Glosary at the end. Enjoy!
Bloody Mary: The Essence
Chapter 9: As She Forbids their Friendship
Once more Xiao Qiao was sitting down with the younger brother of the Little Conqueror. This time, her older sister was away as she shared a meal with him and his wife. At first it had been uncomfortable for Xiao, but gaining her nerve she stayed to hear the story Quan had to tell.
"Tell me Xiao," Quan waited for her to respond, his right hand on a glass of wine as he moved it to his lips. A few sips were all it took for him to continue when she answered with a yes. "Why do you want to learn so much of Li Hua?" For being a young man of only seventeen springs Quan was a wise beyond his years, and it was something that made his oldest brother joke because of his seriousness.
Xiao had told herself countless of times the answer to that question, but every time she had to speak it out loud, she tended to get trapped by her own volition. The younger Qiao was a proud woman, she could always be seen with her chin high, and her bright eyes were capable of fooling some. But on the inside she was as insecure as a young child that was left alone in a market. She was often described as a woman with a bubbly personality, but that wasn't always the case, because she felt like a flower that lost a petal with each day that passed. She was withering, and was looking for a cure. What she never knew was that the truth was a unpleasant medicine.
It was only when Xiao felt secure in her answer did she begin, "Li Hua was someone important to Zhou Yu, and she is someone that I could never take away her position. Zhou Yu loves her and as long as he does I'll never have my feelings returned." Xiao was sad, but she tried to mask it with a smile. It wasn't something that was capable of convincing the young marriage.
Still Lianshi spoke, "you need to be more accepting. You are a wonderful person Xiao. And everyone knows that. I do not really know your husband but as a woman I tell you this. To truly love your husband you must accept everything from him. You must love him for who he is, not for who you want him to be." Lianshi finished, her lips offering Xiao a kind smile.
Her words resounded in the younger Qiao's mind. It was like a song that repeated itself over and over and over again. The lyrics changed, but the meaning was all the same. Xiao was not allowed to rest, because even thought most of the people recommended her the same thing, she could still not stomach or accept what could be the truth. However different a culture could be, Xiao could not accept what she considered as something that would continue to hurt her.
However noticing that his visit was beginning to appear uncomfortable, Quan decided that he could tell her something far different from what he had heard. He knew how to stay whitin the topic of his old friend, but carefully he veered the conversation into a different light. "Xiao, do you really know where Li Hua came from?"
At the change of topic she answered, "wasn't she from Hangzhou?"
"Technically yes, but I'm not talking of where she was born." Both females looked at the future leader, Lianshi becoming a spectator to everything that was occurring. And with a grace that he was not known to have, Quan used political skills to distract his audience.
"What do you mean then?" Xiao could not blame anyone, she was curious. But inwardly she punched herself; she had to control the unladylike curiosity she had. And the pair noticed, their lips pulling upwards softly as she tried to manipulate her expression into one of seriousness. A occurrence that was peculiar to those who knew her ways.
"What do you know of Li Hua?" Quan asked her, his head was high, and his confidence was blooming. However at the same time he made sure to not appear as an arrogant person, something that for the first time he was quite successful.
"Umm…" Xiao though on everything she had heard, but noticing she was taking too long Quan spoke for her.
"You already know she was from Hangzhou," Xiao nodded. "And also you know that Cheng Pu adopted her and that she was my mother's servant."
"Yes…" it was a quiet answer.
"Li Hua was more than that. She wasn't Zhou Yu's lover. She was like a sister to us, and the only reason she was mother's servant was because even though mother never told anyone she actually liked Li Hua." Quan looked away with a look that made him appear older than he actually was.
"But from what I heard she never liked her." Soft words came from the younger Qiao, her mind going over all of the stories she had heard.
"It was difficult to not like her." Lianshi spoke, her hand moving over her husband as she smiled at him. Quan returned her smile and quickly turned to his visit.
"She was like the daughter mother always wished to have, and she even tried to have a girl like Li Hua. But every girl that was born from mother died after they were born. Many years later father had found another girl like Li Hua."
"Niu…" Xiao Qiao answered, she knew who he was talking of. Because Niu was a young female that was assigned as a servant for her and her sister. And what made Niu so different was that she was extremely alike Li Hua, but at the same time she was completely different.
"Mother adopted her, but Niu was different. She had a strong spirit and only Bofu (1) and Gongjin could control her."
"Was that why was she assigned to me and sis?"
"I'm not so sure," Quan looked away thoughtful. "Niu was like Li Hua's younger sister, but she was never adopted by Lord Cheng. When mother noticed that Niu was uncontrollable she made sure that she was kept as a servant. Li Hua was never a servant; she was a lady in waiting. That was the basic difference between the two of them. Li Hua was woman born into the arts, while Niu was more into the arms." Quan shook his head at remembering the other girl antics.
And thus Quan began to retell a memory that was brought to him by the younger female.
It took quite some time for Niu to arrive, and unlike Li Hua she didn't really grew up with us. Li Hua was four years older than Niu, and when the younger child arrived we truly didn't mixed with her at all. But having grown since young with Li Hua we both had a wonderful relationship.
I wasn't really allowed to have friends, mother being too strict with who I shared my time. You see even though I was her second son, she felt as if she had to give me the best. She thought that one day I was going to be someone important, and because of that she made sure to educate me the most.
By then Sun Ce was already following in my father's footsteps, and as you know he has shown a great amount of leadership. But I was more of a follower. When I spent time with Li Hua she was always the one to dictate where we would go to or what we would do together. Mother never liked that, she thought that I was going to grow into someone weak minded. She thought that any woman would easily control me and maybe she was right, maybe I needed to man up.
