LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

Chenglei cursed himself for letting some woman use his name. He had known the Liang family was using his name around but he didn"t care since he had no intention of giving them the exposure of exploiting him but he should have handled these rumours since he decided to make Xing his woman.

Chenglei heard that Lord Ming entered the city gates that morning and the Emperor have summoned him to meet and so he wondered if he joined her brother to meet the Emperor and went back to the palace. But alas, she wasn"t there either.

Haru looked at Chenglei with hate in his eyes and Chenglei wondered what changed in the three years. Chenglei remembered Lord Ming so affectionate with him in the past calling him "Brother Lei" but suddenly three years ago he stopped all contact with him. He could not think of any reason why. Also Chenglei wondered if Táng JiaXing was close with Lord Ming, how come he never met her in the past? It must be fate he had to meet her only now! He concluded.

Poor Chenglei even forgot the fact that he made friends with Lord Ming because of Xing and Haru is mad at him only for hurting his friend. In the past when Chenglei decided to leave Xing to protect her, Haru didn"t mind and still maintained contact with him but now when he decided to forget her, Haru could not allow that and he broke all contacts with him in the past three years.

The atmosphere in the Study was so tense as Chenglei and Haru were throwing daggers at each other with their looks.

"Where"s she, Lord Ming?", Chenglei knew Haru Knows where she is otherwise he won"t be this relaxed.

"Why? To flaunt your women to her? Find someone else",he bit back.

"I"ll see how she can escape my people in this capital city!", Chenglei took it as a challenge and left making the Emperor sigh.

"Why are you this harsh on my brother, Lord Ming! We both saw how devastated he was that day before he made such a decision", the Emperor could not bear his brother being blamed.

"Yes, he decided for himself, your Majesty! If brother Lei had an ounce of sensibility, he wouldn"t have chosen to forget her...", Haru wasn"t in a good mood.

"Can I tell you something...? When the G.o.ddess asked for "Her memories in exchange for her life", I thought Mingxia"d be the one losing her memories... I thought the G.o.ddess asked for... Say, Mingxia"s memories of her past... May be brother understood the same way as me and thought it would be better for Mingxia to forget all those sad past memories and start anew", he sighed, "But turned out the G.o.ddess meant differently when she asked for her memories. The G.o.ddess asked for brother"s memory of Mingxia and not Mingxia"s memories... Who knows? Maybe it is all the plot of the G.o.ddess to purposefully mislead brother to make him hurt Mingxia along the way. I firmly believe so ", the Emperor said and Haru sank into deep thoughts.

It is entirely possible! He never thought about it in this angle. Knowing brother Lei, it is entirely possible he made that deal thinking she"d be the one losing memories, Not him. But...

" Still... He shouldn"t have decided for her... She always stressed not to make deals with G.o.ds... Never mind...! What happened had happened and there is no changing it" ,Haru fiddled with his fingernails as he was in deep thoughts.
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"But why are you still angry at my brother? He wants to be with her still... Even though he forgot her, he wants to marry her!", the Emperor asked.

"Yes.. HE wants to... It"s always his want! Never hers... He always makes the decision for her. But that stupid falls for him everytime and let"s him do whatever he wants. You don"t know the state she was in, the first couple of months after we left the capital city, three years back! I don"t want her to end up that way ever again... ", Haru"s expression turned sombre reminiscing the pitiful state Xing was in.

" Brother looked like he lost his soul the last three years. I see him smiling and laughing only after she returned", the Emperor spoke for his brother.

"Hmpf! Lost his soul?", Haru snorted, "She... That stupid... She was left to skin and bones... She ate the bare minimum that would sustain her life and one could literally count the bones in her body... She just sat there staring at the wall and would scream suddenly at nights in pain... When that tiger G.o.d tried to a.s.sist her, she threatened to kill herself and so he stopped visiting... She pushed everyone away and locked herself inside her room... She didn"t even take a bath... She didn"t look like herself... I... ", Haru paused as his eyes were filled with tears.

"I...I wanted her to die than being in that wretched state.... I actually put a sword to her neck. I wanted to end her suffering... I... With my own hands... Pressed the sword to her neck and she just sat there staring at the wall...", Haru rubbed his face with his hand to compose himself as his throat closed, " When the sword sank into her skin and there was blood, she stared at me blankly, "Haru, he wanted me to live", she said and just pushed the sword away from her neck. Then she resumed staring at the wall... The door shut by itself and she didn"t let anyone in after that... Only a small bowl of porridge will be accepted through the window and she won"t even eat that some days... It was scary! I don"t want her to end up that way again..." , Haru could not hold back his tears and he looked at the Emperor whose eyes were clouded too.

Her best friend wanted to end her life! Was she that miserable? But how come she came out of it?

" So how did she... ", the Emperor asked curious. She did a lot of good in the past two years as he had heard.

"I left my newborn son in her doorstep in a blizzard one day... It almost took his life before she snapped to her senses... She heard his cries and decided to get up from her bed and carried him and she raised him from then on... If not for his cries,she"d be still staring blankly at the wall! ", Haru said sniffing his nose.

