Separate Lives (III)

I am confident,

I am dependent,

I am not allowed to be independent,

If I will feel the resentment.

***

THE YEAR 1904, a century away from the present time.

"Tell me something, Qing Long. The first time she had seen you, she would have said something that must have sent a painful tinge on your guts," Mei pointed it out as she knew that Qing Long was just hiding it. Qing Long looked straight through her eyes, shadow white to coffee, and she shook her head.

"I am sure she will regret everything if she will do it," Mei concluded while she stood there with her knuckled fists. Qing Long stood there, waiting for the rest of the explanation that Mei wanted to say.

"We are living with the curse for that entire lifetime, Wang Qing Long. The Six Healers tried to lift off the curse from us, but no one had been able to do it, because I knew it means death. All of them were confident to say that they love you... but I know... they are not," Mei stated as Qing Long swallowed and looked down with regret. Mei bit her lip as she doesn't have any intention to hurt his feelings.

The noise outside of the wooden and dilapidated house was evident.

"I had been living as a loyal knight to you, Your Majesty, but I was so tired of living like this. Living with an empty hope is more painful than I have ever imagined. The Last Healer might be our last string, but she was not a guarantee---"

"Then what? We'll be living like this for eternity?" Qing Long had the courage to speak up. Mei swallowed as Qing Long looked up at him.

"It's Lunar New Year today. The Year of the Wooden Dragon. That's why I am a human once again. I only have a year to be like this, and I will be back once again to the legend that had been granted upon to me," Qing Long continued as the silence resonated all over that gloomy room. Mei was looking at him in an aberrant way, and she was scrutinizing the emotions on his face, but she could not see anything.

Qing Long smirked as he mumbled, "She even said that my name is prohibited to indicate at her time."

Mei nodded as she doesn't part her lips once again to say something. Qing Long puffed his cheeks as he held on to his abdomen while muttering, "She even said that Ai Xi was her grandmother---"

Mei shot up a look at Qing Long and raised her eyebrows. Ai Xi... Ai Xi...

"The one who ran the empire with your side?" Mei questioned as she swallowed like there was a lump on her throat. She crossed her arms and widened her eyes. Qing Long turned his heel around and shouted that he will start from the very start of their interaction. Mei followed him immediately and sat down beside him.

Qing Long sighed as he sat down and started, "I was walking along the path of the Yangtze River after I became a human again. I was surprised when robes had been draped on the rocks by the end of the cave, and I immediately slipped it in. The rain started to pour down the moment I reached the foot of the stairs and..."

Qing Long gritted his teeth as he continued, "Something strange was moving at the side of the river, and I can see that someone was drowning. I immediately ran towards the lawn, but I hid instantly..."

Mei was waiting for the rest of the story as Qing Long tilted his head to one side. He put his hand on his abdomen once again as he smiled a little and muttered, "She was wearing something else when she had been lifting up herself on the lawn, it looked so different from our robes. I don't know what was it... but I knew from that moment on that I need to be the one whom she would see."

Qing Long remembered it earlier, and he knew that he had been concealing everything with his glaring shadow white eyes. Mei was reading his mind at the same time, and she puffed her cheeks as she smiled secretly on the other side. The anger that was rising in her veins earlier vanished as she knew that Her Majesty fell in love at first sight.

Qing Long breathed first as he continued, "She was looking around like she was lost. She was drenched in water, like she bathed herself with gallons of water, even her hair was so wet. She was walking that entire lawn, looking everywhere, observing every knick-knack of the lawn. She was finding something that seemed impossible to find."

Mei was observing him with soft face while Qing Long's face was more calmer than usual. Qing Long mumbled, "She even asked someone who was passing by, but she never got the answer, from what I've heard. What surprised me was that... when she closed her eyes, she even covered her ears, and whispered something on herself. It was as if she was saying something on herself, or maybe I was wrong?"

"What strange actions she was doing?" Mei butted in and Qing Long turned to her in a surprised way. He looked at her as he smiled a little and turned to the kitchen door once again. He sighed as he chuckled and lightened up the mood in a bit.

"She stood up from the lawn but then... when the rain had dripped down on the lawn, she suddenly break down and fell down on the floor once again. That's when I... when I decided to come out of my shell and offer my oil-paper umbrella," Qing Long was telling that story with a plastered smile as Mei furrowed her eyebrows.

"Althea was surprised when someone sheltered an umbrella to her. But I was beyond grateful when I was the first one that she met along the way...," Qing Long reminisced that time and he was beyond happy that he had finally met the Last Healer.