LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

Shengli just shook his head in disbelief at Xu Mama only she looked back pitifully and the physician also looked like he was standing on pins and needles. Shengli knew AoTian is the one making matters worse as he didn"t know Xing usually sleeps for a day or sometimes even more when she had hard days previously. The stress of the banquet and the subsequent events would have drained her and she would be fine after sleeping it off.

Shengli wanted to say something but remembering how he behaved with AoTian last night, he didn"t know how to start. He signalled Rijun and Rijun asked everyone to leave. AoTian saw Shengli already there and let everyone leave. Everyone left with a sigh of relief.

"Xu mama said she never misses her morning milk.. She is not even moving and she didn"t even eat much last night too. The doctor is a quack... He says she is just sleeping.. How can someone sleep like this?..", AoTian spoke with his voice trembling. Shengli saw even the veins on AoTian"s forehead were visible showing the stress he was in. This was the first time he had seen AoTian like this and Shengli was surprised.

Of course he is her father and they are related by blood and they have a natural bond and he would worry about her. How can someone like me who never knew fatherly love understand it? Shengli thought. He felt a bit guilty for the way he acted last night but he didn"t regret it. After all it was all his true feelings.

"Mmm.. Uncle AoTian .. She will be fine after sleeping it off. But if you think she needs to drink milk, I can try", Shengli spoke politely.

AoTian looked deeply at Shengli and pondered for a minute. He then stepped to the side. Shengli saw the jar of milk and after making sure it was at the right temperature he added honey... A lot of it and mixed it well. AoTian looked at Shengli whose face was so peaceful like a little boy doing everything gently without making noise and how his lips curved when he saw her sleeping face. He wondered where that beast from the previous night went... The one in front of him was a gentle puppy.

Shengli picked her up and made her to a sitting position leaning on him and spoke in a soothing voice, "Xing! It"s morning. Just drink this milk and go back to sleep,okay? You are making your father worried ".

Xing who was not responding to anyone made a gesture as if holding a cup without even waking up and her hands fell back as if it didn"t have any strength. Shengli then placed the cup in her mouth and she drank it without any problems. Shengli then gave her some warm water and she went back to sleep immediately.

"Yushen had told me that she did this sometimes... She"ll be fine by tomorrow after sleeping", Shengli said and AoTian stared at him for a while and left wordlessly followed by Rijun. Rijun sensed the situation was awkward but didn"t know what happened between his father and Shengli so he just kept his quiet.

After morning court, as usual Rijun was discussing with the Emperor when the Emperor noticed the difference in him,

"Rijun, why are you smiling at the doc.u.ments? You became too lonely to consider them as your partner? ", he sneered.

Rijun glared at him but he could not hold his laughter, "Last night, my sister got drunk and asked my father to make her a little sister to play with. Somehow it reminded me of you. She called him pretty too", he chuckled, " Only you and her would dare to provoke my father like that"

" And Lord Táng too as I recall that coughing incident from the banquet..... But...It"s rare... You talking about your sister... She got drunk in front of your father? Tell me more.. She intrigues me... ", the Emperor sat with his hands supporting his cheeks.

Rijun knew he had stepped on a trap by himself and his smile disappeared , " Your Majesty, do you know why my father does not like your brother? ", he asked trying to change the topic.

" Your father hates my brother?", the Emperor exclaimed and came up with different scenarios which successfully steered off the previous topic and Rijun was relieved. He almost revealed his sister"s secret she wishes to keep.

Meanwhile, AoTian was in no mood to work and went to see Lord Zhong in his office who was busy writing a letter.

"I was expecting you", he said without even looking up.

"Uncle Yingjie, I am depressed. Everyone"s bullying me", AoTian pouted and sat on front of him.

" Don"t fret. I"m writing to your elder brother now.. He"ll definitely accept your daughter", Lord Zhong said gently.

"Is that what he wrote?", AoTian asked surprised, "The nerves on him! How can he do this? Just because he is the family head he thinks he can bully me?...", AoTian went on and on.

"This la.s.s! He didn"t read his brother"s letter again. Zedong is smart to send a copy to me each time" Lord Zhong sighed, "You didn"t give the "Ming" character to his son but suddenly he heard from a third party that you have a daughter named "Mingxia"... Won"t he be mad? You should have at least informed him"

"His son? Rijun is my son! I raised him! And who cares if he accepts Mingxia or not! We"ll be fine without the Huang family"s support... In fact..", my daughter will be fine even without me..., AoTian didn"t say that loud and he started to sulk.

