1. The Fish and The Tortoise

“The love between Thee and Her Highness is remarkably unforgettable and irreplaceable, Your Highness...” praised General Lie Jun Xiong truthfully and sincerely.

“That’s what I want to tell you… Love can also sometimes be power… You see… With My Queen standing beside me all these times, I can already defeat the Mongolians, and some other rebellions from the west as well as the south,” narrated Emperor Wang in his humongous exuberance as well as tremendous satisfaction.

“Thou art exceptionally strong and powerful, Your Highness… It’s my immense pleasure and vast exhilaration fighting in the first zone for Thee as well as for this land of ours, Your Highness…”

“You’re also a remarkably strong and powerful general standing beside me and fighting for me for all these times. In fact, you’re the strongest general this kingdom has ever had, Brother Jun Xiong…” praised Emperor Wang also truthfully and sincerely.

“I’m not that strong and powerful, Your Highness… I’m still learning and practicing though…” said General Lie tactfully and humbly.

“I know that… I know that you can be much stronger and more powerful than you’ve been for all these times, Brother Jun Xiong…” continued Emperor Wang still meaningfully and knowingly.

Slightly frowning his forehead, General Lie Jun Xiong seemed that he didn’t really understand what was meant by his Emperor Wang.

“Sorry, Your Highness… Actually, I don’t really get what Thou art trying to say…” muttered General Lie Jun Xiong within his fractional wonder and confusion.

“Go back to your palace to have a rest then… Have your full as well as complete rest so that you’ll be much stronger and much more powerful in the next morning…” Emperor Wang instantly ended their conversation in that late evening.

“Good night, Your Highness…” General Lie Jun Xiong excused himself from the main hall of the massive and substantial palace.

In the middle of his way back to his own palace, General Lie Jun Xiong started to feel dizzy and queasy. Everything in front of him started to be double. He began to obtain his double vision.

“General Lie… General Lie… What’s happening to you?” asked a male maid approaching General Lie Jun Xiong.

“No… Nothing bad and awful… I think I simply need a rest…” said General Lie Jun Xiong in the middle of his dizziness, queasiness and slight headache.

“Then, let me send you back to your palace to have your rest, General Lie…”

“Okay… Thanks very much…”

However, just walking for several steps ahead, General Lie’s dizziness as well as headache was more and more severe. He even fell off to the floor because he started to lose his balance.

“General Lie… General Lie… Are you okay?” asked the male maid worriedly and anxiously.

“My body is getting hotter and hotter… Take me back to my palace soon… I need a rest right now…” said General Lie Jun Xiong restlessly and uneasily.

“Okay, General Lie…” The male maid started to bring General Lie away from that place. The male maid also felt a kind of pity towards General Lie Jun Xiong. Actually, the male maid wanted to slightly help General Lie Jun Xiong, but there wasn’t a great deal he could do. He could solely sound out his monolog underneath the quagmire of his thought, mind as well as consideration.

Such a pity for General Lie… He still can’t forget Princess Wang and give up his love feeling for Princess Wang so that he starts to get ill like this. General Lie is a very kind-hearted knight and general here in this kingdom. Everybody, including me, wishes that we could do something for him to unite with Princess Wang again. And…

The male maid was seen bringing away General Lie Jun Xiong further and further.

***

Meanwhile, Princess Wang Xiu Mei had been tortured, nervous, agitated, sorrowful and miserable since the day time till the night time alone in her massive, elegant and luxurious bedroom. She couldn’t do anything either to free herself from the marriage she didn’t expect for, from the man whom she hated, she loathed and she detested.

Princess Xiu Mei sniffed harshly, sadly and miserably. Living as a princess in the past, she was forced to accept as well as to lead her destiny, her life, her love, even her marriage which was determined by others. She didn’t have any freedom to determine, to fight for as well as to struggle for her love happiness as well as exhilaration.

Princess Xiu Mei could also merely sound out her monolog underneath the ocean of her heart, soul, and mind.

Do I really have to lose Brother Jun Xiong from tonight on? If so, then… like what I’ve promised before… This purity, virginity as well as originality of mine can merely be given to my beloved Brother Jun Xiong. It’s only him who deserves me, deserves my whole life as well as my body, my purity, and my originality… Besides him, I won’t be willing to hand in myself to any other men, particularly that shit and bad ass Muk Khai Khai…!

Before he touches me, before he lays down any of his fingers on me, I’ve promised to myself then… I’ll totally quell all of these; I’ll utterly quell all of this suffering, torturing, hellish, and vicious life of mine. Everything will soon finish… Yeah… Yeah… Everything will soon come to an end…

Brother Jun Xiong… Brother Jun Xiong… Should there really be next life, I’ll certainly wait for you in the next life. I’ll also look for you; we’ll bump into each other again; we’ll continue this unfinished and incomplete love story of ours in the next life. Brother Jun Xiong… Brother Jun Xiong… Will you search for me in the next life?

