LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

Back in the time of the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor, the Wind, Water and Earth kingdoms were one as he was the one expanded their kingdom that far and Caijing was the Imperial Capital back then. He had no heirs and he raised three of his brothers who then fought for succession so the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor split the kingdom into three with the mountains as the border between the Water and Wind Empire and Quingze River as the border between Earth and Wind kingdom and he made the new Capital city too.

He also sent branch families from each n.o.ble families to aid his brothers in ruling their kingdom too. Only the Huang family who had no branches and a small one as they had that "one wife only" rule had stayed here. Song family is a branch of the Zhong family who had settled in the Earth Kingdom. The Zhong family in the Water Kingdom had perished a century ago.

In the last war, even though General Song used the excuse that his grandson was kidnapped by the tribes for helping the Zhong army, the Emperor didn"t accept it and doubted him for colluding with the neighbouring country for his personal gains. There were people who saw Lord Zhong and Lord Song in a meeting that caused commotion in the Imperial Court of the Wind Empire too. Soon the Song family fell into ruins with the various traps set for them and the then Earth Emperor ordered for the extermination of the entire Song family. It is rumoured that it provoked that Prince to kill his Imperial Uncle to take the throne. AoTian knew Lord Zhong held it in his heart that he was partially responsible for the fall of the Song family even though he just met him with the feelings that they are distant cousins.

While AoTian was worrying for him, Lord Zhong had different thoughts. He saw Xing"s writing perfectly similar to the writing in the secret missive written by the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor and is pa.s.sed on to the head of the Zhong family for generations. He had also heard from his grandfather who was a child during that Emperor"s time weird stories about him.

Lord Zhong"s grandfather told him that the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor had the best double sword techniques which was learned from the G.o.d of War himself. Even his sword was said to be forged by the forgers of the heavens and said to have Mystical powers. Also it was said he was close with the G.o.ds and had the ability to control wind and understand animals too.

This little brat he knows has similar qualities to him too. He knew that the horses of the tribal people left only because she ordered them to. And she knows G.o.ds and had double sword techniques she clearly wanted to hide.. Could it be..

"Xiao Tian... Could it be possible that, the brat is the reincarnation of the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor?", Lord Zhong asked breaking the long silence.

AoTian looked perplexed for some time but ended up in a laughing fit,

"Uncle Yingjie... What"s gotten into you? I know Mingxia is too interested in the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor but him.. as... The great Warlord, the Scarlet Tiger, Tians.h.i.+ Emperor as a girl and that too in the Huang family he hated to the bones..? That would be too cruel a joke. Of all the weird things I had heard about her, this is the most absurd one ", AoTian could not control his laughter and his bad mood dissipated in a moment.

" You are right... ", Lord Zhong said softly and sighed. There is no use speculating when there is no definite proof. But that brat sure is not a simple person and had to be protected properly for the future of this kingdom.

Xing who was unaware of the thoughts of the elder people around her slept soundly for the entire day and when she woke up the next morning found her stomach aching as her monthlies had started and so she rolled in the bed for another three days.

Those three days she was too bored even though Shengli visited her. She wasn"t hungry and felt bloated and just screamed at her brother unnecessarily for bringing his work to her to help him as usual. Rijun didn"t understand this sudden change in his sister"s behaviour and went back sulking.

Xu mama tried to soothe her by telling gossips and that lifted her mood considerably.

Apparently her grandmother died immediately after her father"s birth and that sent Huang Bojing, her grandfather to depression. AoTian looked exactly like his mother and that made his father unable to keep him close, not because he hated him but because he got more depressed as he reminded him of his dead wife. So Lord Zhong opted to raise him in his Manor who was still unmarried. There were other rumours like Lord Zhong was in love with the Princess but the Princess chose Huang Bojing and also other rumours that Huang Bojing stole the Princess from Lord Zhong and AoTian was the love child between Lord Zhong and the Princess and that"s why he was being raised in the Zhong Manor.

Huang Bojing soon got sick and died and Lord Zhong married but still AoTian stayed in the Zhong Manor. The Huangs were forbidden to enter politics but as AoTian was raised there, he got interested in politics and wrote the court exams and he was the topper that year and took the post of official much to the refusal of his elder brother who became the family head after his father.

Xu mama also told that those two brothers still don"t get along as their relations.h.i.+p strained even more after the issue of Rijun being adopted by AoTian. Till this day Feiye was the one mediating in between his brothers keeping the family close. She also said that even to this day the obligatory annual banquet of the Huang family members never ended without problems.

