about your family," He answered.
"I don't like him. He seems like the kind of guy who only wants money."
"I wouldn't go that far."
"Xiaoli, if you could would you marry me? Even if you didn't get any money? Like if we ran away together?"
"Feng-xiaojie, that would be impossible."
"Answer the question."
"You are an incredible person, but I don't think I can answer your question."
Shaolin's heart broke in two. Li didn't return her feelings. She knew she loved him, but he was just a servant, and that's what he thought their relationship was. Just between a master and her servant. She couldn't help it, she started to cry.
"Feng-xiaojie!" He ran over to her. "Are you okay?" She grabbed onto his shirt and buried her face in his chest.
"Now I am. Xiaoli, never leave me."
"I'm not going anywhere."
-December, 1946; Shanghai; Market; The hour of the snake:
Bored and lonely, Shaolin decided to go find Li. She had asked the servants. They giggled and whispered things about a secret relationship between the two and told her: Li had gone out to town a half hour ago.
Dressed in her favorite black and white qipao, Shaolin grabbed a cloak and headed out for town. It had been her first time there alone, and she was a little scared. She looked everywhere there was a store, searching for her servant. Many of the store owners had tried to trick her into buying things from them for fake information, but Li had taught her all the tricks.
After forty-five minutes, she was ready to give up and go home and wait for him, until she saw him walk out of a small tea shop.
"Thank you, Kim-taitai13," she heard him say to a person inside.
"How many times must I tell you, call me 'Suiyoon,'" a girl said smiling at Li. Shaolin gripped the pole she was hiding behind tightly, she was furious.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Suiyoon," he smiled blushing slightly as he said the girl's given name. He leaned forward and quickly kissed her on the cheek.
"See you later," she smiled. He ran off only to trip over his feet. Suiyoon giggled. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah," He stood up quickly and dusted of his chenshan14, and rubbed to back of his head. Shaolin could see his goofy uncharateristic smile and the blush spread across his face. She had never seen him that happy.
She couldn't take it. He was happy, but with another girl.
"Taitai," Zhang Ting, and store owner called. "Do ya' need something15?"
"Who is that?"
"Li Fanghuang? He's just a-"
"No, the girl."
"Kim Suiyoon? She's Iseul's wife. A real beauty. Not that I care. I gots me a boyfriend. But there are lots of guys who want to get their dirty paws on her. Suiyama Takuya, for one, but that's really my place to talk."
"What does Xiaoli see in her?"
"Same thing Iseul did. He'd betta' be careful, though. Hitting on Iseul's wife is like sticking yer hand in an alligator tank. He's asking to get hurt. No one messes with a pissed off South Korean guy with a three bladed sword."
"A three bladed sword16?"
"Uh huh, that guy's a famous swordsman. Heard he's been training fer several years. He wants ta be the bes' of 'em all."
"Well, I don't want him to hurt my Xiaoli."
"Your Xiaoli? Hadn't ya' heard? Fanghuang's planning on asking Suiyoon ta leave Iseul fer him instead."
"What?!"
"Yup, it's been all over town. Everyone's heard, but Iseul an' Suiyoon."
"I won't let her take my Li Huang."
"Huang? Ain't that his slave name?"
"'Slave name?'"
"Yup, he told me an' Xiebi Wangzi, that he'd been bought by some stuck up rich nobleman. Damn, I hate those bastards, thinking that they can buy people like that. Wangzi an' I told Fanghuang he should ditch that family."
"Why hasn't he?"
"Says the daughter's real attached to him. He say he don't want to leave her alone. Says that once she gets married he's gonna run off with Suiyoon. Too damn loyal, that kid. I says to him: 'just leave the girl ta rot like she would ta you if you wasn't so damn goodlooking.' But he just laughs at me. He tells me that: 'that girl's everything, she brought me up from being really shy, to what I am now.' I gots to laugh at him fer this."
"Why do you think it's so funny he cares about his mistress?"
"There ain't no way in hell that chick cares about him. He's like me an' his sista', we're alone in this world. There ain't a single person, that'll care about him, 'specialy not some rich spoiled brat. He says she's been kinds blue since she met her future husband. Pft, I laugh again. My mum and pa kicked my cold turkey when they found out I liked guys better 'n girls. Said that they had no use of a faggot. Really hurt me, but Fanghuang understood. He sympathized. More 'n those rich bastards ever do to us poor folk. Fanghuang's on the road to freedom, even if Suiyoon rejects him, he's gotta cute face, I'd take him if he wasn't so damn straight. That an' he's got plenty a' girls that take him. He's got no need fer that rich brat, no siree."
"Wait, you said he has a sister?"
"Yup, sista's been real sick, but the local doctor won't help him, 'cause he ain't got no money. And he works his butt of, not to get paid. Then he sneaks around working a job outside the Feng siheyuan as a waiter at Suiyoon's tea shop. Kid works too hard."
"He has TWO jobs. That must be hard…"
"You bet. He's gotta work hard fer his sista' and a rich brat. Then he's got ta convince Suiyoon to leave Iseul fer him. That kid's holding too much on his shoulders."
Shoalin hurried back the her room to wait for Li there. She talked with the servants a bit, just to hear what proper grammar sounds like again. Ting's grammar was awful, but then again, he only learned it from his uneducated parents.
-January, 1947; Shanghai; Wedding chapel17; The hour of the rooster:
Shaolin had locked herself in the dressing room the evening of her wedding. She was still dressed in the white hanfu with the pearl white flower designs. She didn't want to get married. She wanted to be with Li, but after her wedding, he was going to run away. There was nothing she could do.
"Feng-xiaojie," Li's voice called from the other side.
