Lovely Blossoms

Fen Hua leaned against the wall of her bed. She was tired, doing her best to keep her eyes open. Around her were several different embroidery projects she had been working on. Her skill was improving every day, as it was pretty much the only thing she had to do.

Elder Ruolan was supposed to come today. She never had.

Fen Hua was fighting against the disappointment she was feeling. She had been a little excited for the visit, maybe even hopeful. But time continued to move on and she never came. Not only did she not come, no one came to tell her why.

"It's not like she's my real Grandmother anyways," Fen Hua mumbled bitterly. Why did she have to have such a past that made her so desperate for someone to except her a family?

She stood up and walked outside. The stars were so bright here. So much unlike her old home. There she was lucky to see a handful of stars. Here they dotted the sky like sand on a beach. She took in a deep breath of air. It smelled so much better here too, that was expected though. No cars or factories to pollute the world.

She wondered if anyone was missing her there. She had multiple jobs when she died, or crossed to this world, or whatever it is that happened that night. She thought to the old lady that she worked for in the chicken chop. She was tough but kind at the same time. Fen Hua thought that if anyone missed her now it was her, but even then just a passing thought. Fen Hua belonged to no-one, not in that world, or this one.

She sat down on a bench that was in the center of her court. From here she was able to see the guards and the fence that led outside of the Baek Estate. She wondered if she could run fast enough to sneak past them.

She leaned a little closer to get a better look at which ones were there right now. It was usually one of four different sets of guards. Right now was the old guard with a scar down his left eye, and the chubby one with a baby face. She had been mislead by that face when she first saw it. It turned out that that baby faced guard was the meanest and nastiest of all the guards.

She had watched silently from her quarters as he harassed some of the female maids. Forcing them to talk to him, once even trying to lead her somewhere. Luckily the older guard had put a stop to that. Apparently he had a limit to what he was willing to watch. He never so much as made a peep when baby face had all but killed an older stable hand who had bumped him when a horse startled and caused him to fall.

None of the other guards seem to mind any of the things that happened here either. It was a veritable free for all. She was able to learn that her father had left the estate several weeks ago from overhearing the guards one night when they got drunk. They were loud and boisterous leaving Fen Hua afraid to leave her room worried they would try something on her. From what she could discern from that conversation however was that her father had gone to the capital to make sure that Lord Heshing would not retaliate against their family after declining the marriage his wife had set up.

She leaned back against the bench. There was no way she was going to try anything with baby face there. She let out a heavy breath and headed inside to get some sleep. It was clear now that She was not coming tonight.

"Bang, Bang, Ding Ding, Bang Bang, Ding Ding," the sound of loud aleternating drums and bells woke Fen Hua up in a panic.

"What the hell is that?!" She asked running outside after wrapping a blanket over herself.

"What's going on?" She yelled over the sound of drums and bells.

A new set of guards had come for the morning duty. These two were very well build and serious soldiers who seemed to be, if anything, professional.

"Go back inside Fourth Miss, it won't be as loud in there," One of them answered before turning away from her.

"Of course it won't be as loud in there, but that's not what I'm asking!" She yelled. She was getting more and more fed up with this whole world. "Why is there so much noise outside? What is going on out there?"

They both ignored her this time leaving her to stew in frustration.

She covered her ears and headed back inside. There was no point talking to those men. It was obvious they had been told not to talk to her.

She put a blanket over her head and did her best to ignore the sounds coming from outside. Before it got quieter however it got much louder. The sound of drums and bells were followed by loud indecipherable shouts. She couldn't make out what they were saying over the drums and bells, just that they were very loud about what ever was being said.

The shouting lasted for at least an hour. After this time fifteen sounds of a gong as loud as thunder came, followed by an eerie silence. As disorientating as the noise had been, the silence afterwards was somehow even more so.

Fen Hua staggered out of her bed and out of her room. The guards were still there, this time she didn't bother talking to them, they wouldn't give her any answers. But she did see something. These men were frightened about something. Their entire demeanor was much different then it had been earlier. She wondered if they had only just learned what all the noise was about themselves. She thought back to the fifteen gong strikes and wondered what they meant. It was obvious they meant something. She just wasn't sure why that 'something made these two men look like they were trying to decide whether to run or stay.