Xu mama also told her about the childhood stories of her father and her brother which kept Xing amused for two days but she got really bored on the third day. Her father was worried by the way she looked and made her drink medicines which made Xing more sad.

So Shengli came to visit her on the third day and Xing was surprised that he is following the rules by entering through the door.

She was forced to eat dinner by him and she finished eating only after he promised he"d stay for a while.

Xing wondered about why the Huang family is one of the four high n.o.bles but they are forbidden to enter politics. Also how did a merchant family had such high status? And she had heard that the Imperial clan forbade her grandmother to enter Huang family and the Huang family was against taking in someone with Lu blood too. What is the issue between those two clans?

So she asked her encyclopaedia - Shengli.

Shengli smiled at her, "It"s like what they say, Zhongs spill blood and Huangs pour their brains and the Lus just gobble them up and burp ungratefully"

"What do you mean?", Xing asked surprised.

"It"s an old saying. I told you about Zhong sending sacrifices to the inner palace right? Similarly your family were pretty impressive for centuries . You know in the creation myth of our Kingdom where the Emperor of Heavens awarded the families that helped his son the first Lu Ancestor form this Empire right?"

"Yes, Ruby for the Zhong ancestor indicating military might, Pearl for the Huang ancestor indicating Knowledge and wisdom, Amber for the s.h.i.+ ancestor indicating their heavenly priesthood, Emerald for the Ran family indicating trickery. The Lu family was given some weapons and the ultimate loyalty of the four families. You think that actually happened? Although I don"t understand why trickery is awarded to a family", Xing was intrigued.

"Who knows? Trickery can be used against the enemies and since they are bound by loyalty to the Lu family, the cannot use their gift against them. But the weapons given to the Lu family still exists. You know our Kingdom originally included the wind, water, earth, sky and fire kingdoms and some five centuries back sky and fire kingdom got separated and others were lost by the following Emperors only later united by the Tians.h.i.+( The Scarlet Sovereign Emperor"s official name) Emperor. It is said that each Empire still has one of these weapons and those weapons can only be handled by those of the Lu bloodline and particularly the Emperor alone as it chooses the rightful heir who can handle the weapon", Shengli played with her hair and started to ma.s.sage her head.

"So the one in our Empire is the black and white sword the Emperor had, isn"t it?", Xing said enthusiastically.

"Yes, but how did you find out? Only the Princes know these fables", Shengli asked even if he wasn"t surprised she knows.

"It"s just it gave a weird feeling the other day I saw it. It is said a thousand year old object would develop a spirit or something right? I guess that sword is really old and that is the feeling I sensed. So if your brother could carry it, does it mean that it finds him worthy? ", Xing asked.

Shengli snorted, "Should be, but my father carried it too with all the fratricide he did. So if it is supposed to protect the Lu blood, how could it accept someone who spilled it? I just guess it is some plain old sword that is a millennium old"

"Hmm", Xing nodded, "So what about my family and spilling brains", Xing asked yawning.

"Ah! That", Shengli continued. By then Xing was sleepy with that gentle and awesome scalp ma.s.sage she received from Shengli. He noticed it and signalled Xu mama to bring her milk and then he continued to speak. His voice was smooth and gentle and Xing felt relaxed.

I would die peacefully listening to this heavenly voice! Xing thought.

" The Huang family is said to have an outstanding genius each generation and they will be serving for the welfare of the empire just like there is always a strong warrior in the Zhong family. Huangs weren"t always a merchant family. "

"Really? So why is the Huang family forbids their members to enter the court now? I heard father had to fight his way against the family to even write the exams", Xing asked curious.

" It is true there were many scholars from the Huang family who saved the empire during tough times. One such rare genius was Huang Tengfei during the times of the ChangLing Emperor, that is that Tians.h.i.+ Emperor"s grandfather. The kingdom was in ruins that time with almost all the territories lost and long wars and many natural disasters with the people suffering.It was Huang Tengfei with his planning and tactics got everything back. He didn"t even marry and spent all his time in the palace bringing in many reforms that saved the nation. He even went to war as a tactician and helped winning wars. So within two decades a nation on the brink of extinction was saved by a single person. So naturally, people who grew jealous of him got increased and even the Emperor started to believe rumours and he was accused of embezzlement and beheaded. Not only that, the Huang family was degraded to commoners and a ban was put over the nine generations of Huang family to attend the imperial Court exams and they were exiled from the capital city which was Caijing back then", he got up and prepared milk for her.

