LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS

When he returned to the capital expecting to see the beautiful smile of his moon he was informed she was in the Zhong Manor and he went straight there to see her in the training grounds.

As expected she was happy to see him and for some reason he felt her eyes had lost that usual s.h.i.+ne and brilliance and she looked weak. He wanted to ask her to take rest but seeing her excitedly going for a match with those men he decided to wait.

Lord Zhong was standing beside him admiring her and Shengli felt proud for some reason. It"s not like he was the one who taught her all this, right? But knowing she could achieve this much by her own efforts made him feel pleased.

As he was watching, Shengli could feel that her moves are a tad bit slower than usual and she felt a bit disoriented as he knows her every move and she would never take this much time to defeat these men.

As he suspected, he saw her suddenly fainting and Shengli"s mind didn"t think of anything but Xing and the fact that her head was going to hit the ground and his legs moved automatically to catch her before she hits the ground and he just lunged towards her, ignoring the halberds that was swinging around. He felt a sharp pain in his arm that was. .h.i.t by one of the halberds but he ignored it and caught Xing before she fell on the ground.

Luckily all those men were skillful and they easily halted their moves as soon as they realised the situation.

Lord Zhong who was standing beside Shengli realised the danger only when Shengli shouted her name and lunged forward. Even he was shocked to see him moving that fast towards her without telling those men to stop first. Wouldn"t the first reaction of anyone would be to shout "stop" to those men first before getting to her? So in his eyes, he does not see anyone but her, even himself? Those men are trained and their weapon won"t hit her and he knows that too. In fact by intercepting them he would be the one in danger of getting hit by the weapons. So he wasn"t worried about the weapons. .h.i.tting her but her falling down and he ignored his safety to hold her?

"Xing!.... Wake up... Xing..! Please....!", those were the words that were coming out of him and he was completely out of it.

Lord Zhong was worried too and he dispersed the men gathered around and called for their Manor"s physician and asked Shengli to pick her up and Xing was brought to Lady Zhong"s courtyard.

Shengli was sitting by her side worried to the bones and he was pale and had cold sweats. Lord Zhong and Lady Zhong who were worried themselves, composed themselves after seeing Shengli panicked and irrational not letting anyone near her. At least some of them should be rational!

Shengli was like a monster protecting his favoured treasure and had a cold aura around him as if he would tear anyone who gets close to her, all the while calling her name as a mantra.

The physician arrived and seeing the stand-offish person beside the patient and he dared not to get close.

Xing who woke up by now saw the incredibly scared look on Shengli and smiled and wiped the perspiration on his face with her sleeves. Shengli held her hand and placed it on his cheek, "You scared me, my love!", he whispered and let out a deep breath gently kissing her palm. Only now he felt like his life returned.

"I"m fine. I just got dizzy",she a.s.sured him and he tried to get her bangs straight with his usual smile returned, when they heard someone clearing their throat.

Xing realised she was not in her bed but somewhere else and she looked to her side to see Lady Zhong and only then she remembered that she was in the Zhong Manor.

"Hey boy! Are you going to let the doctor have a look or not?", Lord Zhong asked angrily making Shengli spring up and he stood to the side.

Lady Zhong realised this girl was acting different the entire day, being too tired, not eating properly and she remembered that she had the same symptoms when she was pregnant with Seiren.She started to have doubts when she saw how intimate those two were. They are young and in love after all. These kind of things happen, right? But if that is the case this would cause serious issues especially with her father and she was worried.

The doctor came near Xing and took her pulse and he looked confused.

"What"s wrong with the brat?", Lord Zhong"s authoritative voice was heard making the physician flinch in fear. He looked at Lady Zhong who was worried and expecting answers and Lord Zhong"s inquisitive demeanor. The physician didn"t even dare to look at the other person as he felt the fiery glare at his back.

The physicians hands trembled as he felt Xing"s pulse again. Clearly the person in front of him is in male attires and looks like a pretty boy. He heard gossips about how he had beat the first young master earlier too. So why is his pulse that of a woman?

"Are you a quack? Why can"t you say anything", Lord Zhong had lost his patience and shouted but was pacified by Lady Zhong.

