"Geez, you couldn't just leave her alone?" the boy said lowering his wok.
Nu Gua retrieved her belongings from the ground, her eyes flitting between the man, still coiling on the ground, and this new player. The man was most definitely dangerous, but could she put her faith in the hand of a stranger. The man groaned on the floor struggling to get up.
"It's gonna take more than that to keep me down" he said, pushing himself of the dirty street.
Nu Gua didn't have time to leave as suddenly she was being dragged along through the streets by this mysterious boy.
"Sorry, princess. We have to go."
"P-P-Princess?" she stammered. Did he know? Her heart pounded so fast she could feel it drumming in her ears. If he knew, what was he doing with her? From a young age, Nu Gua's parents had told her stories of kidnapped princesses, trapped and kept away from their families for ransom. Though her parents were gone, now these seemed to engulf her mind, pushing away all logic and shrouding her in fear. She needed to get away from this boy, and she needed to get away NOW. Two guards stood chatting in-between two stalls. Nu Gua took the lead and skidded her way over to the guards.
"Thieves! STOP THE THIEVES!" the man yelled, jian raised, stumbling from the alley back onto the main market street.
Nu Gua stood in disbelief as the imperial guards gripped their axes and prepared to give chase. They quickly made eye contact with her, selecting the duo as their target.
"COME ON! Move your feet!"
The boy tugged onto her arm as hard as he could. Nu Gua felt as though is would separate from the joint and fling through the market. They sprinted through the streets, more guards joining, with their axes (fu) in hand. Wok still in had, the young boy seemed surprisingly agile, dodging all manner of obstacles. He swung sharply into an alleyway, and Nu Gua's feet skipped of the pavement sending dust flying.
Rather quickly the pair came up to a dead end and a trellis. The boy scrambled up the trellis with ease leaving Nu Gua on the ground. He looked at her incredulously.
"COME ON!" he said through gritted teeth, his hand outstretched.
Hearing the echoing footsteps of the approaching hoard, she handed this stranger her basket, hiked up her skirt, and began to climb. She made it halfway up the trellis before the hem of her skirt got caught. She worked desperately to undo her hem from the thorns and branches, but it always seemed to get caught again.
---
One more month, only one more month and he would be free. The soldier looked at the tiny, cheap scrap of silk in his hand and the childish calligraphy scrawled across it. Ma We Sheng. He traced the characters with his thumb. Top to bottom, right to left. That's what his son said, otherwise it was bad luck. He smiled, thinking of his son writing it for him.
"This is your name daddy!" the little boy said with excitement. "Take it with you that way you can practice and remember me"
We Sheng etched his name into the dirt with the tip of his fu. It was illegible. Even an illiterate fool like him could tell that.
"COME ON! Move your feet!"
A rusted wok and blob of yellow and beige went flying past him into the alley. Meh. Probably a Romeo and Juliet situation. Wouldn't be the first time some girl's father rejected a strapping young man, he thought, straightening his uniform and thinking of his wife. However, his approaching comrades cries snapped him out of his trance.
"Stop the Thieves!"
We Sheng looked for the blur that had shot past him, but they had already disappeared down another alleyway. He dashed from alley to alley. Trash, trash, cat, kids, trash, yellow roses, pigeons. Wait. We Sheng retreated to the previous alley and stopped. Caught in the trellis was a young palace maid, and on the roof of the siheyuan stood a scruffy young boy holding a basket and a rusted wok.
Nu Gua looked over and standing the alley was an imperial guard cautiously eyeing the young boy's wok. Nu Gua looked up to warn him, but he already saw him. The young boy looked down at his wok, realizing this was what he was staring at. The wok flung from the boy's hand, and the palace guard, lost in thought as he contemplated his grumbling stomach, was soon faced the realization that a rusted wok was now flying directly at his head. We Sheng dropped, his chest slamming against the ground.
"Really?!?!" he yelled at the young boy in complete disbelief and annoyance. To We Sheng, there were 2 certain facts in life. First, inevitably we will all die, and second, he MOST DEFINITELY did NOT get payed enough for this sh**. We Sheng clambered to his feet and ran to the trellis to grab the supposed thief. Nu Gua's breath caught in her throat as she worked to free herself, but the hem remained set on staying with the bush. Nothing was working as she stretched her hand up to the young boy, her eyes pleading to be rescued. Just another damsel in distress. The thought formed a lump in her throat. Just as the guard reached for her ankle, Nu Gua felt a surprisingly strong grip pull her up, the hem of her skirt screeching as it freed itself from the seam. She shimmied herself onto the roof like a beached dolphin desperately trying to wiggle to the ocean, and We Sheng was left grasping at the tattered hem as the rest of the imperial guard turned the corner.