LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

AoTian was telling them how Lord Ran came to him today and told him to advice Lord Táng to stay away from his third daughter. Apparently AoTian told Lord Ran to keep his daughters away as they are the ones approaching them making Lord Ran leave furiously. Zedong joked about how both of Lord Ran"s favourite daughters fall for the Huang charm making AoTian frown with displeasure.

Shengli didn"t mind much as he believed, the more Ran family believes Lord Táng is a man, the more safe Xing will be. And thinking about Xing made his heart ache and he went to Seiren"s Restaurant and sat in a private room ordering tea to compose his thoughts. Soon Lin Mubai joined him followed by Rijun and Seiren. Their careless banter made Shengli"s head ache and he ordered wine.

Rijun was surprised to see different sides of Shengli that day as he had never seen Shengli drink wine before. He never drank even if it was for social purposes and no one had forced him to till now as they were scared of him.

Rijun understood the reason Shengli avoids wine only today. He drank barely three cups and he became extremely drunk. His face got flushed and he started sweating and he was mumbling unconsciously and he couldn"t even sit straight. Rijun took a deep breath, his sister drinks like a fish and he cannot handle alcohol! How perfect!

Lin Mubai poured him some tea and ordered some food to sober him up. Shengli just lied on the table and started to sleep.

So all the curious men in there started to discuss about the fight between those two.

" Brother should just, you know...", Lin Mubai winked and Seiren laughed understanding him while Rijun blankly stared.

" Should what?", Rijun asked confused.

"He should do Sister-in-law. Women usually get docile after that!", Lin Mubai was serious and Rijun got furious.

"You scoundrel! How can you give such disgusting advice? And who is your sister-in-law? She is my sister! She is not your anything until I carry her out of my Manor"s threshold and give her to your brother. Remember that!", Rijun shouted startling Seiren Who was happily drinking the wine Shengli left.

" Calm down! Brother! ", Lin Mubai waved his hands and took a step back as if he was surrendering.

Just then the food they ordered arrived and as Shengli wasn"t waking up, both Rijun and Seiren took it upon themselves to finish the dishes off and graciously let Lin Mubai pay for them.

Seiren told about the incident at the gates and Rijun was surprised, "I thought Huojin hated her. But then again he always stands up for the right thing, so I"m not that surprised", he said.

"My brother thought she hated him and was surprised that she thanked him", Seiren said fanning Shengli .

"My sister is an enigma. I thought she could never fight with Shengli and look now! So do you have any proper advice to get her pacified?", Rijun asked sparing a worried look at Shengli. He didn"t like those two fighting with each other.

"Mmm... ! How to pacify a woman?.... That question is a conundrum itself! Add it with the fact that you how complicated your sister is.. I really don"t know", Seiren shook his head.

"I thought you know everything about women. Aren"t you a self-proclaimed playboy?", Rijun gave a mocking smile.

"OK! First of all", Seiren got serious pointing his finger at Rijun, "I"m not self-proclaimed, okay! If only your sister didn"t give me that name, and she wasn"t there I would be the only playboy in this kingdom and she is not even a boy ", he gritted his teeth and fisted on the table making Rijun look at him with his eyes wide. So the word "self-proclaimed" offends him and not "playboy"? Weird!

Seiren took a deep breath and composed himself," And secondly, even your sister doesn"t know how to pacify women. Also, if you are in serious relations.h.i.+p who knows what offended her? It could be something you did yesterday or years back. Let me tell you something" , Seiren patted Rijun"s shoulders,

"Women have really great memory. They will remember how you ate the last piece of chicken three years back or how you looked at another woman unconsciously while you were with her and would get back at you when you least expect. You really cannot win against them and they are the most dangerous and mysterious beings. Too bad you cannot live without them though! "

"Oh!", Rijun has paled by now. This is a bothersome issue! Surely my brain cannot handle it, he shuddered.

Lin Mubai was silently laughing at those two little greenhorns who were pitiful. Women love money! As long as you have money women will love you! A simple fact, right?

"She said something like he could have done whatever but cannot do everything... Something along those lines", Rijun said softly breaking the long silence in the room.

BANG!!!

"She said that?" , Shengli suddenly stood up banging his palms on the table making everyone gasp.

Rijun nodded like a chicken pecking the spilled grains.

"Ha!", Shengli smiled mesmerising everyone in the room, "I know what to do!"

Shengli left the room immediately as if he was not the one intoxicated minutes ago but not before spraying some wine on him.

