1.22 AuYeung Lai San - Grandma's Plans

"Greetings Grand-mama, hope you had a nice evening and slept well." I greeted my grandmother as I walked in.

"Oh good, you are here," my grandma greeted me with a smile. "Come here and sit next to me."

I walked over and took a seat alongside grandmother, we both faced out into the hall and separating us was a little end table that had a bowl of dried watermelon seeds and two cups of tea.

I slightly turned to my grand-mama and asked why she was looking for me at such an early hour.

"I wanted to talk to you before your parents arrived for the morning greeting. I need to tell you about my good friend FeiYu who passed away about 3 years ago. She and I were from the same village and we grew up together, we were the best of friends, " my grandma reminisced.

"Okay, I am always glad to hear your stories but that does not explain why it must be so secretive?" I questioned my grandmother.

"Oh patience! You have always lacked patience, she admonished. "If you don't interrupt me then I would have gotten to the reason by now. Well, as I was saying, she was my best friend but of course as we grew up we had to be married off. She later became Lady SzeTo. Yes, the same SzeTo family as the one that came to propose marriage!"

The astonishment of this new development must have been written all over my face, because my grandma then said, "Yes, she and I had continued to write to each other and I had your eight characters sent to her a long time ago. We had always thought to match up our families but even though she had many grand-daughters and I have many grandsons, none of their "eight characters" matched, not until you were born. So from that moment, she had already given the eight-characters to the match-maker and had asked that she seek you out when you become of age. Who knew she would pass on before that would happen," she said sadly.

After wiping away tears with her handkerchief and brightening her mood, "Anyways, I had never told your parents of this match and I was so distraught that when the SzeTos came last time you had suddenly fallen ill. I thought we would not be able to fulfill my good friend's last wish. But now, I hear that General SzeTo will come to Zhong City in a few days. I hope you will be able to meet the General and hopefully, finally fulfill our last wish."

"Grand-mama, don't say last wish, you will live a very long life. Also, just because he is coming into Zhong City, it doesn't mean that he will come visit us. Even if we invite him to come, it doesn't mean that he will propose marriage again," I said, feeling the same frustration I had when ZhiHin told me about the deadline.

"I will have my plan, you just need to tell me if you have any objections to marrying General SzeTo?" grandma questioned.

"Well, I have never met the man," I said a bit guilty, "but I trust you Grand-Mama, I know you will not choose a bad match for me."

"Good, then you just have to work with me when the time comes," grandma said happily. "Okay, now off you go before your parents arrive, we can't let them know yet. Your father is so stubborn, he would not like the idea that I had arranged a marriage for you in this way. It would be better if he thinks that this was just all meant to be."

I still did not understand why grandma had to be so secretive and I truly didn't think my father would object to this kind of arrangement, since it actually is quite common in this era. But, I decided not to dwell on that. I was just glad that now there may be a way to meet the deadline that ZhiHin had set for me. So I just bowed to my grandma and left her room.

My walk back to my room was quite short as it was only the next courtyard. I breathed in the crisp morning air and decided that the weather was perfect for my morning exercise. I entered my room and changed into my sparring outfit and grabbed my swords before heading outside.

The twin swords were my favorite weapon, the craftsmanship of the swords were impeccable. They were made of a lighter metal and were a bit flexible. The length was just perfect, just a bit shorter than the length of my arms so that when I spun the sword back, I would not cut myself.. The thicker edge was straight and the other edge was thin, with a slight curve. Though the two edges were different it was perfectly balanced at the midpoint. They were a gift my father gave me when I was nine years old. He said that he had bumped into a craftsman during his travels and immediately took a liking to these swords and knew they were perfect for me. And they are, at least now they are, at that time it was a bit heavy and a bit too long but I still loved them.

I took them out into the morning sun, they glistened as I jumped and twirled and performed my routine. They were specific movements of the kung fu that my master had taught me but to someone watching it may actually look more like a dance with swords.

The memory of when I first watched my Master perform this on the wide grasslands, I was in awe. Each movement had an even flow and a smoothness that even water could not compare. It was as if she did not have bones. The twirling of fabrics of the dress she was wearing, red and white combined as she continued to twirl and it was as if she was a flower atop the grass field. Her jumps, her landings, with a softness that you would have believed that she was weightless. At the end when you look down at where she had danced, you would see on the grass, a delicate design of a cherry blossom made from her movements.

Though, I still have not perfected as well as my Master, I believe that I have at least eighty percent of her skills now. I concentrated on my movement and I did not notice that Jo-yi had brought breakfast to the little pavilion and was standing quietly waiting for me.

When I was done, she clapped and I looked across at her and smiled. But it faded away when I saw that the design I had made with my movements, were not a perfect cherry blossom, many lines were skewed and awkward. I frowned and thought maybe because I had reincarnated to this body, I could no longer perform the movements as this body originally was able to, that would be a shame. I felt sad, but then I smacked myself with both hands. I can't think this way, I decided that I would just have to train hard. For the time I still have with this body, in this lifetime, I will aim to do my best.

With new determination, I walked happily over to Jo-yi and had breakfast with her.