Phoenix Rising

076

A fire burned on the hearth, its flickering embers bringing some much needed warmth to the cold night. Zi-ning sat beside Zhenghuan inside the tent, her knees tucked against her chest. Things between them would unequivocally change after tonight, but she wasn't prepared for how she was supposed to behave from now on. A tinge of awkwardness hung in the air, as they sat in silence for what felt like an eternity.

"How did you do it?" she finally asked, choosing a safe topic to break the ice. "How did you feign death to the extent that I couldn't even detect a pulse?" She considered herself fairly skilled in the physician's art, yet she had clearly not been able to find any signs of life on him earlier.

A smile curled upon Zhenghuan's face. "It's a special needle technique that was taught to me by a healer from one of the southern tribes many years ago. Once applied, a person will appear as good as dead, but he can be revived by unblocking the sealed meridians using a special fragrance mixed from jerebi flowers and an assortment of other herbs. Of course, if they're not revived within the span of time it takes to burn a single stick of incense, then they'll really be dead." He chortled, still seeming in a very good mood.

A needle technique that allows someone to feign death...

She had smelled a subtle, odd fragrance in the tent earlier, which must have been brought in by Mingshen when they had both entered. That was how Zhenghuan had revived himself shortly after.

Then, she remembered something—a memory from her previous life.

News had travelled back to the capital about the Shadow Lord's death, because Ru-an had sold out the Duan army by colluding with the kingdom of Hua. But had the Shadow Lord truly died then? She had not lived long enough to find out then, but now that she had gotten to know Zhenghuan, she had serious doubts about the veracity of that. What if he had merely been feigning his death, waiting for the right opportunity to topple Ru-an? It was a pity she would never know.

"Why the frown?" Zhenghuan asked. He reached out, pressing his thumb to the space between her brows, smoothening out the creases.

Zi-ning blushed, quickly turning away.

"Zi-ning, will you tell me what you've been through? I know it might hurt for you to dredge up the past, but I want to know everything."

Zi-ning hesitated, then she sighed. Picking up the small jar of wine by the side, she took a swig of it, letting the alcohol burn her throat. Then, she began, right from the beginning when she had fallen hopelessly in love with Ru-an at first sight, to the tragic end when she had been completely and utterly betrayed, forced to watch the entire of the eighth prince's household die before her eyes, before she faced the executioner herself. Every sentence brought a painful memory back to the forefront of her mind, the wounds still bloody and raw. It had been so long since she had been reborn, but still every single bit of it felt like it had only happened yesterday.

Tears trickled down her cheeks as she remembered little Ai-er's voice calling out to her.

Zhenghuan wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close to him so that her head could rest on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there before," he whispered. "If I had met you first, then none of that would have happened."

Sniffling, she replied, "If you had met me then, you might have hated the person that I was."

She hated the person that she was, how her own foolishness had led to such tragedy for so many people.

"Where was I in that version of your life?" he asked.

She fell silent.

A light laugh issued from Zhenghuan's lips. "I died, didn't I?" he said. When she did not reply, he gave her shoulder a little squeeze. "It's alright. If I was pathetic enough to die in that life, then I probably deserved it, but I can guarantee that it will not happen in this life."