"Don't come in!" She odered, or more of, cried. "Just go! Leave me alone."
"Feng-xiaojie, your wedding's in a half hour. Everyone's waiting."
"I'm not going."
"Xiaojie, please, atleast tell me why?"
"I just… don't want you to leave me."
"I'm not going to. I'll walk you out there if you want me to!"
"I was stupid to pick you."
"Xiaojie, what are you talking about?"
"Li, I-I love you, but as soon as I marry Baiyu, you're going to leave me. Ting told me everything, even about your sister and your stupid crush on stupid Suiyoon."
"Ting?"
"So there. Just go. I'll just kill myself here, if I can't be with you, I might as well be dead."
"Feng-xiaojie! Don't do that! That won't solve anything."
"My name is SHAOLIN!"
"Shaolin-xiaojie, please open the door or I'll knock it down." He started to push against the door.
"Fanghuang! Just leave me alone!" She cried. He stoped. It was the first time she had called him that.
"Shaolin-xiaojie, please don't go and hurt yourself," he said calmly. She heard his foot steps leave her door.
"Li, Li, Li –you jerk!" She cried into her arms.
In the main hall, her father, in a wheelchair, cursed at his daughter's tardiness. "Li! Where's Shaolin?!" He yelled at Li, who apathetically walked down the isle.
"She's in the dressing room. She's locked herself in, and she's not coming out," he said in an emotionless voice.
Shaolin walked down the isle. Her make up was a tad smeared, but she had tried to fix it before leaving the dressing room. Her normally youthful grey eyes were now a dull lifeless grey. Her long black hair had been let down, but no one seemed to care. She walked over to the alter and waited for Baiyu to follow.
The chapel doors swung open, and a Japanese boy walked out with a huge stupid grin on his face. He tossed Baiyu's head onto the alter next to Shaolin.
Everyone screamed, but Shaolin stood emotionless next the head. The Japanese boy turned to Li.
"I brought you a present," The boy said in almost perfect chinese. He pulled out Iseul's head. In rushed a crying Suiyoon.
"Toji-kuhn18," she cried. "Why? Why did you kill Iseul? I know you're a better person than that!" she kept crying and spouting words in Japanese to this boy, Toji.
"Shuishan Daoji19," Li bit his lip and pick up one of the gaurds forgotten swords.
"Wrong, Suiyama Toji," he boy smirked.
"Toji-kuhn, please, no!" Suiyoon grabbed his arm and cried. He hit her and push her off of him.
"Shut up, annoying girl."
"Don't touch her," Li stood up, and ran at Toji with the sword in his hand. Toji's black sword clashed against it. The japanese boy smiled. his hand reached up and grabbed the blade of Li's sword. Toji ignore the sting of pain as the blade dugg into his flesh. He pulled his own sword away from Li's and stabbed Li through the chest.
Now Shaolin screamed. Toji frowned. Suiyoon cried, chanting to herself that this wasn't happening. Shaolin ran over to Li and buried her head in his shoulder. Toji slung his sword over his shoulder and walked away, not bothering to look at the crying girls and the dying boy.
"Don't die Li," Shaolin cried onto Li's chest.
"Shaolin, I was always happy to serve yo…" that was his last sentence as he past over peacefully. Shoalin burst into tears.
-January, 1950; Shanghai; Shanghai cemetary; the hour of the rat:
Feng Shaolin head of the Feng family stood over the grave of her father. It's been a year since he died and she visited his grave atleast three times an month when she wasn't busy running the family. Shaolin was going to marry Sun Huang by the end of the month. Sun Huang is a somewhat wealthy Chinese businessman.
Shaolin meandered of the side of the hill that faced the water. She sat by Li's grave and cried quietly to herself.
"I promise I'll be the strong one next time…" She said as she watched Li's sister visit her brother. Li's sister had been sent the money for her medicine by Shaolin. Shaolin had learned a lot from Li.
The End
Translation notes (there's a lot):
I hope that you know where this is. It's a pretty big city.
In China hour can be counted by the zodiac animals
11:00pm - 01:00am: rat
01:00 - 03:00: ox
03:00 - 05:00: tiger
05:00 - 07:00: rabbit
07:00 - 09:00: dragon
09:00 - 11:00: snake
11:00am - 1:00pm: horse
1:00 - 3:00: sheep
3:00 - 5:00: monkey
5:00 - 7:00: rooster
7:00 - 9:00: dog
9:00 - 11:00pm: boar
Hanfu- A chinese robe (like the dress Mulan wears rather than a qipao (see bellow).
A lot of the chinese charaters are taken from The Chinese Mafia Arc. Made it easier to make names up.
Taitai- Mistress (Very polite).
I'm sure historically, Most servants were never called by their real name. It's Li's 'slave name.'
Siheyuan is a house with four walls surounding it like a gate. Traditional Chinese houses.
Qipao- Chinese dress
Xiaojie- Miss (Not as polite, used for younger girls)
Xiaoli- Little Li (xiao means little if added to the beginning of a name it's equivalent to –chan)
Xiansheng- mister
Xiaofeng-taitai- Mistress little Feng (Polite cute nickname)
Kim-taitai- Kim is not a chinese name Kim Suiyoo and her husband Iseul are Korean.
Chenshan- I think is the male version of a qipao, but I'm not sure I spelled it right.
Ting is poor, so he has bad grammar.
It has a flat tip, but sharp on al three sides (Sword from Ultraviolet)
It isn't a church.
Kuhn (the Korean way of spelli –kun. (Italics- spoken in japanese)
Shuishan Daoji (Chinese pronuciation of Suiyama Toji)