（novel）Heartbeat Part VII A Scared Talk With Cao Cao
2017-03-03
Heartbeat
By Yifei Wang（王怡菲）, a 7th grader of Zhengzhou Middle School
7 . A Scared Talk With Cao Cao
A few minutes after I close the bathroom door behind me, I wear myself something which an ancient girl should be wearing. With my hair in sort of a puffy way, and wearing a long tight dress, well I can only describe it as a dress but it’s actually not. “Are you going to a fashion show or something?” Akeva puts down his water bottle. “No, that’s what girls were supposed to wear at that time. This cloth thingy is my ten’s birthday present, thank god I still fit in.” I tuck my sleeve a little, “You need to change too, and we won’t want people to stare at us either. Just so you know, Chinese boys and men are all long hair.”
Akeva groans, “Does that mean I have to wear a wig or something?” “No, as a matter of fact, I don’t have one, but you do need to change into this sort of robe thingy.” I hold up a dark purple clothes. “Gosh, these people are crazy.” Akeva walks towards the bathroom while taking the clothes.
Maybe three minutes later, Akeva and I are all ready for the big time. “How long will this machine take to get to the Han Dynasty?” I ask impatiently. “Well, it has to take some time.” Akeva answers slowly.
“But Racheal, why don’t you let me pretend that I’m a Chinese too?” Akeva asks, making his cloth a more comfortable shape. “Because we will need that to get attentions.” I answer. “And about your mother, the Three Kingdom is very dangerous. So basically there were three kingdoms, and they wanted to get the whole China under its control. So there were often wars.”
“Get that, I don’t get why my dad will choose this place to send my mom.” Akeva looks up at the scene. “And let’s see which part of this history we will be in, I know this part of history quit well.” I say.
Then the machine comes to a halt. “Finally, we are here!” Akeva cried. My heart however, is very down. “What’s wrong with you, Racheal?” Asks Akeva. “You don’t know what you are going to face,” I sign, “The three kingdoms are extremely dangerous, and if your mom really is here, then she will be in big trouble. And maybe I should just introduce you to some key people in this part of the history.”
“Go on” Akeva says. “So, the three kingdoms are Wu, Wei, Shu,” I explain slowly, and try to make my pronunciation of these Chinese word easy for Akeva to understand. “Okay, Wu Wei Shu. Got that!” Akeva snaps a really loud one. “And the king for Wu is called ‘Sun Bofu’,” “Okay, that’s a weird name. That’s how Chinese names are.” I say impatiently. “And the king for Wei is “Cao Pi”. But his father ‘Cao Mengde’ did the most of the work for him before he dies, anyway.” I stop a little, to look outside the window, “Where are we anyway?”
“Somewhere in a forest, I don’t know, just go on with the story.” Akeva answers. “Okay, and the third kingdom, its king is ‘Liu Xuande’. So these three kingdoms, they often have fights and stuff. None of them got all the lands of China though.” I say. “Maybe we should just list the names easier, like king A or king B or something like that.” Akeva pleads. “That sounds a great idea.” I think about that for a while and at last agree.
Thank god I brought pen and papers with me:
King of Wei, Cao Mengde = King CMKing of Wu, Sun Bofu = King SWKing of Shu, Liu Xuande=King LW
“I thought you said that this King CM’s son was the king.” Akeva stares down at the paper and asks. “Yeah, but I doubt it that we have traveled that far, we would probably only in CM’s time.” I explain.“Oh, that’s complicated” Akeva says, “Plus, can I please change into my own clothes? This thingy is really uncomfortable.” “Nope, that’s what you should wear. And look at me, this fabric is killing me, I’m not even wincing a bit.”I say shortly. “Okay, then, let’s not waste any time, and go!” Akeva is about to rush out, when I pull him back again. “What now?” Akeva groans, rubbing his arm. “There are like killers in the mountains, and thieves, and bunch of other dangerous people,” I warn him seriously, “And do you have any protection like when we get into trouble and will get killed, you just need to do some simple thing and let the machine appear near us?” “Yep, all in my pocket,” Akeva shows me a small blue controller, “I found this in my dad’s drawer, and from what I know about it, it can not only do what you ordered, and also it can protect you from harm. Like it can cast a wall between you and the danger whatever, and save your life. All you need to do is to press the button here.” Akeva says proudly.
