Two days ago. 

From the light seeping in from a small gap above their head, the morning seemed to have arrived but Feng Hao is still asleep. The sound of slow but heavy footsteps was the next that came in from the small gap. The footstep wasn’t exactly strong but it had an assurance in it, obviously a footstep that belongs to someone who is used to being in charge. A corner of a yellow robe peaks out from the top of the stair in the dark light of the oil lamp. 

A faint smile appears on Madam Feng’s face. Her smile was hidden in the shadows, no one witnessed the mysterious and knowing expression on her face. 

The person observed her for a long moment with reminiscence in his eyes before finally holding up his hand to give a wave. 

The action caused an immediate sound of footsteps retreating. 

“Ming Ying.” The person spoke, with a tone that is hard to discern his emotions, “Come to think of it, it has been fifteen years since I have seen you.” 

Madam Feng stands up and bows, her posture serene even as the chains on her body clinks together, “Yes, Your Majesty.” 

“Last time I saw you, it was that year when we had a celebration party for your triumphant return from the battlefield.” The Emperor of Tian Sheng quietly stares at the woman in front of him but his thoughts have already floated back to that vivid memory of all those years ago, that ever so clear memory of the gleaming proud woman, “At that time, a young noblewoman had jeered that you are not like a woman and did not act like a lady. You angrily threw your wine goblet and composed a poem right there. I…have always remembered that clearly.” (Poems= educated and refined. Fighters= not educated and unrefined.)

Madam Feng lets out a small smile, “Ming Ying is grateful to Your Majesty.”

“You were this empire’s female general, the legend of your generation. You were the pride of this empire when you were young.” The emperor’s voice was laced with regret, “So how did you end up aiding the rebels?” 

Madam Feng was silent for a long moment until she finally replied with a smile: “It’s all sins from past lives.” (There are Chinese beliefs that relationship entanglements in one’s life are often debts accumulated from past lives. ie. If you wronged someone in your past life then they might end up hurting you in this life since technically you owe them. Anyhow, Madam Feng’s answer here is more like a shrug, expressing the sentiment that life is too complicated to know who is right and who is wrong.) 

The emperor falls silent. Separated by the cell gate, neither of them are saying anything. One is simply quietly waiting with determination for the ending while the other is lost in that memory of that stunning woman throwing the wine goblet so many years ago.  

That woman was so bright and stunning that one single memory had stayed with him all these years. It wasn’t until their reunion today that he abruptly realized how brutally ruthless time has been. 

It was after a long time when the emperor finally opened his mouth again: “Where is Feng Zhi Wei?”

Seemingly shaken, Madam Feng answers after a pause: “She had smallpox not too long ago and left the Capital to recuperate. She is probably back in the Capital now.” 

Looking back at the still slumbering Feng Hao, tears suddenly fall from Madam Feng’s eyes, as if her wall of determination abruptly crumpled by the Emperor’s single question. 

Dropping her knees to the floor with a single tear still lingering at the corner of her eyes, she pleads: “Your Majesty…Ming Ying knows you will not let Zhi Wei off. Ming Ying only begs…I can die with her… and, Hao Er is innocent…I beg Your Majesty to let him go.” 

The emperor doesn’t say anything for a bit until he finally lets out a cold sneer.

Her head lowered, Meng Feng’s fingers grip the gap in the metal floor so hard until a hint of blood appears in them. 

*Bang!*

Throwing a small package in front of her, there was a hint of anger in the emperor’s voice, “Ming Ying, you are still trying to fool me now?”

Madam Feng opens the package, carefully looking over the content, the color of her face becoming more ash with each passing second. Forcing herself to remain calm, she bows her head to the floor and says: “Ming Ying do not understand Your Majesty’s meaning.” 

“You really have this bizarre loyalty towards Da Cheng!” the Emperor yells angrily, “You are even trying to fool me with a switcheroo!” 

Madam Feng’s body begins to tremble, biting her lips, she cries: “Your Majesty, you have fallen for a lie!”

“I am not such a fool!” Furious, the Emperor yells, “Why does Feng Hao still have another gold lock? Why is the birth date on that gold lock different? Why does it even have the secret mark of Da Cheng? He is obviously your adopted son so why are you claiming you are his birth mother? The Gold Feather Guards found the midwife who directly pointed all the clues to Feng Zhi Wei but then why did that midwife suddenly die? I will tell you. I have found the last of Da Cheng’s royal concubine who confessed that it was a prince who escaped. Moreover, I also found the real midwife who helped you all those years ago. Feng Zhi Wei is your real daughter, Feng Hao is adopted. Plus, he is older than Feng Zhi Wei! You had changed his birth date on the gold lock he wears!” 

Her face drained of color, Madam Feng blurts out, “I gave birth to Zhi Wei? Impossible! My baby died at birth….” Before she finished her sentence, she abruptly stopped as her expression turned into one of shock as if she suddenly remembered something and her body began to shake violently. 

“Just as I guess, you were fooled! You have ignorantly been used as a shield by other people!” Seeing Madam Feng’s dumbstruck expression, the Emperor becomes even more certain of his theory, “I had wondered if you had been bewitched or why else would you be willing to sacrifice your own daughter to save the last royal bloodline of Da Cheng. To the point that you would even abandon her and go break Feng Hao out of jail? But now it all makes sense now!”

“Ah!” Madam Feng begins to cry. 

Staring at her anguished expression, considering the fact that she has been duped for the last 10 plus years and almost had her own daughter die in place of someone else, the Emperor’s heart softened a bit. However, he is also irritated when he remembers that what she did was the most taboo crime to an empire thus he says coldly: “I don’t even understand why you are still trying to protect Feng Hao. Are you somehow holding onto the hope that you would get out of here alive and that Feng Hao will make you the grand empress?” 

“Your Majesty…” Madam Feng bows deeply to the floor, “You are wise and I have nothing to say to defend myself but please allow me to say one more thing…that child doesn’t know anything…other than that bloodline, he is nothing…I imagine the Gold Feather Guards have already investigated him. He is simply an ordinary child raised by an ordinary family…he, he can’t do anything, Your Majesty…” 

“If you don’t get rid of the root, then it will eventually come back to hunt you.” The Emperor replies coldly, “Ming Ying, this is what you told me ten plus years ago when you chased after the enemies’ remaining troop.” 

Her body jerked as if hit by lightning, Madam Feng finally puts her head to the floor and begins to sob. 

“That organization from back then, where are they now?” After a long pause, the Emperor asks.

Madam Feng shakes her head, “Your Majesty, you know well that years ago when they were pursued by the crown prince and was cut off by Prince Chu at the Cliff of Thousand Traces they were completely wiped out…even Hao Er, I had found him at the bottom of the cliff and out of pity had kept him with me. After so many years, not a single person from that organization has shown up. If there were really survivors, then they should’ve shown themselves to us by now…but after so many years, how we have been living thus far…I imagine you know quite clearly…” 

The Emperor thought about the difficult life Ming Yi and her two kids have had and fell silent.

All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com

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