LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

Wow! He really makes a lot of money! I cannot spend everything this lifetime! Xing was happy.

The tournament spanned for a week with thousands of contestants partic.i.p.ating and by the end of the week only ten contestants remained.

The final day of the compet.i.tion is more of a day of celebration of the separation of the three kingdoms and the formation of the Wind Kingdom. This day was celebrated in all the three kingdoms as a day glorifying the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor who is considered the "Father of the Three Kingdoms ".

The day before the finals, Rijun came with his work and he ended up chatting with her in their father"s study. He said about how grand the final day celebrations are, especially the "Extinguis.h.i.+ng Evil" ceremony.

The general idea of that ceremony is that all of the people should unite with the Emperor to fight against the evil. There would be two dragons one white representing the Wind Emperor and opposite to it would be another dragon like fire symbolising evil. One person representing the unity of the common people, will release fire arrows at the evil dragon and burn it.

Xing knew about this as this would be the talk everywhere during this time. Usually the one lighting the fire would be from the Ran family as Zhong family cannot partic.i.p.ate in this and Shu and Huang family had no one to partic.i.p.ate.

Rijun told her that the ceremony itself is a puzzle that was devised by the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor and he left it in charge of the Zhong family. But sadly in the past two centuries, no one was able to solve the said "puzzle" and everyone thought that it was a bogus claim by the Zhongs.

Also Rijun told her how the last day of the tournament is open for all citizens to watch and men, women and children of the city and some even from other places will be there and the event will be concluded with the fireworks at night.

Xing knew that her brother is bringing up all these to make her interested and he wants her to attend the closing day celebrations and let her brother bait her.

Rijun noted his "Scarlet Tiger fanatic" sister is not budging even after bringing up the puzzle and decided not to force her anymore. She had already said that her being there would definitely bring problems even when Shengli himself wanted to keep her by his side.

Well! If the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor bait does not work, nothing else will work on her, right? Rijun decided.

Rijun stood up to leave when he remembered a crucial information, "Mingxia!", he whispered in her ears, "The second young miss of the Ran house killed herself today"

"What?", Xing was surprised.

"Shh", Rijun shushed her, "Father told me not to mention it to you. The official statement from the Ran family is that she died of illness but from what the informants told us, there was a fire in her courtyard, one that is said to be started by the young miss herself", he said almost in an inaudible tone.

Xing was surprised, she was supposedly eloped ten days before, but her friends saw her in a sick state a couple of days back and today she burned herself to death?... A painful way to die! No matter what, this is all... Fishy!

"Brother!", she called Rijun who was about to leave, " Can I accompany you tomorrow?", she asked and Rijun clearly noticed the frown line between her brows.

"Mingxia..?", Rijun called her, who was in deep thoughts.

"s.h.i.+hong is here, isn"t he?", she asked and Rijun was perplexed, by her arriving at that conclusion. Shengli did inform them that s.h.i.+hong had entered the city that day and she actually linked that young miss" death with s.h.i.+hong. s.h.i.+hong probably is staying in the Ran Manor today!

Well! With everyone in the tournament celebrations, her staying in the Manor alone won"t be much safer!

"Before dawn.... the Extinguis.h.i.+ng Evil ceremony is done at dawn. So I"ll have to be there before. I"ll get you, be ready", Rijun said and left.

Xing could not sleep deeply that night as she had nightmares with fire and she was rolling around in her bed and she felt restless. In the middle of the night, she felt a warm arm hugging her and the familiar blossom fragrance engulfed her senses. He"d been sneaking in through the window like in the past these few days. She could not wake up but Shengli"s presence eased her mind and she went to sleep and the nightmares didn"t return.

Xing woke up early morning and Shengli was long gone. Poor man! He hadn"t been resting properly in the past week, Xing felt bad. She cleaned herself up and put on her usual attire she had seldom usdd these days - crimson robes, braided hair and tanned makeup and boots.

As she got ready Rijun came for her and they left for the tournament grounds when the sky was still dark. Xing felt an eerie feeling all the while, she was sure something bad was going to happen.

There was a big platform with a big chair on it and Rijun told Xing that the Emperor would be here the entire day watching over the ceremonies and the high n.o.ble families will be seated beside him and the other n.o.bles will be seated in the other places arranged for them.

Status sure means a lot here! Xing thought.

She rubbed her forehead unconsciously and remembered that she is protected while her family is not. That"s why she has to be here to have a chance to help them if needed.

Shengli was surprised to see her there but nodded at her, "It"s better this way with both of you here. Be safe! " he said and kissed her in the forehead and left as Lin Mumbai was telling him something.

Both of you? Me and s.h.i.+hong.. ?or Me and the Emperor..? Xing wondered. He must have meant his brother and me as s.h.i.+hong surely is against the both of us, Xing concluded.