The physician started to sweat buckets and wanted to faint himself so that he could escape this place.

"Oldman! It is his fault", Xing pointed at Shengli. She was proud of herself to arrive to this conclusion by her amazing medical expertise. Shengli was the one who made her heart act weird and making her hard to breath. So this fainting spell must be his doing by being present, right?

Lord Zhong looked at the confused Shengli in a death glare and he was about to pounce on him but was held firmly by Lady Zhong and Xing wondered why that Oldman must get this angry for her while the physician really wanted to disappear from this place worse than a warfield. He"d prefer a warfield now than being trapped in this confused situation.

"What kind of man are you to do this to that brat? Shame on you! ", he cursed at Shengli and tried to get out of his wife"s grip, "Let go of me. I"ll kill him now", he shouted at Lady Zhong except his tone was gentler towards her.

Shengli who had no idea what he had done for Xing to blame him and Lord Zhong wanting to kill him was staring blankly and stood frozen. Even the physician is not saying anything! What kind of illness does she have?

Xing realised the tense situation and wondered what would make Lord Zhong this angry too. She also noticed the physician scared and confused. Just what is going on?

The confused Xing looked at Lady Zhong who was looking at her slightly happy and worried at the same time and realised that she had blamed her fainting on her lover and that made them come to the wrong conclusion. She looked at Shengli who was blankly staring at Lord Zhong who had pulled a whip out of somewhere to hit him yet he was not even moving.

Oh, no! My poor naive Prince doesn"t even realise the situation he is in, does he? He is not even refusing. I should save him! Xing decided as she knew Lord Zhong won"t stop before las.h.i.+ng him.

"Oldman, stop!", Xing shouted and tried to get off the bed but she still felt a bit dizzy and sat back on the bed, "We haven"t done anything that would make me pregnant", she tried to use as little words as possible to explain the misunderstanding and only then Lord Zhong paused his hands that had already in a striking pose with the whip.

Relieved after seeing that, Xing continued, "What I meant was that whenever he is near me my heart beat gets erratic and I can"t breath properly",she said and Lord Zhong looked at her with his thick eyebrows knitted and lips pursed, "What is this brat blabbering now?" That thought was clearly written on his face.

"But never mind he is like me too!", Xing looked at Shengli whose eyebrows were twitching. "This girl! She accused me of such an indecent thing and still saying more weird things? Is she really stupid like Haru says?"

"Oh dear!", Lady Zhong chuckled and that broke the awkward situation, "This little girl! How simple!", she chuckled more hiding her mouth in her sleeves looking at Xing who really looked like a pure little lamb, blinking.

Of course no one noticed the sigh of relief the physician let out after realising he was not a quack. In the thirty eight years he had served the Zhong Manor, never once had he encountered such situation. He had treated deep cuts and even amputated limbs but a simple ailment like this made him doubt his own credibility. But knowing the one he had to treat is actually a woman made him gain his confidence back and he raised his voice,

"This young mast...", he cleared his throat, "This young miss fainted of anaemia and weakness . I can prescribe some medicines but healthy diet is important and will help the young miss in the long run", he said and wrote the prescription and excused himself.

"Anaemia?", Lord Zhong was not convinced and only after interrogating the physician some more time did he let him go.

" What is this? Who"s there? Send for that good-for-nothing AoTian... Tell him that I will raise this brat in my Zhong Manor from now on! Seems like he is lacking money to raise one little brat in his Manor!..Anaemia?... How shameful! ...", Lord Zhong"s shouts were heard clearly inside the room even though he was outside.

Lady Zhong was sitting beside Xing patting her hands and Shengli had a look of relief knowing her illness is not that serious.

" Mingxia... ", Lady Zhong gently patted Xing"s head. Xing looked at her and she knew that look too well as her mother and Lady Shaoyao looked at her the same way most of the times, the look filled with love and concern with a little worry.

