Chapter 2

I slowly lifted my heavy eyelids as the strong smell of blood filled my nose. My mouth was dry and I smacked my lips a few times. I was laying down, in a bed it seemed, and the room was bright. Light from the window reflecting off the white walls, making me want to close my eyes again. I felt like I had slept for years, but I was still tired.

“Zhang Qing!”, I slightly heard someone calling.

“Zhang Qing!”, a woman in red called as she quickly ran in guiding me up. “You’ve finally woken up!”

“What happened?!”, a man entered as another man glided in by his side. “Did Zhang Qing wake up?”

“What..”, I stammered as I troubled to open my eyes. “What did you just call me?”

“Zhang Qing”, one man replied. “Do you not remember anything?”

“Brother!”, a younger lad also called as he barged in through the closed door. “Father, how did this happen?!”

“I- I don’t understand”, I said. “Are you guys filming anything perhaps? I don’t know any of you..”

“F-filming?”, the woman was quick to reply with a surprisingly confused look on her face. “What is filming?”

“Look, I don’t know what’s going right now, but I need to return home”, I said as I stood up.

“Zhang Qing”, a man said. “You have just recovered, why don’t you just stay in bed?”

“W-why.. Am I dressed like this?”, I said confused as I stared down at what I had been wearing the whole time. "And my hair.."

“What else would you be wearing?”, the other man replied.

Suddenly as I took a quick glance at everyone around the room, a little girl whom was a stranger to me at the moment bursted into the room out of nowhere –

“Brother Qing!”, she called as she tried to hug me despite our height differences - her face only reached my hips.

"Little sister, it's nice meeting you", I said. "But who are you?"

"Brother Qing, you don't remember Ren Xin?", she replied.

"Brother, Ren Xin is our little sister", the young lad said as he pulled her closer and put his arms around his shoulder.

"Little sister? I don't have a little sister", I said confusingly.

"Brother", he replied. "I am Fan Hui Jie, your younger brother. Ren Xin is our little sister. Our mother is Xuan Qing Chun. Our father is Fan Huang Xiao. Next to our father is Uncle Chun Yu. Our foster-father who is the Chief of Heaven and Earth Society is Ming Xiao Kai."

"Heaven and Earth Society..", I thought to myself. "What century is this?"

"17th century", the woman replied.

"17th..", I said. "Is Beijing currently being conquered by Chen Ming Qi?"

"Correct", the lad said.

"How did I even end up here?", I said with my hand behind my head.

"You were chased after by Gao Luo, a bastard commander under the Qing Empire and his men", a man replied. "And eventually fell down the cliff due to the amount of pressure you had to go through."

"Why did he chase after me all of a sudden..", I said.

"We snuck into the palace in attempt to assassinate the emperor, but failed", the woman said. "You were the one who told us to sneak out through the back door of the palace while you distract Gao Luo and his men."

"Right", the other man said. "You've been in a coma for 7 months now."

"7 months..", I said quietly to myself. "No way.."

"Let's not forget", my supposedly mother spoke up excitedly. "Zhang Qing, you have to greet your foster-father as soon as you can. He's been worrying about you every single day."

"Zhang Qing..", I said. "You said that was my name?"

"Fan Zhang Qing", my supposedly father replied.

"Enough talking, we should go greet Chief Ming while Zhang Qing is still awake", mother said.

Weird images were suddenly flashing through my mind of my car accident as mother linked my arm while she guided me outside -

"Brother Ming!", father called enthusiastically.

It was a torrid afternoon. The otherwise glossy lawns were shriveled and barren. The abundant flowers in the gardens had wilted, as their roots became parched from the arid conditions. All the townsfolk stay shuttered up in their homes, in the hopes that they could find cool solace from the unusually desolate outdoors..

“Z-zhang..”, the man stammered as he froze. “Zhang Qing!”

“Zhang Qing, this is your Uncle Ming Xiao Kai”, mother said.

“Right, why don’t you greet him?”, father said.

“U-Uncle Ming”, I said I slowly bowed to him.

The sound of a bowl breaking immediately went through my ears as I began raising my head up. In front of me was a girl in pink who stared at me in disbelief with tears falling down her face. Her hair was a rich shade of mahogany; it flowed in waves to adorn her glowing, porcelain-like skin. The girl was stunningly gorgeous, like a painting of a goddess brought to life. The sound of the broken bowl falling at the blink of an eye made her vulnerable and weak in the knees. She bended down,  picked it up, carefully not to cut herself from its sharp edges. She never knew it cut her until she saw them all drenched up with blood which was one circulating within her veins. Struggling, I walked over, ripping a piece of my outfit while I took her blood-drenched hand. Slowly and carefully, I wrapped the cloth around her palm while I stared back up at her. She smiled as she wiped the tears off her eyes with her other hand. Placing her wounded hand on my face, she reached over to hug me tightly. Her arms were around my neck as the hot, salty tears were flooding her cheeks and dripping off her chin.

“Brother Qing, you’ve returned..”, she had said.

Untangling her arms around my neck slowly, I turned my head around to look at mother and father who had been peering at us.

“Brother, do you not remember her?”, Hui Jie said. “She is our childhood friend, Hua Qing. She is Uncle Ming’s eldest daughter.”

“Childhood friend?”, I said. “I don’t recall-“

In came another girl - her dark hair fell like a curtain of silk to the top of her waist, the sunlight catching the stray strands of hair that blew across her face. In a way this made her more beautiful, as the deep brown complimented her eyes which were of a similar shade. Her eyes were without doubt the most captivating aspect of her appearance, reflecting a look of wisdom far beyond her age that could not help but draw people in.

Her face light up with glee as she also stared at me in astonishment. She brought her two hands up to cover as the wet hot tears fill up her eyes. The tears eventually spilled over and flowed down her face like a river escaping a dam. Her lips were quivering and she was biting on her lip. Not worrying about who or what was looking at her, she apathetically ran over to hug me seeing I had stood up. She sank her face into my chest as if to ask me to never let go as she put her arms around me.  

“Mei Qing”, Uncle Ming called. “Your Brother Qing has just woken up. Do not strangle him too much.”

“Brother Qing, do you remember me?”, she said as she quickly let go of me. “It’s Xian Mei Qing!”

“Father, what happened to Brother Qing? It seems as if he’s forgotten everything and everybody”, Hua Qing said.

“That’s right”, Father said. “Ever since he’s woken up this morning, he was as lost as ever. He couldn’t remember who anybody was, not even which century he was in.”

“That’s what we all should’ve been expecting”, Uncle Ming said. “After all, he did fall down from a cliff. Losing his memory is a common thing.” 

“Brother Qing, I am Mei Qing”, Xian Yun said. “You, Brother Jie, Sister Hua, and I used to play with eachother when we were little kids. We were even named after you. Don’t you remember?” 

Stood surprised by the entrance-way were 3 tall, chivalrous, and gallant looking men.

“Zhang Qing!”, the first man called. “Do you remember me? It’s Uncle Gang Ming.”

“When did this happen?”, the second man approached. “We’ve only left for two days! Zhang Qing, you remember Uncle Sui Song right?”

“My good son! Uncle Xun Yu was the one who taught you your martial arts remember?”, the third man drew near. “We and our brothers have missed you so much! You were so heroic that day.”

“Uncle Gang Ming, Uncle Sui Song, Uncle Xun Yu”, I greeted.    

I looked bewildered and wide eyed, and really didn't look like I knew where I was or what I was doing. I kept looking around and my eyes kept darting back and forth, making me look like I didn't trust anyone here.

 

~~~ TO BE CONTINUED ~~~