Chapter 8

　　As she lay on the cold ground, Elizabeth dreamed of a young Arthur Mu.

　　The beautiful scenery of wild flowers on the hillside has distracted her. She has lost sight of her father. The boy is out hunting. He is by himself.

　　Arthur’s facial features are more delicate. His long hair, thick and silky, is pulled back in a bun. He is much shorter.

　　After trying to hunt down a hare, the boy has fallen into a hunter\'s trap. Elizabeth walks past, and happens upon him, trying to break out of the trap. He is crying in pain.

　　Arthur, thinking that Elizabeth might lose her wits and fall into the trap herself, screams for her to move away. She ignores him and moves closer. She has already pulled out her needle and thread. She squats beside him.

　　“I secretly took this from my mother,\" she tells the boy. She looks straight at him, staring him in the eye. \"It may hurt a little. Just a little bit. You can bear it.\"

　　\"Aren\'t you afraid?\" The boy looks intently at her.

　　\"I\'m afraid, but,\" she recalls her father’s words. \"My father always likes to say, you can’t just let others suffer. If you see someone has been hurt you need to help them.\"

　　Elizabeth finishes sewing him up. He takes her hand. \"When you and I grow up, how about you marry me? For the rest of my life, we’ll be together, half drunk and half floating in happiness.\"

　　Elizabeth looks at him for a long time. Her white cheeks turn red. In a panic, she withdraws her hand and runs away.

　　\"My name is Arthur Mu. What\'s your name?\" Arthur Mu\'s voice rings out as he calles after her. Elizabeth thinks about it, summons up courage and turns around. She tries to tell him her name, but she is nervous and incoherent.

　　All he heard is, \"Mo Family.\"

　　Even if her answer is vague, three years later, Arthur Mu still manages to find her house. However, the woman he finds there is not her.

　　“Thud.” The dull but loud sound woke her up. She opened her eyes in a daze. Her maidservant’s profile was right in her field of vision. “Camille,” she murmured. There was something wrong.

　　Camille Ah, lay quietly on the ground. Her eyes were open, but she never blinked. Her face was gray. Her limbs were stiff and she wasn’t breathing.

　　\"Camille! Camille…\"

　　Elizabeth crawled over, her tears poured all over Camille.

　　\"Your maidservant tried to assassinate my wife. Even if she wasn’t dead now, I’d kill her over and over if I could.”

　　Elizabeth looked at Camille’s cold body lying on the ground. Her lips were moving gently.

　　Arthur Mu frowned slightly. \"What did you say?\"

　　Elizabeth lay back on the ground, crying, then laughing. She murmured incoherently.

　　Arthur Mu\'s face changed slightly, but he soon regained his disgust. He stepped forward and picked up Elizabeth, who was as light as thin paper. \"I haven’t forgotten about the poison you put in my wife\'s food! Pretending you’ve lost your mind won’t get you off the hook for your crime.\"

　　Elizabeth looked at him with empty eyes. This man has always been in her heart, her mind, her dreams. He was right before her, yet he was out of reach.

　　Slowly, she took the hairpin off of her hair, and recited, \"for the rest of my life, we’ll be together, half drunk and half floating in happiness.\" Elizabeth clutched the hairpin and stabbed herself, this time in the neck.