Phoenix Rising

063

Everything that happened after was a blur. Zhenghuan leapt in front of her. Swords clashed. Bodies flew across the room. Guards rushed in. In a matter of mere minutes, all three of the assassins had been apprehended, disarmed and forced to their knees.

"Who sent you?" Zhenghuan demanded, pointing the tip of his sword at the throat of one of the men.

The man suddenly clenched his jaw. Blackened blood dribbled down the sides of his mouth, and he collapsed onto the floor—dead. The same happened to the second assassin, to his left. Zhenghuan's gaze flickered, then he immediately flew to the last surviving man, grabbing the latter by the jaw before he could do the same. With one swift motion, he shoved his hand into the man's mouth and pulled out the tooth that contained a poison sac, a common method used by assassins to kill themselves before any information could be tortured out of their lips.

Looking towards his guards, Zhenghuan said, "Lock him away and tell Commander Zhang to interrogate him. I want to know where they came from." The guard nodded in acknowledgement, and the one surviving assassin and two corpses were dragged out of the room.

Zi-ning was standing by the side of the bed, watching all of this unfold. Her heart still tremored at the thought of how close she had been to dying a second time, when those assassins had charged towards her with their gleaming blades raised. If Zhenghuan hadn't intervened, she would very likely be lying in a pool of her own blood.

Zhenghuan turned, and their gazes locked.

Anger and resentment suddenly began burgeoning inside her, when her mind pieced together the pieces of the puzzle and a clear realisation of what had happened set in. She picked up the nearest object she could find—the rectangular pillow lying on the bed—and flung it at his head.

"How dare you! You were acting all this while? You never suffered any real side-effects from the medicine, did you? It was all a giant lie! A ruse to lure out those assassins!" she yelled. The more she thought about it, the more infuriated she became. She had been so worried for him when she saw him spew blood, when he lay unconscious on that bed, yet it had all been an act. That was what Mingshen had meant when he asked her to trust Zhenghuan—because he must have known all along that this was a part of Zhenghuan's plan. They all knew, but they never thought to let her in on any of it.

Zhenghuan didn't move. He let the pillow bounce off his shoulder and fall to the floor. Then, he walked forward and pulled her into his arms.

"You are not to do something like that again, am I clear?" he said, his breath warm against her ear.

Zi-ning was so stunned by his sudden embrace that she forgot to move. Standing stock still, she asked, "Do what?"

"Put yourself between me and someone's sword. I don't need you to be my shield. I will be yours."

His words were so gentle that they left a shudder down her spine. Her nose stung, and tears threatened to spill from her eyes. All the rage that she had been experiencing was instantaneously doused. When had anyone ever told her that they would be her shield? That they would be there to protect her from harm? In her previous life, her family hated her, the love of her life had used her as a stepping stone for his own ambitions, and anyone who cared at least a little for her had been dealt a horrible fate.

Reborn a second time, she had been so determined to be as strong as she could be. She believed that she had to be capable enough of defending herself because she could count on no one. She was here for the sole purpose of taking revenge on those who had trampled upon her, and nothing else mattered.

Then, he had appeared. Proud, enigmatic and occasionally shameless, but also righteous, honourable and kind. Somehow, against her better judgement, this man had wormed his way into her heart and mind, and she could no longer chase him out. Yes, she had been terrified when those assassins had brandished their weapons before her, yet she had still instinctively moved to protect him.