Dr. Van Sizoo walked into the small bedroom and saw a very beautiful woman sitting on the bed, combing her long black hair. She looked up when he entered the room and her face suddenly changed. She seemed afraid.

"It’s allright, my dear. This is the good Meneer Doctor. He helped us a lot. He’s just gonna do a quick check on you."

She looked a bit relaxed but her stare seemed to be full of suspicions.

Dr. Van Sizoo examined her and shook his head.

"You are very weak, Miss. You should eat more and take a lot of rest. May I ask what happened to you? There are cut and scratches on your skin. They are not too bad, but when they healed it would leave some scars."

She looked at Mpok Ati who quickly took over the situation.

"Oh she just came from Bogor, Meneer Doctor. She didn’t feel too well when she arrived here. And yesterday she fell on top of thorny bushes . . . You careless girl."

Dr. Van Sizoo frowned, he didn’t seem to believe her story.

"What’s your name again?" He asked her.

Mpok Ati quickly answered before the girl could speak up, "Rogayah. She’s Rausin’s future wife, Meneer Doctor."

The Doctor seemed satisfied now. "Ah I see. Well Rogayah, you should eat well tonight and get a good sleep. I guarantee you will feel much better tomorrow. Here are seven pills to help you get well. They are called vitamins. Drink one per day, all right? Just one each day, remember that. I guess I better get going now, Mpok. If you should need anything, I’m staying at Cornelius Janssen’s mansion until tomorrow afternoon."

He smiled and walked out of the room. Mpok Ati thanked him once more before he left the house.

"You did?" Rausin asked in surprised. He had just gotten back from the river carrying three small fish. It was already dark outside when he arrived home. He had taken time swimming and lying on the grass by the river, thinking over and over about how to get his scheme worked. He had come through the backside and his mother was in the kitchen. She had welcomed him with a story about the doctor’s visit.

Rausin was getting more troubled, on the contrary his mother was on a very good mood. She seemed to like this Fung Yin Li a lot. She even called her a goddess. She called her The Long Lost Daughter, whatever that meant.

"My future wife?" He couldn’t believe what he heard.

"Yes. What else could I tell him?"

Rausin smiled and shook his shoulders, "I hope he believes you." He could see that his mother was already very fond of her.

"Will you call me if the fish is ready? I’m very hungry, Mak. Meanwhile I’m gonna do my night prayer."

"Go ahead, son. I’ll call you if dinner’s ready."

Fung Yin Li opened her eyes in horror. She screamed and fell down from the bed. Mpok Ati who came running followed close by Rausin, helped her up.

"Are you all right, my child?" She asked.

Yin Li cried, being disoriented. But slowly her surroundings seemed to make sense again and she stopped sobbing.

"I. . I’m so sorry, Mpok. I’m fine now. Did I scare you? I’m sorry if I did. I just had a bad dream that’s all."

She then looked up and saw Rausin standing by the door. She quickly covered part of her blouse that got opened when she had fallen. She was wearing Mpok Ati’s clothes that seemed to small for her body.

Mpok Ati followed her gaze, then smiled, "That’s Rausin."

She quickly straightened her posture and kneeled before him. She touched his hand saying, "Thank you very much for saving my life, Bang (Brother). I am your servant now."

Rausin quickly took her hand, "What? I don’t need servant, young lady. Get up now, don’t you kneel before me. Ha..ha.. ha.. I’m not a prince." He laughed.

Yin Li stood in front of him, confused.

"You are funny, young lady."

She shook her head, "No, I indebted my life to you. I ought to serve you. That is the way." She didn’t understand why this man rejected her.

"Your way, probably. Not ours."

Mpok Ati saw the confusion in her eyes. She motioned Rausin to go out.

"Why don’t you have dinner with us, then we can discuss about this debt thing. All right?"

Half an hour later Rausin had heard all of her story. She related it with tears in her eyes, but she described all in details as if she was now in front of the horrible scenes. He admired her strength.

When she finished her story, she kept quiet as if waiting for Rausin to comment. But Rausin didn’t know what to say. He knew she must have felt so sad and lonely this time. He only managed to offer her a glass of water. Mpok Ati looked at him, her looks demanded that he said something comforting to her. Rausin was just too ashamed to talk much in front of women, especially a beautiful woman like her. He kept on glancing to her cleavage and her beautiful long black hair.

