"I'm Yan Mei. Can I know your name?" She stepped inside the room without waiting for Shao Chen to welcome her.
Normally, when someone was being approached by a stranger, they will be suspicious. However, we knew that Shao Chen was not normal. He immediately told her his name without doubting a bit.
"Shao Chen, what are you doing here?" Yan Mei asked again. She sat beside Shao Chen on the stone bed.
Shao Chen showed her his holy bible. "I wanted to read this book but I can't."
Yan Mei knitted her eyebrows. "Why you can't?"
"I can't read."
"Do you want me to teach you?" Yan Mei offered with pleasure. She had been so bored slacking inside the palace as there was nothing to do instead of reading books in her daily. This was a new job that maybe could brush her boredom away.
Shao Chen's eyes lit up. "You want?"
Yan Mei nodded.
Shao Chen halted for a moment as his brain was processing the meaning of the nod then jump up happily. Without further ado, he opened the book and showed it to her.
"Help me to read from the first page!" He noticed that he did not know the last page He Tao had read to him so he decided to start from the first page again.
Yan Mei began to read the first sentence, eyes immediately sparkled. "This … Thousand Revenge?"
Frowned for a moment, Shao Chen nodded eventually. "I think … yes."
Yan Mei clapped once, could not hide her excitement. "This book is my favorite! This one is the first volume. There are still two more volumes. Do you want to read them?" She spoke very fast.
Shao Chen blinked several times with an open mouth. To be honest, he could not catch any of the words Yan Mei uttered. However, because Yan Mei looked so happy, he thought it was something good so he finally nodded as an answer.
"If so, wait a moment!" Yan Mei ran outside in a blink of an eye, did not wait for Shao Chen's response.
After a few minutes, Yan Mei came back with two thick books in her hand. Her feature blushed in red. Sweat covered her forehead but she looked even happier.
"This is the second volume and the other was the third," Yan Mei explained while showing the differences between them.
Shao Chen stared at the books for a long time….
"What are these?" he asked eventually. His rubbish brain could not guess what exactly was going on.
"This is the second and third series from the book you held!"
'Second … and … THIRD SERIES?!' Shao Chen's eyes popped out.
His brain started to connect two things. 'This book has revenge plans in it. This book had one, two, and three series! That means … MORE REVENGE PLANS!!!'
The corner of his mouth lifted up, showing a wide-foolish smile. His eyes curved into a crescent moon shape. "Teach me to read now!" he was so eager to know all of the content until he thought to learn to read them all in one day. Of course, it won't happen though.
Yan Mei nodded happily. She had misunderstood that Shao Chen also loved the book's storyline as she was. With sparkling eyes, she began to read while helping Shao Chen identify and remember the words one by one.
*****
"Mei … you look like you have so much fun today," Chen Guang said while sitting with a cup of hot tea.
Yan Mei had just returned from the cold palace, nodded in a radiant face. "Of course I am! Finally, I found someone who also loved The Thousand Revenge novel!"
Chen Guang frowned. The novel book titled Thousand Revenge was a dark horror story which was the kind of story he would not enjoy the most. Not only him, lots of people knew the book because of their bad impression of it.
He thought that the main character was so stupid as she had done all of the revenge which would only hurt herself. Especially the last revenge on her future husband. That was very painful and frustrated all of the readers.
"Who has such a bad taste?" he asked in amazement. He was really eager to know who was this weirdo.
Chen Guang got one hard pinch in the stomach instantly. "Bad habit," he grumbled at his wife.
Yan Mei had a habit to pinch her husband when she did not like Chen Guang's words or comments.
"You deserve it!" Yan Mei exclaimed with puffed cheeks. She felt satisfyingly relieved after doing it.
Chen Guang laughed. "Alright, I'm the one at fault so don't be angry anymore, okay?"
Yan Mei smiled widely. "Great that you know!" She then took a seat next to Chen Guang.
"Oh, I almost forgot! Why did you tell me to take care of Shao Chen?"
"Shao Chen?" Chen Guang lifted up his eyebrows. He did not recognize the name.
"That girl. Her name is Shao Chen."
Chen Guang nid-nod with a wide smile. "I only guess this but maybe she…." he whispered.
Yan Mei's eyes rounded widely while hearing it. She even closed her mouth with both hands in shock. "Are you sure?"
Chen Guang thought for a while before answered, "Eighty percent sure."
Yan Mei regained her wide smile. "I see! I think it is a very good idea!"
****
The next morning, as Shao Chen had guessed, his whole body hurt as f*ck when he woke up. While grumbling, he took a new clothes and prepared to take a bath.
However, as there was no heating stove or firewood, he could not heat the water. The water itself was from a lake near the pavilion so at last, he had to use a wooden bucket to get the water outside then went back inside to fill the wooden bathtub.
When finally the bathtub was full, Shao Chen was unable to lift his both hands anymore. They were shaking violently.
Sighed, Shao Chen stripped his clothes then got into the tub. Usually, taking a bath was a good time to release fatigue from the body but because the water was freezing to the bone, Shao Chen's body ached even more, compounded by the violent trembling from the cold water. No healing effects at all!
"Cold! Cold!" Shao Chen complained in trembled lips. He struggled out of the tub then wore his clothes after dry off his body.
The clothes was elegant and beautiful, made of thin tosca-colored fabric. However, its elegance was lost as Shao Chen had to walk while bending his body to prevent hurting his spine more.
"Shao Chen, had you—" the woman's words stopped, replaced with a loud shout, "What happened to your back?!"
The woman, Yan Mei, immediately approached Shao Chen. She rubbed Shao Chen's back, full of worries.
"This … just a back pain," Shao Chen explained. If he had a long white beard, he would definitely resemble an old man.
Yan Mei, who was still rubbing his back, nid-nod to herself. "Bear with it, okay? It will be a little bit hurt," she said while rolling her long sleeves up.
Before Shao Chen's brain managed to process the meaning, a strong pressure hit his back until his eyes popped out. Tears welling up from his eyelids.
"HYAAAAAAA!!!!!"
That morning, the palace was appalled by a thunderous scream that had woken up nearly all of the palace residents….