LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

Usually when a bride is sent to marry to someone from another Kingdom, the bride"s family won"t go with the bride and only Envoys would be sent.

But, the Li family received the personal invitation from the Emperor of the Earth Kingdom and they were welcomed by the groom"s family right at the borders, along with the recently found mother of the groom.

Xinxin had a lot of duties as the Crown Prince and couldn"t attend his sister"s wedding, but he sent presents that were the best from his Kingdom for her.

There were also wedding gifts from the Royal family of the Wind Kingdom, Huang family, Zhong family and Mo family that added to her dowry making Little Zhu, the richest person in the Earth Kingdom.

The Royal elephant was there to welcome the Li family as well and even Xing was surprised the elephant still remembered her.

The last time she went to the Earth Kingdom, she was with the Emperor and had a lot of duties she had to perform. Back then, she saw Chenglei fighting by the borders but couldn"t even meet him.

This time, she is his wife, crossing to get their daughter married and she was holding his hands, with content.

Everything she ever wished for, everything she had doubted will never happen, has happened. She was delighted.

The wedding was a grand affair and went on without a hitch. The sheer extravaganza of the wedding was talked throughout the Three Kingdoms.

Xing met Brother Lee and he was happy to see her.

"I feel free after I"ve forgiven my cousin, Mingxia," he smiled, "Didn"t know forgiving her and letting go of the past would be this liberating"

Xing was happy to see him beaming. It is true forgiving and being Forgiven gives joy. Those two grew up together. It is high time they returned to what they once were.

The current Emperor, whom Xing met when he was a toddler gave her proper respect now too.

Feifei didn"t mind much seeing the respect his mother commands in another Kingdom but Lian Lian was ambivalent. He couldn"t understand the power his mother held. He wanted to get to the bottom of it, but ended up in dead ends.

He heard the rumour that his mother was the previous Empress Huang, but his grandfather insisted that he had twins and the other twin was the Empress. Also, he knew how jealous his father is. If his mother was really a wife of the Emperor, he wouldn"t be really alive by now.

Some of the older officials would talk of the Empress as "Golden Tiger" or "Divine Ruler" but they would never elaborate since there was a gag order put forth by the Emperor to talk about Empress Huang.

He was pretty sure the Crown Prince knew something, but he refused to reveal anything to him and asked him to talk to his parents. He asked his father, "Who is mother?"

And his reply was, "Your mother is my wife. And I let her to be your mother too, begrudgingly, since she wished for it. What else do you want to know?"

"Of course! My mother is allowed to be my mother begrudgingly by my father. How could she have been the "Golden Tiger"? Or "Divine Ruler"? That time when the arrows acted that way... That could be the power she had since she"s the twin sister of the divine ruler" he concluded.

Ayane was happy she got a daughter in her household. She looked really happy and content with her dresses and taking care of the household. Watching her made Xing more happy and she didn"t worry much leaving her daughter here.

She knew Ayane will take care of Little Zhu and Yi Kyong is a trustworthy man. And Little Zhu grew up watching her mother and she knows the nuances of running the household. Although she gets scared of confrontations, she is not a pushover either. So Xing knew she can handle married life.

Also, Earth Kingdom is next to their kingdom and Haru"s business is spread there. The Princess of the Wind Kingdom is married to the Prince of Earth Kingdom. All in all, the Earth Kingdom is a safer place for her daughter.

Xing brought Chenglei everywhere she went previously and as she stood on top of the cliff where her Master Yuan revealed her the facts about him and his past. She missed him.

"Chenglei, I"m glad that I"m here with you now, " she said as she watched the sunset, holding his hands. His gentle gaze was on her. She went through a lot in the past and he hoped only for her happiness thousand fold than the sorrows, she was put through.

Xing, really was content.

That"s all she wanted all her life.There were a lot of people who supported her and only with their help is she where she is now. She will be eternally grateful to them.

