Hello and welcome back. I felt like updating this chapter, at the end of the story is the glossary. Enjoy!
Bloody Mary: The Essence
Chapter 2: When the Stem Brought a Flower
She had come from an unknown family. Gifted as a young child to Sun Jian, when my lord visited Hangzhou in search of gifted men prepared for war.
The coast had a small population, seeing as the land was not the best for agriculture, but it was famous for the salty fishes the men captured. Their skills were more related to the water than to the land.
Even thought it was rare, there were a few events in which men tall as eight and nine chi (1) arrived to the coast. Their skin was red and painful looking, while their nose and lips had a thin consistency. However, most of them carried two striking features that called the attention of the locals, and it was their fair hair and light colored eyes. Also the texture of their hair was different from the straight and thick hair of the locals.
Few of them stayed for long, but some never desired to leave the land. My sister was with Sun Jian during that peculiar visit, Sun Quan being recently born and still dependent on her. It was indeed a different site to behold. They stayed there for a couple of weeks, my lord noticing that the majority women of this land tried to keep a prudent distance from those men.
It was near the tidal bore at the Qiantang River, a magnificent site where the water created a frozen wave. Few men stayed to observe the event, some of them enamored with the different place they came upon, their stories of other lands captivating the few locals who had the capacity to understand them.
But they were rascals. Seeing as the women didn't desired to mix with them they procreated with prostitutes. A few children being born out of those unions, but after close to a year of their visit, the men decided to embark once more. Many of the women that procreated with them followed in their steps, the children that had resulted from the union being stranded in the streets since the men couldn't take them aboard.
Few good people took in the children, the boys being favored because of their value in society, while the females died of starvation in the streets. My sister was horrified at the sight of the dying children, her heart going towards her own new born son. And the daughter she had that was born with no life.
She insisted for Sun Jian to do something, the horrors she witnessed being enough for Sun Jian to send her and Quan back to safety, to our family. It had been close to ten years since I had last seen my sister, once she returned to us she told us the story of the horrors she saw, but what we never expected was what Sun Jian did next.
Heeding the words of my sister, Wentai (2) began to create order in the coast. The men under his command willingly exanimated the children that were stranded and taken in by the poor families. The strange characteristics of the children made them easy to identify. Most of the children had porcelain skin, their eyes were big and sometimes of a lighter color resembling honey.
It was truly a sight to behold, but only around roughly two or three females had survived against the starvation. The females mostly resembled the males, but there was one that was brought upon as a gift to Wentai. She was different from the others, even thought her skin was more yellowed in tone, it was the color of her hair and eyes that made the locals afraid of her. But what made them more frightened was the fact that she never cried, even as she was dying of starvation.
Sun Jian took the child in his arms and inspected her. He thought she must have been of a healthy weight because she resembled in weight Sun Quan when he was around her age. But he fell for the child, his heart going out for the only child who would probably be rejected due to her characteristics.
"What's her name?" my lord asked the people, but in the event of him inspecting the child, her adoptive parents abandoned her. The man and wife disappeared as if they never existed. Jian looked for them around town, carrying the child in his strong arms as if he were moving a basket full of eggs. But he never found them, and when the locals were asked of them, none knew of whom Sun Jian was referring to. It was during his search that he found his comrade and friend Cheng Pu, the man was finishing recruiting men for the day.
"What's that?" he asked Sun Jian as he stared into the curious clear eyes of the baby that never cried.
"They left me this child…" Wentai said as he studied once more the small child, the fair colored hair on her head reminding him of the feathers a few fair chicks had.
"Has he been weaned (3)?" Cheng Pu asked remembering the though process his wife was going through when she began to wean his first-born.
"Looks too young for it," Sun Jian told his friend as he thought of what to do. "Demou (4)?"
"Yes?"
"Do you think your wife could take her in?"
"I don't think she would mind." Cheng Pu answered as he took the small bundle from Sun Jian, his eyes examining her as he inspected the gender of the child. "I hope I don't get thrown out," Pu said as he humored his friend and without an official order he began to walk away towards the inn his wife was staying at.
"Wait a minute!" Xiao Qiao almost yelled.
"What is it darling?" Wu Guotai asked as she paused completely with the telling her story.
"Why are you telling me this story? How could Cheng Pu's wife take the baby in? How was she fed? Who were those peasants? How is this related to Zhou Yu?" Xiao asked question after question without stopping, but the hand from the older woman stopped her.
"Xiao," Wu Guotai began as she softly held the younger Qiao's hand. "I know you are confused, but you must understand how it all began before you keep feeling that your marriage will fall apart."
"It is falling apart!" Xiao yelled expressing her frustration.
"No it is not, I could tell if it were. So please be calm, and everything will be alright." Wu Guotai pressed lightly on Xiao's hand before releasing it.
A softer expression came to Xiao's face as she thought of her husband and their future together. But then she wondered how Guotai could tell, a question that she verbalized. "Is that what happened to you?"
"Wentai and I had a different set of life. I fell deeply in love with him but you would never imagine how devastating it is to destroy your own sister by having her husband return the feelings."
"Wow… I can't imagine sharing Zhou Yu with Da, she would surely win his affections." Xiao spoke with a sad tone, as if that was happening in real life.
"My child, you are not competing in league with your sister. Also you have a wonderful personality that sets you apart from her. You have everything in your arsenal to win many hearts, including your husband's." Guotai said as she stood up, already knowing that her time was up and her two children would be expecting her attention.
Imitating the older woman Xiao stood up, in her mind more questions being created as she allowed her thoughts to wander. "Did he ever came to love her? How can I compete with her?"
"Li Hua…" Guotai whispered the name as she sent a small prayer to the health of the young woman. "She was a woman that knew how to wait, but the odds weren't in her favor. Being a woman is never in our favor."
"What do you mean?"
"She never got to choose; only valued women like you and my sister will ever get to choose her husband." Guotai spoke softly as the laughter of Shang Xiang and Lang were heard. "Time is up, my children are back." She said it with a smile on her face and tiredness in her expression, her body leaving the small room where the women had tea.
But before he body left the room Xiao yelled, "wait! How do I know if he loves her?"
Pausing next to the door Guotai stared sadly at Xiao. "That is something you'll have to ask your husband."
(1) Chi – traditional Chinese unit for length. Around the time of the Three Kingdoms, one chi would mean something in between 23.1 cm to 24.3 cm or around 9 inches and a little more.
(2) Wentai – Sun Jian's style name.
(3) Weaned – it's the process in which on begins to feed a child solid foods.
(4) Demou – Cheng Pu's style name.
Thank you for reading.
Edited: 02.25.2015
