472 BC - Yue Kingdom.
The war was over with the victory of Yue. Wu State was eliminated and wiped off from the map forever. Nobody would have imagined, that a small backward country like Yue, could destroy Wu State. Goujian with his humbleness in hearing his subordinates' advice, and also his great persistency - was able to defeat the once mighty Fuchai and the Wu State.
In order to remember the agony and all of the humiliation that he had to endure during his time in Wu State as a slave, Goujian refused to sleep on a bed. Instead, he slept on brushwood. and he hung a gall near his bed and tasted the bitter gall to remind him the bitterness he and his people had to endure. His persistency brought a victory and immortalized Goujian's name forever. The idiom 'to sleep on brushwood and taste gall' becomes a famous idiom that is still used even after more than two thousand years. This idiom means: undergo self-imposed hardships to strengthen one's resolve/ambition.
It's been a half month since Goujian and his men returned from Wu.
Suddenly life became so peaceful and quiet and boring for Ying. Usually, she worked hard with the blacksmiths to forge swords and weapons, discussed with Fan Li and Wen Zhong about war strategies and logistics. And of a sudden, after the war was over, she had nothing else to do.
Ying decided to visit her old friend, Min. After their separation thirteen years ago, she had never seen her again.
Min still stayed in the same house. She was weaving in front of the house when Ying entered her house's front yard.
Min knitted her eyebrows as she saw a young woman entering her house. She was familiar with the face.
"Min," Ying happily greeted her. "Are you not happy to see me again?"
Min dumfounded. "Ying? Is this really you?"
"Of course it's me!" Ying laughed.
"How come you don't change any a bit?" she asked and observed Ying from head to toes.
Ying laughed, "It's a long story! Why don't you invite me to eat? I'm hungry!"
Min laughed, "Now I believe that you are Ying! Only Ying who is always hungry and loves my cooking!"
Ying laughed and followed Min, who led her entered her house. She saw a teenage girl was cooking.
"Xinyu, greet Auntie Ying!" Min said to the girl.
The girl stopped her work and looked at Ying. She was a bit confused and said, "Mother..is she…Auntie Ying, the one who gave you the earrings?"
"Is there any other Auntie Ying in this world besides her?" Min laughed.
The girl laughed and made a salute said, "Greeting, Auntie Ying! My mother said that you are the most beautiful woman on earth. She's not exaggerating at all!"
Ying smiled and caressed the girl's hair. She noticed the girl was wearing the earrings she gave to Min as a farewell gift. "You were just a baby girl at that time. Now you're a young woman! You're so pretty, child!"
"You're more suitable to be my older sister rather than my auntie," the girl said.
All of them laughed.
"Ying, I wonder if life as a king's woman makes you look young forever. You don't change at all!"
Ying smiled plainly. "Actually…I didn't manage to go to Wu State!" Ying told her story to Min and her daughter but didn't tell them her secret - that she died and was resurrected as an immortal.
"Ah," Min was aghast and clutched Ying's hand said, "Ying, I'm glad that you're alive. Whether you are a king's woman or an ordinary woman. You are still my good sister!"
Ying nodded happily, "You are the only family I have now, Min!"
"My daughter will get married in the next few days. You should come for her wedding ceremony!"
"I will!" Ying nodded happily. "You are the only family I have now. My mother has passed away. And her step-children…I don't think they want to see me again!" Ying said in a low voice.
===========
When the day came, Ying followed Min and her husband to send the bride to her husband's house in another village.
When the bride - Xinyu, and her family and relatives arrived, the groom's family welcomed them and asked them to enter the house. It was a big house with a big yard. The groom's family was pretty wealthy. They're very well-behaved and more educated than Min's family.
After the wedding ceremony, they started to feast. And as the auntie of the bride, Ying, was seated near Min. There, she began to notice the groom's father. She had never expected that the groom's father was someone important from her past.
Ying was a beautiful woman, and even in simple clothing, she was still stunning. Everyone from the groom's side was curious about the bride's lovely young auntie, particularly the groom's father.