"Whatever! He cannot deny that brat once he sees her and drinks her tea. Who can say no to that adorable little brat!" Lord Zhong laughed, "So who else bullied you?"

"My daughter... and... LU CHENGLIE", AoTian said his name gritting his teeth.

"Lu who? Which one is that?", Lord Zhong asked.

"The third one", AoTian laid his head on the table. He had a pitiful expression as a little boy whose candy was stolen. "Uncle Yingjie, you should avenge me... He bullied me and said he"d kill me", he pouted.

He is still being an immature brat like in the past, Lord Zhong smiled.

"Third one? Didn"t know that was his name. Come to think of it, I only knew him as the third prince or Rui w.a.n.g and now as Huang Shengli. I don"t even know the name of the one in the throne too except that he was the ninth prince. But that aside, I"d have killed you if I were him for the words you spoke to that brat. So what happened?", he asked keeping his writing materials away.

AoTian explained everything Xing told about Shengli last night and how he threatened him in the end.

" Hmm.. He is a smart one.. If only he agreed, the Zhong family would have supported him to be the Emperor. He looks exactly like his grandfather with his hair and all. That Emperor was kind and sadly, he didn"t live long",he sighed. " So he did meet his father in the end, huh!", he snorted.

"I said he threatened me and you are appreciating him?", AoTian asked a bit angry.

" It"s your fault for provoking him. Whatever he is called now, he is a "Lu" and has the dragon blood flowing through his veins. Or did you forget by the way he acts in the past month, how aloof and cold he used to be? You should know that his care and gentleness is only for that brat and everyone else is n.o.body against her for him. He is someone who kills without mercy. Never forget he is called the wolf and not a dog", Lord Zhong said in a warning tone.

"Can"t you see, Uncle? He kills mercilessly and he manipulated her and even did a secret wedding! And the heartless way he talked about his father... Won"t he do that to her too?", AoTian was provoked.

Lord Zhong was angered by AoTian,

"Which one of us haven"t spilled blood, huh? And he manipulated her ? You think that brat is stupid? And even after he spoke the truth about his father, you still feel bad for that sc.u.m? You still believe those lies that "Imperial Uncle" of yours told you to keep you close? He regretted everything.. Is that what he told you? You should know he wanted someone to keep his bloodline alive and you know how p.i.s.sed he was when you chose to take the ninth prince in rather than the fifth, the second son of the Empress? If your elder brother wasn"t wise and played his cards right, there won"t be any of the Huangs left now. Even your mother stayed away from him! And who are you to talk about secret marriage? You kept your own marriage from your family and even me.. You thought Zedong would not agree? Or you hated us because we warned you against that Emperor? Do you know how much your brother loves you and how much he sacrificed for your family? You immature and worthless brat ! Act like this and push your daughter away like you pushed away Rijun back then too. If only her mother wasn"t wise and kept her pregnancy from you, you would have handed that brat in a silver platter for that nasty rac.o.o.n to devour thinking he would bless your child! I"m glad she grew up away from you! ", Lord Zhong shouted at AoTian making him bow his head.

Seeing him in low spirits made Lord Zhong"s heart go soft,

" So what did that brat do? ", he asked softly.

" She said that Shengli is her husband"

"So? "

"I don"t like him"

"So, who do you like? With your status only the Emperor would be a match for your daughter"

"Nope! No way!", AoTian rejected immediately. There is no way he would send his daughter to the inner palace.

"You are not planning to marry her to Rijun and keep her with you till the end, right? Apparently cousins eloping is a fad these days"

"No way! They are siblings!", AoTian rejected.

"So send her to my family... My elder one is stupid but it looked like the younger one...", "gets along with her", before Lord Zhong finished AoTian rejected that idea too.

Lord Zhong gave a deep sigh, "You know there is no one but Shengli for her deep down too, right? It"s not like she"ll accept anyone else too. Why not agree to their union? You can negotiate with him to take his t.i.tle back so that status won"t be an issue, right?", Lord Zhong tried to put some sense into him.

AoTian contemplated for a while,

" Nope! No one is suitable for my daughter! She will stay with her father for the rest of her life happily", AoTian said confidently.

Lord Zhong shook his head in disbelief, this idiot can never learn...

"Your daughter was planning to elope to the East with Shengli yesterday. Luckily, I was able to change her mind", Lord Zhong let it out.

"What?", AoTian asked surprised, " It must be that wolf"s doing....",he then cursed Shengli for a while and Lord Zhong really wanted to smack him in the head.

