With only a week to the Martial Arts Tournament and a little more than three months for the official coronation of the current Emperor, AoTian as the Prime Minister had many things he had to deal with. He had a truly tedious day at court as Lord Ran was extremely moody these days flowing the rumours that his second daughter had eloped with a guard.When AoTian entered his Manor, what welcomed him was a streak of gold followed by a streak of silver and a gust of wind was left in the wake of their running.
"You elusive cat! You thought I"d let you be just because you hide from me?", Shengli shouted and chased Mingxia who was giggling and was still in the lead.
"You can"t catch me, dummy!", she shouted.
AoTian just shook his head, let out a sigh and walked in his study without even bothering them. Shengli was adament that the said "elopement " of the second daughter of Lord Ran has everything to do with s.h.i.+hong and had improved the security of his Manor ten fold. Right now his daughter is well protected than the Emperor and every other officials combined.
Mingxia seems different these days too. She prefers to wear girl outfits these days and by the way she looks more adorable. Apart from the sword practice in the mornings, she seems to stay in her courtyard most times and is not going out as before too.
And Rijun seems to be in high spirits these days too. He might have found a girl close to his heart to court was what he thought but there was no proof of it he could find. Well! As long as he likes her and she is a good girl, nothing else matters!
Xing who was running was finally caught by Shengli and Xing blamed her skirt that got in her way.
Shengli took a good look at her and she looked more radiant and alluring. He held her hands and felt it a bit more coa.r.s.e than usual and took a good look even after Xing"s resistance. She was always weak against him.
Shengli saw the various small p.r.i.c.k marks and scabs on her hands and his heart fell into despair.
"How did this happen?", he gritted his teeth. It must be that old lady forcing her to learn embroidery. His rage made his brain irrational to think, when has she let anyone force her to do anything?
"Xu mama!", he shouted making Xing"s ears ring. Xu mama ran to him shuddering and his enraged glare made her immediately kneel.
Now that got Xing furious, why is this guy shouting at Xu mama for no reason?
"Stand up", she told Xu mama and looked at Shengli, "I wanted to learn embroidery. Why are you spiting her?", she glared.
Shengli didn"t say anything and brought her to her room and dabbed medicine and bandaged her hands all the while pouting. When he finished, her hand looked like it was treated for amputated fingers, all covered in bandage.
Xing sighed and signalled Xu mama and she took out the embroidery she was working on and left them alone considerately.
"I was trying to make an embroidered fragrance pouch for you as your birthday present", she gave it to him.
Xing was carefully observing him and she could see the various emotions in his face. She could see the extreme joy, surprise and he looked extremely moved. Xing was really admiring his expressions, "All the little p.r.i.c.kly pain... Definitely worth it! Wow! I could feel this much happiness from making him happy!", Xing was really pleased until he opened his mouth,
"Xing! This orchid is really pretty", he said with his voice heavy as if he was trying not to be emotional and he expected to see her happy face but Xing was pouting.
"What? It really is. I"m not lying. I even like how you did it with silver threads as I like silver", he continued.
"It"s a wolf! Not an orchid", she said puffing her cheeks and turned to the side.
Shengli tried to turn the cloth to other angles to see the wolf in it but he really can"t find it. But he cannot bear her pouting as she had put this much efforts into it for him. She made it for him! Especially for him, with her own hands, hurting it even!
"Ah! There it is! I really have gone blind not to see the strong wolf in there. How stupid of me! ", he said and hugged her back trying to coax her.
Xing got the embroidered cloth back and even she could not find top or bottom of it. She could neither see a wolf or an orchid in it.
There it is! My failure! Xing thought.
Xing tried to throw it away but Shengli plucked it from her hand.
"I"ll make a better one for you", she said and he held it by his nose and shook his head, "I want this one!"
The smell of agarwood entered his nose. She must have spent a lot of time with this and the cloth ended up smelling like her! How could he bear it to get thrown away?
He carefully scouted each inch of it and spotted a little spot of red on that white silk cloth. His heart clutched thinking of all the wound she had in her hands. He knew she had already ruined her soft hands by learning sword play just for him and now she is hurting her hands to make pouches for him.
That cannot be allowed! And she has the audacity to say she"ll make another one for him? Like I"ll make her suffer anymore!
Shengli stuffed that cloth in his pocket and asked Xing to change.
"We are going out! Your brain got too spoiled staying in for long", he said in a blaming tone and picked out one of the male outfits for her but had no intention to leave and was staring at her like a hungry wolf ready to pounce.
Xing too felt a bit stuffy staying in for long and she pushed him out forcefully realising his intentions and changed. Soon both of them informed their father and Shengli took her to Seiren"s restaurant.
As they were getting in their usual private room, Xing heard a soft, pouty sweet voice from the room beside them and realised it was her cousin MingXue"s followed by general Huojin"s coaxing voice.
Well, spring is in the air, Xing thought, even though it is autumn already.
Shengli and Xing were about to sit when that annoying Seiren found them and welcomed them and acted as their waiter. He really was well behaved hoping these two won"t go overboard in punis.h.i.+ng him.
