Li ChengNuo and Lord Táng

In the banquet Hall, Zedong saw Xing leaving with Shengli following her and went to deep thoughts. As Rijun was about to leave, Lord Zedong asked him to pour tea for him and sent all the servants out,

"Didn't think Lord Táng was associated with the Lone Wolf though. When I learned Lord Táng was a woman, I thought she'd be with Li ChengNuo", he spoke in a low contemplating tone making everyone curious.

"Who is this Li ChengNuo anyway?", AoTian asked a bit irritated. Why is his daughter getting associated with many sketchy people?

Zedong sighed,

"Little brother, you never look outside the dragon pond. But there is a scary jungle with many predators worse than the dragon you are serving out there. Li ChengNuo is one such predator in that jungle"

AoTian clicked his tongue, "You and your metaphors! Can't you say it openly? And aren't you one of those scary predators too?", he had lost his patience. He had an intuition that Shengli is Li ChengNuo but why does his brother think otherwise?

Zedong chuckled, "You really have changed a bit. Usually you'd have walked out by now"

AoTian got more annoyed by his mirth,

"I'm only interested because you said my daughter is involved. If you are just jesting, then..", he stood up to leave.

Feiye who was carefully watching his two brothers having conversation and wondered the last time they had exchanged this many words and couldn't actually pinpoint when. He took a deep breath, his niece sure brought them a bit closer.

"Come on! Sit!", Zedong pulled him and AoTian sat back. Rijun wondered why he was held back here and went back to his seat confused.

"Li ChengNuo... Not many have seen him and those who had seen him say he was some foreigner with weird accent and that he has no respect for anyone. He just has this weird hobby of collecting old weapons and antiques. And he is a businessman who doesn't own a single business",he paused and everyone was confused. How can someone do business without owning any business?

"How?", even Feiye was intrigued.

"You might have heard about the underground black market that pops up, right? He organises it and none of the stores are owned by him but he gets paid for arranging it. Similarly transferring goods and negotiations with other businesses, you name it.. he does it. He has an intricately woven network of people within our Kingdom and he knows every way within our laws and outside it. Also he was said to be the one who brought down the Chen family and took control of all their assets and trade routes and still ownes most of it", he poured more tea for himself.

"Chen Family? The previous Empress' family was brought down by him? ", Feiye, who was slightly drunk was full on gossiping mood.

The Chen family was one of the richest family in the kingdom as they had many businesses and since their family's daughter was the Empress, their status increased too. The previous Emperor had to be good to the Empress because of the wealth of the Chen family that was needed for the throne. That is why he even offended the Zhong family and only their loyalty to the kingdom made them not rebel when the Zhong daughter passed away.

"So, he is rich! What does that got to do with Mingxia?", AoTian was curious.

"Xiao Tian!", Lord Zedong patted his back, " The enemies your daughter has.. You think they were handled just by her sword alone? There is heavenly flowers palace that protected her real identity and there is Li ChengNuo who protected her with his wealth and connections. It wasn't obvious but everything he did, ended up in the favour of the Crimson Jade Brothers",he paused at their confused looks and smiled,

"Let me explain. Three years back was when the Prince who was raised as a commoner became the Emperor with the Ying family's support in the Water Kingdom, right? It was then the Gu family of the Water Kingdom who were doing shady businesses kidnapping women tried to infiltrate into our kingdom. It was then our kingdom had a fairly new Emperor who was in power for less than a year too. Back then the Crimson Jade Brothers joined hands with Young Master Ying of the Water Kingdom and they were a threat to the Gu family. That time, Gu family had opened conversations with our kingdom's Ran Family to work together in throwing away the Emperors of both kingdom. Ran family was given the task of taking care of the Crimson Jade Brothers by the Gu family for their collaboration", he stopped as he felt everyone had figured it out.

"Three years back..? Ran family..? Isn't that when our Xiao Tian had a row with them too?", Feiye shouted.

AoTian looked at his brothers with surprise. He had always wondered how a little girl could sneak into his study inside the heavily guarded Prime Minister's Manor without help. " So it was Shengli? He did that for the Ran family head's attention to turn towards his wayward daughter and the Huang family and to divert it from the Crimson Jade Brothers? Shengli knew my father would create a fuzz about it and he won't be easy to deal with. Just as he was dealing with Huang family, those two had dealt with the Gu family and abolished their business with the help of the Ying family? Wow! My sister is well supported! ", Rijun was the one who spoke enthusiastically.

"Rijun, What made you think Li ChengNuo is Shengli? Isn't he the assassin? ", Zedong asked surprised both by his answer and because Rijun who rarely joins a conversation, had spoken .

" Just a gut feeling. Am I wrong? ", Rijun asked.

