LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

Xing never likes strong scents and she really wanted to leave that place soon when she noticed the scent of the Jasmine flower she uses to make her mother"s perfume. She plucked one of it to press it in a book and give it to her father. Her father is hopelessly still in love with her mother. It is little things like these that makes him have a smile in his face.

Xing sometimes would feel that her father really wants to be with her mother and he would have this dark aura around him that make her fear that maybe her father would go to her mother Willingly soon.

Father! Please stay here in the land of the living for us, your kids!

The Emperor saw her in deep thoughts staring at a flower,

"Mingxia, what are you thinking?"

"Nothing", Xing twirled the flower and kept it safe in her pocket, "What do you want to know?". He clearly called her for talking yet why is he being quiet for this long? But he seemed to have calmed down... that"s good!

"Why did you say everything is my idea when I didn"t even have any idea what you have planned?", he looked at Xing.

Xing saw him casually dressed in the Earth Kingdom"s clothes and his dark silky hair s.h.i.+ned in the moonlight and his eyes weren"t clearly visible," Did you like my surprise, Kouki? With this the food crisis in our kingdom will be solved and we don"t have to worry if Earth Kingdom will plan against our backs right? And we could sell our salt with more profit too, Aren"t I a genius? I learned some business tricks from Haru... "

" So how is that salt "premium" and different from the other salt ", the Emperor interrupted.

" That is a business secret ", she smiled playfully and asked him to bend and cupped her hands above his ears," Actually, It is not much different... It is the same salt others use but a little more finer and more refined and stored in an expensive container ", she pulled back from him and he stood there stupefied.

He thought that they had come up with some new methods to make different kind of salt but this is it..? Just the same old salt in an expensive container?

" Did you see how much the Empress Loved that jar, Kouki? There are a group of villages who are making these kind of porcelain pottery for generations in the South with not much exposure. I found them when I visited there with my uncle. Now if we introduce the salt here, the porcelain will be demanded here helping those people too. There are some other villages near them making furniture with bamboo. The people who come for the jars may find them too and interested in them too. Wouldn"t that be amazing? We sell salt and they sell their pottery and other small businesses around that area will also flouris.h.!.+ There will be more flow of money and may be the poor won"t be poor for long anymore. And more rich people means more taxes. Good for us too! ", Xing had a twinkle in her eye.

" Yes, it is amazing", the Emperor stood there just observing Xing who was looking at those jasmine with his hand clasped behind.

Does she realise how much she has done? She planned all this right from the start to benefit everyone and also to give me credit. That"s why when she wrote that letter to that village head she used my seal rather than using her seal, right? But Why?

"You seemed angry, why?",she asked shooing away a bee that was circling around a flower she wanted.

" Why did you say it was all me when I did nothing and everything was arranged by you?", he felt a bitter feeling in his heart. What is this weird feeling?

Xing paused waving her hands and looked at the Emperor. Is he serious? Is he really worried about him taking the credits?

" Kouki, you are the Emperor... Everything in our kingdom belongs to you, good or bad. Ideas too... How could you say you did nothing? You gave me the freedom to do whatever I want that enabled me to do all this. So don"t think about stupid stuff",Xing waved him off.

For Xing, taking credits never matters as long as what she has to do gets done. That"s how she always had been. Also she didnt want there to be any records of Empress Huang as someone worthy to be mentioned anywhere. She"ll just live her life in the palace without any permanent record other than the fact that there used to be an Empress from the Huang family. She wanted her to be just one of the many of the women before her who was seated in the phoenix throne, no one special!

Obviously she forgot she made a big scene during the coronation and when the Envoys visited!

"Kouki, where are you staying?",Xing asked him, "Aren"t you leaving?"

"Another thing, is it okay for us to be here? There is no one to inform us of the happenings in the battle and what if.... What if something bad happens there?", he spoke in a low voice.

"Don"t worry, there is a trap that Oldman had laid years back and if it is activated, there will be no chance for the tribals and we"ll hear about it even in here. Seiren knows about it and he is now in the battlefield. So don"t worry!", Xing whispered and started to walk back.

"Why do you know about it and I"m not?", And I am the Emperor! The Emperor didn"t like the feeling.

"It is a top secret of Zhong Army that Oldman used to tell me when he used to nag me to learn war tactics. He taught it to Seiren when I refused to learn war tactics and I was there at that time and so I heard about it. I bet not even general Huojin knows about it!", Xing just continued to walk.

The Emperor was following Xing in deep thoughts. Just how does she get to get all these things handed out to her?

Before he noticed, they had walked quite the distance and only then the Emperor realised that she had walked the wrong way till now and he"s been following behind her mindlessly too.

This obnoxiously lucky and arrogantly talented, directionally challenged woman!!!

The Emperor grabbed her by the sleeves and took her room and Xing invited him in and so he went in. He saw the beautifully decorated room and wondered why this woman always gets the best with out even asking? Is it because she wants nothing that she gets handed over good things?

"Kouki, guess what I"ve found?", Xing showed him the journal of Empress Shu that she found here.

"Is this real?", he asked in bewilderment. Here"s another one!

Xing blinked her eyes realising the logic in his question. What is the possibility of her finding the journal of a dead Empress of her kingdom in another kingdom, right? It would be more believable if she found it in her courtyard that previously belonged to Empress Shu, isn"t it?

"Well... Whatever! I"m going to read it anyway! You can leave or stay or do whatever you want", Xing sat comfortably in a chair and started reading the old but well preserved notebook.

It started with a poem about Camillia and the willingness to stay together till death and after. There was even a pressed Camillia in the first page of the journal.

Okay! Odd way to start a journal... Talking about death! I know I wouldn"t do that, Well... Whatever!

Xing then remembered that dream she had with some guy crying in deep pain about Camillia flower.

Is that guy the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor then?

Xing wondered but shook off that thoughts and proceeded to read the journal.

"The Scarlet Tiger! A Monster!! That"s what I thought about him at first. The blood he spilled in that battle made the Quingze river turn scarlet and he dipped there and emerged out with his armour covered in blood and the hilt of his sword s.h.i.+ning in the sunlight and then he killed the opposing King who surrendered with one movement of his sword and his head rolled down to the flowing river of blood and didn"t get found... A tale I heard about him when I was a young ten year old and from then I hated him to the core! "

Wow! That is not a good impression about someone right?

Xing read further and the Empress had written after she was chosen to be the Priestess of the Kingdom, she had started a campaign to get the Emperor stop spilling more blood by stopping the war and get him to return because the heaven mandates it...

She actually used her role as a Priestess to push her own agenda! I already like her! Xing smiled.

" Thankfully my prayers were heard when that tiger got wounded surprisingly in a battle and that strengthened my position and the court started pressuring him to return back. So the raging beast who had reached to the great rift in the far East heard news about my "campaigning" disguised as the will of heaven and returned to put an end to me"

Wow! He didn"t have good impression about her either! Is it a hate turned love story? Me loving! Xing giggled rubbing her palms together.

Seeing Xing too involved in the story made the Emperor laugh. What a simple woman!