The guards from the castle started to come outside holding their spears and swords. They seemed ready for anything as if there was some sort of emergency.
Shu Yu looked at them and then he grabbed his attention to us "Come on, follow me" he said and we followed him.
He led the way along the streets, he was in front while Lee and I on the back. "Who's he?" Lee whispered to me.
"Shu Yu"
"Who's Shu Yu?"
"I'll explain everything later"
"Explain now..." He hissed and suddenly Shu Yu stopped and turned back to us.
"Is there anything wrong?" He asked.
I quickly replied "No! Nothing's wrong. He's just... He's..." I couldn't finish my sentence.
"He's..." Shu Yu said trying to help me finish the sentence but somehow Lee barged in the conversation and he wasn't very nice to Shu Yu.
He asked who he was, and who does he work for. Lee even accused Shu Yu of being a spy and perhaps sent over by Qianlong himself. I tried to explain, at my own very best who Shu Yu was and that he was a very close friend of mine. I was conflicted myself because they both seemed familiar to me, they were both in my life as Mingzhu and as Yae Lin. When they started to shout at each other and even reached a moment where they wanted to draw swords at each other is when I stepped in.
"Stop" I shouted at them and it didn't help that we were in the middle of the street. Lucky us there were no guards around apart from the locals who couldn't stop themselves from looking. This time I led the way and they followed.
Up to the brothel which was closed during the day but Fen and I had a mutual understanding and she even volunteered to give me a room upstairs, and just when I knocked on the door she opened it.
"Jang Li!" She said with a smile. "You came back too early... We are closed"
"I know. These are my friends"
"Are they my customers?"
"Huh?" Shu Yu said trying to understand what was going on, but when he quickly looked at the banner of the house his eyes widened. Then he whispered to me "A brothel?"
"Are you gentlemen new to Tong'an? Of course it's a brothel, the best in the city" said Fen and opened the door.
We got inside and she quickly closed it. The living room was empty which was not so like it for a place which is filled with naked whores and unspeakable men all over the place during the night. "We offer the finest ladies in the whole City, and finest wine" she said and opened up a pot. She took three small cups and served us wine.
I was not a drinker, so I didn't drink it but Lee and Shu Yu took the wine to their full satisfaction. That day we spent it all making funny jokes with Fen, until we heard horses hooves pounding and we peeped outside. Once again the warriors in purple robes were out of the castle and on their way.
Shu Yu recognized them, and when I asked who they were he answered "They are the soldiers of the Bear Creek Dynasty. They have one of the strongest armies in the whole lands, if Qianlong somehow manages to align with it's ruler then..." He stopped for a moment and looked at me.
Then he barged outside of the brothel and we followed him, Fen called out to me but I didn't have time. "Shu Yu, Shu Yu wait for us..." I called out to him and he stopped walking.
"What is it? Who are they?" I asked.
"We need to get to the general. He needs to know"
"That's what I was thinking too, if we..."
"We? Your Majesty you need to stay here and stay put. I shall go"
"I will go with you" said Lee.
"No, I should be there too. This is my throne we are talking about"
"And you need to be alive for it" said Shu Yu and we walked towards a merchant selling horses.
He took out five coins and handed them over to the man, who gave him two horses. "I will be fine I have to talk to the general about this" I insisted but none of them listened to me. They both mounted their horses quickly.
"The roads aren't friendly your majesty, and I need you here guiding this tyrant's every move. Please trust me to deliver this to the general" said Shu Yu looking at me.
"It will be fine princess" added Lee and I wasn't even looking at them.
I pretended to be mad at them and they didn't even care. They both hit their horses and off the horse's hooves pounded the earth and they were on their way. I could only look as they dissapeared right from my very own eyes.
That's when the memories came flooding like a waterfall in the river, without obstacles and came down heavy I had to hold on to a nearby wall for support. Yae Lin was fighting to take over my body and every single time she did my body grew weak and sometimes I would completely black out not remembering anything.
"Sir, are you alright?" I heard a voice from behind me.
I turned back to look and replied "Yes, yes I'm good" and the old man walked away.
But he suddenly stopped as if he had noticed something, I looked at him and before he could turn to me again I had already left. I hid myself as I looked at him confused wondering around as if he had just lost a puppy. Shu Yu was right, I had to cover my face often so I pulled up the scarf he gave me earlier and wondered through.
In the next four days I spent them in the brothel, at night I would sleep inside the room Fen gave me and during the day I would harvest whatever information I could get about Qianlong and when I was tired I would come back to the brothel and sit with Fen, drinking the wine as I listened to her complaining and whining about the men she had slept with or as she liked to call them customers.
Somehow we became close friends but still my identity was on disguises. She didn't know I was a girl and it was safer that way, but my thoughts were occupied somewhere else. They were on my friends who were traveling to General Chun outside of the city, and deep into the mountains. It didn't take so much knowledge for me to know that the way to the flying tower must be guarded a lot by Qianlong men by that time. "What if they get caught? And hanged?" I asked myself.
"You are rather quiet today Jang Li" said Fen and then she gave me a taste of her own wine and I took a sip. I was sitting on a mat with other people. There were ten men and almost twenty whores who were half naked on the mat, the whores made a turn to each man as they showcased their bare nipples and the greedy men touched them to their satisfaction.
I, however was the only one who wasn't interested in touching the whores. I mean even if my head wasn't collided with feelings and thoughts elsewhere, I wasn't interested in them. And I had Fen who was right by my side keeping me company.
"Jang Li!" A drunk man from the squad called out to me while he was holding one of the whores. "Come take a sip of this juicy woman..."
"Leave him alone" Fen came to my defense and the others laughed.
"Why? Doesn't he have a penis?" He said directly to my face and I knew he was up to no good.
"You are drunk..."
"He looks like a girl. Go on Jang Li, take a woman" continued the drunk man forcing one of the whores right to my face.
Fen wasn't having it with the weird dude and she pulled him up and tossed him outside, telling the guards if he tried to get in again he must be beaten and I guessed he was afraid of a fight because he never came back. I took two deep breaths when he was thrown outside and somehow blended into the squad as we kept talking. They were good people and they seemed not to mind anything as they were just looking to have fun and Tong'an was really a city of fun. In the rooms upstairs they were other people who locked themselves inside pleasing one another in the concept of leisure, in short Fen's brothel never lacked a crowd inside.
But somehow our little moment of luxury stopped when we heard the door opened. It was his majesty, Qianlong Emperor coming in and he had covered his face with a turban. We all got down on our knees and kowtowed.