Rising Phoenix

Pain cut his heart as red flooded into his eyes, and Ning Yi could not even finish his sentence. He coughed and spat out blood, only able to wordlessly clutch the bed’s frame, his body bent over and wracked with dry heaves.

After a moment of hesitation, Feng Zhiwei slowly reached forward, circulating a stream of Qi into Ning Yi’s body to help him tame his wild state. She had seen the crystal statue’s seductive pose and could understand Ning Yi’s fury — the Tian Sheng Emperor had obviously built this tunnel for his personal use, and his obscene intentions were obvious in the statue’s design, perverting the beauty of Ning Yi’s mother. Could the Emperor truly leave such a beautiful and unaged woman forever trapped in seclusion? To think that Ning Yi’s mother had suffered such misery and humiliation over the long years, waiting everyday for a glimpse of her little boy.

Her slow and bitter days must have dragged on and on, but she refused to set herself free, staying for those short moments spent with her beautiful son.

She never spoke, perhaps afraid that as soon as she opened her mouth, she would be no longer able to hold back the tears.

“She was a pious woman and did everything with full devotion…” Ning Yi continued saying, his hand still gripping the bed’s edge. “She had clearly decided to become a nun, but she still had to… how pained she must have been…”

He hung his head over the fire pan, his voice cutting off. After a long moment, the fire hissed as it burned away his tears.

Feng Zhiwei shifted her hand from his back, half reaching for his shoulder before she caught herself. Her hand hung in the air for a long moment before she finally took it back and turned away.

She was sitting up now, looking down at the bed, her eyelashes drooping and her eyes half closed; dark red flame flickered over her face, and her brows were knitted in commiserating pain.

Ning Yi turned and quietly watched her, suddenly reaching out his hand and grabbing the tips of her fingers, saying her name for the first time: “Zhiwei…”

Feng Zhiwei shifted in surprise, her head shooting upwards.

Her teared, glistening eyes were clarion clear, deep enough to encompass all the blue of the heavens and the soil of the earth, deep enough to devote a life to.

Words that had lingered in his heart, always buried, could no longer be held back.

“Zhiwei, even if all the people on this earth turn against me, I will be fine as long as you do not.”

Feng Zhiwei trembled under Ning Yi’s gaze, his face pale from weakness, but his eyes deep and sincere. All the subtlety and meaning of his words raced through her heart and mind and she quivered under their weight.

His eyes had never held such a gaze before, and she had never imagined that he would ever speak to her with such honesty. From their first meeting they had been trapped in each others maneuvering — fighting, probing, filled with suspicion, their clashes filled with every emotion under the sun — the only thing that had never existed was trust.

Yet now he held her hand, calling to her from the same bed, speaking her name.

Rain poured beyond the walls, and two people sat in the embrace of the bed; the warmth of the fire pan lent heat to bared skin as hearts beat with almost audible thuds.

She stared at him, barely holding back the words: “Impossible!”

But then a crowd of footfalls broke the pregnant moment, piercing through the curtains of rain, and splattering through the puddled ground straight for their palace room.

A loud voice cried out:

“Over here, check that building!”

Feng Zhiwei and Ning Yi stirred at once.

The Hu Zhuo Prince’s fiancée and His Highness Prince Chu together in a dim room, half clothed! What an uproar such a sight would cause.

Feng Zhiwei immediately turned to stand, grabbing her clothes and pulling them on as she peered out the window. A group of guards had already rushed into the front yard of the residence.

As she hurriedly buttoned her dressed, her thoughts raced. The day the Tian Sheng Emperor had granted Ning Yi the Feng Yun Residence, Princess Shao Ning had stood in a small garden and looked out at a palace room while speaking of a good show to come. Now that she looked closely, was this not that same building hidden behind that small garden?

She had been distracted by Ning Yi’s angsty weeping in the rain and forgotten herself.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Princess Shao Ning’s smiling voice: “Prince Hu Zhuo. I often came to this courtyard in my youth, but it’s been abandoned for many years. Still, it’ll be good to search it, perhaps the person you’re searching for has accidentally lost her way here…”

Feng Zhiwei immediately turned, meeting Ning Yi’s eyes as he dressed. The Princess had come to entangle Ning Yi — no matter what happened, the fact remained that he had come here during Imperial Consort Chang’s birthday. While everyone else might not understand the meaning of this visit, the Tian Sheng Emperor would not be so blind. Such a move would surely pique his suspicion and greatly displease him, after all Ning Yi’s mother had a very special identity and suffered greatly in her life, with even her death a strange affair.

If the matter was not so delicate, Ning Yi would never have come here alone without a bodyguard. His visit was arranged in the utmost secrecy, and it was only under the cover of the birthday celebration with all attention centered on Imperial Consort Chang’s palace, Ning Yi would never have dared to come here in the bright of day.

As for Feng Zhiwei, no one actually thought that she was here, and no one cared enough to scheme about the Young Lady Feng. She was just unlucky.

But if she was discovered together with Ning Yi, a simple damaging of her reputation was the least of her concern. If the matter grew serious, no one knew what might happen.

Understanding flickered through their eyes, their calm hearts sobered by the crisis at hand.

As one, the pair rushed back to the bedside, moving together in swift harmony. As one figure quickly shoved the fire pan under the bed, the other used their Qi to rip the quilt blanket and sheets before soundlessly scattering the chairs throughout the room.

Feng Zhiwei had just finished dealing with the fire pan when she realized what Ning Yi had done, and before she could decipher his intentions, the man had turned for a final look at the backyard and darted out the back window.

Feng Zhiwei paused in confusion — he was leaving her and running? But the residence was already surrounded, where could he go?

She ran over to the window and peered outside. The garden was the same one she and Princess Shao Ning had met in on that day, and the strange plants she had seen were still here, some of them still clinging to life.

Feng Zhiwei climbed out and jumped down into the garden, the clattering of guards entering the second courtyard and running straight for them clearly audible to her sharp ears. Ning Yi stood stooped in the garden, carefully searching through the herbs as he called out: “Put your mask back on.”

Feng Zhiwei obeyed without a fuss, quickly applying her backup disguise and restoring her yellow faced drooping browed mask.

“Found it!” Ning Yi cried out happily, plucking a vermeil fruit from a wilting plant and passing it to Feng Zhiwei. “Eat this!”