"Wait! East?", AoTian mumbled and took the contract she copied last night and gave it to Lord Zhong, "Read it... Is it believable? She said that she gambled it all away from him in a single day. She should be just bragging, right? She also said G.o.ds raised her... You believe those legends, don"t you? But when have they been this close to a human.. "

AoTian kept on talking when Lord Zhong asked, "This is her writing?"

"Yes, look how well she had followed the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor"s style of calligraphy . I thought it was hard to copy. She really admires him too much. But did you finish reading? "

"Hmm... So she was responsible for solving the trouble two years back too. I know your brother tried to help but couldn"t ", Lord Zhong had a smile, "And why would she lie? I believe her.."

Looking at AoTian"s questioning look, he continued, "That brat brought me the medicines for my sickness yesterday "

"But.. But.." AoTian stuttered as he knew how rare that medicine is and no pharmacy in the city will have it with them.

Lord Zhong continued, "She gave me medicines enough for months. You know, there are legends that the Emperor of Heavens, has a garden that has all the medicines in the world at all seasons, right? Do you think she got it from there?"

AoTian was bewildered but there is proof right before his eyes. So what that Elder Shu said are true? If so, what should he do?

AoTian was in deep thoughts and soon composed himself as he remembered Lord Zhong saying she helped a couple of years back too. If so, what else did she do? So he asked Lord Zhong.

"Do you remember about the last war against the tribes?", Lord Zhong asked.

" Well, it was a hard win for us. You needed reinforcements and only with the unexpected help from the "Song Army" of the Earth Kingdom did we win the war",AoTian replied.

Lord Zhong"s looks turned solemn,

"That last battle was h.e.l.l. All the supplies were depleted and reinforcements were delayed. All the soldiers were hungry, low spirited and awaiting death the next day as we were outnumbered seven to one. Your elder brother sent some emergency supplies which aided us a lot and still we had no chance of winning or survival. Those tribes were valiant and their cavalry was unbeatable. It is said they raise their horses as children and they are loyal like a hunter dog to them. But we received scout reports that all of their horses escaped the previous day and most of our enemies were sick. We thought it was a ploy to confuse us or they had a different strategy but that day only foot soldiers were there and they were weak too and we erased most of them. The next day the reinforcements arrived and the Song Army joined us too and still those horses weren"t there... So they had no choice but to retreat and most of them escaped to the Sky Kingdom in the south. It cannot be considered a win but we did drive them away and it was a miracle that it ended up on our favour . Guess who was responsible for the horses" escape and the sickness of our enemies? ", Lord Zhong raised his eyebrow.

AoTian was flabbergasted, " No way! She would have been just ten that year... No way!", he shook his head in utter disbelief.

Lord Zhong laughed, "I was surprised when she said this story drinking wine yesterday too. That Master He is said to be eccentric and he tried to teach her how to operate covertly. So he gave something to place it in the commander"s tent of the Song Army who was stationed there without anybody noticing and return back before sunset. So our brat went in the camp and placed that item in the tent and got caught by the Prince.. That one who usurped later killing his Imperial Uncle, the Emperor of the Earth Kingdom .. Whatever his name is. He is also the grandson of Great General Song through his daughter. He had sneaked inside the camp without his grandfather"s knowledge and he found our brat and asked her to join him in paying a visit to the enemy camp and she followed. They picked some fruits that are identical to peach fruits but are poisonous causing stomach upset and went there and sold the fruits as orphans from the Sky kingdom as she had golden hair and he had red hair. But they were caught by those tribal people and were tied up. But that wolf boy, Shengli was there and secretly gave a knife to that Earth Prince boy and soon those two made their escape. When they were pursued by the enemies, our brat opened the stables to let the horses out. Apparently they did not leave and so our brat had to give a speech about freedom to those horses before they stepped out of their stables. On the way they were still in danger when our brat saved that Prince and he made a blood oath when the Great General Song found them", Lord Zhong paused.

AoTian remembered that Shengli told that she had a blood oath with that Prince Lee DaeJung and realised this is the reason. Also he knew that the horses of those tribal people won"t just listen to anybody just like that, as they were very well trained war horses. He also knew his daughter can speak to animals and has a pack of grey wolves around her house too. And those medicines.. They are a mystery too. So everything she said last night makes sense. She really was not lying! And also how entwined with the kingdom"s affairs she is, even though she did not do any of those things with the intention of helping the nation but for personal reasons?