The Divorcee Is A Wicked Black Belly

The woman riding on a horse beside him throw him a surrept.i.tious glance. Her heart sank when she saw his expression. The general looked grimmer than usual, the beautiful line of his lips pulled thinly back in a near grimace.

The general was the most beautiful man in Yuqui, everyone had agreed on that. General Chen Lou had topped several surveys taken by the census each year to liven up the new year celebration. But he was also cold and ruthless, even more so than his father whose command he a.s.sumed years ago after the old general died in battle.

All his life, the young general had immersed himself in military life, winning battles and grasping victories that gave the kingdom of Yuqui the freedom it currently enjoys. The borders were safe. Prosperity was enjoyed by all. It could be said that besides the king, General Chen Lou had a hand in making this happen. He was a pillar Yuqui cannot do without. He falls and Yuqui falls with him.

The beautiful woman beside him looked at him with worshipful eyes. She was his second in command and had accompanied him to many battles since she was sixteen. Their fathers were good friends and it could be said that they grew up together, even learned the way of the sword together, and that she was the constant in his life, regardless of the occasional women she knew had shared his bed.

General Chen was only twenty years old and still unmarried. Rumors were rife in military circles that his father and the young lady"s father were thinking of furthering the relationship between the two families by marrying the two young people together. But old general Chen had died before any announcement of that nature ever came out. And now it looks like the young general was getting gun shy. Could it be that the rumors were true and that the general didn"t want to marry his beautiful second in command? How could it be? Two beautiful people belong together. Is he out of his mind?

The crowd followed them when the cavalry entered the gates. The beautiful general and the equally pretty girl beside him had fired up their imagination. It was obvious the two of them will be followed wherever they go that day, a fact which further irked the general.

Another white frilly thing landed on his shoulder. Before he could remove it, however, a hand shot out from behind him and flicked the offensive fabric with the end of his sword.

"Yours, general?" the owner of the hand laughed, grabbing the fabric with his hand.

"f.u.c.k you," the general said, without even glancing behind him.

The owner of the sword burst into laughter. He was a youth of about nineteen, wearing thick and clear gla.s.ses that made him look like an owl. He was the apt definition of what a nerd look like but removed the gla.s.ses and he"s blind as a bat without them.

"Give it here," a much older youth sidled up closer to him and tried to s.n.a.t.c.h the frilly fabric away. The younger boy, however, was faster and had already hid the frilly thing in his robe before the other boy had the chance to steal it.

"I thought you didn"t like girls," the elder boy accused.

"Yeah? Who said. Besides, finders keepers. Losers get to f.u.c.k my a.s.s."

"The both of you, shut up!" the general said grimly. "Min Ling, get rid of that d.a.m.ned thing."

"Won"t. It"s mine."

"Min Song," the general glanced at the elder boy who galloped after his younger brother. Min Ling had guessed correctly and had rode to the back of the cavalry before his elder brother caught up with him.

"Those dratted boys are so unruly," the girl beside the general said waspishly. "We should never have allowed them to come with us."

"My dear Sei Sei, have you perhaps forgotten what they did to your pet cat when we left them at the barracks? Besides, I fear they would have burnt the whole place down if we had failed to take them with us. You know about Min Ling and his experiments."

Sei Sei shuddered in remembrance. It took almost six months before the hair on her cat grew back. And Min Ling"s experiments...

"The whole hero welcome," Min Song suddenly commented, having returned to the general"s side after he dealt satisfactorily with his brother. "Is the emperor trying to tell us something?"

"It"s not him. I think it"s his stepmother," Sei Sei corrected.

"Why do you say that?" the general was surprised.

"Because the emperor wouldn"t have known how to bribe women to throw their underclothes at you," Min Ling mocked, his eyes smiling merrily. His brother glared at him but he only whipped his horse a little faster, laughing as he did so.

"Idiot," Min Song said and looked at the general. Chen Luo, however, was in deep thought, frowning as he did so.

"I never understood why we had to come here in person in the first place," Sei Sei continued. "We could have given this report via the messenger. We hadn"t set foot in the capital for the last nine years. Why now?"

The two of them looked at the still silent general.

"I have my reasons," he finally said.

"Is it about what happened to the duke and the prime minister? But that"s not part of our mission, surely? What do we have to do with politics?" Min Song asked.

"You two, back off," Min Ling"s voice was his official voice as the general"s chief adviser. "General Luo will let us know what"s on his mind when the time is right, right Lou?"

The general didn"t answer. He merely gave them a fleeting glance before galloping away ahead of the group.

"I really hate it when he does that," Min Ling complained. "Why does he have to act like a prima donna sometimes?"

Min Song opened his mouth to speak but he thought better of it and sank back into silence. He merely whipped his horse and followed after the general, Sei Sei following not far behind. Min Ling sighed then urged his horse and galloped after them.

The gates to the imperial palace opened after a loud dong sounded.

General Chen Lou and his men entered, their helmeted figures forming a commanding line of seeming invincibility. The general got off his horse and walked the rest of the way to the dais where the emperor awaited his audience.

The sun had shown its face that day. It was mid-morning but the sunlight was still so high it dazzled the eyes. Despite the presence of the sun, however, a light and teasing wind fluttered underneath the seemingly balmy atmosphere. The wind floated around the dais, whipping clothes against bodies, causing pale cheeks to blush, and breaking the string of a red veil hiding the empress dowager"s face from strangers.

The gossamer veil floated away with the wind never to be seen again.

In the stunned silence that followed, a soft and melodious voice was heard.

"There goes my attempts at imperial dignity. Oh, well. The b.l.o.o.d.y thing was making me uncomfortable anyway," the empress dowager said, laughing out loud.

"You didn"t have to wear it, you know," the emperor answered. "It"s your present attire that"s causing me a lot of worries."

"My attire? Why? What"s wrong with the way I"m dressed?" the empress sounded very indignant.

"My dear An Ning, you are wearing trousers. In court. Tight fitting men"s trousers."

"So?"

"I give up. Hush now or they"ll hear us."

The "us" were already staring at them stupefied. But what really caught everybody"s attention was General Chen Lou who seemed to have turned into a statue.

Lightning seemed to have struck him the first time the voice reached his ears. It couldn"t be. It just couldn"t. He stared at the woman before him until his eyes hurt.

It was her. It really was her. He was not wrong this time. This was not a dream this time. It really was her. An Ning.

The woman, no...girl. She was An Ning yet she was not the An Ning he once knew. She was younger. Slimmer and her eyes...the eyes of a woman who had known love and grief. The eyes were older, wiser. Even this An Ning with the haunted eyes was not the An Ning he once knew. But it was her nonetheless. There was no mistaking it. The woman who pulled him from the future to a hundred years into the past...it was An Ning.

Unlike him, An Ning was as blunt as ever.

"Du Lu? What the h.e.l.l are you doing here?"