"So, now what should we call you. It’s not possible to call you Fung Yin Li. People will wonder where you come from." He finally managed to say something.

Yin Li looked at Mpok Ati, "This afternoon, you told the doctor that my name is Rogayah. I think we should stick to it. I don’t mind, Rogayah is a beautiful name."

Rausin nodded and pointed at her neck, "You better keep it away for awhile, Gayah."

Yin Li, touched the jade pendant hanging on her neck. She smiled and quickly took it off. She gave it to Mpok Ati, "Will you keep it for me, Mpok?"

Mpok Ati looked at the necklace on her palm, "I’ll keep it in one condition."

"Oh? What is it?" She seemed surprised.

"I’ll keep your pendant if you call me Mak. If I said you’re Rausin’s future wife, then it will be odd if you keep calling me Mpok like an outsider."

She smiled and hugged her, "Yes, Mak."

Suddenly Rausin spoke up, "Wait a second you two. Mak, did you tell anyone else about her being my future wife?"

"Yes, to our neighbor this morning. Imron’s wife asked for some milk, but I turned her down because I already gave the milk to Gayah. You were still in that state… unconscious.. and you didn’t want to eat anything. So I gave all the milk we have to Gayah."

Rausin shook his head, "We have one big problem, then. In a couple of days she would ask you when do we get married."

Mpok Ati seemed surprised, she had not thought about it before. It was not common for two people, man and woman, to live under one roof before marriage. People would start questioning them if Rogayah stayed in the house too long.

Yin Li, or rather, Rogayah, only smiled, "It’s not a problem at all. Even though Bang Rausin doesn’t want me to serve him, we can get married tomorrow. We will get married, Bang, to avoid people suspicion. The marriage will be between Rausin and Rogayah. Not Rausin and Fung Yin Li. Besides, the marriage will be held in Moslem way. I’m not a Moslem."

Mpok Ati laughed, "Oh, you clever young woman."

Rausin also smiled, "Yes, a false marriage would do."

He looked at her eyes and she looked back at him, "Even though it’s a false marriage, you still own me, Bang Rausin."

Rausin opened his mouth to speak but she cut him off.

"I don’t care if you do not want a servant, I am still your servant. Whatever you wish me to do, I will do it. Even if you ask me to kill my self, I will do it. For you own my life and I’m not an ungrateful person."

Rausin opened his mouth again, but closed it and sighed. He looked at her and for the first time he saw stubbornness in her. He didn’t like it, but he was too tired to argue with her, "Very well, Rogayah. I will remember that."

Rausin turned to her mother, "I’m going out tonight, Mak. Don’t wait up."

With that he closed the conversation and lied down on the divan.

Mpok Ati understood that it was his way of saying he was going to sleep. So she motioned Rogayah to the bedroom. In a short while, they both engaged in a warm conversation.

There were eight men dressed in black sitting on the grass. They were talking in a low voice. The place was not too far from the woods and could be reached in a fifteen-minute walk from Kampung Tebu and about twenty minutes from Kampung Gula. They were gathered under a big tree up on a mounted hill.

"As some of you might have heard, I’m offered a position as a guard in Janssen’s warehouse, together with Ali and Rozak. We will start the work tomorrow night under the supervision of Bek Yanto himself. It is up to us now how to mess up that place."

"Do you have a particular plan, Bang Rausin?" A man asked. He was tall and thin. He was the leader of Kampung Gula.

Rausin turned to him and nodded.

"Regarding the warehouse, I have. But Cornelius Janssen is another matter. I haven’t found a weak point yet."

"What’s your plan, Bang?" Another one asked.

"We will not strike tomorrow because I will have to study how they work. But my plan is to get Bek Yanto out of his job once and for all, if possible to get one of us to replace his position. Then, we will have access not only to the warehouse and factory, but also to the mansion."

Rozak turned to Rausin, "To get rid of him? Isn’t it too obvious?"

Rausin smiled, although his comrades might not see his face in the dark.

"Let me worry about that. I already have a plan. Once I understand their schedule in guarding the warehouse, I’ll call for another meeting."

"There is in fact several important matters I’d like to discuss with all of you." He continued. "First is about the access to Janssen’s mansion. I think we need to know the exact lay out of the house before we continue our mission. And we do not have anyone who are working inside."

"There’s Mirah, the daughter of.." One of the men spoke up.

"We can’t trust her." Ali answered quickly. "She would betray us for a piece of gold."

