Faithful Heart (Flesh of my Flesh...Blood of my Blood 2)

Chapter 35

Cheng Yu stared into the mirror in her chambers and with a twirled of her fingers dropped the disguised she had been wearing to reveal her real face. Her lips pursed as she stared at herself, this form she had awakened in when she woke in the magical ponds of the Nine Heaven's Palace was very childish and young looking. Grabbing a comb, she gently combed out the knots in her long black hair before she applied some rose cream to her face. A maid helped her dress and arranged her hair before she stepped out of her quarters and walked down the heavenly street to the soldier barracks where she supposedly taught social graces to high ranking soldiers. The stares that followed her were annoying to the extreme and she fan herself as she was announced to Lian Song.

"Lady Cheng Yu, His Imperial Highness will see you." A guard said respectfully.

Cheng Yu walked forward pass a set of open doors to find Lian Song seated by a low table with tea and food, by his right a small pile of intelligence reports lay at his feet. "Forgive me for not having waited for you to start breakfast bu-" The words died in his throat as he stared at her in surprise.

"It is all right. I shall have whatever you are eating." Cheng Yu said and saw all rational thought had fled Lian Song mind; he was staring at her like she was naked.

"So beautiful you are, you have not shown me this face in millennia." Lian Song said as he stood up from his cushion and walked over to her.

Cheng Yu glared at him and snapping her fan together she stopped him by placing it against his chest. "I did not do this for you. I was simply tire of the disguised I was wearing."

"When will you assent to marrying me?" Lian Song asked her, and she pursed her lips.

"You are asking the wrong person, Lian Song. When you and I met, in another life, I was a man." She reminded.

"We could not marry them, Cheng Yu. In the Nine Heavens I could only adopt you, but it would have force us into secrecy." Lian Song begun with his usual speech.

"You certainly like to bring up the past, Third Prince." Cheng Yu said as she blocked his hand from grabbing her shoulder. "Let us recap, shall we?"

"I beg you forgive me." Lian Song said grabbing her wrist, his thumb caressing the soft skin on her pulse.

"You and I met many thousands of years ago and I was man. You were an irresolute rascal, that has not changed, but you lied to me... repeatedly even after I gave you the chance to come clean of your scheming ways." Cheng Yu said shaking off his hand.

"I did it for your own good." Lian Song said with irritating calmness.

Cheng Yu shook her head at him. "You killed my father."

"Under orders from His Lordship. You now serve him." Lian Song tried to reason.

Cheng Yu nodded at him. "My father was a bastard; his death is not the problem. It was your lying to me that broke us up."

"This is a different life, Cheng Yu." Lian Song said the lines he had been turning in his head for centuries. "We can marry now, and no one will tear us apart."

Cheng Yu sniffed at him in annoyance. "I do not trust you. And it is not your concubines the problem, because those are not women to you." Cheng Yu said as she tapped his chin with her fan. "They are simply entertainment, but I am the woman you beg to have."

Lian Song saw an opening in her jibe and schooling his face in a sincere expression said. "Marry me. You are the companion of my soul."

"Very romantic." Cheng Yu said with derision. "I know you inside out and marrying you as a woman would take away my autonomy from me. What will I do when you decide to lie again for my own good?"