One day before the wedding…
Zhao Yun stared up at the ceiling of the wooden craved bed. Zhao Yun tossed around, unable to sleep. His head was full of thoughts of Ma Chao. Zhao Yun closed his eyes as he remembered how closely Ma Chao had hold on to him last night. Zhao Yun shivered in delight as he thought of the touch of Ma Chao and the familiar scent of him. Zhao Yun sighed and sat up as he splashed some water into his face and stared into the small oval mirror hanging on the wall.
Zhao Yun still remembered the first day he met Ma Chao, back at that time, Ma Chao was so quiet. He kept himself to himself and didn't mix with the others except for Liu Bei although the others kept on inviting him to join them. Ma Chao just stood solitary at the brownish green background, totally blending in with the surroundings. There was a cold look in those brown eyes, an unfathomable dark aura elicited from around Ma Chao. But still, there was something intriguing about Ma Chao that pulled Zhao Yun towards him like gravity.
Zhao Yun soon slowly learned that Ma Chao had lost everything, his family, his country, and his pride to Cao Cao. But besides from that, Zhao Yun also slowly formed a bond with Ma Chao as they have the same thing on mind. Honor. There was a knock at the door which made Zhao Yun looked up. 'Come in.'
The wooden doors creaked open and a maid entered the room with her head bow, her arms draped with a red fabric. The maid bowed down in front of Zhao Yun and uttered 'Sir, this is the wedding robe for tomorrow, the seamstress asked me to deliver to you and see if it fits you.' Zhao Yun's face paled at those words as the maid placed them on his table and retreated slowly backwards. Zhao Yun fingered the red robe embroidered with gold and adorned with an elaborately golden tiger at the back. It was the symbol of his title given by Master Liu Bei as Zhao Yun was one of the five tiger generals.
Zhao Yun's hands shook as he took up the robe to take a good look then he tossed it on the table. 'You may leave now,' Zhao Yun said harshly while the maid looked surprise at Zhao Yun's sharp words. Zhao Yun was normally friendly and polite to everyone including the servants in the palace. Zhao Yun quickly recovered himself and smiled at the maid, 'I am sorry, I was in a bad mood just now. Please just leave me alone.' Zhao Yun waved the maid away and the maid bowed low as she quickly scuttled out from his room.
After the maid's footsteps died down, Zhao Yun gave a roar of rage and swept all the contents of the table off, everything fell down on the floor with a clatter. The silver plates and silver cups, the brass ornaments and the wedding robe. Zhao Yun buried his head as he kneeled on the floor among the ruins.
Who was he kidding, even though the wedding was a happy event, to Zhao Yun, he felt like he was jumping into his own grave. After tomorrow, he would be a bound man. There was a sinking feeling in his gut and his heart clenched in pain as Zhao Yun thought of his fate, but there was nothing much he could do to change it.
The butterfly flew and bumped against the glass jar countless times. It was struggling hard to escape but there was no way out. In a rage, the butterfly flew one last time, hard into the wall. But the butterfly just sank back down to the bottom of the jar feeling dejected. There was nothing it could do. Nothing at all.