" Yes, Lady Zhong ", Xing sat cross-legged on the bed facing Lady Zhong and she held Xing"s hand, "Dear, you are strong and fearless, smart too and there is no denying it. But you should remember you are a still a girl. I"m not saying this as a discouragement but it is a fact. You should take care of your health first and that should be your priority. You realise you are making everyone worried for you right? ", she took a deep breath," As a girl, your body is different from boys and you"ll have to be more careful with your diet if you want to keep on fighting and maintain your strength, right? Do you understand? ", she patted her cheeks and Xing nodded.

" Good girl!", Lady Zhong stood up," Stay here for a week. I"ll take care of you... I"ll tell the kitchen to prepare nouris.h.i.+ng dishes for you. Just rest", she gave a meaningful look at Shengli who was leaning near the window with his arms folded and he gave a light bow.

"But father....", Xing asked. She didn"t want to stay here but could not refuse Lady Zhong as she really cares about her and she also knew her father will definitely not let her stay here.

"Your father will be handled by Lord Zhong. He"ll lose some of his teacups for it... Still...", Lady Zhong gave a playful smile and left. Xing only knew what she meant by losing teacups until she learned from Lord Zhong the next day that her father broke one teacup from every tea set he had carefully gathered and now all of them are useless as Lord Zhong liked to have eight cups per set.

After Lady Zhong left, Shengli sat beside Xing and Xing lied on his lap looking at the board of the canopy bed with some carvings with her knees bent.

"You scared me a lot, my moon! I thought...", his voice was shaking and he couldn"t continue as his cold palms gently caressed her forehead and Xing held it and cupped it in her hands and blowed on it to warm it up.

"Don"t worry, I won"t die that easily", She said and kissed his palm, "Especially not when I"m not entirely yours", she mumbled to herself so that he doesn"t hear but Shengli, the wolf he is heard every word clearly.

"Not entirely mine...?",he smirked and looked at her surprised face that had become flushed by now.

" Nasty wolf!", Xing said and tried to turn her face to the side but his coa.r.s.e, warm hand held her chin and made her unable to turn.

"Xing", his serious eyes s.h.i.+ning in the gentle light in the room all the while his hand was gently caressing her neck, " Let"s have a rehearsal of our wedding night", his hands slided down her neck and found its way under her clothes down her collar bones making Xing shudder and she held his hand from moving any lower.

Shengli could feel her body warming up in his hand and he gave an evil smirk, "What do you say? Then you"ll be entirely mine! "

Xing who had been teased a lot by him for the past days decided not to be too shy anymore and stand up for herself. She pushed his hands and sat up, "Marry me first, you shameless fox! How can you take advantage of a maiden like me?", she pinched his nose really hard making him grunt in pain, "Xing... ! Why my nose?... Always..."

Xing laughed hard seeing him writhe in pain.

"Serves you right, you rascal Prince! Your shamelessness has no bounds lately!"

Shengli tried to catch her and she feigned fainting and he caught her and placed her on the bed. Xing was still closing her eyes and he gently traced his index finger on her lips making her flinch," Xing! I won"t touch you again", he whispered near her ears.

"Say that without touching me, rascal Prince", She hit him laughing and he laughed along with her.

" Xing, eat properly from now on. Promise me!", he said resting his forehead on her shoulders. He really didn"t want something like today happen again. If that was not a training match but an actual attack, won"t she be in great danger?

"Hmm", he sighed, "It must be because you recently started losing blood unnecessarily", he muttered.

" How is it unnecessary?", she pushed him with her cheeks puffed and he looked at her shocked. Aren"t I worried about you? Why are you looking like I stole your gold?

"Well, who wants children anyway", he said casually. He really cannot imagine himself as a father. He never had a good role model for a father and also by how much his kitten loves children, won"t he be abandoned once she has children?

"I do", she declared, "Four of them and only daughters"

"Four?", Shengli asked shocked. Isn"t that a lot?

"Yes, four girls. Just like you since you are the pretty one", she touched his nose, "With your nose too. It"s adorable"

"Ha ha", Shengli laughed dryly rubbing his nose. What is she planning? Won"t more beings like him become an eyesore?

"Do you even know how to raise children?", he asked.

Xing looked at him perplexed, "What is he saying? Won"t they grow up by themselves if you feed them and play with them?"