Rijun and Seiren looked at Shengli skipping like a little girl and Lin Mubai following him and wondered what he was upto.

Rijun tried to go behind Shengli but was stopped by Seiren. "Let them be!", he said making the curious Rijun sit back and then Seiren started to talk about the banks he had his account in and after his "talk" with him for almost an hour, he gained a new customer for the Bright Moon Treasury.

Shengli disheveled his hair and clothes a bit more than it already was to have a pitiful look and sneaked in her courtyard as he would do before and got near her window. He could feel his heart jumping inside his chest as his mind thought of various scenarios of her rejecting him but took a deep breath and slapped himself a little so he could only remember that she could never hate him or reject him.

Xing had a good nap in the afternoon and just as she was waking up, she could hear a soft mumbling voice from outside her window.

"My moon! ..... Don"t push me away.... Let me in...."

Xing stood near the window to hear his voice and she could say his voice felt like someone calling for help from an abyss,with deep sorrow and a strong stench of alcohol entered her nose.

But he still didn"t apologise!

"I only have you, my moon!.... Let me in...!"

His mumbling voice laced with sorrow made Xing"s heart melt like the wax in a candle would with fire.

Is he drunk? Did he get drunk because of me? Xing wondered and she felt like someone was squis.h.i.+ng her heart hard.

" Xing.... My love.... I was wrong!.... I know I was wrong!.... Please, I beg you.., let me in!"

Xing could not hold on any longer, he apologised, right?

She opened the window and her heart broke to see Shengli that shabby. His silky silver hair was all dishevelled and his clothes had staines on them and he had tied his belt wrong and his face had lost it"s original l.u.s.ter and his eyes were reddened and his emerald green pupils had lost it"s s.h.i.+ne as if he was crying and may be because he was drunk, his cheeks were flushed and his lips were pouting. He looked like an abandoned little boy!

Her eyes clouded and her mind lost all rationality and she extended her hands out and pulled him in and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

"My Prince!", she said softly and could not speak more as her throat closed and Shengli hugged her waist and rested his forehead on her shoulder.

"Xing!" he said smelling her neck and as her usual smell wafted to his nose, he felt like he had got back his place in this world and his lips curved up slightly.

"My moon!", he spoke again and his voice trembled and unknowing to himself tears started to roll down from his eyes and he held her much closer.

She didn"t look at him for only one day but he felt more agony than when his father said "you are not my son " or when his mother said, "why aren"t you dead? ". Even when he lost everything and was driven out of the Palace without anything he had a slight hope that everything will be fine but the past day he didn"t have even a sliver of hope as if he had lost his soul.

How could I live without you, my love!

Xing who had her arms wrapped around his shoulders felt something hot on her shoulder and before she could react, his grip on her waist tightened and he started convulsing and she could say he was sobbing silently.

Xing didn"t expect he would cry like this and she didn"t know what to do as her heart started to hurt too much and she started to rub his back gently with her hands to soothe him and it seemed to work as he composed himself soon.

"I"m sorry", he said sitting in her bed drinking the tea she made him. His eyes were red but it had it"s usual s.h.i.+ne now, " I was cruel to you" .

"Yes you were! ", she pinched his nose and he yelped.

"If you ever look at me with those cold eyes of yours , I swear on my beating heart that I will disappear and you will never see me again!", Xing said placing her hand on her heart and made a promise freezing Shengli.

Shengli"s eyes were widened with surprise and Xing could see a hint of fear in it too.

" I won"t, Xing! Please don"t make such promises ", he said in a begging tone," Swear on my beating heart!"

Xing shook her head, "I know I"m worth more to you than yourself! So remember it well!"

Xing knew it in the bottom of her heart that as much as he means to her, she means much more to him. She will never doubt his love for her. If she did, she would be the stupidest person ever lived!

"It hurt, Chenglie!.... So badly... I wanted my heart to stop beating so I won"t feel that pain!", she said gulping down the lump in her throat and he hugged her close to his heart.

So I"d rather my heart stop beating than ever seeing that look on your face ever again!

"I know! I know! I won"t ever look at you like that. I swear! I swear on your beating heart and my entire existence!" he patted her head.

For him, his existence is nothing if it could not make her heart beat a single beat more.

Both of them stood for sometime hugging each other as they composed each other. Xu mama entered in to bring her some snacks and got shocked seeing Shengli in here.

Shengli who could see Xu mama gestured her to get out and she compiled as she was worried about her young miss. Also her master had approved of their union, so it is not wrong right?