Phoenix Rising

051

"So?" Lady Li asked, a bemused smile hanging upon her lips as she took a whiff of the jasmine fragrance from her tea.

"So what?" Zhenghuan shrugged nonchalantly and leaned against the window frame, turning his gaze towards the lotus pond out in the garden.

To avoid courting controversy, Zhenghuan had parted ways with Lady Li and Zi-ning before they reached the Huangcheng city gates and come directly here, to the Li family manor. The manor, owned by the elderly Duke of Zhao, patriarch of the Li family, was left empty most of the year, since the entire Li clan was now based in the western provinces. It was only occupied on rare occasion, when the Duke returned to the capital for official business, or when Lady Li came back for her husband's memorial rites. Although she was allowed to reside within the royal palace, she chose not to, always opting to stay at her family's manor instead.

"This is the second time you're asking me to extend a helping hand to Han Zi-ning. The first time was to repay her for saving your life. What about now?" the lady asked.

"I'm just trying to build good karma. Since I already helped her escape from those bandits, then I might as well finish the good deed."

"You can lie to everyone, including yourself, but don't think you can hide these things from your own mother."

Zhenghuan pursed his lips in a thin line, refusing to admit that she had gotten everything right. Blood ran thicker than water, and unfortunately that meant that his mother—his real mother, Lady Li—always managed to read him like an open book.

It had started out as a bit of curiosity, curiosity towards this strange girl who seemed to have many secrets bottled up inside her that he could not figure out. On the surface, she behaved like any other social climber, trying to fish a royal title for herself and marry a prince, yet his instincts told him that there was more to that than met the eye. For one, he noticed that despite her efforts to catch royal attention, there was always an inexplicable animosity he detected in her eyes when she looked at the princes. Particularly the fifth prince, Ru-an. But why?

And so the more he observed her, the more he tried to figure out the enigma that was Han Zi-ning, the further he seemed to fall into this hole. She was intelligent, and brave, and... sad. That was a sadness about her that drew him in, that made him want to protect her, instead of leaving her to fight whatever it was she seemed to be fighting alone.

"What about Zixi?" Lady Li asked.

"What about her?"

Lady Li sighed. "General Du sent me a letter a while back, suggesting that it was a good time to settle the issue of your marriage," she said. "He seems to think that you have been putting this off for long enough, and that you might be less inclined to dash headfirst into dangerous situations if you started your own family and had someone to tie you down." She gave her son a pointed stare, and Zhenghuan rolled his eyes in response.

Yes, he confessed that he might have placed himself in potentially life-threatening circumstances a little too often lately, but it was mostly because the threat from the southern tribes was growing and there was a pressing need to nip the problem in the bud. If they allowed this collaboration between the southern tribes and Hua to continue, then it would not be long before Duan would find their sovereignty under threat, sandwiched by enemies on both sides. It was his duty as the Shadow Lord to do what he could to protect Duan's borders, even if it meant sacrificing his life.

His father had done it once.

Thinking about his father cast a grim shadow over his mind. How different would his life had been if his father—the former crown prince—hadn't died in the fight against the rebels?