LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

"Mo Chen! Let"s have a look at my father", she patted Mo Chen who followed her when she left the study. He wanted this mistress to live with him again but it seemed like his mistress wants to live with the other man his master likes too. He always hated that man!

Xing remembered the pathways she has to take from the Imperial Study to the Prime Minister"s office since she took that way for almost six months during her past stay here. And with Mo Chen walking beside her like her bodyguard, no one dared to stop her or even ask questions.

Will my father remember me? Xing played with that thought and she was elated thinking of meeting her father.

But when she reached there, the news she received made her heart skip a beat.

Her father is sick? And took a leave?

Xing knew her father never took leave until he took leave for her sake sometimes. But judging by what these officials here are saying, her father seemed to be taking leave a lot these days.

Could he be seriously ill or he just stays home to play with his granddaughter?

Xing was in serious contemplation when someone grabbed her by the shoulder from behind and she was startled.

"Mingxia?", the sapphire blue eyes of the man in front of her twinkled with the glistening tears in his eyes and it held the deep surprise he had to see her. "It is you, right?", his gentle voice resembling the flow of streams, now trembled out of glee and his throat almost closed.

"Ying Ryuga!", Xing smiled at him, "What are you doing here.?"

So he remembers me too? What is going on? Was there some spell that broke and that makes everyone remember me again? Xing wondered. She sent Mo Chen who was glaring at Ryuga back to his master in case he ruins the relations.h.i.+p between the two nations. Mo Chen seemed really mad at Ryuga for some reason.

"You... You are alive..", his lips quivered as he smiled and every part of him wanted to hug her. "I... We... all were devastated hearing the news of your... !", he paused biting his lower lip.

"Haha... Still not dead! Are you feeling bad? ", Xing jested. She could see he was so emotional and tried to let him compose himself.

"No...", he refused immediately, "No way! I... Um ... I mean everyone will be so happy to know you are well", his hands unconsciously reached for her cheeks and Xing took a step back immediately. This guy proposed to her years back and even though she refused, it seems like he still haven"t moved on.

Oh, Xing! Why do you have troubles all around you? Your stupid husband forgot you and this general Kin you rejected identifies you the moment he sees you!

Her startled action made Ryuga get back to his senses. He almost slipped up seeing her alive. The past three years have been like living in h.e.l.l for him by living in a place where she is not alive. He had to pretend to be fine in front of others who cared for him and only in his bed alone did he feel the pain in his heart that would make him restless. And now that he knows that she is alive and well, he can rest well.

"There are dried leaves stuck in your hair", Ryuga pointed at her head and tried to pick it out for her but Xing came forward and patted herself off cursing Chenglei in her heart.

Why didn"t he tell me?

Meanwhile a pair of eyes that followed her watched from a distance.

This bothersome woman knows that ignorant Ying too? And why is he looking at her like that? Why is there a man who like that bothersome woman? Good girl.... Push him away! Slap him hard so he doesn"t bother you anymore! Trying to get the leaves off her hair..? How dare he try to touch her hair? And, Why didn"t I do it before? I could have even accidentally kissed her! Wait... Where is he taking her? And why is she following him?

She is an annoying woman! Eh, whatever! I don"t care.

No... That man always held something against me in the past three years I"ve known him. Who knows what he"ll do to that foolish woman? I"ll just do that woman a service by having an eye on her !

Chenglei decided to follow them around putting to use his topnotch skills of stalking he had honed by following her around for years even though he forgot he used to stalk her before too.

Ryuga asked Xing to have a small chat in a tea shop and Xing agreed so she could find out about her friends from the other kingdoms. As usual she didn"t realise Chenglei is following them.

As the both of them got to the main streets, Xing noticed a carriage and she knew that was the carriage her father liked to use. But is it him this time?

Ryuga was telling her he is sent here for asking the Wind Emperor for handling the pirates since their merchants pa.s.sing through the Wind Kingdom"s territory are getting attacked too. Seeing her focus on an upcoming carriage, he paused.

She looks much more alluring with her dark hair!

The carriage wasn"t running fast and as Xing wanted, the one sitting inside pushed away the curtains just as the carriage pa.s.sed Xing and her heart fell.

What happened!

Xing felt a deep pain in her heart and the rims of her eyes were filled with tears as she saw a fleeting glance of the man inside the carriage.

How could this have happened?

