Phoenix Rising

084

Zi-ning was working on embroidering her wedding robes in her room, having been placed under house arrest by the old madam once her wedding date was fixed. "A bride must know show herself in public until after the wedding ceremony, else there will be bad luck," her grandmother had said.

In her previous life, in the days leading up to her wedding with Ru-wen, she had snuck out of the manor several times to secretly meet Ru-an because of her infatuation with him. Was that why she had been experienced nothing but bad luck after that?

This time around, perhaps it was better to be safe than sorry. Two months was not a long time to wait, especially when there was so much to be done in preparation for the wedding. Embroidering her wedding robes alone would take her at least an entire month.

She ran her fingers over the small section of gold thread against the vibrant red fabric, the beginnings of the tail feathers of a phoenix. She had not even bothered to embroider her robes in her previous wedding, letting Hana and Shujin do the work on her behalf, because she had not cared for marrying the eighth prince. To her, that wedding was a farce, an act that she willingly went through in order to help Ru-an achieve his goals.

This time, it'll all be different, won't it?

The windows of her room suddenly flew open, and a figure cloaked in black came leaping in.

Zi-ning frowned.

"When are you going to kick the habit of climbing in through my window?" she scolded.

Even if they were about to get married, surely Zhenghuan knew that it was highly improper for him to be doing things like these.

"They won't let me in through the front door, so this is the only way I can get to see you before I leave," Zhenghuan said, walking over to her side. He glanced down at her half-completed embroidery, a broad smile stretching across his face. "Looks like I'm interrupting something very important!" he quipped.

Zi-ning blushed. "Don't you know that the bride and groom are not supposed to see each other in the lead-up to the wedding?" she said. Then, something that Zhenghuan just mentioned struck her as odd. "What do you mean 'before you leave'? Where are you going?"

Zhenghuan's smile faded. He sat down beside her, pouring himself a cup of water. "The king has ordered me to accompany the crown prince's entourage to Wulihe for Situ Zhiren's coronation ceremony. The king of Hua has passed on, and Situ Zhiren has succeeded the throne. We leave in four days' time."

Zi-ning remembered this. In her previous life, Situ Zhiren had also inherited the throne after his father passed, although it had been none of her concern then, since she had never met the crown prince of Hua in that life. Timing-wise, it seemed to have had happened at roughly the same time, except that Ru-an had been the one who had attended the coronation since Ru-quan was already deceased.

"The crown prince was the one who engineered this, wasn't he?" she asked.

Previously, Ru-an had not been accompanied by the Shadow Lord when he attended the Hua coronation, so that was another anomaly that had occurred this time around. Considering Ru-quan's intentions towards her, it quickly became clear why Zhenghuan was asked to go along.

Zhenghuan nodded, confirming her suspicions. "Don't worry, I'll be careful," he said. "I won't let him get his way." Turning towards the open window, he snapped his fingers thrice.

Much to Zi-ning's surprise, two other figures leapt in, a pair of twin girls dressed from head to toe in black, with their hair tied in long ponytails at the back of their heads.

"My lord," they greeted, putting palm to fist as they bowed to Zhenghuan.

"Who are they?" Zi-ning asked.