LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

"Did you become the Emperor? Why are we on the Dragon bed?", Xing pulled Shengli"s collar and he snorted,

"Your courtyard had burned entirely. Didn"t he sleep on your bed for a night? It"s repayment. ", he rubbed her back with his big, warm and coa.r.s.e hand.

Xing dug her face deep into his chest and refused to look at him in the eye. She didn"t have the guts to look him in the eye. Even though she knew he was not accusing her and he never will, she felt guilty for entering the palace and creating various rumours with the Emperor. So she decided it is time she told him everything that happened so far.

Shengli felt her hands clenching his clothes hard as if she was holding on to him and knew she is feeling guilty about what he said. He chided himself for running his mouth this time knowing she is sensitive to such issues and especially now when she is not feeling well.

"Xing, look at me", he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. Her eyes were watery and his heart sank seeing her like that.

Xing told him about the day she felt like he disappeared and how after Haru visited her she pulled herself together to meet the G.o.ds and there she met a other G.o.d in the tiger form in front of her.

"He threatened me with your life and I didn"t agree... But... Then threatened the life of everyone else...I couldn"t find you either... ", Xing sniffed her nose.

"I know, I"m sorry", Shengli patted her head which was buried in his chest once again. He knew this must have happened. She would never enter the palace to save his life. She"ll prefer to end her life with him. It was his fault for not being her side when she suffered through all this alone.

Xing could not understand why Shengli apologised but then continued to tell him everything that happened after she entered the palace. How the cloth got blood in it, how she found out G.o.ds cannot enter here, how she found out a lot about the Scarlet Tiger,the swath of her maid and also what happened the night the Emperor got poisoned.

"He almost died that night. Even I got scared. He could not breath and he turned blue", Xing spoke softly. She really was scared that night. A lot could have gone wrong.

"What?",Shengli looked at her with wide eyes. He knew his brother had buckwheat allergy but he didn"t know it was this severe. He wanted to gain the trust of s.h.i.+hong and also wanted to send her a message with a little warning to his brother for letting rumours spread about him and his woman but he didn"t know he suffered this much. If something happened to him that night, he could have lost two of the most important persons in his life.

Shengli held her close as he felt a chill pa.s.s through his smile. Just how worried she must have been that night and how much did his brother suffer?

Xing noticed his body stiffening and patted his chest as to comfort him, "It"s fine now", she a.s.sured him.

She then explained her meeting with Lin Mubai. She also told him about how she let Lin Mubai handle his businesses as Li ChengNuo and Shengli kissed her head acknowledging how clever she had been in handling that tough situation. It was perfect since s.h.i.+hong still doesn"t know that Shengli is Li ChengNuo and Lin Mubai is doing a perfect job of hiding that ident.i.ty too as he is one of his most trusted aides.

Then Xing explained the happenings of the day before New year"s eve starting with meeting of her Uncle Feiye, Lord Ran and Young Miss Ran followed by the happenings next day.

Shengli listened to everything she told about her meeting with s.h.i.+hong and Xing could feel his heart was stuffed up and he wasn"t breathing properly with his hear beating frantically.

He is raging mad!

"I shouldn"t have drunk that wine in the Eunuch"s office. If so, I might have been able to fight s.h.i.+hong or at least fend myself", Xing told her true feelings. Even though everything worked out in the end, she had lost a perfect chance to kill s.h.i.+hong.

Shengli held her close, "It is not your fault", he said in a sultry voice and took a deep breath to calm himself down.

It is my fault for getting caught by s.h.i.+hong!

Shengli remembered how s.h.i.+hong taunted him by saying that he"ll make his lover less of a woman. Shengli didn"t understand what he meant by that then but now he realised. The Poison s.h.i.+hong slipped inside Xing was just to damage her womb. Somehow that reacted with the Poison she already consumed from Eunuch Xin and made her almost lose her life.

s.h.i.+hong! You cut my bloodline short by hurting my wife! I will pay you back!

Did he think just because he hurt her like this I"ll think of her as less of a woman and abandon her? Impossible.

Xing looked at Shengli who was excluding a dark aura and she knew he was finding was to avenge her and hugged him.

"You are fine, I"m fine... Isn"t this enough?", she spoke softly and her voice made Shengli return his thoughts to her.

No, I must not get overly enraged in front of her. She"ll find something weird about it.

"You are right. It is enough", he kissed her.

Just then she heard some noises out there and Xu mama entered to announce the arrival of her family.

Xing saw her father, her brother and Lord Zhong came to visit her and she felt happy seeing them. For her it felt like she was meeting them after an Eternity even though it was only a single day for them.

Xing felt a little better after meeting her family and they soon left after giving her birthday wishes and gifts.

Her father gave her the letter she asked along with an entire set of green Imperial jade jewellery. Xing was more happy about the letter than the jewellery. She never thought she could read this letter and so she held it close to her heart.

Rijun gave she a set of writingaterials from inkstone , brushes and ink. Xing felt like he was looking at her differently like he was feeling sorry for her but didn"t know why.

Before she could think about it, Lord Zhong gave her his prized collection of an exquisitely made jade tea set he kept under heavy security. Xjn didn"t have to guess what he was thinking, "Brat, you"ll have to make me tea with this everyday". His thoughts were so loud, she could even hear it.

"What are you planning to do next?", AoTian asked Xing and she had a sombre expression and didn"t answer him. Of course she had made a decision but she should discuss it with Shengli first before announcing it.

AoTian saw her look and he knew she is not planning anything good and sighed. Lord Zhong comforted him by patting his back, " Let the kids decide", he said.

Soon her family left and only Xing, Shengli and the Emperor along with Xu mama were left in the room. Xu mama knew how to act in such situations and stayed away from them.

"So Mingxia, will you be honest with me at least now?", the Emperor asked Xing and his voice carried a lot of sadness making Xing feel bad.

"Your Majesty, I just wanted you to decide for yourself about that Eunuch. That"s why I didn"t talk to you about him directly. I hated him but for you he was someone close. I cannot influence you. I trusted you to arrive to a rational decision and I wasn"t disappointed", Xing gave an explanation as she realised the Emperor must be talking about this.

If that Eunuch was close with Shengli or if it was outside the palace, she"d have killed him with no thoughts. But the Emperor is different and it was not her place to arrive to a punishment inside the palace.

Shengli placed a chair for Xing to sit and sat beside her after offering her a plate of fruit. The Emperor sat in front of her,

"So what are we going to do next with everything"s.... The way it is now?", he scratched his head.

Xing looked at Shengli and held his hand, "I want to have a talk with the G.o.ds. I want to know what they want from me to the extent they even interfere with the G.o.d of death "

Sheni squeezed his hands. He knew this should be done too.

"You are not going alone", he fazed at her. Xing could feel his gaze had traces of many emotions. She didn"t want to meet them too but it seems like she does not have much other possible options.

"You come with us too", Xing told the Emperor and Shengli nodded in agreement too.

So the three of them whose fate were intertwined somehow decided to meet the G.o.ds to get an idea why their life is being interrupted by them.