Chapter 1: Reminiscence[/center]
A surprisingly peaceful and lighthearted late afternoon in Sun Do betrays the thick fog that envelopes the village, as the villagers are all outside happily carrying out their daily routines and holding casual conversations amongst each other. Large mountains surround the small village and the main entrance is located to the northeastern portion of the village. A tall, fair-skinned and well-built middle aged man, in actuality Jinhai, makes his way through the main entrance. As he had just returned from his work as a weaponssmith, Jinhai is covered in sweat and blisters all over his hands.
He wipes some of the sweat from his forehead and walks towards the middle of the town, where a stone statue of Fei Yen resides. As he walks up to it, he looks at his surroundings, smiling to himself at the warmth and friendliness displayed at the villagers. Finally arriving at the statue, Jinhai stops, closes his eyes and bends down on one knee, paying respects to his deceased wife by having a moment of silence for her.
As he stays there in silence, Jinhai starts to have memories of his life with Fei Yen, in particular a vivid memory of him and Fei Yen in the local grass fields observing a younger Li Mei together. Li Mei stares at the familiar pink sky, observing the dragons and other winged creatures flying in the distance. Hoping that she could knock one of them out of the sky, Li Mei picks up a nearby rock and launches it into the air. Her wide-eyed stare quickly turns into a look of disappointment and a sigh as the rock simply drops back down to the ground, the dragons remaining unharmed, causing both Fei and Jinhai to let out a warm and hearty laughter.
Li Mei then turns around to Fei and says, "Mommy... can I ask you something?"
"Of course, Li Mei. What is it?"
Li Mei then looks down for a moment and then looks back up to her mother and asks, "Do... do you think I can ever become strong? As strong as you and daddy someday?"
Fei walks up to her daughter, bends down and places her hand on Li Mei's right shoulder. "I believe that you are already as strong as any other person around here.", says Fei while smiling.
The memory then fades out in favor of another memory, this time much more vague than the previous one. It is dark and raining hard outside as an older Li Mei and Jinhai are both in a remote location, apparently unable to pass through a wall of transparent light of some sort. Li Mei is shown crying and pounding on the wall of light as Fei Yen slowly walks away from the two. Jinhai himself is shown to be visibly shocked and speechless by whatever is happening in his memory.
Just as tears start to form in both of Jinhai's eyes, a nearby woman's voice is heard.
"... Father?", says the woman.
Jinhai, recognizing the voice, turns around immediately. "Yes?", he says.
The woman is revealed to be none other than his now fully grown-up daughter Li Mei and a young boy accompanying her.
"Ah, it's only you, my daughter!", says Jinhai as he starts to recognize her.
He stands up to face her while Li Mei walks up to embrace him.
"Welcome home, father.", says Li Mei while smiling.
"You know, you've grown up so much over the years that it takes me a while for me to recognize you now."
Jinhai then notices the young boy by Li Mei's side. "I see you've acquainted yourself with some of the neighborhood children in my absence."
"Oh, this is Jianyu, I've been teaching him how to do practical work around the village. He's been with me all day so I thought it would be best if I just took him with me this time instead of leaving him out in the fields by himself.", Li Mei said.
"In fact, your grandmother is around here somewhere Jianyu so you should head back to her now, I'm sure she's worried sick about you."
Jianyu simply nods his head and runs off. After seeing him off, Li Mei turns back to her father and says, "Now father, I have something important to tell you."
She goes on to say, "Shang Tsung and his men paid us a visit earlier today. They came to me and asked where you were, I told them you were still working at the foundry and that you wouldn't be back until later on in the day. They then told me they had some "private business" to discuss with you and left. They haven't come back here since then."
Jinhai thinks for a moment, and then says, "If Shang Tsung wanted to talk to me personally... then it's almost certainly going to involve me participating in the next Mortal Kombat tournament."
"Really? That's what you make of it?", she says.
He reasons, "Absolutely. Rumor has it that the emperor is looking for warriors all over the realms to stand up against the new Earthrealm threat. He knows what I've done as a weaponssmith and could use that kind of versatility to his advantage in combat. I'd even wager that he is also considering doing the same with my colleagues."
"I don't want to have any part in Shao Kahn's conquering over another realm... but if I refuse, there's no telling what Shao Kahn might do to me, the others or even you as a response. Shao Kahn may have let us live for this long, but he isn't the type of man who would take a simple no as an answer.", says Jinhai.
"Are you absolutely sure about all this? Or any of this for that matter?", says Li Mei.
"I fail to see how it could be anything else. Whatever the case may be, there's definitely cause for concern.", says Jinhai with a look of assurance on his face. After having the same stern look on his face for a few moments, he finally comes to a conclusion:
"Tomorrow morning I'm going to journey to Shang Tsung's palace. I'm still not certain of whether I should participate in the tournament yet or not, so hopefully discussing things with him tomorrow can provide me with some answers. I'm able to do it now but I'd rather be well-rested so that I can think this through and not make a rash decision."
"With all of that said, Li Mei, I trust that you'll look over the village and take care of things in my absence?"
"Oh yes, of course, father."
"I expected no less from my daughter.", says Jinhai. "Now come, let us go home."
The two walk back to their village home, Jinhai eager to rid himself of the blisters on his hands and drink only the finest rice wine ever produced in Outworld.[/QUOTE]