They soon returned to their kingdom, since they had to arrange and travel for Little Yu"s wedding. Su Yunxi sent letter after letter expressing her Happiness to welcome them and her daughter-in-law to their kingdom.

They travelled by sea since that was the fastest route to the Fire Kingdom and Little Yu"s dowry of eighteen s.h.i.+ps filled with gifts followed them. Xing made sure both her girls have the exact same amount of dowry, even though one was to become the Crown Princess Consort, while the other, a Princess Consort. It was customary to send dowry according to the household the daughters are married into but, She didn"t want to discriminate. She wanted her children all feel loved the same way in their home.

As they got to the port, they were surprised to see the Royal Family of the Fire Kingdom came to welcome them personally. All of officials of the Court were there too. Some of them were pleased and some of them weren"t much pleased to be there.

"Who is this Prince Jin we are supposed to welcome? And why is the Emperor this keen on Honouring them as a State Guest?" everyone were curious.

As Xing walked down the gangplank, holding Chenglei"s hand, she noticed, Su Yunxi walking towards her in large strides even overtaking the Fire Emperor, with a big smile in her face.

"The Empress should walk at least a step behind the Emperor " was the rule and she didn"t even realise she was breaking it, as she was that happy to see her old friend.

Seeing Yunxi running towards her, Xing let go of Chenglei"s hand and walked in the front and the moment they got near, they hugged.

The Fire Emperor who heard the murmurs of his officials complaining how the Empress just broke the etiquettes and paused to take a glance at them and the entire place went silent.

While the friends hugged and were engaging in small talk asking about each other, the two men who were abandoned by their wives bowed to each other with the bow of equals freezing the officials.

Since when an Emperor is of equal status to a Prince?

But no one dared to utter a word.
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"Is she your daughter?" Yunxi asked with her face red with smiling too much asked looking at Little Yu who was shyly glancing at Long JunTing whom she haven"t met after their first meeting. He was the Crown Prince and he had a lot of duties so they only sent each other letters till now.

Xing cleared her throat and pinched her little daughter to pay respect to her mother-in-law and only then with an awkward grin, Little Yu greeted Yunxi with a curtsey.

Yunxi didn"t mind and prompted her son who haven"t bowed to his in-laws yet with a sigh.

"Look at these two! They are in their own world!" Yunxi smiled and with the two powerful women in the middle, holding hands and chatting happily, their husbands walked at their sides, as they were ignored by their wives.

Both of them didn"t even attempted to hold their wives" hands, since they knew they will be pushed away.

As they pa.s.sed through the officials kneeling by the sides, Xing smirked as she noticed some of the older officials unconsciously holding their breath.

Of course they"d remember the one who made an entire court suffocate, humiliated their previous Emperor and made the Royal family reduce to dust a little more than two decades ago.

The one who helped the Emperor ascend the throne is now here? Her daughter is the one the Crown Prince is marrying? No wonder the Emperor is welcoming them this grandly.

They all got scared.

The Wedding of Little Yu and JunTing was held successfully. Seeing the dowry she brought,made many tremble with jealousy.

How rich can one be?

Lian Lian saw the way his parents were treated in this kingdom and his doubts only got increased. He really wanted answers. He tried to talk to some officials of the Fire Kingdom, but noticing the uncanny resemblance of Lian Lian with his mother, who destroyed their throne room like a house of cards, no one dared to talk to him.

In the end, Lian Lian couldn"t get the answers he wanted here either.

After settling her daughter who seemed to handle everything pretty well, the family left to their Kingdom.

Both of their sons pa.s.sed the Imperial Court Exams when they were pretty young as the toppers. Lian Lian was fifteen and Feifei was fourteen.

Lainlian didn"t attend the training for officials since he was more interested in his father"s business than politics. He liked the behind-the-screens work his father did that made him formidable in the capital city and learnt it from his father from young.

