Prolog: The Past or The Future?

From the outside, the house looked like a quaint old wooden house. It consisted of merely one storey. It was built from woods, combined with some irons and bricks. However, coming to the inside, the furniture as well as the interior design made that house look quite luxurious as well as sophisticated. There was some expensive as well as valuable furniture; there were also some smart, sophisticated as well as expensive machine devices in that house.

“What can I help you?” asked a young lady, approximately in her thirties to Mrs. Yulia Kammal Lowie. She was seen dressing up like the other usual and normal humans, but what was a bit special was her thick and floury white cosmetic powder on her face. That made her look slightly queer and strange.

“Like this, Miss Kitty…” Mrs. Yulia Kammal Lowie somewhat hesitated to speak up what she wanted to say to the psychic in front of her.

Miss Kitty was a young psychic, around her thirties, sitting in front of Mrs. Yulia Kammal Lowie and her eight-year-old daughter. The young lady carried on staring at Mrs. Yulia Kammal Lowie’s eight-year-old daughter with her eyesight which was difficult to be interpreted. Sometimes and occasionally, the young psychic would flick her hair backwards.

“This is my younger daughter – Sumico – Sumico Kammal Lowie… When she was born, there was another psychic saying that when she’s grown up later on, she’ll lead a totally happy, joyful, and exultant life. I want to know the complete story about her happy, joyful, and exultant life in the future, Miss Kitty.” Mrs. Yulia Kammal started her explanation about her purpose coming to the young psychic’s house.

“It wasn’t me who said that she’d lead her happy, joyful, and exultant life, Mrs. Yulia. You have to go to that psychic again, the psychic who’d said that this daughter of yours would lead her happy, joyful, as well as exultant life,” uttered the young psychic in her rather upset manner.

“But, that psychic passed away two months ago. She passed away before I got my time to ask the detailed as well as the complete story about my younger daughter’s future life,” tweeted Mrs. Yulia Kammal slightly doubtfully.

“And I’m asked to continue her story about the happy, joyful, as well as exultant future life of this younger daughter of yours then, aren’t I?” quipped the young psychic, still in her rather upset fashion.

“So, you see that this younger daughter of mine won’t lead such a happy, joyful, and exultant life in the future, don’t you?” asked Mrs. Yulia Kammal a bit doubtfully again.

“Okay then… Because I’m in my good mood, I’ll help you today, Mrs. Yulia Kammal… But next time make sure, don’t come here again if you’ve gone to another psychic’s place. One psychic’s foretelling as well as estimation mustn’t be compared with the others’. I hope you can understand this, Mrs. Yulia Kammal. This has become a kind of working ethics among us psychics.” Miss Kitty made her somewhat stronger emphasis.

“Oh, I see… I see… I’ve got it, Miss Kitty… Sorry… Really and really sorry… Because the previous psychic died two months ago, forcefully I have to come here and beg for your help…” Mrs. Yulia Kammal was heard apologizing.

“Okay then… Put your money on this table and we’ll begin our foretelling session right away…” Of course Miss Kitty wouldn’t start her foretelling as well as estimation session before she saw the amount of money she wanted.

Smiling enthusiastically, Mrs. Yulia Kammal put a few of Indonesian rupiah notes on a coffee table in front of the young psychic.

The young psychic in her thirties went on staring and staring at the eight-year-old Sumico Kammal Lowie again. In fact, Sumico felt reasonably awkward, restless and uneasy being stared like that. However, because she was still eight years old, because she still didn’t know how to express what she felt and what she wanted, she merely kept quiet at that time. She turned her eyesight towards another direction to reduce the awkwardness, restlessness, as well as uneasiness she felt.

Miss Kitty began to be able to view a kind of scene behind Sumico’s background world, beyond Sumico’s own imagination as well as consciousness. Miss Kitty could feel as well as realize that all of those scenes were well kept and saved within the world of Sumico’s sub-consciousness.