"That's highly unlikely because the same day as the incident in here, I was with some acquaintances who were against this Emperor and he suddenly appeared there and killed each one of them. He let me live only after breaking my family token as if he was threatening our family if I ever talk about it. I still remember that green eyes that were bloodthirsty ", Zedong shuddered," Also during the fight for the throne, the Lone Wolf acted in the side of the Ninth Prince openly while Li ChengNuo worked for both sides and made so much money in the chaos. He is a clever person who is an amazing business man. Both of them cannot be the same person ", he spoke as if he was sure of it.

"Mingxia smiled saying that name. She only smiles that way thinking about him. Also he didn't have to sneak a woman himself. He'd have many subordinates working for him, right? ", AoTian said in a rather disappointed way. He really couldn't grasp on the various things Shengli might have done for his daughter.

AoTian then remembered his elder brother who rarely bows, bowing before his daughter,

" Is that why you bowed before her? Because she has strong people behind her and you didn't want to get on the wrong side of them?", he asked. He could not help but remember the words of that Elder Shu who said everyone will kneel before her.

"Pfft", Zedong sneered, " True, Li ChengNuo is impressive but he is still wet behind the ears and cannot do anything to me by himself. He can hurt me but not destroy me, if he wills. True she has many people with her and with all of them united I won't have a chance. But your daughter herself is the most dangerous person when it comes to people close to her",his face was serious by now, "The destruction of the Gu family began with one of their thug hurting Ming Yushen and Chu Yixin got what he deserved because of her mother too and there are more of them. Once she starts her retaliation others just jump in and everything will get bloody. So it is better to be not on the opposing side of her. It is better for one person to bow before her than having the entire family kneel before her", he sighed.

"Her mother?", AoTian asked surprised. Surely that was not the reason she told him, "But she said something about him bragging and..."

Before he finished Zedong interrupted him,

" Oh! So that's how it is! I must be wrong", Zedong started to drink tea.

"Tell me", AoTian asked firmly as he knew his brother was hiding things from him.

As he had no intention of letting him go, Zedong told him about how Chu Yixin threw money at her mother, "Apparently after she saw it, she talked with the women there about him and her anger increased knowing he was scum. Jingfei said that the next day, she was all smiles and polite and asked Chu Yixin to the match and made sure he never left by sweet talking, provoking, luring and manipulating. Jingfei said she looked like she was possessed and made sure he lost everything. Only after Ming Yushen interfered did she let Yixin go or else she would have even played with his limbs or life even", Zedong explained.

AoTian's eyes got red due to anger, " Why did Mingxia lie to me? That bastard! He tried to court her back then but she refused him. So when he met her again he had to act this way towards her? Now I know he has nothing, wait till I make sure everyone knows that he is just a paper tiger. I will make everyone spit on his face... ", AoTian continued to ramble.

" Enough, Xiao Tian! ", Zedong shouted, " She was right to not tell you the truth. I thought you have matured but seems like you are still a child. You will spoil everything she had done for this long just by losing your temper like this. Act like an adult! ", he chided him.

AoTian held back and thought about everything he had heard before and realised his elder brother was right.

"What about Shihong? What do you know about him", AoTian asked Zedong. Past cannot be changed but the future has more hope as it can be changed.

Zedong sighed deeply, "He is no good. A despicable person who cannot be categorised as human. He is like a snake that takes control of rat holes and makes it his home. He manipulates, threatens and uses people and then after they are useless, he'll show them utmost cruelty" .

"Aren't Shihong and Li ChengNuo similar then?", AoTian asked with disgust. Both kill without thinking and manipulate people.

"How can they be?", Zedong shook his head refusing, "Li ChengNuo never try to get people but others seek him. Also he never threatens people or breaks the law but he knows his way around the law. He is ruthless and humane at the same time. He kills without reservations but never tortures or blackmails and never touches women or children. Both are similar yet different. Shihong... ", his eyebrows knitted,

" He is thirsty for power and thinks he deserves everything and everyone owes him everything. Women especially are treated the worst by him. One of the small scale merchants I know helped him smuggle for a while and when he refused once, he took her daughter and made him watch her being violated by a bunch of his people",he cringed and it took a while for him to compose himself while others were equally perplexed , " She was only fifteen and that family ended up killing themselves after that incident. I can see why Shengli tried to keep him away from Mingxia for all these years. He is a scum deserving the worst punishments in hell", Zedong stopped and a silence grew in the hall. How can she be tangled with such a vicious person? How can she win against someone like that? What if he gets her?