The groom's father was a man in his mid-forties with sharp eyes and thick beards. When he saw Ying, he started to observe her, and his face changed. He's uneasy and nervous.
"Little Auntie is so lovely that my husband can't take off his eyes from her!" the groom's mother laughed and pinched her husband's hand.
The groom's father smiled plainly. His face looked uneasy.
Ying also looked at the man's face. She knew exactly who the man was. He was the man who killed her thirteen years ago. How she hated that man to her bones and wanted to chop off his head right here, right now. But that man was the father-in-law of Min's daughter.
Min and her husband also laughed. "Little Auntie was one of the Yue Beauties sent to Wu State together with Xi Shi and Zheng Dan. It is not easy for us to be able to see someone like her!"
"She's…she's one of the Yue Beauties?" asked the groom's father. He was stuttered as he spoke.
"I was!" Ying replied with a low voice.
"That day before Ying was sent to Wu, she visited our house. She carried Xinyu, and she took off her earrings and told me that I have to give her earrings to Xinyu!" Min said.
"These earrings," Xinyu said and proudly showed her beautiful earrings.
"I guess, Xinyu got her beautiful face since Ying carried and kissed her when she's a baby!" Min's father laughed. "We are ugly parents. How could we have a beautiful daughter like Xinyu?"
Everybody laughed.
"Auntie, do you just return to Yue after King Goujian conquered Wu last month?" Xinyu's husband asked.
Ying shook her head, "I was sent to Wu. But on my way, my chariot was plundered, and I was kidnapped. I had never managed to go to the Wu State!"
"Auntie Ying almost died because of the attack," Xinyu said.
"Tell us the story!" Xinyu's husband said.
Ying took a piece of meat from the plate and said, "The bandits kidnapped me. I was afraid that they would humiliate me. So I resisted!"
"You're so brave that you even had the gut to resist!" Min said.
"Then what happened?" the groom asked. "Auntie Ying, tell us what happened next? How did you manage to escape and survive?"
"Today is a happy day. We should not talk about something like that," Ying said.
"You're still alive!" the groom said. "That's also a happy thing. Why don't you share with us what happened?"
Ying shook her head.
"We are curious to know!" the groom said. "Am I right, everyone?"
Everyone - except the groom's father - agreed and forced Ying to tell her story.
"I was kidnapped. So I threw myself down from a fast, galloping horse!" Ying said. "It was horrifying. But for me, it's just the same result. Either be humiliated, or I would die trampled by horses. I prefer the second choice!" Ying gulped her wine. It was thirteen years ago, yet everything was so vivid in her mind. "What about you? If you were me, what do you choose?" She asked the groom's mother, Min, and Xinyu.
Min shook her head and sighed while Xinyu looked so scared.
"May those bandits die miserably!" the groom's mother growled. "The world is in chaos because of wars. And even in a peaceful time, there are bandits anywhere!"
"But Madame, your husband was one of the bandits!" Ying said in her mind.
"I felt the unbearable pain in my head. My whole body felt sore and had my nose and mouth bleeding. Then a bandit slapped my face and pulled my hair, and made me stand up," Ying touched her head and hair. She smiled and said, "I'm glad that I still have my thick hair until now. He pulled my hair, and I didn't know how much hair I lose that day!"
"I'm glad that you still have your beautiful hair," Xinyu said with a low voice.
"I pulled the bandit's hand to reduce the pain on my head. And once the bandit's hand was within my reach, I bit the bandit's hand. I was like a helpless little wolf. I bit his hand so tightly until some meat from his hand was pulled off when he pulled his hand," Ying laughed. "That's the first time in my life that I was glad I was raised by wolves when I was a baby!"
"Then another bandit said that he wanted to strip off my clothes. He and his friends wanted to humiliate me. Then I have no choice but to resist and die. I saw a sword hung on the waist of the bandit who pulled my hair. So I drew the sword and attacked the man who said that he wanted to strip off my clothes," Ying said, and he looked at the groom's father straight to his eyes and continued. "I still remember his face clearly. Even a hundred years later…I will never be able to forget his face!"
