Hui Chi read page by page, sentence by sentence. Each paragraphs was short, but detailed enough to know what happened."One afternoon, my sister asked me to run an errand for her. This was the first time she gave me a task. I was quite happy she relied on me. I ran to the store and got some papers and inks. The next morning, my sister woke me up early to teach me how to write. She was thrilled when I wrote my first letter. I have never seen my sister that happy. So I woke up every morning to learn."
"One late morning, I saw some children playing down the block. The game looked so fun, I wanted to join. I walked up to them and stood by to watch but they hated me. They yelled at me to go away as I was a dirty child. They said my sister was dirty that she works in a dirty place. Those words angered me. I punched one of the children who said mean things about my sister. Later that day, the children"s parents came and yelled at my sister and the people at the brothel. I got my sister in trouble but I will never forget the disdain faces those parents."
Hui Chi flipped onto the next page. He noticed that early in the book, there wasn"t really any concept of time, but seems like recalled memories written down at a much later time then after the event happened.
"I was punished. The boss of my sister said I was old enough to put to work. I learned how to wash clothes, cooked, and gathered fireworks. I was not very good at cooking and the fireworks were quite heavy. My sister begged her boss to just let me wash clothes and cooks as I was still small to do labor work."
"One day, I questioned my sisters about my parents. She remained quite and told me that one day when I"m a little older, she will tell me about our parents. She said our home was a very beautiful place, our father and mother were very handsome and beautiful people. When I"m old enough to make long trip, she will take me there."
"One night, when I was around eight years old, my sister woke me up and told me, if I want to go home, we have to leave quietly. I was ecstatic and quietly got up. My sister and I snuck out of the house but was spotted by one of the guards. We ran and ran in the dead of the night, but the guards caught up to us. My sister acted as a decoy so I could get away. She was killed and I jumped into the river. When I came to, I was in a little hut somewhere deep in the mountain."
"Grandma found me and took me in. She taught me how to survive in the mountain. The image of my sister slayed never left my mind. One day when I"m strong enough, I will go back and get my revenge."
"On a beautiful afternoon, I heard sword clashing during one of my routine hunt. As I rushed towards the sounds, I saw a young boy being chased by some men. It made me thought of my sister, our escape a year ago. With my bow and arrows, I shot two bad men but I was found out. One of the bad men chased after me. He was strong and seemed experience in killing. I thought I was going to get killed for sure, how come I"m still so weak after a year? Eventually, I was able to kill the bad guy by sheer luck and took the young boy back to the hut. I asked him to teach me how to fight, but he insisted that he may not have time and gave me a pendant as a promise and will thank me later. The pendant shines like glitter in sapphire color with a golden dragon wrapped around it."
Hui Chi continued to read Hli Ja and Mua Kong"s two weeks they spent together until the day she led Hue Chi out of the mountain.
"When I arrived back to the hut that evening, grandma and I was attacked by a.s.sa.s.sins. Mua Kong and I had let one a.s.sa.s.sin escaped and they could be coming back to get revenge. Luckily, grandma has a secret ground hideout camouflaged on the floor. The a.s.sa.s.sins missed the hideout. After some hours later when there was no more movement above, grandma and I came out. We decided to leave the place completely. Grandma decided that it would be best for us to live among people. We found a nice town to settle into. After a few years, I made the trip to Buffalo Mountain to find the brothel that slayed my sister but the place no longer exist. It was rumored that the place was shut down and burnt to the ground a few years back."