As he was addressing them, the next room opened and it was MingXue who stormed into their room and pushed Seiren aside and pointed at Xing,
"You hard-hearted vixen! Isn"t it enough you got WanRou grounded and killed her mother? Should you have to sell her off to barbarians?", she shouted and her chest was heaving up and down as she was that furious.
Xing was stunned by this development, Now what! She looked at Shengli for answers.
Shengli explained," I wanted to tell you this. Your uncle had arranged for your cousin to be married to the Chief of Sima Tribe"
"Oh!", Xing said. So was this the business uncle was discussing with Chief Batukhan?
"What "oh! "?", MingXue said in a mocking tone. She had lost her bearing as a lady and Seiren just sneered at her, seeing her state. Huojin tried to stop her but was pushed back.
"Seven thousand horses! She was sold for seven thousand horses! Are you happy to have advised first uncle? How much more should she suffer before you are satisfied? ", she was raging mad.
First of all looking at her Xing felt that she should find herself a girl friend who would fight for her like this without worrying about her bearing.
Secondly , Xing didn"t give a rat s.h.i.+t about what happened to that WanRou. Speaking truthfully, seven thousand horses is worth more than a single girl especially in the time of war! Xing personally hated women getting traded for favours. But Hey! Did this MingXue forget that WanRou tried to drug her man and actually drugged her? Like seriously! What the h.e.l.l!
Thirdly, for a concubine"s daughter, becoming the wife of a Chief is the highest status she can get. In this kingdom she can only become a Concubine of a distinguished family or legal wife of lesser n.o.ble families. But being the wife of a Chief there is like being the Empress here, right?
And finally, how could she call that Chief Batukhan and his people barbarians? They are far from barbarians! They were a big group and even though their population was low they still followed the one wife rule and their village reminded Xing of pengpeng"s wolf pack. Xing would be happy if that WanRou"s bad habits didn"t rub on those lovely people.
Uncle Little bun really loves his daughter to select this alliance for her!
"Will you take your woman away, brother? This is a private room! ", Seiren said irritated by her ramblings and was met with Huojin"s glare.
"I had nothing to do with it! ", Xing said truthfully and looked at Seiren to order for herself.
"Are you trying to kill her or worse.. Get her .. Hurt... by sending her there in the time of war ?", MingXue asked and her eyes were filled with tears.
" War is not good. Also Chief Batukhan said that his tribe won"t get involved in the war. Also if war comes, everyone will be in trouble especially Zhong family and you are not worried about that? ", Xing asked. Shouldn"t she worry about herself first? General Zhong would be the one standing in the front lines!
" Ah, right!.. Ha, ha, ha! Chief Batukhan said... You"d know him better as you had stayed with him an entire day and night, won"t you? ", she said with a smirk and that did it for Xing.
"Enough of it, MingXue. I will not tolerate this kind of talk anymore!", Xing stood up while Shengli was still seated and his eyes were drilling holes at Zhong Huojin who was equally shocked and embarra.s.sed.
Actually Huojin had overheard what AoTian and Shengli were discussing with his father and he had foolishly spoken about it to MingXue and asked her to keep it a secret and she could not, even for an hour.
"Why not? You are a vixen and a mean-spirited savage! You call yourself Lord Táng seducing women around and..."
Screeeetch!!!
Before she finished, Shengli had kicked the table right at her and if Huojin didn"t pull her back, MingXue would have been seriously hurt in the abdomen.
Shengli wanted to stay away from that women"s fight as Xing would prefer it that way but when she started blabbering secrets, he could not just watch over.
When she talked about Xing staying in the Tribal tent, he blamed Huojin"s credibility and his inability to keep it to himself and removed him from the list of his trusted people.
But when she almost revealed Xing"s ident.i.ty, he stepped in as that was his baseline. He had worked really hard in the past three months to hide the fact that Lord Táng is Huang Mingxia and this stupid woman dares to shout it out in a public place? She wishes for death!
Even Xing was in no mood to speak up for her as she was p.i.s.sed by these women who blame her of immoral conduct each time she speaks with a man!
"Let"s go, Xing!" Shengli wrapped his arm around her waist and on the way he pushed Huojin to the wall grabbing his shoulder, "I don"t care if you are a Zhong or a Huang. I really don"t", he said in a deep cold voice sending s.h.i.+vers around for everyone in the room. He meant it, he will not hesitate to kill!
Shengli gave a deadly glare at MingXue who cowered and sneaked behind Huojin and Shengli snorted and left holding Xing by her waist.
Seiren clicked his tongue, "Well done brother! Your woman has p.i.s.sed of the greatest strength to our family and also the only one who spoke to father about accepting your marriage at the same time! ", he slow clapped, "Well done! Now I know why father is against you two. You both are stupid and your woman have just destroyed the Zhong family even before entering!", he left angrily and wondered if he could catch up to them but they had already left.
MingXue started crying and Huojin could not bear that pet.i.te woman crying and comforted her. He knew he had screwed up for his family but he cannot abandon his woman for that. She was merely emotional as she received the tear filled letter from her cousin.