Rising Phoenix

 “Then…”

 “I was walking away and suddenly slipped.” Feng Zhiwei lied, her deceptions always more truthful than the truth. “Out of nowhere, I stumbled and the knife cut my hand. I’m not and idiot, I already drugged the Prince, why would I help him?

“But no one knows that you drugged him…” Shao Ning said quietly.

“That’s true, no one can be certain that I drugged him.” Feng Zhiwei shook her head disappointedly, turning to leave. “If only the Princess had trusted me, but you had to have two plans in motion. Now, you will never be able to know whether I am loyal and honest.”

“I trust you!” Shao Ning cried out, grasping Feng Zhiwei’s sleeve. “Wei Zhi, don’t be mad, this matter was my fault. Ning Yi is wily and must have spies planted around me. He already knew everything and was completely prepared; he had that assassin confuse everyone by wounding every guard’s shoulder so that he could clear Ning Cheng’s name. He obviously knew about the plan already. Wei Zhi, you must help me!”

Not again… Feng Zhiwei sighed quietly, but when she turned her face was covered with sincerity: “Princess, I should not be the one to help you, at least not in the near future. If Prince Chu has spies, he must know about our cooperation; I am not able to protect myself, how can I fight him? We should bid our time and hide our intentions, waiting for an opportunity.”

“And, Princess…” Feng Zhiwei reminded her. “This plan was only known to a few people, you should look closely at the people around you.”

“The people around me…” Shao Ning mumbled, dropping Feng Zhiwei’s sleeve. “I only have my wet-nurse… she wouldn’t…”

Her voice grew so quiet Feng Zhiwei could not tell what she was saying, and then suddenly Shao Ning was smiling again, her dazed listlessness disappearing. Her face once again a blooming, smiling flower, she toed the withered plants around them, asking: “Do you know where we are?”

Feng Zhiwei cocked her head questioningly and Shao Ning soon explained, full of satisfaction: “I often came here when I was young — I liked the flowers and plants here, and there was a very, very beautiful woman who lived in that palace over there.” The Princess said, pointing at a quiet residence behind the garden. “Then someone told me one day that I could no longer come here, and so I stopped, but recently I’ve been thinking about this place again and had some people investigated, and now I finally understand the history, haha…”

The Princess’s laughter was strange and without happiness, her eyes flickering as she sank into thought. Suddenly, she turned: “Today, Father Emperor granted the Feng Yun Residence to Ning Yi, and even though it seemed like a casual grace, the truth is that Ning Yi has laid countless plans, including today’s framing debacle, to gain this little residence. How disappointing that I’ve sown someone else’s trousseau, but that’s fine. You have your clever plans but I have my own ways, haha.”

Feng Zhiwei silently examined her. Finally, Shao Ning grabbed her sleeve again, turning and pointing: “See, the Feng Yun Residence.”

Finally Feng Zhiwei saw the Feng Yun residence. It was close, but the winding path around the garden, artificial mountain, and lake made it seem further than it was.

“You should go.” Shao Ning smiled coldly, her hand on Feng Zhiwei’s shoulder. “Just wait, the show isn’t over yet!”

After leaving the Imperial Palace, Feng Zhiwei returned to the Wei Mansion, changing her clothes. Once ready, she lifted a large, red, sandalwood box, revealing a deep tunnel.

She had had her people dig this tunnel from her Wei Mansion room to the Cui Feng Residence, enabling her to come and go.

Young Master Gu wore his expensive, servant girl attire and followed Feng Zhiwei, a small bag of walnuts shaking in his sleeve.

After emerging from the tunnel, the two sat down in the room. Feng Zhiwei had already had Madam Qiu inform everyone that Miss Feng had a weak physique and could not handle much excitement, and so no one neared the quite Cui Fang Residence.

Madam Qiu did not prepare any servant girls and the Qiu Mansion servant girls did not want to come here. In their eyes, Feng Zhiwei was still the cheap daughter of the wretched widow, and they were all still surprised that Feng Zhiwei had managed to finagle her way into the Madam’s good graces, securing a temporary residence.

Feng Zhiwei paid no attention to any of this, risking coming to Qiu Mansion in order to check on Madam Feng and search the Cui Fang Residence.

That day when she had pulled her Fifth Aunt into the icy lake, that woman’s strength and reactions had been incredibly strange, and when she recalled that Ning Yi had appeared right after, a confused suspicion grew in Feng Zhiwei’s heart.

But after carefully combing through the residence she still found nothing, so Feng Zhiwei could only furrow her brows and lay back on the bed, disappointed.

But as soon as she lay down, she felt something poke into her back. She turned and soon found a golden hook used to tie back the curtains around the bed, half covered by the blanket.

She sat up, holding the golden hook in hand. On the top of the hook was a half piece of hollowed white jade, specially formed into two round swells, smooth and delicate with a hint of red rouge on their crests, coquettish and alluring like a woman’s breasts, the whole object very similar in shape to some of the private toys women used for their pleasure.

Almost all concubines had something of this sort, useful in jostling for their husband’s favor, but very few people used it is a bed curtain hook. And since it was clearly a curtain clasp, why was it underneath the blanket, had someone intentionally hid it away?

Feng Zhiwei examined the white jade, pressing some strength into a little gap she found in the material.

The white jade popped opened, dropping out a tiny golden locket.

Feng Zhiwei paused, examining the familiar object.

As she turned it over in her hand, she immediately noticed the birthdate engraved on the back — Feng Hao’s birthdate!

Feng Hao was born in June of the third final year of Emperor Li’s reign, Da Cheng Dynasty. He had worn this golden locket as a baby before it suddenly went missing; unexpectedly, it was hidden here.

But why had Fifth Aunt stolen Feng Hao’s golden locket? Whom was she stealing it for?

Feng Zhiwei found her mystery but it only deepened her confusion; she felt as if she had accidentally touched upon an enormous secret, but the huge fog that surrounded it all hid everything.

Feng Zhiwei wondered and wondered, finally putting the golden locket away and heading for Madam Feng’s residence, but as she was stepping out she hesitated.

Ever since Madam Feng had refused to send Feng Hao to Shou Nan mountain to study, Feng Zhiwei’s relationship with her family had rapidly deteriorated. Although Madam Feng had often come to deliver food and handmade clothing, Feng Zhiwei refused to see her.

She could put on a kind and gentle face to everybody else, but they were strangers. Facing her mother and younger brother, her family who’d she spent so many years with, she found it far more difficult to maintain her mask.