“Okay, now I think it is safe to go.” I say. Giving Akeva the bag. I’m not about to carry it myself, since it’s so heavy. Akeva groans as I help him to get the bag on his shoulders, because the ancient clothes are just not our type.
The sun is shining high above us, which light shines through the leaves and falls to the ground. The birds are singing happily, but we are not. “I believe that we are lost.” I say. Before Akeva can say anything, I lift up my waist and tap my “TDH” three times.
Lizzy pops up. She looks around and says quite confused, “Hello Racheal, are you in the woods of the suburbs?” “No, we are actually in the woods of nearly two thousand years ago.” I smile.
Lizzy still looks really confused for a second before she clenches her face just like what Benny did. “Oh, no, Oh no no no no!” She cries, “Why did you come here, and you too, Mr. Cardamone, this is out of bound, I’m going to tell Mr. Cardamone. This gotta to be taken care of!” “Jeez, calm down Lizzy, we are in the Three Kingdoms.”I say quietly, trying to make Lizzy reasonable. “What on earth you guys are in the Three Kingdoms, you do know there are lot of wars going on, and murderous, thieves.” Lizzy shouts. Her voice sounds really loud in the quiet woods.
“Oh just shh!” Akeva holds up a hand to stop Lizzy. “But, this is defiantly not right!” Lizzy’s eyes are full of tears. “Actually I always have a question for you, Akeva,” I turn around,＂For all I know, you can’t just give someone feelings, like Lizzy and Benny, they are like living creatures.” “Well, they are not just images,” Akeva says, “They are actually, how do you call it, a living thing and dad just let them become is, you know, give them ability to speak and think, making them the smartest brains in the whole world. I stare down at them, “But it’s not allowed!”I say,＂You can’t just catch a thing and then turn them into images.” “They ask to do that, and the rules are that they can’t obey their creator and master’s orders, they can’t like do things themselves. And last, they will have to make sure that their masters don’t get a hit of the time machine’s secret.” Akeva says calmly.
“Oh, and what if they bent the rules?”I look down at Lizzy, who is now sobbing, “They lose their jobs. In another words, they are nothing, nothing useful, no anything in the space” Akeva says shortly. “That’s a good thing, who will want to be locked up all the time right, Lizzy?” Lizzy shakes her head. “You see the problem then.” Akeva shrugs.
“Okay. Just tell us the way to get out of here!” I order. Lizzy looks up at me with wary eyes. For a second, I think she is going to just pop back and never comes out again, but she disappears, and a big red point begins to show. “What a good, kind elf!” Akeva says sarcastically.
We begin to walk through the woods, “I don’t get Chinese.” Akeva says, pulling his cloths upper. “First, this dress-like thingy is really not for me, and second, I don’t feel like walking in this pair of grassy shoes, either.”Akeva groans.＂Live with it, the faster we find Ms. Cardamone, the faster you will change back into your clothes.”
Just as we talk, a sound of horse riding comes near. “Wow, is it really cheap to have a chance riding horses in ancient China? Akeva says very excitedly. “Er, not exactly, there was no cars here. So basically if you want to go somewhere, you have to ride a horse.” I explain. The horse stops in front of us, the man riding it asks, “Who are you?”
Because it’s ancient Chinese, so it takes me a while to understand it, “Ah, we are just harmless children, yeah, right. Totally.” I say extremely slowly, trying to say as normal as possible.
The man stares at Akeva for a while, his eyes full of surprise. “Is this your brother?” He asks. “Ah, no, we are just um,” I stop a little to search for the word ‘Friend’ and how to say it in ancient Chinese, but fail, “classmates.”
