Phoenix Rising

031

The king's decree was also creating ripples elsewhere. Within the quarters of the fifth prince, Ru-an and Nansheng both wore a solemn looks on their faces.

"Looks like we have the answer we were looking for," Nansheng said. "What now?"

"There's no hurry," Ru-an replied, the corners of his lips twitching upwards in a cold smirk. "There's someone who should be more concerned than us anyway."

"Ru-quan?"

Ru-an carefully laid out three chess pieces onto the table in front of them. Based on his assessment of the situation, there were only three possible outcomes to this. One, Zhenghuan accepted the proposal from Shon and married their princess. Two, Zhenghuan rejected the proposal and the king granted the princess to the crown prince instead. Three, the king chose to keep the princess in his own harem instead of giving the princess to any of them.

Frankly, the third outcome was the worst.

He had always been fairly confident that he would be able to deal with Ru-quan when the time came. His older brother was not without his strengths, but his arrogance and conceitedness easily blinded him to the on-goings around him and that was how Ru-an had been allowed to expand his own political clout slowly but surely.

Du Zhenghuan was a completely different story.

The king's decision with regard to the Shon marriage alliance all but confirmed the suspicions that Ru-an had about the Shadow Lord and his true parentage. What was even more disturbing was the underlying implication of the decree—that the king could well be intending to have Zhenghuan inherit the throne rather than Ru-quan or any of the other princes.

"It's funny though. If Zhenghuan is really the king's son and General Du has been made a cuckold, why would the general still treat Zhenghuan so well?" Nansheng quipped, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "Surely no man would be able to accept it when his wife has born another man's child?"

Everyone knew the story of Du Zhenghuan's birth. General Du's wife, Li Xiangyun, a female warrior in her own right who often accompanied her husband into battle, had gone into labour while the Du family army was in the midst of a tense face-off against the southern tribes. There had been labour complications and no mid-wife to assist with the delivery, and even the army physicians had given up hope of being able to successfully deliver the child given the harsh conditions of the army camp. Yet by some miracle, the baby was born, and his cries rang out bright and strong across the sandy battlefield. The Duan army secured a complete victory then, and Du Zhenghuan had been dubbed a star of fortune to the kingdom of Duan ever since.

"Perhaps the general himself doesn't know the truth," Ru-an scoffed.

"Should we send him a hint then? Just like the one we sent to Shon?"

Ru-an shook his head. "No. There's no need for that. It's better to leave things as they are. The sooner this floats to the surface the less time we will have to act. From the looks of things Zhenghuan has no intentions of returning to the palace or assuming whatever position it is that Father wants him to. If he did then he would have agreed to marry the Shon princess."

"So we're just going to pretend we know nothing?"

"Like I said, someone else will be more worried than us. After all, I am not first in line for the throne. Why don't we just let them fret about it a little? If they end up ripping each other's throats out, then I might not even have to lift a finger."

#

The news of the Shon princess's marriage quickly arrived at the doorstep of the Han manor and it provided quite a bit of gossip fodder for the ladies of the household. While they were all gathered at the old madam's front hall early in the morning, the topic was already on the tip of everyone's tongues.