Romance of the Four Kingdoms

Chapter 85

'Long ago we all didn't used to be bandits. Me and Zheng Jiang grew up in the same village along with our friend called Gai Li. I was the more We grew up and did everything together. I was the more cautious one while Jiang and Li did whatever they could for adventure. They pretty much dragged me everywhere with them. Though Jiang was always dragging us to adventure, there was always something...infectious about Li's enthusiasm. She would just always willingly go with Jiang and not have a care in the world. Always talked about exploring the world with such a positive attitude we'd kinda all got it. I'm pretty sure Zheng Jiang was that way because of her. We'd go swimming in the river when it was calm, we'd go exploring as far as we could. Heh, I remember Shu following us around, making sure his sister was safe and sound. We didn't take too kindly to him interrupting our fun though. Heh Even back then I found him annoying.

I remember Gai Li's grandfather teaching her about the way of archery since he was a retired soldier and thought we'd better learn how to hunt since he knew how much we all enjoyed exploring. Though her parents weren't exactly thrilled once they found out. She wasn't allowed to come out of her house to play with us, Shu though was happy to fill that role...but we just ignored him since he was the one that ratted her out anyway. It was a simpler time, though before long thanks to this famine our village couldn't grow the crops they needed to survive. We couldn't trade for much either. Our village sent envoys to the imperial city for help. Though we heard nothing from them, they never came back. We were starting to go hungry, though our parents did the best they could to try and feed us, sometimes that just wasn't the case.

Eventually though, one of the villagers warned us all about a contingent of yellow turbans coming our way. They all knew what was going to happen but we were just children, we didn't know what was going on. So, when our folks got us on the only two horses we had they told us to ride to the west and ask the imperial army to come over. The panic over everyone's faces as they were running away. We did not know what was going on, but we did what we were told. Our parents embraced us for the final time and we didn't know. It was me, Zheng Jiang on one horse and Li and Shu on the other. And we rode as fast as the horses would allow. We clung on them tightly as we rode away from the village. We didn't know what was going on, again we were only children.

It felt like an eternity had passed before we stumbled upon a patrol of the imperial army when the horses stopped to rest and we dismounted them. We quickly went to them and asked for assistance. We told them where the village was and our parents asked for their help. But they laughed us off, saying they were part of the imperial army. They had better things than to deal with a measly village they told us. Shu understood the situation better than us so he pleaded with them the most and kept bugging them to come along. Eventually one soldier got enough of him and punched him in the face. Heh, that never fails to bring a smile to my face. Though Li wouldn't have found it funny, she quickly rushed to see how her brother fared, aside from a broken nose he was all right. We could only watch as they marched on by. I remember wanting to throw a rock at them or something. But I was too scared, if they could do that to Gai Shu in one punch, heaven knows what they would've done to us. At the time Shu was the one that was in charge, he was the oldest. He said finding another contingent to help us. He thought we should just go back to the village, he must've thought with luck we could get back in time and tell them to flee if they haven't already since help wasn't coming.

So once the horses were rested Shu helped me and Zheng Jiang on one horse while he and Li went on the other. We rode back to the village only to find it destroyed. We never realised how long we were. We quickly dismounted and tried to find our parents. Li and Shu found theirs beneath their burning hut. I- I found my...sorry, I found my dad just... decapitated in the middle of the street and my mother...speared. Sorry its just...I didn't expect this to affect me after all these years.' Lu Zheng stopped for a moment and started to breathe more heavily to compose herself.