Shengli looked at her who was squinting her nose and looking adorable, "Four girls? I don"t mind if they take after this beautiful kitten!"

"Don"t worry!", Shengli said suddenly having an idea, "Let"s have as many children as we want and let your father raise them. Your father still owes you the debt of raising you, right? Let him pay it by raising our children!" his eyes were wide and he was happy he came up with a plan that satisfied both of them. She can have children and he won"t have anyone to disturb his time with her! Brilliant! He patted himself.

Xing sighed! Who gives birth to children to just let them raised by others? Childbirth is not an easy and fun thing to do just for the sake of it, right? Won"t you want to have your children close to you after you go through that tedious process?

So those two people who had slightly different opinion about how their future should be were carelessly chatting in the room filled with the gentle light of the setting sun and a serene fragrance made their mind elated and the sweet chirping sound of the sparrow spilling through the windows reflected the happy chatting of the youths with their whole future unknown to them.

Just then,

"Where is she?", an angry voice followed by the sound of the door slamming was heard. The owner of the voice, was none other than the one who supposedly owe the debt of raising Xing!

Shengli who was happily laughing was sent out... No.. Pushed out through the window by the one who he thinks loves him. What an unfair world it is for him being pushed out by his woman for her father? Shengli sulked and waited outside the window.

"Mingxia, my only daughter! What happened to you? Who did this to you? Are you hurt? Let"s leave this wretched place that made you sick... How dare he blames me when he"s the one clearly to be blamed? You were fine until you were with father.....", her father rambled on until Xing actually felt dizzy.

Lord Zhong didn"t keep quiet and he refuted him resulting in the verbal war between those two.

Lady Zhong pushed them out of the room to fight and closed the door as if it does not matter if they kill each other. Xing, who had never seen Lord Zhong being equally silly like her father asked Lady Zhong if it is fine and she smiled, They are men and let them deal with it.

Some time later Rijun came in panicked and only after seeing her did his face regained his colour. Xu mama also came with Rijun and Lady Zhong asked about her dietary habits and after patiently hearing it she shot a glare at Xing which made Xing shudder. Why do people fear the Oldman when the actual grizzly is his wife? She thought. This elegant looking lady has layers!

Xing expected another lecture from Lady Zhong which she can go through any time as she was used to it but she went out and brought in the two fighting men outside by pulling them by the sleeves. She is not just a grizzly she is grandfather to the grizzly, Xing thought seeing her father and the Oldman becoming silent within a second.

Lady Zhong made Xu mama repeat what she said previously and spoke on a firm tone, "Xiao Tian, you heard Xu mama... Sweet buns and milk are snacks, not food! Your daughter needs to eat food! With her mother pa.s.sing away and no one to replace her in your home, she needs to learn to take care of herself. Even though Xu mama cares for her to some extent, she cannot cross the line of a servant. I will teach Mingxia to take care of herself. So if you care for your stupid daughter, just leave her here for a week", she let out a deep breath and AoTian froze.

Xing was about to say something but was silenced by the glare of Lady Zhong. In fact Xing was not a big fan of eating but she always had dinner with her mother and she always made sure she had a balanced diet and ate everything on her bowl whether she liked it or not. But after she came to the city, she ate whatever she wants whenever she wanted because she was the pampered young miss of the Huang family. So being pampered had it"s side effects too, Xing thought but Lady Zhong is right, I need to learn to take care of myself! I don"t like feeling weak at all!

AoTian could accept the rationality in Lady Zhong"s words but he was still reluctant to let his daughter stay away from him.

"I"ll hire someone to...", he started but was interjected by Lady Zhong,

"Xu mama who have known you from the day you were born took your daughters side. So do you think anyone new could handle your daughter?"

Xing who was hearing everything wondered why she does not have a say in where she wants to stay but could not do anything against those old people who really care for her wellbeing. Rijun just gave a dejected look, "I have a lot of work to finish today! I thought I"ll get your help!", he whispered, "But rest well!". He meant what he said.

