Read Page By Page

He looked at the book on the table in front of him and sighed before reaching for the phone. He unlocked the phone and searched for Long Kue among his contacts.  

"Yes, Prince?" Long Kue answered on the other line.

"There's an accident at the construction site."

"Mm. I know. Nico informed me but Butler Zeu said to not disturb you for the next few hours. So, I haven't reported to you. My apologies." Long Kue explained.

There was a brief pause. "Um... Prince... When the two men fell to the ground, Yu Sha was right on the spot they fall onto. Apparently, she injured her shoulder when the men fell onto her shoulder. I think that must be coordinated by her in order to not arouse interest from others."

"Most likely. She's never revealed her ability in broad daylights or when a lot of people are around. But I feel that she doesn't have bad intentions." Hue Chi speculated.

Prince Hue Chi hung up and put the phone on silent mode, after which he proceeded to flip the book and start from the beginning.

At the opening of the book, the author, Hli Ja, wrote of her life in the brothel, running errands for her older sister. She spoke of how her sister forced her to learn literacy and emphasized the importance of knowledge.

Hue Chi read aloud sentence by sentence, page by page. Each paragraph was short but detailed enough to know what happened. The first page started early on of the author's life. 

"One afternoon, my sister asked me to run an errand for her. This was the first time she gave me a task. I was happy she relied on me and ran to the store to get what she instructed me to buy, papers and ink. The next morning, my sister woke me up early and taught me how to write. She was thrilled when I wrote my first letter. I have never seen my sister that happy and her smiles encouraged me to want to learn more."

"One late morning, some children were playing down the block. I wanted to join as the game looked fun. But, they yelled at me when I approached them, sneering at me with dirty looks. They cursed for me to get away, that my sister was a dirty person, she worked in a dirty place. If I'm with them, they'll get contaminated. Those words angered me. Without realizing it, my body moved on its own and punched a child on the face. Later that day, the children's parents came and yelled at my sister. I got my sister in trouble but I will never forget the disdain faces of those parents."

Hue Chi flipped onto the next page. He noticed that early in the book, there wasn't really any concept of time, but seems like recalled memories written down at a much later time after the event happened.

"I was punished. The boss of my sister said I was old enough to put to work and was forced to wash clothes, cooked, and gathered firewood. I was not very good at cooking and the firewood were heavy. My sister begged her boss to just let me wash clothes and cooks as I was still small to do labor work."

"One day, I questioned my sister about my parents. She remained quiet and told me that one day when I'm a little older, she will tell me about our parents. She said our home was a very beautiful place, our father and mother were very beautiful people. When I'm old enough to make long trips, she will take me there."

"One night, when I was around eight years old, my sister woke me up and told me, if I want to go home, we have to leave quietly. I was ecstatic and quietly got up. My sister and I snuck out of the house, but one of the guards spotted us. We ran and ran in the dead of the night, but the guards caught up to us. My sister acted as a decoy so I could get away. They killed her and I jumped into the river. When I came to, I was in a little hut somewhere deep in the mountain."

"Grandma found me and took me in. She taught me how to survive in the mountain. The image of my sister slayed never left my mind. One day when I'm strong enough, I will go back and get my revenge."

"One beautiful afternoon, during my usual hunt, in the distance was sword clashing. As I rushed towards the sounds, I saw a boy being chased by some men. It made me think of my sister, our escape a year ago. With my bow and arrows, I shot two bad men but was found out.

"One of the bad men chased after me. He was strong and seemed experienced. For sure, I thought, i was going to get killed for sure. Why was I still so weak after a year? Eventually, we were able to kill the bad guy by sheer luck and I took the boy back to the hut. He wanted to thank me so I asked him to teach me how to fight, but he insisted that he may not have time and gave me a pendant as a promise. The pendant shone like glitter in sapphire color with a golden dragon wrapped around it."

Hue Chi continued to read of Hli Ja and Mua Kong's two weeks they spent together until the day she led Mua Kong out of the mountain.

"When I arrived back to the hut that evening, grandma and I were attacked by assassins. Mua Kong and I had let one assassin escape before. This could be them to get revenge.

Luckily, grandma has a secret underground hideout camouflaged on the floor. The assassins missed the hideout. After some hours later when there was no more movement above, grandma and I came out.

We decided to leave the place completely. Grandma decided it would be best for us to live among people. We found a nice town to settle into.

After a few years, I made the trip to Buffalo Mountain to find the brothel where the guard that slayed my sister was, but sadly, the place no longer existed. Rumor had it that the place was shut and burnt to the ground a few years back."