Sometimes, life passes by like a floating cloud.
Sometimes it stops and sprinkles a few drops,
Sometimes it frolics from one horizon to another,
Sometimes it is dark and gloomy,
Sometimes it rushes about like a mischievous child.
The sun, the moon, the stars and the eternal space remains.
In the vastness of this space, what is the significance of this little cloud?
Who am I, what am I, what is life and what is death -
Questions that weave meaning into our insignificant existence,
Yet what is the significance of these questions before the infinite universe?
Are they simply questions which create an importance
For the specks of dust which is our life?
I often wonder - if we do nothing, be nothing, create nothing,
Just sit aside and watch this spectacle called life,
Will it be less than if we do, be and create?
Is there a meaning behind life, or is life simply a meaning we create?
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"Beibei. Beibei! Drink some water."
The thin hands, wrapped in dry, wrinkled skin came into her view. Beibei turned her head and was greeted by the dry, cracked, bleeding lips trying hard to maintain the slight uplifted corners in the semblance of a smile. The skeletal fingers gripping the broken stone bowl trembled at the pressure with which it held on to it. Like someone holding on to a precious treasure.
Beibei stopped in her work, tired hands falling from their place as if unable to hold their weight any longer. She turned her dull and bleary eyes and looked around. Every single person around her looked tired. Amidst all of them, this single broken bowl of water was indeed a precious treasure.
The sounds of whips slashing through air came closer. The thin hands shook more heavily, as the dull eyes glinted in fear, trying to urge her to take the bowl and quickly empty its contents.
Beibei sighed and took the bowl, drinking the mouthful of water in one gulp, then shoved the bowl into one inconspicuous corner. Anyone caught drinking or giving water without the permission of the guards would be punished by ten shots of low grade lightning. Beibei knew firsthand how painful it was.
Gritting her teeth, she had just pulled back her hands, holding onto her tools as she started hammering on the stones before her, when a snake-like thing slashed through the air right next to her ears. The next moment a tortured cry broke the painfully silent surrounding as the man right next to her was thrown into the air by the barbed whip, his body crashing into the hard wall of the cave, before sliding down to the floor. And then he lay there, like a broken and crumpled rag doll.
The whip flew back into the hands of a man cloaked from head to toe in an earthly brown hooded robe. Eyebrows pulled into a tight frown, he paused at the entrance, before swiftly moving to the unmoving body and kicking it to one side.
"Tsk! They breed like cockroaches and die like rats! How many does that add to?"
"Bindaan is keeping the tally. Should we move him to the closed cave? I think we have enough for this month."
Two more men had followed him in, dressed the same way. The first man gave the body on the floor another hard kick in dissatisfaction, then turned his dark gray eyes to glance at the trembling people around the cave. He squinted his eyes, a sharp ferocious glint alighting the gray pupils, as all the cowering people suddenly felt they had been marked by a vicious beast.
"You can't just hide food and water and think that we will not come to know! Someone saw him sneaking into the guard house and stealing buns from the meal chests. The punishment for such a sin is death! So.....do you think I did something wrong?"
The people shuddered as his eyes swept over all of them, a cruel, mocking smile hanging at the edge of his thin lips. As it moved, it stopped for a moment on Beibei's face.
"You look pretty fresh? I don't remember seeing you before. Is this one of the new comers? How old is she?"
"She came in around a couple of months ago. She is registered to be 12."
"12...not a bad age! And looks better with all the meat still on. Put her off work, and get someone to clean her up!"
"But.....You are supposed to return back and report to the Head Sect. We are leaving tonight."
"Tsk! You talk like we will never return back. Aren't we coming back in a week? Keep her well fed till then. I don't like them too skinny!"
Beibei looked down, a creepy feeling of discomfort crawling all over her body as she felt the disgusting gaze of the man passing over every inch of her figure.....like he had already stripped her naked in his mind! As the three men turned to leave, she shuddered all over, wanting to wash away even the feel of those eyes from her body and mind.