As Xing was walking towards her designated place, she was interrupted by Zhong Huojin,

"Lord Táng", he addressed politely, " You are here! Father was wondering if you"d attend or not. In fact.. "

"General Zhong! Please stay away from me. I don"t want to be a.s.sociated with you too by your woman!", Xing cut him off. She was clearly not in the mood for small talk and MingXue might be here.

"I wanted to apologise for her", he bowed slightly, "She wanted to do it herself but she felt shy wondering how you"ll take it"

Xing sighed, if she wanted to apologise she would have, by herself! And how will I take it?

"I don"t bite", she replied a bit angrily.

"Ha ha!", Huojin laughed trying to soothe her, " Forgive her incompetence, Lord Táng! She is still young and willful"

Wow! Xing thought, This man truly loves her and love surely is blind!

"Young?", Xing sneered. She wasn"t young to spew profanities and make baseless accusations, But young to apologise?

"General Zhong, she is just a year younger than me. And you don"t have to apologise in her stead fearing I might hurt her. I don"t hurt family. That"s a principle I follow. Regarding you or her, I don"t have much opinion as I don"t care about you. Shengli on the other hand won"t be as lenient as me, especially regarding my affairs. You better remember that and teach her properly too. It"s unbecoming for a lady to behave like a common fish market woman", she said and walked towards her brother.

Huojin saw her tall back and understood what she meant. She actually is saying that she won"t hurt them but she won"t stop Shengli from hurting her or him. She also called her names too.

Xing went to their alloted place on the platform and there was the high pitched mocking voice that irked Xing every time she heard it was heard.

What a nasty luck!

"Lord Chu! You still have the face to be here?" , Xing grinned making him frozen. Xing wanted to applaud her father who had managed to keep his cool with that Lord Chu shouting at him even though her father knew everything about him.

"G.o.dfather!", Xing looked at her father, "What"s he shouting about? " she raised her chin slightly at Lord Chu"s direction.

"You are here, child", AoTian was happy to see her, " Lord Chu here, demands to be seated with the high n.o.bles because he had contributed to the Empire by freely giving his personal military"

"Demands?", Xing raised her eyebrows, even after everything, this rat still has the guts to "demand" anything? That too to her father?

"G.o.dfather, actually...", Xing smirked at Lord Chu as if she was going to spill his secrets to AoTian.

"Lord Táng, it"s not like that", Lord Chu bent a little and tried to stop her from talking and she could see his fat face all worried even though he was awkwardly smiling.

" Oh! Then how is it? Enlighten me, ye great contributor to the empire!", Xing smirked and she got back to her role of Lord Táng effortlessly. Every part of her excluded that arrogant and haughty aura.

Lord Chu felt his knees weak but he cannot kneel before Lord Táng because in front of others, he is the one with higher status. He had not expected that this person would suddenly appear here especially after being absent in the six previous days of the compet.i.tion. He had ruined it all!

"Lord Chu, arrange the chairs for me to sit and after that send me your elder daughter to serve tea. I"ve heard that she is good at making tea and this Lord would be lonely without a woman by his side", Xing said casually like ordering a servant, freezing everyone in the platform including her father and brother.

Well, Xing had only heard about Chu Weiye but had never met her. Xing really thought that she would be suitable for the phoenix throne from what she had heard about her. But she had to confirm it. And since she"s going to sit with the Emperor, that would give a chance for his daughter to get in the good graces of the Emperor, right?

Xing had these pure and good thoughts but for others it sounded like she was actually asking a n.o.ble lord to give his daughter to serve a common man as a courtesan. Lord Chu would have been offended by it and he should have been offended but he could not as the one who asked for his daughter is the one who owns him!

"He, he! Lord Táng", Lord Chu smiled awkwardly rubbing his bald head , "Forgive me, I didn"t bring my daughter here for you to meet today!", he wriggled awkwardly.

Seiren who had arrived just then, snickered at him and AoTian looked at Lord Chu like he was a worm...a maggot. A spineless man!

Xing was slightly disappointed and she waved her hand and Lord Chu disappeared from the stage like a whiff of smoke.

Xing noted Lord Chu briefly speaking to Lord Ran and soon everyone was seated and the Emperor arrived. The sky was still a bit dark and the Emperor announced the commencement of the Extinguis.h.i.+ng Evil ceremony and was about to offer an arrow as customary to the Ran family.

But to their surprise, Lord Ran stood up, gave a deep bow to the Emperor,

"Your Majesty! Let the Huang family take on this role this year!"

His words made many ripples around and people started mumbling.

"Not this again"

"He cannot help but bring the Huang family every time!"

"His daughter died yesterday! What is he doing here today?"

"Is he planning something?"

Everyone had their own opinion and not everything was good.

"Explain!", the Emperor"s powerful and deep voice, made the entire place silent and everyone trained their eyes on Lord Ran.