The carriage pa.s.sed away but Xing stood there motionless staring at the direction the carriage left. Her father was inside the carriage and he looked... Sickly! His skin was pale and he had darkcircles under his eyes and he had lost a lot of weight. Her father should only be thirty seven this year but the man inside the carriage looked fifty.

What happened, Father?

Ryuga noticed her ghastly look and tried to talk to her but she excused herself and left. Ryuga asked her to meet him another time knowing there won"t be one. But he still had hopes that she will be able to see his heart and accept his love. He had known that the silver haired one in her heart had entirely forgotten about her for some reason. So she must be free to court, right.? This time fate is giving him a chance and he wasn"t willing to back down! She came back from the dead just for me! He thought.

Xing walked around the streets dejected and in deep thoughts for sometime.

So father is really sick? How? Is it my fault? Why don"t I hear about it till now? Did they keep it under wraps because he"s the prime minister? For how long is he sick?

Why did this happen? I"ve been gone for only three years and why did my father age ten years.? Father! What happened to you? I didn"t know you were suffering and was going on about helping others when I should have been by your side.

What should I do? He is rich and has access to the best doctors and if he still isn"t cured, is it some serious illness? In that case I can find him medicines from the mountains.

Or is he sick because he misses me since he thinks I"m dead? In that case if I try to convince him I"m alive, he"ll be fine right?

What could I do? Right! I can ask the Emperor to arrange a visit somehow to meet him. I"ll ask him tomorrow. Xing decided and she still could not rest her heart and decided to pay her father a visit tonight.

The last time she tried to visit her father, she was pushed away by the guards for trying to sneak into the Prime Minister"s Manor and cause disturbance and was threatened to be sent to prison. So this time she decided to use the cover of the night to sneak in meet her father somehow.

Chenglei who was following her silently noticed how dejected she looked when she saw AoTian and wondered why she feels this strongly towards him. He remembered his brother"s words that she"d stay here once she sees AoTian. So who is he to her?

Is that bothersome woman into older men? Isn"t AoTian old enough to be her father? What a stupid woman!

Chenglei decided to keep an eye on her since he had a gut feeling that she is going to do something stupid and just as he predicted he saw her exiting the leisurely streams inn in the dead of the night clad entirely in crimson. And just as he expected she went to the Prime Minister"s Manor.
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She must be stupid, he thought. To try and enter the most secure Manor in the night when the security will be more tight. If it were him, he"d have sneaked a little before sunset when there will be a change in guards and waited till night came to wander about. But well! She is stupid! Let"s watch her,he decided.

Chenglei saw her climbing through a tree and was particularly amazed how agile she is but is she trying to jump over the guards head? But he was surprised that she jumped perfectly onto the roof of a building from the tree without even making a noise, like a cat.

She seems good, he thought but before that thought went in his head she jumped down on a stack of firewood kept below and then onto the ground leading to the firewood spilling down making noise attracting all the guards towards them.

Now what is she planning?

While the guards gathered from one side only to find a couple of fighting cats, she left that place through the other side and with everyone gathered there, other places only had a little amount of guards enabling her to sneak in rather easily.

This woman is good! Chenglei was impressed.

Little did he know that Xing is not good at being covert and all the incidents were the result of her luck acting in time of her need.

Xing found her father"s courtyard and sneaked in and wished to find Xu mama. She always slept in a small room inside her father"s courtyard before her arrival in the Manor. Now that she"s not there, Xu mama must be still in that room , right?

Xing tried to find her but that room was empty as if no one was living there and she didn"t feel good about it. She decided Xu mama must have retired and got in her father"s room.

She entered the study area first and what she saw there brought tears to her eyes. This was the first time she is entering her father"s study after she entered the palace afterall! She never knew her father treasured that stupid painting this much.

Her father used to hang a big painting of a garden done by a renounced painter in the study before when she lived there but now it was replaced by the expensive painting Chenglei gave which she ruined by scribbling... The gift she gave for her father"s birthday that containes her awful drawing of magpie and her drunken scribble saying she loves her and also the scribbles of Haru, her brother and the Emperor.

No one would expect such an awful painting in the study of the Prime Minister!

Father! I know you love me a lot! I"m sorry this was the best I could give you at that time... I"m ecstatic that you are treasuring it this much. Thank you, Father!

Xing wiped the tears flowing through her face with her sleeves and walked to the bedchambers not knowing Chenglei was following her close behind.

The moment she reached there, she froze...

Father?