Time Rip

Chapter 28 Stabbing, Sickness and Living Beliefs

Bao Li View

I finished bathing myself. I honestly had not felt so refreshed in ages. The pleasantly warm water lulled me to sleep for a bit, but the bath was designed with this in mind as it framed my body's position well, and I did not slip down into the water and drown. I felt guilty for a whole 2 seconds about being in the bath so long, but remembering Fergus's words, "Pretend you are royalty in the bath," I did not feel bad anymore; I had merely followed his advice.

I scrubbed myself off one final time; the water, which was clear and sparkly before I entered, was now a brown sludge. Hardly surprising since I had been acting my role consistently since I had donned it. I exited the water and towelled myself dry before donning the cotton clothes left for me. I marvelled at the softness of the clothes, and they felt durable too. I nodded my head in satisfaction as I cleaned up the bathroom as best I could.

I did not know how to empty the tub, so I left the room and spoke to the person everyone called Grandma in the kitchen.

"Excuse me, Grandma," I bowed to the older lady earning myself a "Tch."

"Tch, young one," she scolded me, "I am not royalty; I am just a common labourer. Treating me with such airs and graces is silly."

"But I thought you were the Fang households elder," I said, confused by the others calling her grandma.

"I am the oldest here, this is true, but I am not the female head of the house," she explained, "That role falls to Lady Fang - General Fang's wife."

"But why then do they all call you Grandma?" I wondered.

"That is a long story," she smiled a toothless smile at me, "Are you sure you want to hear it?"

"I do," I nodded and pulled up the seat from earlier to listen as she continued cooking.

"My granddaughter-in-law was brought to this house to nurse the babes of General Fang and his wife. I am pretty sure she would have fed them herself, but from what I was told, was incapacitated from a knife wound to the stomach to remove the babies."

"What do you mean knife wound? Was she stabbed?" I asked in horror; just what was this woman made of that she survived a stabbing?

"You could say that," she said, "What I was told was the old man that sits in the sun here - he cut her open and removed the children and a mass of flesh, then he sewed her up. He decided to stay here rather than return with his apprentice. I guess Lady Fang was like a daughter to him, leastways that is how she treats him, like a father figure. Lady Fang said that she was friends with his daughter for a time."

"I see, so why did General Fang let him stay?" I wondered; it was not typical for this sort of arrangement.

"Because he saved his wife, obviously," the old woman swatted me for my foolishness, "Anyway, my daughter-in-law was feeding all three babies during the day and returning home at night. Her baby died in the night from suffocation, as best we can tell, so she swapped her baby for the Lady's without consulting nor telling anyone.

Her crime was found out by the Lady straight away, and the magistrate was called to rule on the event. The magistrate ruled in the Lady's favour. He was very thorough and wise in his method. The magistrate was going to punish us, but the Lady spoke up and gave us a home here as a family. Our family has been here ever since, not wanting for anything.

All of our family would die to protect the Lady now. She allows us to keep our own ancestors too and encourages us to keep our faith, even though hers is different from ours."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"She says she worships the Jewish God and his son Jesus, I do not know who either of them are, but I believe them to be powerful Gods, but she allows us to attend to our beliefs at the temple here on the day she and the elderly man hold a ceremony of sorts with the immediate Fang family here. Since my daughter-in-law's life was spared, she attends with them, but she does not understand anything except that she says she feels like a burden is taken from her each Saturday.