Restart

In her sleepy state, she began to hear a familiar voice. It was the voice of the person who loved her the most, her mother. As she sat up, she realized that she was back in the old common home they were staying in. It was one made of wood and straw, nothing special. Looking down to see that her feet and hands were smaller than they had been before. She gasped in shock and jumped down from her bed. Running over to the basin of water that was resting on an old dresser beside the bed. Huai Li Qi picked it up and looked into it, realizing that she had returned to her five year old self.

When her mother turned around, she heard a loud thud noise from behind her. She quickly turned around to see that Huai Li Qi had dropped the water basin. "Li Qi! Be careful. You just had a fever. You have to be more careful or else you'll hurt yourself," she said in concern.

After hearing her mother's voice and the warmth it held, she couldn't help but cry and run over to hug her. "Mother! I thought that I lost you!" She cried. Her mother consoled her by gently patting her back and returning her daughter's hug.

"Mother isn't going anywhere. Do you still wish to know your father?" She asked. Haui Li Qi remembered nagging her mother over this before out of her desperation to know him. After a while, her mother couldn't keep up and decided to go to her father. That was how they had gotten stuck in that terrible household.

Haui Li Qi looked to her mother and shook her head. "Li Qi doesn't want to! She wants to be with mother always and find a home where they can both enjoy life together for as long as they live!" She said. Her mother chuckled in response to such big words that she was hearing.

"Alright, mother will get us packed then. We should start going now to find a home where we belong." After her mother had everything packed, she grabbed Hua Li Qi's hand and left their temporary home. As they left, Huai Li Qi used her hand to cover her eyes for the most part until she figured out bangs could hide them. After all, if someone saw her eyes, they would be able to connect her to her father.

"Mother, where are we going?" She asked. Her mother looked down to her.

"I don't know. We'll have to see where we can go. We must search until we have found the right place." Hand in hand, they travelled on. Before, when Huai Li Qi first wanted to search for her father, she didn't know that her mother had wished to protect her from him.

While continuing down the road, Huai Li Qi began to feel that her throat was aching, and she began to cough harshly like she could cough out blood any moment. "Mother, my throat doesn't feel good. It feels very raspy." She said with the tone in it also. Seeing a physician’s building up ahead, they both made their way over, as they both wished to find out the source of the problem for her aching throat. Going in, her voice was now barely even a whisper.

"Excuse me?" Her mother asked the physician. He stopped to look at her. "My daughter is having a hard time with her throat. I would like to know what is happening with her." She said. He then nodded at them and led them to an adjoined room.

"How long has it been going on?" He asked her mother while looking at her.

"It's been going on for a week now." The physician listened while checking Haui Li Qi's pulse. He sighed as he looked at them.

"There's nothing, as far as for what I can find. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong medically, but she may still become a mute mentally. I'm not sure how, but sometimes it just seems to happen out of nowhere or due to stress." Both mother and daughter left, their heads still circling with confusion. Huai Li Qi then tried to speak but her voice no longer came out. She cried, and her mother bent down to her level and hugged her.

"Let's go somewhere real quick. I want to check up with something." Her mother took her by the hand and led her to a Buddha temple. They walked over to a Buddhist, and he looked at them.

"What do two young ladies want with this Temple?" He asked as her mother and her both knelt down.

"I would like to know if there is something wrong with my daughter and her voice." Her mother said to the monk; he then turned to look at Huai Li Qi.

Huai Li Qi looked at him, and she noticed that he was giving her a knowing look like he knew what had happened to her. She didn't know if he knew that she was given another chance to restart her life, so she was very wary of him. He took out his case of sticks that had on them written words to describe one's future. Two sticks dropped, quickly gathering them up. Looking at them he read, "You have two outcomes. One path will lead to her downfall if great precautions are not taken in consideration. The other path will lead her to a much greater purpose if she can open herself to her ‘new family’. Also, her voice will return when she's come of age and she meets 'him'."

Huai Li Qi was curious about the second reading, she had already experienced the first. "How can she avoid the downfall?" Her mother asked the Buddha. He paused for a moment looking to them both.

"She can avoid it by avoiding the one family that will destroy her and meeting them new family. She will need to find the better path on her own." The Buddhist said, leaving them in confusion.

As they left the temple, Haui Li Qi looked up at her mother, and tugged onto her sleeve. Her mother knelt down and consoled her. "Let's go and find a home where we can belong." She spoke. Huai Li Qi nodded, reaching over to hug her mother.

Weeks passed by, and her voice remained completely unusable. She could not speak, but seeing that she could still blow air, her mother decided to gift her a bamboo flute that she had been making on her own for a few months time. As Huai Li Qi taught herself to play it, they travelled together through land and sea.

Three years later...

Along their travels, they would avoid meeting soldiers, and her mother would gradually tell her about her father's time and role in the army. They had been traveling around nonstop. Her mother would also, at times, teach her basic martial skills that she had learned from her own mother -- Huai Li Qi's grandmother. Huai Li Qi stumbled down; she was panting and holding a wooden sword. Her mother looked at her and spoke.

"Li Qi you have to remember that you must find the opponent's weak spots. You cannot just charge at them thinking that they will not notice or do anything." She nodded in response.

Still holding her wooden sword, she stumbled back onto her feet. Along their travel they would practice daily, only stopping in certain towns to pick up their necessities.