“What’s ‘classmates?’” The man asks, he is showing great interest to Akeva. “Ah, you need to learn more, do you like even go to school?” I ask.
“Are you guys like friends or something?” The man asks. Crud, if only I knew that he can understand what ‘friend’ means, I wouldn’t make a fool of myself.
“Ah, yeah, exactly.” I answers. “Can he talk?” the man asks. “Hey, of course I can.” Akeva suddenly says. I look at him with great surprise. “Since when you can understand Chinese?” I ask him in English. “Well, I only know ‘Can’t’ and ‘Talk’ and he was looking at me so I just said that.” “You have to see my master, come on, up on the horse.” The man says.
Akeva helps me up to the horse, and we begin to move quickly through the woods. Honestly, I have to say, I hate horse riding. The whole way is so bumpy. But Akeva seems to be alright with the uncomfortable ride. “The sky is so clear two thousand years ago,” Akeva says, pointing at the clear blue sky. “Yeah, because there was no cars at that time.” I says quickly, and then keep my mouth shut. I’m afraid that I might throw up. “Horse riding seems to be really fun,” Akeva says, “But I don’t think I like how people just bring swords with them everywhere.”
I nod, the man looks back at us, and we fall silent. We arrive at the city. It’s so crowded with people, and sedans pulled by horses are running alone the dusty road.
“Lord, that looks disgusting.” Says Akeva, he is pointing at a cake-look thingy. “Coming out so soon, Zhan?” A man with his sword says to the horse-riding man. “Yeah, gotta take these kids to master.” The man on the ground stares at us for a while, then he opens his mouth, and closes it again. At last, he nods and lets us go. “Ah, may I ask who is your master?” I say, holding my voice long, so my voice doesn’t seem so weird. “Cao Mengde.” The man says shortly, not looking back. “That’ the king CM, right?” Akeva whispers, “Yep, that’s exactly in my plan.” I whisper back and smile at the setting sun.
The horse stops at a huge mansion. “The king must be rich,” Akeva compliments, “But I don’t think much of his taste though, this house looks so ugly.” “That’s what houses used to look like in China. And this one should be the fanciest one in the whole city” I answer calmly. We follow the man into the house. The house has a huge yard in front and around it, with a lake, gardens and all that luxury stuff.
“When you guys come and see my master, must do the usual thing, you know?” The man says to us. “Ah,“ I nod knowingly as I’m actually one of the rich people’s family or something and then failed to act anymore,” wait, what is the ‘usual thing’” I ask. But it’s too late, the man has already pushed us into the house.
Okay, I have to admit that King CM does look kind of different from my imagination. “My master.” The man kneels to the ground and bumps his head on the floor. “Is this the ‘usual thing’” I say disbelievingly. “Arise, please.” The king says. His glance, however, falls on us, “How dare you!” He shouts.
“What did we do?” Akeva asks. “Master,” The man does this weird thing with his hands that look kind of like a fist, “These children, whom I found in the forest, are quite different, especially this one.” He pulls Akeva in front of the king.
CM looks at Akeva for a long time. “Umm, it does seem really strange how human can look like this.” CM murmurs. “Where are you from?” He asks. Akeva just stands there, saying nothing. “Is he a deaf?” CM asks the man. “No, but for now, he doesn’t speak anything that we can understand.” The man answers.
“Umm, interesting. Maybe something wrong with his brains. This does happen quite a bit, when your brains isn’t normal, you can’t look normal.” CM touches his mustache. His hand does this flip thing that I take it as a sign to let me come front. “Ah, nice to meet you sir!” I say slowly, wondering whether I should do the same greeting thingy the man just did. “Can you talk to him?” CM asks. “Ah yes of course.” I nod extremely slowly. Akeva lets out a sound that’s between a cough and a laugh.
