The Memory of Yin Yang
Sharon Tang, Group 3: Fiction, HKUGA College
he moon was full when Ngan Yang left Qin Yin. The light was shining on the ground, where they both
stood, waiting for their separation enforced by Yin’s father, fuming about his daughter’s forbidden love.
The King of the Qin Empire did not punish his daughter that night. Qin Yin knew, from her father’s
mind, that he thought that the boy was at fault.
As the father of the palace sat on his throne, concerned with the night’s sudden turn of
events, Qin Yin and Ngan Yang said their final goodbyes outside the dungeon. Yang held the princess’s hands
as she wept, but she tried to keep her smile when the guards took Ngan Yang away, deep into the dungeon. They
both tried to reach for each other, as Yang went deeper into the darkness, and Yin went to stand under the stars.
That was the last time, they thought, that they could meet, and the next day, Yang would be forced to follow the
guards of the palace, and climb over the steps of the Wall in the mountains, enslaved to finish the construction
of a soon-to-be gargantuan structure.
“
Princess Qin, the emperor wishes to see you.”
Yin rose from her bed, her eyes teary and red from crying in the night, and the lack of sleep, thinking
of Ngan Yin.
“
Tell him I’ll be there, after I get dressed.”
“
I understand.”
The servant turned and left the room. Yin pondered plans of escape. She knew she still had a chance
to save Yang from his enslavement. Her life was his, and his was hers, that was what they had sworn on the
Wall, where they had first met.
She would escape, and she wouldn’t let anyone find her.
“
Princess Qin.” A knock came from the door, “The emperor demands to see you now.”
She opened the door.
“
I said I would be there when I finished getting dressed.” She frowned at the maid.
The maid looked down at the ground, her hands clasped tightly. “I apologize, my lady, but the
emperor said it was urgent.”
“
Alright, alright.”
Qin Yin stepped out of the room. The maid led her through the garden. Qin Yin held her hand above
her head to block the sun from entering her eyes.
On their way on the palace grounds, they kept silent. The maid knew what the princess had done.
Everybody knew. Rumors had been going around late in the night, when Yin was deep in remorse lying on her
bed. Rumors, consisting of the princess’ drastic fate in store for her.
“
Do you have something to say, Chan Shou?”
The maid turned in astonishment. She stood there frozen on the stone steps. She did not expect such a
question, but had the answer to hide her thoughts nonetheless, “I apologize, my lady. Nothing is the matter.
Please, the emperor is waiting.” She stared as the princess Qin entered the doors of the grand palace, for the very
last time.
Ngan Yang thought he was going to die on the way to the Great Wall.
“
Stop moaning, brat! We don’t have all day lying here doing nothin’. Now stand up!” The mustached
guard who brought him on to the Wall grabbed his whip on his slash, and held it up in the air. “The General got
orders from the emperor and says to get hard on ya,” He crackled, his whip landing on Yang’s back. “And I
didn’t get no orders saying not to kill ya!”
Yang bit his lower lip. The pain stung on his back. He did not know what to do. He could not move.
Lying on the floor, he shifted to look at the guard gripping onto the heinous string of rubber. Had Yin been
bestowed with the same fate Yang was suffering from?
He stared at the other slaves in front of him. There were thousands of them, working to escape death
that hangs on the precipice of the tip of the Wall guards’ whips every second as they worked through the long,
hot days.
He sighed in devastation. No, they would not help him. They were afraid to die.
“
Hey, just ta give you a reason to work for,” the guard smirked, “heard in the castle grounds that ya
girl is gonna die later for what she’s done.” He stopped, and leaned downward on to the ground to whisper in
Yang’s ear, “for what you’ve done.”
The air was filled with the guard’s mocking laugher.
T