Seeing them all in low spirits Zedong let out a laugh trying to cheer them up,

"Don't worry! Our Mingxia is stronger! Stronger than most men I know and smart too. She has many good people around her and they can protect her too. Of course, I am the most smartest among them all and I will protect my niece. You know how lucky she is? The day she entered Feiye's Manor I received news that the land that was deemed useless that belonged to Rijun's inheritance had the highest quality of gold ore. And the day she entered AoTian's Manor, we got news that our second daughter in law who wasn't able to get pregnant for years is pregnant. Even today little RuYang spoke. She is a good girl and nothing bad will happen to her. Be cheerful",he spoke cheerfully and it lifted the mood of the people in the room.

Zedong added, "By the way, AoTian! Your daughter was drugged and was followed by a man and you are still sitting here gossiping? You really have changed", he spoke in a suggestive manner and AoTian realised it and got up immediately to leave.

"Rijun! Aren't you leaving?", AoTian asked and as Rijun who was filled in various thoughts got up his uncle stopped him.

"I have something to ask him, AoTian. It's not like I'll eat him. Also Feiye is here, you can ask him later", Zedong said in a playful tone and AoTian paused for a moment and seeing Rijun nodding without any hesitation, he was relieved and left to find his daughter.

As soon as AoTian left, Zedong asked in a low voice,

"Now tell me, Rijun, what's the deal with your father? How did he keep quiet all this time?", his voice had impatience and surprise in it.

"That..", Rijun pondered if he should tell him or not. But seeing his expectant look he caved,

" First Uncle, Mingxia told father that she'll take him to the Heavenly Flowers Palace only if he kept quiet in this banquet", he replied truthfully.

"Ha ha ha", Zedong laughed heartily startling Rijun, "That girl surely is something. All this while I knew a woman will make AoTian cave from his stubbornness but never had imagined it would be his daughter. She really is my mother!"

"What! mother?" Feiye asked. What has gotten into this brother?

"Don't you recognise her voice, Feiye? It is exactly same as of mother's. You were ten when she passed away. You should at least remember something right?", Zedong probed.

"No! When have you let me near mother? You always hogged her yourself!" Feiye pouted.

What similar voice? Rijun rolled his eyes. You won't say this after you hear her asking doubts when she is intoxicated! You'll regret ever comparing her to grandmother who was said to be elegant and graceful! Rijun bit his lips to stop himself from laughing out loud. This sister of his has the rare talent of charming the old people!

"If that's all, I'll take my leave, First Uncle", Rijun bowed.

"What's the rush boy?", Zedong asked Rijun with the excitement he had previously still lingering in his face. But soon his expression turned solemn,

"I received the missive from the Emperor. What's with him suddenly asking me to get horses? And that too five thousand? We in the Huang family do jade business. He does know that, doesn't he?"

Rijun took a deep breath, "First Uncle, we received information from reliable sources that you maintain a good relationship with the Sima tribe people who are the experts in raising horses, especially war horses. With the tribals uniting for war we do need all the resources we can get", he spoke politely.

"Exactly! War is looming and I am asked to negotiate with the tribes who will fight against us for horses? What kind of stupidity is that? Don't you have a court and officials? Why should a merchant do government works? ", Zedong was clearly angry.

He is right! Which stupid will willingly go and give his head for slaughter? Rijun thought. This Emperor is cruel! Leaving me to deal with people while he just gives orders and suggestions.

" First Uncle, the Emperor was confident in your abilities to negotiate and he was willing to pay any price for those horses. He also suggested twenty five percentage tax reduction for two years for all Huang businesses, if you could get him those horses", Rijun didn't give up and he could see the change in expression in Lord Zedong's eyes when he suggested the tax reduction. So he is convinced a bit, Rijun thought and continued,

"First Uncle, you can try to open discussions with the Chief of Sima tribe you are acquainted with and see. Our Majesty only needs those horses by the end of the year. There is still six months left", he bowed his head slightly.

Zedong contemplated for a while and nodded. Well twenty five percentage tax reduction is a lot and Rijun sure has become more assertive! He can do this for him. It is the first time he has asked him something after all!

"By the way, Rijun!", Lord Huang's voice was filled with love and that surprised Rijun to the bones and he felt goosebumps,

"I know your sister behaves like a man and that doesn't mean you can lose your proprietary. Not just for the social conventions but at least for escaping the wrath of the wolf beside her, you should be proper. Those women did go overboard today and others won't be any less harsh either. Sadly you two are not blood siblings even though you two think you are and those remarks of other people, it would mostly affect her alone. So just be careful in the future", he said with care and concern making Rijun unable to refute and he nodded.," Understood Uncle", he said and took his leave.

"So..?", Feiye smiled at Zedong. He wanted to know how his brother was feeling after the banquet that was different from the previous ones.

" She is strong and gentle, isn't she?", Zedong rubbed his temples, "If only my daughter was half as good as her!", he sighed.

But anyhow Zedong has decided that he will stand by his niece who is said to be many things. But as for him she is a part of his family and the Huangs will take care of themselves well!