"Why don't you want to do what I want?" Li Hua protested one day as we shared a meal that was prepared by Xue.
"I want to, but I cannot be bossed by you." As a child I was always calm and collected.
"But you never suggest we do anything!" Li Hua screeched. She had dropped her plate to the floor, but she could no longer care. "Every time I say hey lets do this, you say no!" She kept fighting me.
And now that I think of it, since young Li Hua used to fight like a woman. She was never easily pleased and there was always an adventure in her mind. But I was still petrified of the day we fell into the river. Going on an adventure with her sounded like a terrible idea, and even though I tried to be the voice of reason between the two of us she was too hard headed.
"No, you need to calm down!" I raised my voice at her, my food forgotten as we got into a childlike argument. "We will do what I want to do. Not what you," I pointed at her chest, "want to do."
"No!" She yelled, her tiny hands taking a hold of me and pushing me away from her. "You will do what I want to do!"
"I will not!" I protested once more even though I was already on the floor.
And like the pair of children we were we began to fight against one another. We wrestled together, our verbal fight forgotten as we started to play that way. I never wanted to hurt her, so I actually tried to be careful with how we fought. She was not that careful.
She would throw herself against me, and even use all of her strength. Being children we were pretty even, so sometimes she would play dirty. Still she was smart, always looking for any weakness I could have. And some times she hurt me quite badly… I don't want to remember the pain of being kicked…
"Hey!" Sun Quan protested against the two women that surrounded him. "Don't laugh." But that only made their giggling stronger. "You two can cut it." Quan said as he allowed the two females the time to finally stop laughing at his pain.
But Quan knew they would never understand that type of pain. Because truth to be told, when a man cringes at the pain of another it is a good reason to believe of the suffering those had lived. Still once Quan was prepared to continue his story without having the females laughing he went on.
Fights like that were common between Li Hua and I. We would fight constantly over nothing, and then the fight would end up turning into a wrestling match. Li Hua always won those fights, because I took it easy on her. I wasn't about to harm a girl, but oneday things got out of hand. We were wrestling in Li Hua's room, a fight similar to the one I described before having occurred.
It only took one push from me. It was the only ounce of strength I had really used between the two of us, but that was all we needed. Li Hua had lost her balance as I fought my way out of her hold. She toppled over, her heels trying to regain some form of balance, while her hands wiggled in the air. Two steps were all she needed to break the vase, two steps that made her crash against a pillar, the beautiful blue china from Cheng Pu's wife being broken into tiny pieces.
The sound was all that was needed for the adults to run into the room. Xue was the first one to arrive, her mouth hanging as she opened her eyes as wide as she could. Right behind her came my mother, and what she saw made her angry. So angry that I swear I remember seeing her ears turning red. A few seconds were all she needed to find who she believed to be the culprit of the broken vase.
"Li Hua!" she yelled, her body coming over to my friend. "Do you have any idea how much that vase cost?"
Li Hua was petrified, she didn't answer verbally. It was with her clear blue eyes and a shake of the head that she responded to my mother's question.
"You insolent brat!" Mother moved forward, her hand quickly grasping Li Hua's arm. "I bought that gift to Lady Ning (2) when she gave birth Zi (3)." Mother was not evaluating her force because the hold she had on Li Hua was enough to scare her.
And I was scared for my friend. I was so scared that I got up from the floor and went towards mother. "No mom," I began softly. "Li Hua didn't broke it, I did."
"You did?" Mother was confused, her hold on Li Hua still there.
"Yes, I did." I reinforced my answer.
"Why would you break Lady Ning's things? Have you lost your respect for the dead?" She had now directed her angry glare in my direction, and I shuddered because I knew that I had a punishment for breaking things.
Mother was a strict woman, and just like her parents raised her she applied the same discipline to me. I was mostly a good boy for that reason, and Li Hua knew that.
"No!" she yelled. "I did it, I broke the vase, Quan is lying."
At that mother turned once more, her hand raised to struck down on Li Hua. But the hit never came.
That was the moment when we all considered Guotai our hero. She was brave enough to stand up to my mother. "Enough! If you dare to place one single finger on Li Hua I will not be responsible for my actions." And surprisingly mother conceded. She backed away, her hand taking a hold of mine as she pulled me by her side.
Li Hua was on the floor, Xue tending to her and my brother Lang. Meanwhile Guotai stood in front of them. I do not know what happened between my two mothers to see that even happening, but I knew that something occurred for them to decide to hold the peace. Still my mother was not one to back down, and as she was retreating from the room she stopped at the entrance.
"I believe you will be responsible for Li Hua's actions from now on. I do not want her anywhere near Quan, she would surely damage him; you saw him lying to me." Those were mother's last words as she took me away from my friend.
(1) Bofu – Sun Ce's style name.
(2) Lady Ning – invented name in reference to Cheng Pu's wife.
(3) Zi – it refers to Cheng Zi, Cheng Pu's eldest son.
Took me a while to actually get this chapter out. University life is quite a crazy thing. I barely even have time to eat! But such is life. I will try to update more often, but seeing as this year is being hell I dunno.
Besides that there are some great news coming around, and it is that the next Dynasty Warriors story is going strong. I have already written more than four chapters, but that project will only be published once it is finished. The sad thing is that it will be a pretty mature story so I have to evaluate if I have to tone down some details.
So I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and peace out.
*This has not been edited.
