LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

"Mingxia... You aren"t making me tea anymore...", he spoke in a whiny tone and there was silence for some time and after that he continued,

"But I want to have more of your tea...",he said with a pout.

Xing could not bear to see her father in such state. He is supposed to be thinking that I am dead and if so why is he having conversations with an imaginary me?

Tears started to stream down her face. Her father is the smartest person she knew along with Chenglei and the Oldman. For him to be reduced to this delirious state, what could have happened?

But that is not important now and she ran towards her father and sat in the stool beside the bed where her father thought his daughter in his delusions was sitting and held her father"s hand.

Now it won"t be a delusion, Father.... I"m actually here...
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But a s.h.i.+ver went through her body as she sensed how cold her father"s hands were.

She held his hand within her hands and gently rubbed his hands to warm it up,

"Father!", she called as that"s all she could say before her throat closed of sorrow. She did not know what to say or what to to so she just took a good look at her father.

He had wrinkles around his eyes and it made shadows in his face by the lantern lights as he looked pale and ghostly like he has been drained all his blood. His lips looked parched and cracked. His hair has lost its l.u.s.tre and her father"s beautiful hazel eyes were lacking its glimmer.

Xing had never seen her father like this before... He was always this proud and majestic man who bowed to no one and she felt sorrow welling up in her heart and it flowed as tears in her eyes. She placed her forehead on his hand clutched between her hands and started weeping.

"Father! What happened to you?", she could not bear to hold back.

Chenglei who was watching everything from a dark corner of the room was sh.e.l.l-shocked.

Did she call him "Father"? Didn"t Huang AoTian had only one daughter who died? So who is she? Why is she calling him father?

So this woman must be his illegitimate daughter, he concluded. It is normal in their kingdom for that to be the possibility. Who"d have thought, in the end AoTian is like other men who has illegitimate children everywhere, he snorted.

What he couldn"t bear was the woman who was weeping right now. He knew AoTian was sick and he became rather delirious only recently and he only cared how he should handle the court and the public and didn"t worry even a bit for his health.

But when he saw her convulsing trying to hold her tears and he felt like his heart was stabbed. He didn"t want to stand far away from her and wanted to be near her and hug her close to his heart and tell her "Everything is going to be fine!" and not to cry. Everytime she sniffed he felt his heart skipping a beat and everytime she hiccupped, he felt a sharp pain in his chest as if it was stabbed.

Ah! He held his chest. This woman is going to be the end of me, he thought. Why does she has such a hold on me?

Xing who was crying felt a gentle caress in her head and the ever gentle voice that belonged to her father which now was hoa.r.s.e and meek, "Mingxia? You are back? I knew you were alive... I knew... Even that snotty brat first told me you went travelling...."

Xing composed herself a little, "Yes, Father! I am alive and I"m sorry for not telling you before I left... I"m sorry you are sick... I"m sorry... ", she then broke down crying.

"I"m not sick... Don"t cry, Mingxia... Now that you are back, see how fast father recovers...", AoTian"s voice did become a bit more energetic.

While those two were taking, Chenglei who was standing close to the door sensed a couple of maids arriving. He could hear them pa.s.sing through the study and getting closer to the bed chambers. He looked at Xing to see if she noted but she was too engrossed in her talk with her father and so Chenglei took a deep breath and decided to expose himself to her.

What would she think if she knows I followed her? But this is not the time to ponder about that. If she is caught here, she"d be tortured till she dies. She might be a daughter but she"ll be only looked as an intruder.

Xing who had forcefully stopped herself from crying engaged in small talk with her father to improve his mood. He was extremely happy to hear her voice and so she blabbered whatever that came to her mind.

Suddenly she felt a big hand closing her mouth and another hand wrapped around her waist and flung her around and the next moment she was pressed with her back on the wall in a dark corner of the room and she saw her father looked around for her frantically calling her name.

"Mingxia! Where did you go?"

"Mingxia!"

Xing knew the hands holding her are of Chenglei"s and she tried to get out of his grip and get to her father but his grip only tightened and she noticed the two maids entering and stopped struggling and rested her head on his firm chest.. The chest that comforted her a million times before. She didn"t know why he was here but she was thankful he was here. She needed someone to lean on.

"Can"t even sleep properly... Why is the Lord started screaming again..?"

"Huh! What a shame... He has it all but became a r.e.t.a.r.d..."

Xing heard the maids whisper and an indescribable anger rose in her heart and she wanted to punish them immediately but was held back by Chenglei.

"Calm down... You really cannot", he held her close and whispered in her ears.

