A/N: I'm dreadfully sorry that this chapter's so short! My fingers are just to cold to go on… yet I promise you that the next chapter will be longer. Please send me your feedback. It lets me know that someone is reading and motivates me a great deal to write more as soon as possible. Thank you to those who have given me feedback! J
"Jing-Mei!" Quin scuffled into her friend's study, interrupting her letter writing.
Jing-Mei sighed. What was it now? She had to get this done. "Yes, Quin?"
"I came to you as fast as I could!"
Jing-Mei now looked up to see her friend flushed and out of breath.
"Quin," she furrowed her brow in concern and carefully set down her camelhair calligraphy brush and led her to an elegant couch. "Sit down, everything's okay. What is it?"
Quin placed her hand on her heart, trying to calm herself. "It's… it's Wu-Fung… he's going to ask for you!"
Jing-Mei stopped breathing and looked away in shock, removing her hands from her best friend's shoulders.
"Jing-Mei? Jing-Mei, are you all right?"
"I…I…" she stared into the distance, her lower lip quivering. "Quin! I don't even like Wu-Fung! He's… snobbish and haughty…and…"
"Jing-Mei, you have to look on the bright side. He's very wealthy- you'll be rich beyond your dreams!"
Tears welled up in her eyes as she turned back to Quin. "But will I be happy?"
Quin took a breath, her face still showing excitement as she desperately searched for something to say. "I'm sure you will! His mother may be stern, but you'll have everything your heart desires!"
"Not everything… not everything!" her voice was racked with the sorrow of her tears.
"Jing-Mei! Quiet down, someone will hear you!"
"I will never be happy! Not there! Not with him!" she rose and stood a few paces away.
"Jing-Mei Chen, for once in your spoiled life be grateful!" Quin was angry with jealousy. "Wu-Fung will take care of you! He will love you!"
"But I don't love him!"
"Jing-Mei, we are women! We do not marry for love! We marry for wealth and politics! We do not control our fate!" Seeing that she was only angering her best friend further she changed her tone. "Besides, who's to say that you will not love him in time?"
"Oh, I'm sure I will, I will learn to love him as all wives learn to love their husbands," her voice was bitter. "Quin, if you like him so much why don't you marry him?!"
"If he'd asked my father he'd say yes in a second and I'd be happy!"
Jing-Mei covered her face with her hands as she began to sob once more. "Oh Jing-Mei," she rose and hugged her friend's sobbing form. "It's okay. It'll be okay. He hasn't asked for you yet… maybe he'll change his mind."
"Oh, it's not only him… if not him, who? I want to marry for love, not for the benefit of my family..."
"At least you have someone who has asked for you…"
Jing-Mei pulled back and looked into her friend's eyes, which were now also welling with tears. "Oh Quin, I'm sure someone will. Don't worry, you're not an old lady yet…" she smiled.
"But I don't even have bound feet…" the tears slid down her cheeks.
"Neither do I, but someone still wanted me…Hey, this way we'll be able to run away from our husbands together on our big feet."
The two giggled with each other, slightly lifting the foreboding mood.
"Will we stand for it?!"
"No!"
"Will we let them take our heritage away from us?!"
"No!"
"Will we let them take our government, religion, our people away from us?!"
"No!" Chaing Chen yelled with the rest of the fired up young men, raising his fist every time he yelled a response to their leader who stood up on a platform.
"Then what will we do about it?!"
"Fight!"
"Yes! And we will win!"
"Yes!"
"Never fall for the trap of the white snake! How does one keep a snake from striking? By cutting off its head before it gets the chance to strike! We will destroy the whites who have come to take our culture away from us!"
The crowd cheered with hatred, the same hatred that had shone through Chaing's eyes as he stared down Dave on the hilltop.