His loyalty lied with the welfare of the Empire than the welfare of the Emperor. The Emperor must serve the interest of the people was his belief. And he knew for that the Emperor needs to be protected. But in case the Emperor strays from his path, he must be removed. He also believed that the Emperor should not have the absolute authority but the absolute authority should lie with the court.

Feifei, who was raised by AoTian had a compet.i.tion with Rijun"s son and became a second rank official even at a young age of twenty one. He didn"t have interest in business or money, but only in books. He even wrote some books on politics.

His loyalty lied with the Emperor, since he is the one who is the axis of the of the nation and should be protected, no matter what. He believed, even if he is wrong, he should not be removed since it would create needless conflicts all over the nation and he should only be advised to take the best path and not removed from the throne.

He also believed that since the Emperor always has the best interest of the nation, he should be the one with absolute authority. When the power is with a bunch of people, who knows where everyone"s interest lies?

Both her son had extreme different views about politics and would debate often making Xing worry that if those two will lose their brotherly love for the sake of politics.

But those two proved that her worries are unfounded pretty soon.

Both Little Yu and Little Zhu gave birth to boys around the same time. Xing and Chenglei were overjoyed and Xing planned to visit them both along with Chenglei.

But she dropped her plans since Chenglei got really sick during that time. His heart became weak and he was forced to have bed rest.

He was fifty eight and he is a mortal and it is understandable of his heart was stressed. Xing knew it is not that fatal and with her medicines, he can be cured.

But, He couldn"t take care of the work and Xing who stayed by his side wasn"t able to concentrate on his business either leaving everything to their sons.

Even though Xing wasn"t distressed since she knew Chenglei will be fine, she still left Lainlian in charge to see how he could handle the burden, his father carried with ease all these years.

Their Li family was like a mighty oak tree on top of a cliff, green and l.u.s.trous, tall and proud. Some people admired the beauty of the oak tree and wanted to improve their lives to become them. But some, they were jealous. And now that a storm of illness has attacked the tree with force, some stood by their side, supporting them. But some who waited for the fall of the mighty oak, even brought axes to cut the tree down when it is already withstanding the storm.

Chenglei had a lot of enemies and most of them stayed low since they didn"t want to cross him and get destroyed by them. Also bexise, they wanted a part of his power. He had four children, and they all wished to make marital alliances with the most powerful family.

But all of their wishes became dust blown out by the wind as his children were all married to other kingdoms and the Ming family who were already their ally. In the end, they couldn"t get the power they coveted.

Neither the Prince, nor his sons were interested in any other woman other than their respective wife and no seduction and plot work on them.

So they wanted to reduce his power by conspiring against him to make him fall from the good graces of the Emperor.

One evening, after dinner, Xing was helping Chenglei get washed up and readying him for bed.

She felt a disturbance by their Manor entrance. She decided to wait till Chenglei fell asleep. With the medicines he took, he fell asleep pretty soon.

She pried her hands out from his hold and kissed his forehead. All his hair has turned grey and his face had wrinkles.

"I"ll be back, my love, " she kissed his forehead and picking his sword, she went to the entrance.

She took a deep breath as she could hear swords clas.h.i.+ng and men screaming from a distance.

"Your Highness, there is an official arrest warrant for brother wolf. They are accusing Prince Jin of conspiring with other kingdoms to topple our Empire by a.s.sa.s.sinating our Emperor," Lin Mubai said huffing as he ran and informed her.

"Hmm, official? Who Minister of Justice?" Xing smirked as he nodded affirming.

That guy wants to send his daughter as a concubine to Lianlian and his wife insinuated their wish to Xing in a banquet she attended but Xing refused blatantly.

So he is trying to arrest my husband now? Like he can! How naive!

Xing knew in these situations, even the Emperor cannot do anything. She would have predicted it if she took care of Chenglei"s reports and now, she didn"t know of this.

The only option now is fight till the end. If they take Chenglei out now, who knows what they might do to him in prison especially when he is sick?

Xing felt a s.h.i.+ver run down her spine.

Will we be fine?