"Wow! Lu people are really cruel and ungrateful and untrustworthy aren"t they?", Xing interrupted. The history she read wasn"t this detailed. How does he know all these? She then noticed Shengli hand pausing and realised she was talking to a Lu and shut her mouth.

"You said the n.o.bility status was taken from the Huangs. So what happened?", she asked sipping the perfect milk Shengli made when he sat beside her with his usual smiling face. Obviously they are still n.o.bles even if they are merchant family these days.

"Yes", Shengli sat across her, " Well, Huang Tengfei wasn"t the first one from the Huang family to meet that fate but he definitely wanted to be last. So as his last wish he asked to write a letter to his family and in that letter, he urged to use their smartness and wisdom for their own purposes and to not send any of their children to serve the Imperial Court even for hundred generations. The Huang family had strict rules for more than hundred generations where they cannot take more than one wife at a time and so their family was rather small with not more than one or two sons per generation and even a loss of single male is considered a heavy loss since there weren"t many children as compared to other families. So they took Huang Tengfei"s advice and left Caijing and settled in Dajing the capital of now Southern Province. Soon they got rich as they were clever by trading and bought many areas around Dajing which was later found to contain many jade mines. They based their business on jade alone and by the time of Tians.h.i.+ Emperor, they had become the richest merchants. Those n.o.bles who had laughed when they were exiled from the capital were shocked by their growth but could do nothing to stop them and they had to buy their jewelry from the Huangs since they were of top quality. Still the Huang family treated their servants well and that helped the improvement of their area and other small trades to flourish. Even when the Tians.h.i.+ Emperor went on the greatest war expedition known as the Changfeng Expedition that spanned for more than ten years that claimed back all the lands lost by his predecessors, only the Huang families lands were still prosperous when others suffered a lot. Seeing how they were handling their fief well, Tians.h.i.+ Emperor even visited the Huang family head personally and offered to give their n.o.bility back but the Huang family head sternly refused to send their son to court but offered to pay more taxes to help other areas. The Tians.h.i.+ Emperor got angry by their stubbornness, but somehow he was pacified and that emperor proved the innocence of Huang Tengfei and gave back the n.o.ble t.i.tle back and took back the ban for the future generations of Huang family to enter the Imperial Court freely. The Tians.h.i.+ Emperor expected the Huangs to enter politics but since he was refused he started hating them later on but thankfully didn"t took back what he had already done for the Huang Family. So the Huangs regained their high n.o.ble status and also they are the richest family in this kingdom. But no one from the family had ever entered the Imperial Court until your father, whose influence in the court still helps the Empire", he paused.

"Wow! So much happened huh? Guess my family is as stupid as the Zhong family to sacrifice for the kingdom, right? Like a moth attracted to the flame, they cannot help but enter the Court",she sighed, "But how do you know this much details about the Huang family?", she asked curious.

Shengli smiled, "Your Uncle Feiye held me captive one day he got drunk when I entered the family and said all this. Actually he explained this for hours. He was probably worried that I might feel bad being sent away from the palace and told their story as inspiration to not lose hope just because I was driven out of the palace. That did help".

Xing smiled, " Guess uncle do love you. You are loved by many don"t you? "

Shengli nodded in agreement, why haven"t I thought like that before? Even though I am not a Prince anymore, I have people around me all the same.

"I just wish father and brother have good fate than their ancestors. But then again this one is entirely different from the previous ones. Just hope he stays the same way", Xing mumbled in her mouth. Shengli heard it and gently rubbed her head. Sure, the Emperor now is quite different. He never planned for anything or spilled a single drop of blood with his hands to get the throne. It was handed to him in a silver platter as if it was meant for him.

Your father and brother will be fine. What I worry is about you, my moon! You are even more tangled with those affairs of the state than I thought. You even have the Eastern Province for you and Nancheng Pa.s.s. I wish you were not involved in such things anymore. But is it as they say, your fate?

By now Xing rubbed her eyes and yawned as the warm milk took effect. She changed her clothes and went to bed. Shengli tucked her in and left after she had slept.

AoTian noticed how those two were acting with each other and his rational mind told him that what they have is true love. But his heart still could not accept them entirely.