***

The scenes as well as visions soon stopped for a little while. Miss Kitty opened her eyes right now. She turned her head round and round. She found herself already inside her own house again. She wasn’t in the middle of the world of Sumico’s past anymore. She found herself already coming back to the present world.

“What did you see, Miss Kitty?” asked Mrs. Yulia Kammal Lowie a bit impatiently.

“Still some of the past… Not the future yet…” replied Miss Kitty briefly, within her quite relaxed fashion.

“Past…? Past…? Are you sure in the past?” Mrs. Yulia Kammal somewhat frowned her forehead.

“Of course, Mrs. Yulia Kammal… You aren’t doubting my ability being a professional psychic, are you?” quipped Miss Kitty reasonably meaningfully as well as cynically.

“But this younger daughter of mine is solely eight years old… She can’t have any past because she’s still a young and small kid, Miss Kitty…” mumbled Mrs. Yulia Kammal within her immense wonder as well as vast confusion.

“Hehehe… You’re really like a fish living in a small pond for almost your whole life, Mrs. Yulia Kammal…” quipped the young psychic, still with her fairly relaxed manner.

“A small fish? What actually do you mean by giving me that kind of comparison, Miss Kitty?” Mrs. Yulia Kammal’s two eyebrows were seen having met up with each other on her forehead.

The young psychic subsequently began her narration. “Let me finish this simile of mine first, Mrs. Yulia Kammal… You’re really like a fish living in a small pond for almost your whole life. One day, you bumped into a tortoise. This tortoise actually derived from the similar small pond of yours. But, because she was a tortoise, she could live both on land and in water. This tortoise had just come back from her holiday on the mountain.

“This tortoise was going to tell you like this, ‘I’ve just been to the mountain. The scenery over there is immensely beautiful, breath-taking and picturesque.’

“Of course you didn’t understand, so you asked again, ‘Mountain? It must be muddy, wet and full of water. How can it be beautiful, breath-taking and picturesque?’

“The tortoise said again, ‘No… It’s vastly beautiful… It’s immensely unforgettable… There are lots and lots of trees, birds as well as flowers… It’s so gorgeous…’

“You became more and more confused, so you asked again, ‘Trees? Birds? Flowers? Do you mean seaweeds? Prawns? Crabs? Coral reefs?’

“The tortoise argued again, ‘No… No… No… Those aren’t what I mean… I mean trees… The real trees, the real birds which can fly freely on the sky, and the beautifully colorful flowers…’

“You quibbled over what the tortoise had said again, ‘Flying? Swimming you mean?’

“And then both of you kept quibbling over the unnecessary matters among trees, birds, flowers, crabs, prawns, seaweeds, as well as coral reefs… It was such an endless, continuous and useless argument between you and the tortoise…” Miss Kitty was heard putting her narration to an end. She was subsequently seen sipping her warm chocolate.

“Okay… So, what actually do you mean by that simile of yours, Miss Kitty?” asked Mrs. Yulia Kammal frowning and frowning her forehead deeply.

“You were asking about Sumico’s past which I told you, weren’t you?” asked back Miss Kitty, still in her pretty relaxed way.

Hearing that, Mrs. Yulia Kammal simply nodded her head.

Miss Kitty continued her explanation again, “Sumico’s past which I told you before isn’t the past when she was one year old until she was six or seven years old, but the past which is beyond the narrow as well as the limited world of the small pond in which you’re living for all these times…”

Mrs. Yulia Kammal was simply staring at Miss Kitty, still with her rather vacant as well as blank eyesight, still with her quite lots of question-marks underneath the quagmire of her mind, thought as well as consideration.

Miss Kitty was subsequently seen sipping her warm chocolate again. “Okay… I can already guess that you won’t understand, even believe what I’ll tell you. So, just be like this... For these temporary times, I can merely tell you that she’ll live her happy, exhilarating as well as exultant life. More than that, I can’t tell you first. Okay?”

“So, when will you tell me the complete story about her ‘past’ which you’ve mentioned before?” asked Mrs. Yulia Kammal curiously.

“When the time she’s ready to get married later on, I’ll definitely tell you the story about the ‘past’ which I’ve mentioned quite a couple of moments before. Okay…? Deal…?” This time, the young psychic was seen quaffing her rather cool chocolate until her mug was empty.

“Okay then… But may I bring her here to get your blessing every year?” asked Mrs. Yulia Kammal again.

“Of course… The door of this house of mine is always opened, warmly welcoming you and your family, Mrs. Yulia Kammal…” said Miss Kitty in her quite relaxed manner.

Shortly afterwards, Mrs. Yulia Kammal brought her daughter coming out of the psychic’s quaint old wooden house.