Even he found the maids behaviour too brazen but no outsider can criticise the servants of the Prime Minister"s Manor and especially not when they have sneaked in.

"Your daughter"s dead, Your Lords.h.i.+p... Please drink this medicine and go to sleep", one of the maid said politely to AoTian but he still shouted "Mingxia...!"

"Your Lords.h.i.+p... Please... Please don"t hurt yourself thinking of a dead..."

"She is not dead.... She is here.... She was just here... My daughter...", he shouted. "Take that medicine away from me... It makes me sleepy!"

"But your Lords.h.i.+p, if you don"t drink it, the lady won"t let you play with the little miss...", one maid said and only then AoTian drank the medicine.

Xing could not watch everything happening around her and she gripped Chenglei"s sleeves hard to stop herself from screaming out loud. Chenglei pressing her on the wall could feel the distress she is in and gave her a hug, a hug so warm and so gentle... The same hug she was accustomed to a million times.

"Cry if you want", he whispered knowing she is holding back her tears as soon as the maids left and the next moment he felt her entire body shaking and he could feel his clothes getting wet. But he did not mind it and gently caressed her hair as he felt like it. She felt so pet.i.te in his embrace and even though he had never hugged a woman like this before, he felt like he"s done it a thousand times....

The woman who smelled nice in his embrace cried bitterly, whimpering and sobbing, hacking his heart and making it bleed for her.

Why does it feel like she is fitting right in my arms and why does it feel like her in my arms complete me? And why is that her tears pierce my heart like needles?

Xing on the other hand found that embrace she missed for three years and all her sorrows bursted out as she cried. She felt guilty for not staying by her father"s side even though he forgot her previously too. At least this wouldn"t have happened, she thought. She also got angry at the Emperor and her brother who had let this happen to her father. Don"t they love him too? How could they have been ignorant of his condition?

She cried for sometime and soon composed herself realising Chenglei does not remember her and she cannot hug him as she please.

"I"m sorry, Lord Li", she wiped her snot that got rubbed in his clothes and pushed him back and slid out of his hug and went back to her father who was almost asleep by now,

"Father! I will get to the bottom of it", she said covering him with the blanket carefully not to wake him and went on observing the room.

After crying and clearing her mind, she felt like this might not be an illness and there is a possibility of something else and someone might be deliberately making her father sick and one person came to her mind.

Her father never likes many things in the room and never adds anything in his room but will just replace one with another. But she saw there were some odd things kept in certain places of the room that were previously empty.

She observed them one by one a nightglowing pearl, a flower vase containing some flower, an incense burner having a new scent than what her father uses and the odd placement of some other tidbits.

She smirked...! So this is how it is!

Chenglei who felt empty after the warmth in his chest disappeared patted himself and as he watched her she felt deep in thought and it looked like she figured out something.

"Let"s leave", she told Chenglei and he nodded.

Sorry father! Forgive me for hiding again but I need to expose the one who deliberately made you sick!

Chenglei walked her back to the Inn and he didn"t like the fact that she is staying there and decided to get her a house to stay.

"Tomorrow take me to meet the Emperor. Also I want my brother Rijun there too",she told Chenglei and he agreed.

He thought she"d ask for favours with the Emperor but the moment she entered the study she grabbed the Emperor by the collar and scolded him for not properly taking care of her father who"d helped him a lot over the years.

Chenglei couldn"t understand why his brother is letting himself to be bullied by this woman but it seemed like his brother respected her a lot and willing to be lectured by her and it made him more curious about her.

Rijun entered the study and seeing the Emperor being manhandled by Xing and Chenglei by the side just watching, he felt exasperated and familiar and he walked straight to Xing and knocked her on the forehead hard,

"Can"t you behave like a human being for once?", he chided her and only after hitting her did he realise that he just now hit a woman he doesn"t know, out of nowhere and stood there frozen staring at his hand that hit her like it was used to hitting her.

How uncouth have I become..?

Xing rubbed her forehead that stung of her brother"s usual hit and looked at him who seemed out of it but he looked matured and more handsome. He looked tired as he is handling all the important tasks now that her father is sick but other than that he seemed fine and that made her happy.

"What happened to Xu mama?", she asked Rijun and he looked back at her as if asking how is it relevant and why he must tell everything to a stranger.

But her glare was too powerful and even the Emperor asked him to answer her and so he answered,

"She felt like she became too old to be serving the household still and asked for retirement and so she was sent to her hometown. But why? Did something happen to her? ", he was genuinely worried for Xu mama.