7 A Clear View

Little Ming Cheng sat still on the stool that he had been ushered onto, as his new older sister wrapped up his bruises and cuts, sitting as still as he could, biting the inside of his mouth to keep any noise from escaping.

When the final strip of fabric was tied, he jumped off of the stool, giving her a low bow to convey his gratitude, and spied the door that he had come through, from the corner of his eye.

Nobody was ever kind to him, and he was almost nervous, waiting for the task that he would be given to repay the kindness that he had been shown.

Would he be sweeping down the floors for the time it took for his wounds to heal, or would he washing clothes in the river until it was time to return his bandages squeaky clean?

Ming Cheng did nor know, but as time went on, and the kitchen around him began to become more busy, more hustle and bustle happening around him, he had to restrain himself from fidgeting, picking at the Sean's of his newly acquired bandages.

Ming Cheng looked up from his bow, tilting his head as high as he dared to, trying to spot the older that had rescued him.

She had moved away to the side of the kitchen entrance, where she had deposited all her baskets, completely filled with lentils, the containers brimming unabashedly with the small, tiny grains.

Ming Cheng tried to hide his curiosity by ducking down again, as soon as he saw the older sister's head move to look towards him, hoping, praying, that she didn't notice.

He was glad when she simply called out to him and declared, "I'm going to need your help to wash all of these. No straining your body. When my shift is over, I will be taking you to the Imperial Palace Physician."

Little Ming Cheng gave a silent sigh, his head moving so little that it almost looked like it hadn't at all, the fruits of years of practice finally paying off.

Cautiously, while making sure to seem as if he was not being cautious at all, Ming Cheng made his way to the older sister, crouching down beside her to watch as she brought a bucket of clean water over to their little space.

There were worktops off to Ming Cheng's right side, the door, which he entered through, on his left. In the small, clear space where he currently sat on the floor, an old lady hobbled over to sit on the stool behind him, a set of doors behind her, the largest in the room, which Ming Cheng supposed led out to the proper corridor, rather than another servant's passage.

Little Ming Cheng sat still though, keeping his gaze firmly facing forward, looking at another set of doors which looked into a large garden with multiple wells. The older sister was currently fill up one of the buckets, a pile of them stacked to the side of the well, with water.

She brought two filled buckets and sat down with them, placing one in front of Ming Cheng, as well as a basket of lentils. She then went off to grab two empty baskets, placing one next to Ming Cheng and one next to herself.

It was obvious what she wanted, and what was happening.

Ming Cheng would be washing these lentils for her to pay back what he owed to her.

Then, she would bring him to the Imperial Physician, and then, he would be registered as a servant.

This was all a test to try and see whether he would be a good fit for the role or not.

All he needed to do was keep his head down, stay silent, and do his work.

A sudden gust of cold wind blew in from the open doors, pushing its way through Ming Cheng, rattling all of his bones, shaking him uncontrollably, as it forced its way into the rest of the kitchens, before slamming a door open somewhere deeper inside, barging its way elsewhere, probably, Ming Cheng thought, to the rest of the palace.

He rubbed his hands over his arms a few times, before kneeling down to begin washing the lentils, grabbing himself a handful, swirling them around in the water to rid them of dirt, dust and their own flour, before placing them, wet, into the next basket.

Elsewhere, outside of Ming Cheng's world and knowledge, Xiao Ying lay shaken, convulsing on the ground, his conscious having swept through the whole palace all at once - an experience that he had forcibly been thrown into against his will.

He lay there shivering, none of his limbs following his instructions, as he desperately opened and closed his eyes, hoping for something, anything.

With pain in his limbs and without full awareness of his body, Xiao Ying reached out and hugged the chair leg, close enough to him, making sure that he was still in the room with the massive screen, keyboard and chair, definitely not in a palace.

He had seen everything through her eyes.

He had felt everything through her eyes.

He had been taken through the palace to see all that had happened within it, the presence of little Ming Cheng calling back his mother's restless spirit from her grave.

Xiao Ying had been subjected to the image the graveyard. He had seen through her eyes as she had come alive, her spirit gasping back to life, within the small box that was her coffin.

He had coughed out the dirt of her lungs and he gasped out helplessly, the vision the absolute darkness great enough for his body to instinctively to rebel and force his arms upwards to free himself and her.

He had been in her body.

He had felt his skin decay as her own.

He had felt his eyeballs rot, and his gums peel back to expose his teeth.

And for a brief moment, he had seen the skeleton that resided in her arm.

The ghost of Ming Cheng's dead mother had arrived, and Xiao Ying, feebly hanging on to the chair with his shaking fingers, felt the wispy touch of silk on his bare skin, and the almost pressure of long, heavy hair. piled up and twisted in place with needles.