"Beibei! What should we do? You should.....maybe you should run! Yes.....maybe if you run to the magistrate of this area and plead with him, he can save you from these people!"
Beibei willed herself to stop trembling in fear and disgust, then stood up tiredly. Her mind was not exactly working very well at the moment. Hunger, thirst, lack of sleep....and then today's events. Even looking at the man's body still laying at one corner of the dim cave made her feel nauseous.
This man lying dead in a pool of blood was the same person who had come to hear one day when she had fainted from hunger. The guards were prone to beating anyone who slacked during work-time, and their choice of weapon was a lightning-elemental rod. They would hit you with a sharp-shot of lightening on your head, and then watch the fun of a person falling down on the ground, the body twitching violently after being electrocuted.
And Beibei that day would have met the same fate if this man had not intervened. Yes....he always kept a couple of buns stashed away beneath his loose clothes. When he gave her one of those 'stolen' breads, he had laughed awkwardly, saying that no matter what he did, he just couldn't control his hunger. He was a large man, and probably because of his bigger size, he needed more food than the rest. And so he had to resort to stealing food whenever the guards were not watching.
Beibei also knew that though he said he stole the buns for himself, he would always share them whenever someone was close to fainting from hunger.
And someone reported him today. It was not hard to guess. They were commoners, and the cultivators treated them like trash. So when these same guards treated them well, even once...these people would simply change their own words.
One so called act of kindness from those guards, could make the commoners feel like they had a chance.....a chance to a better life. Hmph! She had been watching these cultivators since the day she had stepped in here. There words and promises were worth garbage! Their promises would start stinking before they even remembered that they had made such a promise!
Beibei swallowed down the nauseous feeling and forced herself to turn towards the body. No one was making any move to even check if he was alive or dead. Most had gone back to their work, slowly chipping away at the Alkaneon Ores amongst the mountain rocks. Some still hung their head, perhaps still befuddled about what had just happened.
Beibei frowned. She could hear those weird voices again! She did not know why or how it started. Ever since she could remember, she could hear voices in her head. But.....they sounded like someone else was saying something....and she was merely hearing it! Her frown deepened, a slow head-ache starting to pound against her brains.
'One more gone!...Will I be able to hold on?.....But till when do I have to hold on? Will anyone come...or will I to die in this same way?'
'One more person is going to disappear from today. Why do I feel more and more people are disappearing? Like.....there were so many people I used to know.....who used to work with me, talk with me, laugh with me...but now they are no longer here. And.....I can't even remember their faces! Where did they all go?'
'Are these people around me real.....or am I imagining them all?.....So many people keep dying and disappearing. Why...how am I still alive?'
"Beibei! Beibei!....What are you still thinking child? You have to go before the guards come to get the dead body! Run now while you still have a chance."
Beibei felt like groaning under the pressure of her rising head-ache, but somehow managed to pull herself up. She turned to look at Menji, giving a wry smile.
"Where can I run to? Do you think the magistrate doesn't know what is going on here? Or does the Great Sect not know about it? If they don't know....then they must be truly blind and useless. And if they do know....well...then there is no place we can run to and be safe. Anyway.....in my current condition I won't even be able to cross the first circle before I get caught. What is the point?"
Menji looked at her in desperation, her anxiety spilling out through helpless tears.
"But.....but I have heard that all the women who are taken to 'those' caves...they never come out alive again! Someone once saw the guards dragging out one of the bodies from 'those' caves. She said there was hardly any patch of skin left clean on the completely naked body they were dragging out like the corpse of a wild beast. They had tortured her whilst she was alive, and then they dragged her naked corpse all through the camp to show off their trophy.....It was so disgusting and shameful!"
Beibei frowned at this description, forcing herself to control her inner shudders. She bit her lips hard, allowing the muddled mind to clear a bit. There was no way she could escape....at least not now. Why not wait till her hunger and thirst was satiated. Perhaps a full stomach would allow her to have more ideas. Even if she wanted to escape.....she needed to have a plan first!