1 Little Sumi (1/2)
Shin Sumi's dad thought it was about time. He slowly pushed the creaking door open.
”Little Sumi, I want to talk to you about something.”
”Father ?”
Shin Sumi lifted her head from the book she was reading. When reading, she was often close to being lost in another world, hence why she hadn't even heard the door open.
Her dad looked at her for a second.
She had long black hair, shining with the light of the fire next to her. Her locks were contouring her face seemingly carved out of the purest jade.
”Yes she is beautiful” thought her father, ”every official from the big city would want to marry her off to their sons”.
”Little Sumi, you turned fourteen recently. You are a woman now. It is time you get married. Listen, you father has...”
”Father please. We have had that conversation already. I don't want to be married off to someone I don't know from the big city !”
”You know how important that could be for the family ! Right now I, your father, am just a mayor from this small East Seaside village. If we could get you into one of the family of the Lord's officials, our life would be even better ! You could have maids helping you daily, and I'm sure your husband would provide you with many books from the big city library !”
”I don't want a husband, and I can always ask Second Uncle for the books. He is the Chief Librarian of the big city library. I want to become the next Chief Librarian, I don't want to get married into some officials' family.”
Shin Sumi's father looked at her with gentle but resolute eyes.
”Sumi, I have already decided. Tomorrow someone from Official Yane's house will come pick you up. You will live there for a time before all the arrangements for the wedding are made.”
Sumi's eyes started to redden as she got up. Her foot stomped the ground before she left the room, the tears in her blue eyes blurring her vision.
She stormed through the main door of the residence before turning to the auxiliary building on the left of the courtyard.
The Shin family mansion was the biggest in the village. But compared to the houses of the people from the big city that wanted her, it would have been considered crude.
The golden carps from the pond stopped moving for a breath's worth of time as she ran past them.
As soon as she entered the auxiliary building, her agitated heart started to calm to a slow and steady rhythm.
”It is because of the smell of the incense that Doctor Wen lit for mother” she thought.
Shin Sumi put her head through the entrance to her mother's room, verifying that nobody was around. Doctor Wen didn't like people visiting because it disrupted Shin Sumi's mother's rest.
Her mother was asleep. She had been bedridden for the last few months since she got sick.
With Shin Sumi's father being the mayor of East Seaside village, and her brother Shin Wuya having been taken as an apprentice scholar in the big city, nobody visited Shin Sumi's mother for very long periods of time.
Only Shin Sumi went to see her when she wasn't reading her books in her chamber.
When her mother was awake, Shin Sumi would talk to her and try to make her smile.
Usually Shin Sumi would bring a book to her mother's bedside, and would read patiently if she was asleep.
This time she didn't bring anything with her, not even the pickled plums that her mother loved.
Sitting on her knees next to her mother, Shin Sumi closed her eyes for a few breath's of time.
She listened to her mother's rugged breathing, her sick lungs forcefully trying to circulate the incensed air to make her better.
Shin Sumi considered waking her up, but as she was about to put her hand on her shoulder, she refrained herself.
”No, she is going to take father's side” she muttered to herself. ”I am sorry mother, your daughter has disappointed you.”
Without another word for her sleeping mother, Shin Sumi left like a shadow.
She didn't return to her chamber. Her father was probably there waiting for her to return.
Instead she turned to the main gate of the mansion.
At this time of day, nobody was guarding the gate. After all East Seaside village was relatively small, and there was virtually no records of any kind of trouble that would require guards patrolling all day everyday.
Shin Sumi didn't take another look at the Shin family mansion where she had lived all her life. She would not return until she could attain her goal of becoming a Chief Librarian.
Shin Sumi knew the road to the big city fairly well. She would often accompany her father when he had to go report monthly matters and taxes to the Officials.
For her, it was always a good opportunity to go see her Second Uncle and the library.
She would usually take books she had previously read with her, to exchange them for new ones, but this time she left without anything. After all, all of her books were in her chambers.
”I am sure Second Uncle will understand, and have them picked up later by someone from the library.”
Shin Sumi had planned to hide with her Second Uncle for some time and learn from him how to become a librarian.
”Second Uncle has always been nice to me, providing me with the best books. If I ask him not to, he will not say anything to father. And when I become a real librarian, nobody will be able to force me to marry against my will !”
Her dream was something hard to achieve for a woman, but Shin Sumi was convinced she could do it with the uncle she idolized as her instructor.
It was with resolute determination that she walked along the big city road for more than two hours.
She would occasionally hide behind bushes from the passing horse carriages, just in case her father sent someone looking for her.
She was getting tired and hungry, and the sky was turning dark, but she continued to walk. The comfort of her home and her reading chair next to the fireplace made her reconsider her decision a few times, but Shin Sumi would then clinch her fists and keep on walking.
It was at that moment of the day when the red oblique sun lights would shine on the lands that Shin Sumi was almost surprised to see a lone man on a horse.
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She hadn't heard him at all and had just enough time to run behind a tree nearby before the man emerged from the cover of the woods.
As she waited patiently, the man slowed down and proceeded to dismount his horse and attach it to a tree on the other side of the road.
”Oh no, don't tell me he is one of those messengers that would stop for the night anywhere ?”
Shin Sumi was getting a bit scared. She was the daughter of a mayor, and had always lived in a relative comfort. Her travel experience was basically nonexistent, but she knew what could happen to a young woman like her in a remote place.
But now she was stuck. She couldn't really walk past her hiding place because the man would spot her. But she couldn't walk back either.
Shin Sumi considered waiting here for the man to fall asleep, but then she would have to walk the rest of the way to the big city without any light.
Her only option was to make her way through the woods, and get back to the big city road further along, hoping that she would arrive before everything would turn completely dark.
Slowly taking one step after another, she crept backward, putting more distance between her and the road.
When she was finally out of the man's sight, she turned around and continued her walk, now through the middle of the woods .
The Silver Sea region was relatively small, and the woods were never really dense. Added to that, the beasts she had read about in her books almost never liked being close to the sea, which made the region reasonably tranquil and safe.
The only things a girl like Shin Sumi could fear were travelers. Weary after long days of walking, men could turn into something worse than beasts, ready to pounce on a good looking young woman at first sight.
Shin Sumi sauntered for a long time, occasionally turning to her right hand side.
”This is strange. Normally I should have been back on the road by now ” she thought. She was starting to get scared.