In the morning, I woke up to the voices of two men conversing outside. It didn't take me much time to realize whose voice the other man was, and it was Lee's, he was arguing with a merchant outside.
"I only have two coins. Give me that." said Lee to the man.
"These fishes are worth more than that, make it four."
"Three then."
"Four." The merchant insisted.
"Three!"
"Alright, take them, mister, and give me the coins." I heard the merchant saying and then Lee took out three coins and gave it to him. Then he gave Lee two huge fishes and walked away.
Lee closed the door of our house and I could hear him laughing. We never had fishes back home, I didn't even know what they were, but somehow Lee managed to buy things we've never had before. Like the last night dinner which was awesome by the way.
I made my way to the living room, and he was standing near a stove with dry woods besides him. He placed the woods and started a fire, but he didn't notice me, so when he turned back I took him by surprise. "Princess!" he exclaimed trying to find his robe because he was only wearing his undergarments and perhaps was ashamed that I found him like that.
He raced to his room and came down dressed. Then he faced me.
"It's too early in the morning."
"Is it?" I asked him.
"Yes princess."
"What are you cooking?" I asked him again, and this time I smiled and moved closer to the stove to see for myself. He had placed the raw fishes inside a steel bowl filled with water, lemons and some pepper.
"I'm making us a soup."
"A soup? What's a soup?"
"It's something I learned this morning from a man across the street. He said buy the fish, and then boil it. He gave me all these ingredients and taught me how to make it."
"Oh, I can't wait to taste it."
His shyness took over and for a moment he placed his head down. Couldn't face me eye to eye, and then he continued with his cooking, and at that moment I remembered the soldier who I encountered yesterday.
"Lee. Do you happen to know where the flying tower is?" I asked.
"Flying tower? Where's that?"
"I don't know, but yesterday when you left me on the streets. A man came to me, said he was general Chun. He called me his Queen."
"What?"
"I was shocked too, and then he said he's been waiting for me. And that we don't have much time, as the storm is upon us." I explained everything to him. He was the only one I trusted, and I had no one.
Lee stopped what he was doing and paid attention to me. We talked about that man and analyzed every situation, but still we couldn't figure out who he was and what was his attention towards me. "You are not going anywhere, Mingzhu. Not without me, you understand?" he said with his serious face.
I replied, "Yes, I understand."
"Good, let's make a soup."
Discussing my situation with Lee made it way easier, and in time I didn't pay attention to it anymore or even giving it a little bit of thought. That soldier could've mistaken me for someone else of course, and we had our fish soup later which was fantastic, and I commented on Lee's cooking skills whilst we laughed and made jokes.
We had survived our first day in the warm land, and we loved every ounce of it. We loved our house which was not that big but fit for us, our two rooms close to each other and a small living room which was empty because we didn't have anything. Not only that, but we used that day to learn and explore all the ways people in the warm land lived. We tasted their food which included noodles with sticks, and although we sucked at using the sticks, but we still were eager to learn more about it.
Also, we learned the only way to earn the coins, we had to work. "What sort of work?" Lee asked an old man we encountered along the way after he told us that we had to work.
"Any work, young man. I heard there are paying good at the mines, just above the flying tower."
Something came over me and I quickly asked, "The flying tower?"
"Yes, but women aren't allowed. It's dangerous. The tower is guided by soldiers, and rumor has it they are waiting for their queen to arrive, so they can go to war." The old man said to me, and I became more intrigued to find out.
"A war? What sort of war?"
"The war with the Qianlong Emperor. For the lands he took, all this..." He said looking around. "All this belongs to the queen, but he took it by force. He imposed brutal tax on us and slaughtered thousands of loyal supporters of the queen. Those who escaped his torture, fled to the flying tower. We are all waiting for the return of our Queen, our savior."
"This has nothing to do with us. We are not from here, so... Mingzhu, shall we go?" said Lee and looked at me.
I was numb and shaken by the words the old man said. Could I be the Queen of these people? That would sound insane to anyone. How could I be the princes of Xinjiang and the queen of the warm land? I didn't know these people, didn't know their stories or what happened to them.
"Mingzhu?" Lee called out to me. "Are you alright?"
I nodded, "Yes, yes."
"Let's go."
He held my hand, and we continued to walk down the road. I turned back to look at the old man, and he also looked at me, then I paid attention to the road ahead.
"What was that about? Are you still having questions about that flying tower?"
"It does sound weird."
"It's nonsense Mingzhu! Whatever happened to these people, it doesn't concern us. The emperor, I heard he's brutal and harsh, but we are not here to stay."
"Aren't we?" I asked because we never talked about our plans once we find the warm land. Our main aim was to first get through the journey and plan ahead.
"We can't stay here while there's a whole world out there to see. This is our moment, you and I, together to venture out to the farthest humanly possible land and ─ get lost."
Lee seemed amused by what he said, but I was concerned. "Get lost?" I asked him.
"Yes, didn't you say once that you wanted to get lost?"
I rolled my eyes at him. "Lee, that was a joke." I said and walked past him.
He followed me, and we made our way back to our house silently because my head was wrapped somewhere else. But before we reached home, five men, dressed in brown robes with the same sigil that I saw on that general, rode towards us with their horses. They were serious and determined for whatever they had in mind at that moment.
When they approached us, all of them dismounted from their horses and bowed before me in unison. I took a step back while holding Lee's arm, the people passing on the streets gawked in surprise, possibly not sure what was going on. Some paused to take a look. They were eager to know what was going on. Well, so was I.
"Your Majesty!" shouted one of them. "We require your guidance, the general pleads for your assistance."
"You have the wrong person. She's not your queen." said Lee to the men, and then he started laughing. "What's wrong with you people? She's a princess of Xinjiang, a cold land, very far away from here."
"Xinjiang?" Asked the soldier.
"Yes Xinjiang. Born and raised, she's my princess and not your queen."
The soldiers stood up and looked at each other. I could tell they were shocked by what Lee just said to them, then one of them took out a piece of paper from his pocket. It was a portrait, and he looked at it, then he looked at me.
It was as if he was trying to compare me and whoever it was in that portrait. Then he said, "You left us this portrait Your Majesty, instructing the general that you will be back." and handed me the piece of paper. "It's time to fight. For your people, for your land and your kingdom."
I froze for a second, my jaw dropped, and my eyes were glued to the portrait. It was me, not the younger version of me or the other version of me, but me. I was wearing a purple frock made of silk, with a crown and adorned in golds and some ornaments. But the weird thing was that I had just arrived in the kingdom of warm land. I didn't know anything about it, and somehow I was their queen. Maybe in the previous life, or was I dreaming? I felt dizzy at that moment, the portrait on my hand fell down, and somehow I followed it to the ground and blacked out. Then it was all darkness.