"What happened then?" the groom's mother and Xinyu asked curiously.
"I was too weak. The man dodged, and my sword only slashed the man's waist. He was hurt, but he's not dead. The bandit who was pulling my hair, then knocked my head hard while at the same time, the bandit who wanted to strip my clothes stabbed me on my stomach," Ying sighed. "It was a big blade. Until now, I still could feel the pain every time I recall when he pulled the blade out of my stomach, and I saw how my intestine was pulled out!" Ying smirked. "That's why I don't eat any intestine now! It makes me sick when I see any intestines. It only reminds me of my intestine!"
Everyone stopped and didn't say anything. Everyone was shocked hearing the story.
Ying laughed and said, "I also heard the sound of blood spurted from my stomach…like a little spring on the mountain!"
"How…how did you manage to survive with that deadly wound?" the groom's father asked with a trembled voice.
Ying looked at the man straight to his eyes and replied, "Because I'm not destined to die! Or probably…I was dead, but I come to live again!"
Min hugged Ying, who sat on her left side and said, "Ying is a very kind woman. Of course, she's not destined to die. At least…not in the hand of those evil men."
"Ying is a great woman! She's not destined to die easily!" Min's husband said. " Do you know…that Ying is the one who forged the weapons for our king? Without Ying and her swords…probably we still unable to win the war against Wu State! Probably it will take another three or four years for our Yue State to be able to conquer Wu!"
"My teachers saved me and taught me swordsmanship. Also, later, I learned sword forgery. So I guess; indeed it's my destiny that I'm not destined to die that day."
"Good and evil will have their rewards and punishments!" Min said.
"Aye…actually in these past few years, I've seen so many girls and women who are not as lucky as me," Ying sighed. "There's a young girl I met. She's less than twelve years old when she was raped. And then she got a baby from that bastard!" She paused awhile and continued, "I killed those bastards! With my arrows and hands! I don't regret it at all. If I see injustice, then I will kill those who do evil! I guess that's my purpose in life now!"
"You are a hero!" Min said. "You always want to be a hero. A hero is someone who helps people who are oppressed. Even if the person only saves a girl or a baby, that person is still a hero!"
"Yes, Auntie Ying is a hero!" the groom and Xinyu said.
Ying laughed. "If you were me,…what would you do if you meet that bandit who stabbed you on your stomach and caused your guts spilled?" Ying asked in a mischievous tone.
"I will also spill his guts!" the groom's mother said in an angry tone.
Ying laughed when she heard it. "But that man is your husband, woman!" she said in her mind.
"I will skin his head, disembowel his stomach, and then chop his neck!" Min said. "Agree!" Her husband said.
"I will boil him until he dies," Xinyu said.
"When you're boiling him, I will prick his body with a knife and put a lot of salt into the water. Let him die slowly in a painful way!" Xinyu's husband - the groom, said.
Ying laughed. "Aye, that's your father and your father-in-law. Poor Xinyu and her husband. They didn't know how evil the person they called as a father." She pondered in her mind. "I am really curious…what if his wife or children know what kind of person her husband or father is. And I want to ask that man…what is in his mind when he kidnapped, raped, or killed innocent people? I wonder if those bandits ever think of their own family when they're doing their crime?"
"Is there any chance that you could find the bandits who attacked you?" Min asked.
Ying nodded. "I have found one of the bandits. When the time is right, I will deal with him!" She laughed and smiled at everyone, including at the groom's father. The man looked uneasy.
"How are you going to deal with him?" Min asked.
"I don't know. That's why I asked opinions from you all!" Ying put on a funny face and continued, "Come, let's drink and be merry on this happy day! I could take revenge even ten or twenty years from now. But my niece Xinyu only marries once. Therefore, let's just have a good celebration today!"
"Agree! Let's have a toast!" the groom said.
They had a good celebration party.
Ying had learned how to conceal her feeling. She didn't look emotional at all. But when she returned home, Ying broke down into tears. She was angry and furious. She would deal with the man who killed her thirteen years ago. But, what if Min or Xinyu knew about it? How's she going to tell them?