East of the River: Home of the Sun Clan sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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PROLOGUE: DISCUSSING THE FUTURE
An era of division was about to begin in Eastern Han Dynasty China. An eight-year-long feud between two sibling noblemen had recently ended with the death of one of them, which allowed many to hope that the chaos was now at an end: those that knew the political situation knew that the worst was yet to come.
Two men of the
south - a tall, handsome man called Zhou Yu and a short, unimpressive gentleman
called Lu Su - left the scene of a barely-diffused incident and retreated to
Zhou Yu’s home so that they could talk. Both were dressed in statesman’s robes,
but their concerns were military.
“I’ll say it again,
Gongjin: for a moment there, I thought it was all for nothing!” Lu Su chuckled
as he followed Zhou Yu - whose style/courtesy name was Gongjin - into his
living quarters.
“And I’ll say this
again, Zijing: it was a moment of weakness,” Zhou Yu replied. “It isn’t the
first, and it won’t be the last, I accept that… but enough. We need to talk.”
“But I thought that
was what we were going to talk about,” Lu Su replied uneasily.
“No,” Zhou Yu said.
“That was merely a prompt for me to speak with you now. You and I, we’ve often
discussed the future of the south: now we must do so seriously, for we are the
men that will shape that future.”
Lu Su grinned and
laughed dismissively.
“Stop it, Zijing,”
Zhou Yu scolded.
“Stop what…?” Lu Su
giggled. “I’ve no rank to speak of! What future am I shaping…?”