He was drenched in sweat after thinking of the whipping again, hands busily wiping off the sticky sudor
on his forehead. Suddenly he heard a loud screech at the door. Ming shifted uncomfortably in her sleep. A guard
was opening the prison door, a few dark shadows behind him.
The door was flung open. A man with fancy clothing rushed into the cell and woke up Ting. It must be her
father.
“
Ting, Ting! We’ve gotten you out of here! Let’s get out of this rotten place!” He pulled his daughter’s
hand and headed out of the cell. Ting felt guilty of leaving Ming alone there, and smiled abashedly as her father
took her hand, whispered something to the tanned boy.
“
We meet again, where we see twilight.”
He squatted at the corner of the cell, hands on his forehead. He was very desperate to get out of this
“
living hell”- as other would call it. Every night a collided scope of memories would come back into his head,
his mind replaying those happy times where they used to be so carefree, sitting on the mass piece of grassland,
watching the smokes of still-glowing amber piping out of the clouds, the dark turquoise spreading around the
sky. He would often wake up in the middle of the night, a loud scream rebounding the limits of the sky, as a
sharp blade goes down a transgressor’s throat, the silvery metal ending another life. For many years had he been
trapped in this small place, concealed in his state of fear and confusion, his mind deranged. When the day of
freedom arrived, he stumbled out of the stony prison cell, and ran miles away to somewhere he truly loved.
It was still the same sun, the same purple-red rays shining through the horizon, the same patch of green
grass where they used to sit on. Ming had aged. She had white messy hair rather than brown lustrous curls. Her
skin wrinkled at some spots and her voice was a bit cracked up. She walked carefully not to trip over anything
and sat down at the spot they used to, some decades ago. They used to sit there in silence while seeing the
colourful show nature had put on herself, the radiating sunrays shining through different layers of the sky.
The same silhouette appeared over the darkening sky. The same tanned boy who used to sit at that very
spot to appreciate sunset.She saw him walking slowly towards her, her lips curled up into a jubilant smile. He
sat down next to her, wrapping his arms around her. She snuggled closer to him, her head on his shoulder. They
would sit here until the sun had gone, darkness engulfing every last bit of light. By coincidence, or not, they met
at the They would write a new love tale in the Great Wall, upon the walls of which stood silently for some
millennia, where many other couples have made promises and laid affections on each other.
* * *