Is This Reality? {I}
The beautiful orange colored sky came with it a cool evening breeze.
The sun was setting when Xiaofan woke up.
She was famished and thirsty. Her throat felt like it was chapping even if it wasn't caused by cold weather.
She sat before a table with different side dishes and it was tempting.
The maids all had their heads bowed and standing at a corner. Xiaofan looked in-between the dishes and the maids and felt her dry mouth water. She was drooling but didn't want to eat anything in this place.
Her stomach churn with loud noises, exposing her little secret. She was hungry but it wouldn't drive her to eating in this God knows where land!
The head maid raised her head and her eyes collided with the Empress's own. "Your Royal Highness, please have something to eat." The head maid said with her head still bowed.
"Eat? I'm not hungry...I...I just have a little stomach ache and that's the reason for the noise... How do you expect me to eat here? Who do you think I am? I'm not your Highness!!!" She made different expression while she was speaking.
The head maid gawked at her, she felt she had been hearing for too long. "My Lady... please eat something." The woman pleaded. 'Did she loose her memory? She isn't even speaking cautiously like a noble woman.' She whispered something into another maid's ear and the latter bowed and left. The head maid then knelt and passed the Empress chopsticks. Xiaofan stared at the woman's hand and the chopsticks, she hmphed and turned her head arrogantly.
"Your Highness, please eat something or we will be beheaded and served to you." The woman pleaded.
"Your Royal Highness, please eat out we will be served to you!!!" The others wailed in unison and immediately crouched down to their knees.
Head maid: "We will be beheaded just for your satisfaction."
The others: "Just to please you!!!"
Head maid: "Why don't you allow us serve you instead till we die?"
Others: "Let's serve you till our bones are old!!!"
"We promise to serve you only and die if you tell us to!!!"
"We..."
"ENOUGH!!!" Xiaofan barked. "Are you planning to drive me CRAZY? You want me to have night mares for your sake?"
"No... No... No!!!" They were stammering now.
Xiaofan: "Look at you all, trying to scare me! I won't go mad because of you all! I have a lot to deal with myself, why should I bother about you all? I need to question the Almighty on the reason why I am here! Why here of all places!! Get away from me!!! I'm Xiaofan!" She wouldn't let them succeed! Being here alone was driving her nuts even if she was trying her best to be composed!
The head maid was stupefied as she stared at the person speaking. Xiuying never spoke too much talk more to raise her voice at anyone! She must have experienced a brain damage!! How come she has changed so much?
She waved at the other maids signifying for them to leave, leaving her alone with the Empress. Now she will protect her lady more if the physician proved her speculation correct.
"Your Royal..."
"I'm not Your Royal Highness! I'm Xiaofan!! Ying Xi!!!"
"Xiaofan? Ying Xiaofan? Who is that my Lady?"
"... hunh? It's me! I'm the one! I'm Ying Xiaofan!! Want to know more? My mother's name is Ying Tungmei! I'm a model and I have a lover!!" She knew she was sounding rude by raising her voice at an elder and speaking out of line but maybe the Almighty will say she doesn't deserve to be here! And maybe send her to a much better place!
Clang!
The two chopsticks fell out of the maid's hand onto the wooden floor, one falling on the other.
"Now tell me, do you know how i can escape? You see? I'm not Xiuying... And can never be! If there's a way to get out of here then please help me. I will reward you handsomely... No you're a woman, I will reward you beautifully!"
"My lady, did you say you have a..."
Xiaofan thought for a moment then smiled wickedly, "Yes. I have a lo..."
"NO!!! DON'T SPEAK SUCH OUTRAGEOUS WORD!!!" The maid was at her peak. "Don't you know that such word is an abomination? You will be hanged to death!!!"
All of a sudden the Empress was quiet, "What are you thinking my lady?"
No answer.
Something struck Xiaofan as she stopped talking, her gaze was far away. She got lost in her own world. She moved around the table crawling, she got to the older woman and sniffed her, she narrowed her eyes and blurted, "You're maid Yue... And I'm meant to be Xiuying, Qing Xiuying. The minister's daughter, Minister Qing Bohai!"
The maid who had frozen when the Empress sniffed her regained her composure and nodded in approval.
"Ju-Long doesn't love Xiuying," The Empress continued. "He has never treated her like the Empress, never visited her! He's a bad husband! He has a lover in form of a Consort, Consort Meiwei. Ju-Long is the most arrogant Emperor ever!" She shut one of her eyes and thought about something else, "But Xiuying had grown to the age of ninety-nine and died... But what am I doing here?"
Maid Yue watched the Empress and listened attentively to her, but something else was forming in her head. 'Is the Empress still sane?'
"This is one of the best selling novel in China. It's by a very famous author, she only has two Chinese stories but they are all interesting! In this story I read up to the point where the Empress had died, died without an heir, Meiwei had four sons but then one of her son poisoned the Emperor due to the fact that the Emperor wasn't aging, and wasn't willing to die!" She looked like she was talking to herself as she absorbed herself into the story telling.
"Does that mean you can see the future?" The maid who was in a confused state asked.