Am I In Love With Her? (I)

The lanterns that are lighting up,

The love is rising up,

My heart is beating so much,

For you, my dear love.

***

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

"I am an orphan. I never knew what it was like to have parents by your side. The one who could make you breakfast every single morning, the one who will... hug you... whenever you achieved something. I never felt the loneliness when I'm with my classmates or friends, but when I'm alone... I feel like I'm isolated and desperate to be loved," Althea explained. Wang Qing Long shifted his eyes from the other side and to her. The waves crushed a little on the shore while he was mesmerized by her beauty even on the side view.

He listened to her every word, paying attention to her charming voice.

She shook her head a little and mumbled, "Dying is the only way I could get out of that hard life I have been, but whenever I think of my goals, I always took a step back from the fiery pit itself."

She looked at him with a little smile on her face. As soon as they both connected their gazes, someone shouted Althea's name. Not, Althea Xi, Fang Ying Yue was the one who could hear. She widened her eyes and looked at their backs as she saw that they were turning in a corner. She huffed some air as her heartbeat with the nervousness rising in her veins while Qing Long was also alarmed.

They both sat on a very tight rock with no way out as the head of the bodyguards, who looked like Chen Li, the editor of Althea at her job at Hanzi Times, was shouting the destined Queen's name. Althea swallowed as she grimaced and said, "I'm dead..."

Qing Long licked his lips as he looked everywhere and he could not find a way out. The fire from their torches was igniting in the darkness of the night while they were shouting Fang Ying Yue's name. Qing Long mumbled, "How could they find this deserted street alone?"

Althea didn't know what to do and gripped Qing Long's arms. Her eyes were anxious as Qing Long was breaking his skull right then and there, thinking how they could escape from there. Qing Long looked at the Yangtze River itself, and he swallowed as Althea stared at his face. She slowly and skeptically peeked from where he was looking and she gasped as she whispered in a furious voice, "Are you crazy?! We will jump there?! I know what you are thinking!"

"That's the only way, Althea, let's go," Qing Long retorted back as he didn't stand up and just brushed his butt on the rock. He controlled the pace from where he was and Althea had been dragged, making him bump to Qing Long, and unexpectedly, they slid off from that enormous rocks that sent them falling onto the deep and bitingly cold waters.

Qing Long was dumbfounded by that and he just breathed with his mouth. Althea screamed at the top of her lungs and found herself being dunked into the waters, like the way she had been earlier. Althea realized how deep they fell as she opened her eyes and saw the darkness that had surrounded her being.

All of the parts of the waters were cold, no warmth could ever touch its freezing surface, and she saw a person on her front, floating too. She closed her eyes as she wagged her hands in the waters and tried to swam upwards. But it was no luck for her. She felt her body shivering on the waters while her vision was blurred.

She let herself float in the waters while she felt that her body was giving up from its will to live. She was exhausted at the same time, why does she deserve this kind of thing? Maybe she had done something in her past life which served as punishment with her present life. Althea was never a nuisance with her grandmother, and she was doing every right to be an author.

But what does she did wrong that could have gone way out of her hand?

She closed her eyes as her body was suspended on the waters, drowning, with no air to breathe anymore. She gave up. She wanted to end it right then and there... but something lit up on her mind that made her eyes awoke after.

"Is that so? Does that mean the only time I get to see you is when Chinese New Year happens?"

"Yeah. You will see me every Chinese New Year happens."

Althea could see him every Chinese New Year. And that was when she had the will to live. But she could not hold it anymore, she closed her eyes and lost her consciousness.

Whereas Qing Long opened up his eyes slowly, released bubbles through his mouth, and swig his head, turning his eyes to Althea, who was still levitated on the cold waters. He widened his eyes. He could look through the layers of waters in between and he swallowed as he wagged his hands.

The Jian sword was untangled from his robes, found its way deep on the floors of the river, and he didn't seem to notice it. He parted his lips slightly and dunked on the waters profoundly, looking for any signs of movements through Althea's limbs. He swam through in front of Althea and raised his hands, holding on to each side of her face, and she saw that she was now passed out.

Althea was now unconscious that even if he breathed through her lips, she would not be awoken from her insentient mind.

Qing Long was breathing along and slowly inched his face closer to her. He was whispering on his mind through his underlying thoughts, and he tried to send it through Althea. He closed his eyes and lifted up the corners of his lips towards hers.

Qing Long felt the waters drained down through the gap as he claimed her lips after.