Rausin nodded, "No, we can’t trust her."

"Haven’t you heard?" Rozak asked. "My wife told me that Mirah has become Janssen’s mistress. She’s not a chambermaid anymore. Dr. Van Sizoo asked my wife if she knew anyone who is about 16 or 17 years old to be paid not only as Katrina’s chambermaid, but to accompany her all day. He said it’s for the sake of her health."

Rausin frowned but a second later he smiled, "Good, very good. Then consider one problem is solved."

"What? Are you gonna send your future wife to work there? The leader of Kampung Gula asked.

Rausin was surprised to hear it, "I didn’t know that the news has gotten to you, Bang."

The other men laughed softly. Some of them patted his shoulders.

"You can hide that kind of news around here. So when is the marriage, eh? I hope we’re invited." He said again.

"Err. . to tell the truth, I don’t have any money for a party or anything. Maybe we’re gonna get married tomorrow. I’m sorry brothers, I truly can’t afford any celebration. Besides, it would cause suspicions if suddenly the naïve Rausin has a lot of friends from Kampung Gula."

"Ah, yes. You always think one step ahead of us, Bang." The leader of Kampung Gula nodded his head.

"There’s another important matter at hand. If we are to destroy the VOC domination in this village, we have to make sure that they won’t get any back up forces arrived from Batavia. I heard some rumors that after the incident with the Chinese, Batavia has become quite a mess. I want to know exactly the situation, guys. I need someone to go there. So who will go?"

"I can go tomorrow if you want, Bang." A man named Marwan volunteered. "I have a brother living outside the city wall." Marwan was a relatively new member. He was very young but quite good at martial arts. He was invited to join the gang by the leader of Kampung Gula.

"Good. Tomorrow I will get some money from Bek Yanto. I’ll give some to you before you leave. And I will brief you about what you should do tomorrow, all right?"

"All right Bang."

"I guess, that’s all for tonight. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you see or hear anything out of ordinary, you come to me as soon as you can."

Ten minutes later, the hill was as quiet as it had been. The mysterious people who gathered there were already gone. The shadows of trees and the sound of crickets made the hill as spooky as a tomb.

Rogayah couldn’t sleep anymore. She had been awaken by another dream, in which she saw her mother speaking to her. She was still dangling from the mango tree and her eyes were fixed on her. She mouthed some words that she couldn’t understand. The nightmare was truly horrible that she couldn’t go back to sleep. So she walked out of the bedroom and went to the kitchen. The house was quite dark, lit only by one burner in the front room. Its light hardly reached the kitchen area.

She opened the kitchen door and went out of the house. The moon was far in the east, indicating that dawn was only a few hours away. She went back inside and tiptoed to the front room to check on Rausin. But she found the bamboo divan empty. He was not home yet. So she took the burner to the kitchen and get a broom and started sweeping the ground. She cleaned all she found and swept the whole house lighted by a burner only. She hoped she didn’t miss any spot in the dark.

After she finished sweeping she sat on the divan, thinking about her life. She thanked Thian (God) for sending her to a wonderful family. She was thankful for Mpok Ati who took care of her like her own child. And she prayed that one day she could somehow repay her debt to Rausin. Knowing that she owed him her life, she could only realize that the only way to repay the debt was giving him her life. Either to dedicated her whole life to become his loyal servant, which he had rejected, or to die defending his name, which was very unlikely in her position. A drop of tears fell from her eyes. "If I were born a man, I could have taken a revenge upon my parents’ death." She cried softly.

Suddenly she heard noises from the back room. She quickly wiped her tears with the back of her hand and took the burner to check out the noises. As she walked in the kitchen she could see a figure of a man outside the house. She put the burner in the kitchen and tiptoed outside.

The figure was definitely a man. He was sitting on the grass, with his back facing her. He was breathing hard. She heard a hiss sound coming out of his mouth. He moved his arms upward towards the sky. From his palm she could see thin smoke coming out. She had seen her father exercising Chinese Kung Fu. He had used to make a similar movement to exercise his Chi. But never before she had seen smoke coming out of human’s body. This man must have had an unbelievably strong Chi. She stepped forward to see who the man was, although she had guessed who he might be.

Suddenly he turned around with a golok in his hand. She couldn’t see how he moved but the next thing she realized was a blade by her neck. Rausin’s surprised face was the next thing she saw.