AnYi 安亦

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Take the first line of your favorite novel. Remove and replace the nouns and verbs, and write a story that begins with your new line. Delete the first line.

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IT WAS INEVITABLE: the smell of bitter herbs always spoke to him of the longing of unrequited hope. The tall man stopped at the wooden door, raised his hand, but his fingers halted in the air, barely an inch from the rusty doorknobs.

‘Don’t just stand there.’ An old, tired voice rang from behind the door. ‘You’re breathing too loudly.’

With a soft push, the door opened, just as a gust of wind with the scent of herbs and orchid flowers filled his lungs. He took a deep breath before stepping into the front yard. There was a hint of moonlight; everything else was in dark shadows, including the figure sitting on the porch.

Neither spoke at first. Crickets sang in the bushes nearby, a distinctive autumn sound.

‘Shifu, I’m back.’ The tremor in his voice was barely noticeable. After a pause, a deep sigh came from the chair, as the thin, frail figure rose; it only took several steps to get to where he stood, but old age seemed to have taken its toll on his Shifu, who placed extreme care on each step, between coughs, swaying in the wind.

‘Shifu.’ He muttered. This time, he sounded choked, his hands visibly trembling. Two calloused hands took hold of them. He was a little shocked to realise how small she was – she had to look up at him now. But her eyes still had that steady flame in them, even in the dark, as if they were able to look right through his mind. He couldn’t quite meet her gaze, but felt her hands move towards his arms and torso, gently measuring his muscles.

She finally spoke, her voice softer than he had expected or thought he deserved.

‘Look how you’ve grown.’

He couldn’t help it; tears welled up in his eyes as he dropped to his knees, making a noise that would have usually shattered one’s bones. He hugged her legs as he cried, long and earnest, like a wounded animal finally returning to its herd. She sighed again, patting him affectionately on the head, in such a familiar gesture that he cried even harder.

‘I’m sorry, Shifu. I have disappointed you…it was all my doing…all brothers and sisters …I really didn’t mean to –’ he managed to stutter out some broken words, but she interrupted him with gentle firmness.

‘I know what you came here for.’ she drew apart from his clutch, looking down at his tear-stained face. ‘And you know my answer.’

‘But Shifu…’

‘Let us talk no more of this tonight.’ she held up a hand; he recognised the sign and went silent. ‘It is late, and I am old now. Gone are the days when I had the strength for such things. Come back tomorrow if you have to.’

She turned around and entered the house. He quickly wiped his face and picked himself back up from the ground, as if nothing had just happened.

Except that he took away an orchid flower with him.

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The troop gathered at first light. Farmers who went by couldn’t help but cast curious looks on them – rumour soon spread across the small town that the Emperor’s Special Force had surrounded the house of Auntie Bai Lan. No one could fail to recognise their uniform. Gossip had it that even Captain Lin himself was there.

Captain Lin was very quiet this morning. His soldiers knew him too well to inquire after his bad mood; only his adjutant voiced his surprise at the decaying appearance of the house.

‘Here? Orchid Shadow lives here?’

Lin nodded, the lines of his mouth tightening.

‘But she used to be the greatest swordswoman across five kingdoms! “East Orchid and West Stone”; the other one lives in a mansion, doesn’t he? You’d think she’d have some standards…’

‘Don’t talk rubbish about things you don’t understand.’ Lin held up his hand; the young adjutant subsided immediately. However, that only lasted a moment.

‘Captain, do we really have to arrest Orchid Shadow? She hasn’t done anything against us yet, has she?’

‘She refused to take a position in His Majesty’s court.’

‘But we can try to persuade her, right? It may be just she’s been too isolated from the world to know what’s been going on.’

‘It’s no use. She will not accept it.’

‘Does that make her our enemy?’

‘His Majesty will not allow any danger.’

‘But she really sounds like a real hero in all the stories…my great uncle says when he was young, she happened to travel through our village and saved a whole family from the oppression of evil soldiers – of course that was before His Majesty established the new dynasty, we’re nothing like them – and she’s always been revered where I grew up. People used to fight for the chance to be her pupils, right? But I think she stopped taking pupils fifteen years ago; I wasn’t even born at the time… such a shame they all died so young, isn’t it?’

Lin took a deep look at the adjutant’s face. It was still painfully boyish, reflecting something bright and innocent that Lin could no longer find in himself. He signalled for the troop to form the rehearsed phalanx and pulled the boy to a position behind him.

‘They did not all die.’ Lin said, hand on his sword. ‘The youngest is still alive.’

The wooden door sprang open just as the first spray of sunlight broke through the clouds. Bai Lan stood at the centre of the painted threshold, thin and frail like the sickly old woman that she was, but no one caught a glimpse of the movement, when she drew out her sword with such zeal that was almost impossible for her age; a collective shiver went through the armoured soldiers as her gaze circled around them.

It eventually fell upon Lin, whose face remained expressionless. They exchanged a look. A tired, knowing smile appeared on Bai Lan’s wrinkled face.

‘You were once my brightest pupil, Little Lin. Have you finally come to kill me?’