" You, what? ", the Emperor was shocked. He put his son"s life in jeopardy for the sake of his friend? Really, she has a good friend who cares for her deeply.

" Well... She loves kids... That"s the only way I had since she wasn"t responding to anything else... Now, my son cannot live without her and she loves him as much as she loves that selfish brother Lei! She pampered him enough to think he is the ruler of the world", Haru smiled dryly. That fateful day when he decided to close his ears for his days old son"s painful cries in the cold blizzard ,it was his wife who stood by his side and comforted him.

" It"s because she forsake her lover and entered the palace did I get pregnant. Maybe this child was born to comfort her! Just wait... She will come out and pick our son up. She won"t let our boy die! ", she told him with her face filled with tears and eyes filled with trust. He is lucky to have such a loving wife who loves his friend as much as he do.

Or else, which new mother would allow her newborn son to be left in the cold for the sake of a female friend of her husband?

Xing did good choosing Shurei for me!

"Brother won"t hurt her again...", the Emperor spoke from his heart. He had always known her as a strong woman, he never expected her to sink to such deep despair after his brother forgot her. Lord Ming"s worries aren"t unfounded.

Haru sighed, "What can I say? She won"t listen to me anyway! She becomes the dumbest person on earth when he is concerned.... And now she has to know he has a Fiancé!"

"But, she is not brother"s Fiancé. I personally kept away any woman from approaching him and brother wasn"t interested in anyone either...", the Emperor tried to explain.

His blood boiled when he heard that Liang woman threw dirty water at her. How dare she? Her father"s money came from the two s.h.i.+ps he own for trading in the western sea and the NanCheng pa.s.s route he uses to transport his goods. Everything was arranged by Mingxia and that woman repays her by throwing dirty water at her.? She doesn"t know what is good for her.

He was furious but as an Emperor he cannot do anything against the law but he knew his brother won"t let this issue rest.

"I know...", Haru said. He knew his brother Lei loves Xing deeply and just because he forgot won"t mean the end of their love. He just wanted his stupid friend to be happy.

The maids served them refreshments and tea and the Emperor broke the silence,

"So we are hearing that you are a descendant of the Water Kingdom"s Royal family..."

"Yes, seems like my mother"s grandmother was a princess of the Water Kingdom.There were always speculations that I belong to the Water Kingdom"s royalty because of my blue eyes and turned out it is true... But, It doesn"t matter as I have no intention of leaving the Wind Kingdom. That stupid needs me here", he said determinantly.

"But I heard that they threatened you that they won"t be trading silk with you if you refuse to live in the Water kingdom...", the Emperor asked curious. The water kingdom is the biggest producer of silk in their continent.

"Ah, they did! But it doesn"t matter... That stupid Xing found a good base for me to personally grow silkworms in the sky Kingdom while she wandered there in the past couple years. Now I can produce my own silk for my own business", Haru shrugged.

Seriously! Since when do the people a.s.sociated with her will be left helpless and poor?

"Hahaha", the Emperor laughed, "So the water kingdom tried to get your taxes and ended up losing their trade with you?"

Everything becomes interesting when she gets involved!

The Emperor and Haru ended up taking about some random things for sometime while Chenglei searched for Xing.

How come she just disappeared into thin air? He wondered but he refused to accept it. He went to the Liang household to see if she went there for retribution but the entire place was destroyed as if a storm pa.s.sed only through their Manor.

Did she curse them with a spell?

And later he learnt that the two s.h.i.+ps belonging to the Liang family caught up in a storm in the sea and sank with their every fortune and the entire Liang family sank into debt and they left the capital city in shame. All Chenglei did was announcing everyone the shameful exit of the Liang family from the capital city and the rest happened by itself.

"They must have angered the G.o.ds for only their property to get destroyed", one of the old woman who watched them leave said. No one knew that old lady was right since the two G.o.ds who were protecting Xing from the shadows could not bear to see her getting humiliated.

"They are cursed", another one said and threw stones at them as they left.

And so one of the newlu rich people left in shame from the capital just because their daughter messed with the wrong person and ended up angering the G.o.ds.

---

Chenglei searched for her in the Huang Manor if she went there to meet her father but sadly she wasn"t there too. He wandered around everywhere searching for her but still could not find her.

But then he sat and thought deeply as he remembered a carriage leaving when he went out of the restaurant. Could she be in that carriage? But whose carriage was it?

Then he realised that in the capital city only few places are out of his reach and one of that place is the Zhong Manor. He knew she liked Lady Zhong and could she be there?

So Chenglei who gets shameless whenever Xing is involved, invited himself into the Zhong Manor and just as he predicted, she was there...

But she wasn"t carelessly chatting with Lady Zhong amd drinking tea. She was having different kind of fun, he never expected she"d have.

His entire face twitched to see her sitting opposite of Zhong Seiren with a GO board in between them and a bunch of empty wine jars were lying around and with both of them having a wine jar in their hand, they were... Happily Gambling!

How dare you woman! He wanted to scream at her. He was looking for her, running around like a dog, and here she is... Indulging herself!

But thank goodness she is fine!