“Show me then.” The king says. I walk up to Akeva. “Hello, Akeva my friend, how’s things about your dad?” I say. “Um, fine about him, I guess.” Akeva says uncertainly. I guess he has no idea what just happened.
“Good, where are you from?” CM, asks. “From… um … this really good place.” I answers. “What about him?” CM ASKS, JERKING HIS FINGER AT Akeva. “He is from,” I stop and look around, I don’t know if these ancient people know that the world is more than China, “From the place outside your heaven and earth.” I answer with great difficulty.
“Ah, I see, Zhan takes them to the house you know which one for them, and let them take a rest. These children look like they are from some wealthy family, [probably brothers and sisters. Keep them well, and we won’t want anything happened to them. Since we just moved here, I doubt killing some harmless, from the rich family kids who will do us any favor. We will discuss the rest of the things tomorrow.” The man takes us to a red building with a huge yard, a little smaller than the king’s though. “Ah, I would very much like a meal.” I say. The man looks like me as I’m some out-space monster.
“Ah, what’s wrong?” I asks, honestly, I’m a little scared now. For all I know, ancient Chinese people just killed each other when they got angry. I see Akeva staring down at the sword which the man is holding, and swallowing loudly.
I will ask my master.” He simply says. I sign, “Looks like we are going to have a rough time here.” “What kind of bed is this?” Says Akeva disbelievingly, “I mean, look at it, it’s so hard and without any covers.”
“That’s what they sleep on, obviously,” I answer quit calmly, “I’ve seen worse on TV.” “Gosh.” Akeva groans. I’m not too happy with it either. What I want to do now is just to go back to my own time, and never travel back again. “Did you bring any food? I’m starving. Plus, I’m extremely not satisfied with their service here.” Akeva says. I zip open the bag and give him a pack of chips. “Do you get it, Akeva?” I say, “We are alone, in another time tunnel, with scary killers and wars, and plus we don’t have any money!”
“The king has enough money, and it’s enough for us to live for like a thousand years. And it seems to me that we have been treated fairly, for they probably have mistaken us by some wealthy kids or something.” Akeva shrugs. The door suddenly opens, and Zhang something comes in, holding a plate with some meals on it. “His Master gives our guests all this.” He says quietly, “Tomorrow, we will have a war against the Wu, and the king wants you guys to follow.” “Ah, have you guys already tied the ships together?” Before I realize what I’m saying, the words just slip out of my mouth.
Zhang’s hand holds his sword tightly, and stares at me. I look down at my feet, “Yes.” He says finally, and turns to leave. “No!” I shout behind him. But the gate closes, making a loud ‘bang’ in the silent night.
“Why do you say that to him?” Akeva asks. He frowns at me, which makes me very uncomfortable. “Because this is the famous Red Cliff War!” I explains desperately, “So basically, Cao Cao, the king CM, brings eight hundred and thirty thousands of army and thousands of officers near The Yangtze River, and wants to have a war with the Wu for the aim of controling its land. But there is a really smart guy called Zhou Yu in Wu, and he made a plan.” I stop a little to see if Akeva is still with me. “Go on.” He urges. “Okay, and he uses his plan to make, of course, there are lot of stuff about how he make, Cao Cao to tie all the ships together. I’m just telling you the main parts. And Cao Cao tied his ships together, then Zhou Yu burned them. The Cao army was brought nearly all dead.” “Oh so that’s why you are trying to tell him.” Akeva nods. I nod back.
We keep silent for a while, as the meal on the table is getting cold. “Uh, I hate this.” I say, picking up the chopstick. The meal is really simple, with soap and some vegetables. Except, that can’t be soup, it looks more like… “Does people in China drink wine even if they are a child?” Akeva asks. I stare down at the bowl too. It smells so bad. “Okay I guess you are right, but to keep living on this world, we’d better eat all this.” I say, rubbing my stomach.
Thank God that there are two beds in the room. “Good night,” I say in the darkness. Then I hear a sound near me saying quietly, “Good night, Racheal.”
(3223 words)
(To be continued)
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