So AoTian reluctantly agreed for his daughter"s stay in the Zhong Manor for three days but was still angry at Lord Zhong for getting his wish. Rijun, AoTian and Xu mama left after dinner and Xing told Shengli to bring the fruit that G.o.d gave that she left in the drawer to her. He must have realised she is sick and that"s why he gave that fruit to her. I should have ate that fruit without caring too much for dignity, Xing raved in her heart.

That night Xing slept in Lady Zhong"s room when she heard Lady Zhong and the Oldman happily chatting outside.

"How did you think that she might be pregnant? I thought you had no knowledge about these things"

"I remember you writing me that you fainted when you were with our second son and that brat accused him too "

"You remember something I wrote eighteen years ago?"

"I remember everything you wrote to me... Ruoling! Was I a good husband to you? Seeing that boy just rushed in to get to that brat, I realised I had done nothing for you. In the past twenty five years of our marriage, I only hurt you by saying I loved another woman and even brought her son to be raised in our Manor. Aren"t you angry at me for treating you badly? "

There was silence for sometime and Xing who was shamelessly overhearing the conversation of the old couple realised the rumour about her grandmother and Lord Zhong were true. But clearly the Oldman didn"t actually loved or fell out of love with her grandmother and is in love with Lady Zhong for a long time. Xing was sure because if that Oldman was still in love with her grandmother he would have recognised her voice as her Uncle Zedong is pretty sure of it. And no one tells all the secrets even about the kingdom to his wife whom he does not love and trust. As per Xing"s knowledge, Lady Zhong pretty much is privy to all the secrets Lord Zhong has. If that"s not love, what is?

"Dear", Lady Zhong"s shaky voice was heard, " You gave this one from a lowly family the status of the Lady of the n.o.blest family in the kingdom. You never wronged me and laid every truth before me. You never were like those frivolous men who brings concubines each year and you treasured only me, gave me everything I need and more. What more can I ask for in a husband? As for the issue of the Princess, I never felt wronged as no one could compete with a dead person and I never felt not loved by you and Xiao Tian, I never felt like he was not my son. So you should know that I had all the luck work out for me to get you as my husband this life time and would wish for you in the next lives too and hopefully in those lives I wish to meet you first so that I would be your first love"

Xing who was hearing all this wondered how it would be like for her and her prince to be able to grow old together and what they might be talking in their old age when they had finished all their duties and leisurely talking.

It must be nice to be together until out hair colours match, Xing thought, My Prince! Won"t it be a good picture as both of our hairs had greyed and we still hold each other and watch the sunset together?

That night Xing had dreams that they had four daughters with his silver hair and they were happily playing with weapons and also good in literature too. One of her daughter was even good in embroidery like Xing"s mother. Her Prince was by her side sipping tea and they watched their children grow together. Xing slept peacefully with her lips curved upwards.

While Xing was having good dreams, Shengli was having nightmares that there were four devilish boys standing around Xing with swords in their hands. Two of them looked like AoTian and two of them looked like his Imperial father. They gave an evil laugh and told him to beat them to be able to look at their mother. His moon was nowhere to be seen but only her voice saying that she was disappointed by him was heard. Shengli woke up in cold sweats and drank some water. Only after he imagined little kittens that looked like Xing was he able to fall asleep.

.........

Many years later in a pavilions over a cliff facing the sea, Xing whose hair had greyed by now was sipping tea leaning his head over her prince"s shoulder. The gentle sea breeze ruffled their now matching hair and their hair danced together in that breeze intertwining with each other just like their fingers were.

"My Prince, after everything we"ve gone through, do you think it is worth it?"

The man who had never lost his charm in her eyes sipped the tea from her cup, a habit he had for years now, smiled the same smile that she saw when she first met him,

"My moon! It definitely is! I will go through it a hundred times if it would lead us here", he kissed her head.

Both of them with the golden rays of the sun making their hair glow like amber watched the sun setting in the sea and snuggled up to each other as all they had ever wanted in their life is to be together like this and that was not easily attained too. Only when you get a thing after great struggles would you realise it"s worth and even small pleasures will make you ecstatic only if you"d known the depth of exasperation.