***

Suddenly, Miss Kitty found out that she’d gone back to a world hundreds and hundreds of years ago. Miss Kitty turned round and round her head. It seemed that she’d been cast to the middle of a massive and vast palace. She could find the people around her wearing Chinese traditional costumes as well as clothes hundreds and hundreds of years ago. She could also find quite lots and lots of Mandarin characters throughout the massive and vast palace.

“Excuse me… May I…” Miss Kitty tried to speak in Mandarin to a female maid she bumped into, but that female maid just passed by as though she couldn’t see Miss Kitty right in front of her.

“Excuse me… May I know where this is?” Miss Kitty asked in Mandarin again to two other female maids she bumped into. However, just the same with the first previous female maid, these two female maids also ignored Miss Kitty as though they couldn’t see her.

Finally, Miss Kitty realized that she was merely a shadow in the middle of this world in the past. She couldn’t have any contacts with the people in the past; she couldn’t communicate with anyone in this world of past either. She could solely watch, observe, enjoy as well as follow Sumico Kammal Lowie’s world of past.

“Such a pity for Princess Wang… Today she’s to get married with the son of General Muk…” muttered the first female maid.

“Yeah… She’s really suffered, tormented and tortured getting married with the man whom she doesn’t love…” continued the second female maid.

“But you know that Muk Khai Khai insists on forcing his love feeling towards our Princess Wang whereas he knows that our Princess Wang merely loves and adores our General Lie Jun Xiong…” followed the first female maid again.

“Such a pity for the most romantic, sincere, intimate as well as irreplaceable love story in this kingdom… That irreplaceable as well as unforgettable love story will soon come to an end…” commented the second female maid.

“What are you talking about?” Suddenly there came another older and more senior maid. She seemed to be their head, their supervisor or something like that.

“No, Madame… Nothing… We were merely discussing about our working schedule before, during and after the marriage between Mr. Muk Khai Khai and our beloved Princess Wang…” muttered the two previous female maids, started to be nervous, afraid and agitated.

“I know that isn’t what you were talking about…” hissed the older as well as senior female maid while slightly squinting her eyes.

“We’re sorry… We’re extremely sorry, Madame Xia…” pleaded the two female maids for mercy.

“No problem for me actually… But, I just want to warn you to be careful whenever you’d like to talk and discuss about the love story between our Princess Wang and General Lie. Don’t let General Muk hear what you were talking and discussing about. Or else, I can’t guarantee what will happen to your lives here in this palace. Do you understand?” warned Madame Xia more gently this time.

“Really and really sorry, Madame Xia… We’re extremely sorry… We won’t dare to discuss about it again…” said the two female maids extremely agitated and afraid of losing their lives.

“Okay… Go back to your work… The marriage ceremony is going to begin soon…” said Madame Xia gently.

The two female maids were seen walking away hastily and still agitatedly.

***

The night had soon come and covered the whole substantial and humongous palace. General Lie Jun Xiong had just come out from the main hall of the palace – the main hall belonging to the Emperor as well as the Empress of the kingdom.

“Thanks for accompanying me drinking some night warm tea tonight, Brother Jun Xiong…” said the young Emperor Wang, smiling brightly, broadly and exultantly.

“It’s been one my duties to accompany Thee, Your Highness…” General Lie Jun Xiong was solely seen smiling thinly.

“You still can’t forget your feeling towards my youngest sister, can you?” asked the young Emperor Wang somewhat squinting his eyes.

“I don’t dare… I don’t dare to possess any more feeling towards Xiu Mei… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… What I mean… What I mean is that I don’t dare to possess any more feeling towards Princess Wang…” mumbled General Lie a bit nervously and worriedly.

“Hahaha… Take it easy, Brother Jun Xiong… I know that you’ve got a heart and a feeling towards that youngest sister of mine since both of you were small kids…” Emperor Wang was heard chuckling joyfully and jovially.

“But now she’s got married with General Muk’s eldest son – Mr. Muk Khai Khai… I think from now on, I must quell this feeling of mine…” said General Lie Jun Xiong sadly, sorrowfully and miserably.

“Love is weakness, Brother Jun Xiong… My father used to say like that when I fell in love with My Queen at the first sight…” said Emperor Wang meaningfully and knowingly.

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