Pursuit of Redemption: A 19th Century Tragedy in China.

Li Wei's eyes flickered open, and he stared into the darkness that surrounded him. The clouds blocked the moonlight, leaving only darkness and silence. Li Wei did not move.

Li Wei had always been a heavy sleeper. His parents had called him a bear cub; he would sleep for up to eighteen hours at a time, and would growl to wake himself up. His father used to say that bears were born with a hibernation gene in their blood; sometimes, Li Wei felt he was asleep even when he was awake. In this sense, Li Wei rarely dreamed; he slept so deeply that the world of his unconsciousness seemed much like the real world. He could remember very few dreams from his childhood and teenage years; most of them were vague impressions of colors or movement that vanished as soon as he woke up. He had found that this made him more resilient to nightmares than most people; if you never really had dreams, you didn't have bad dreams either.

But tonight was different. The sound of screams rang in his ears, piercing straight through the haze of his sleepiness. The darkness around him began to shift and change, growing more molten and liquid-like, as though it were made of tar and not air. Li Wei tried to resist, but there was no waking up this time: the dream shifted seamlessly into reality as the darkness became a room and Li Wei found himself on his feet, hand groping for his swordstick by the bedside table. He remembered where he was immediately - he had spent several days at Mei Lian's house, recovering from a wound received during one of his vigilante missions against a local gangster who had been extorting money from his sister's family. She lived on a farm outside the city limits; her husband was away for work in the Imperial city for several weeks because of a famine in Sichuan province; she had been alone except for her three children and elderly mother-in-law for almost two months now...

The nightmare still clung to him like cobwebs as he slowly padded down the hallway towards Mei Lian's room. He remembered everything now - how they met while out shopping together at night in the marketplace near her home; how they started talking after she complimented him on his swordstick (the first thing she noticed about him); how they strolled together under the stars, talking about everything under heaven until it seemed like they knew each other intimately, even though they didn't know each other's names or what they did for a living or anything else at all...

He reached Mei Lian's door and opened it quietly. She lay sleeping on her stomach, curled up in a fetal position with her hands clenched into fists beside her head. Her hair streamed out across her pillow like waterfalls of ink against white silk: blackest night against virginal snowfall. Her skin shone like ebony even in moonlight; she looked almost inhumanly beautiful to Li Wei's eyes - but then again she always looked beautiful to him, whether she wore rags or silks or nothing at all...

Mei Lian stirred slightly in her sleep as Li Wei approached her bedside softly, but otherwise remained still as a statue carved from ivory - perhaps marble instead of ivory today, because it was too warm for winter today but somehow colder than usual outside nonetheless...

She moaned softly as he caressed her shoulder gently with one hand while reaching behind his back with the other to pull out his swordstick silently without waking her (never wake a woman who is dreaming). He smoothed back her hair with one hand while raising his swordstick above her slender neck with another (the blade pointed directly at her spinal cord), then brought down the pommel of his stick onto Mei Lian's temple with all his might (the force that would shatter every bone in her skull)...

* * *

Li Wei groaned quietly as Mei Lian stirred beside him sleepily without opening her eyes (so beautiful!) "What is it?" she mumbled drowsily (she looked so vulnerable!). "I'm going downstairs for some tea," said Li Wei hurriedly before turning away from her quickly before she could see what was hidden beneath his trousers (how could I do such terrible things to you?!). He dressed hurriedly then crept stealthily out of the bedroom before anyone else woke up (I can't stay here any longer!)...