Phoenix Rising

067

"Xiao-mei!"

Zi-ning stood up when she heard the familiar voice and address, spinning around to see her brother marching in through the doorway of the teahouse with a broad smile on his tanned face. He must have rushed over from the camp in a hurry, because there was sweat beading upon his forehead and he was still wearing the bronze lamellar armor of the Duan military. Hot tears welled up in her eyes as a mess of emotions overwhelmed her inside.

How long had it been since they had last met? More than three years now. Three years since she saw him return from the battlefield on the brink of death, lying pale and weak with barely a breath left in him. Three years since she had bade him a tearful farewell, one that would separate them by life and death.

She rushed towards him and flung her arms around her brother's neck, bawling uncontrollably.

"Da-ge, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she cried, her voice muffled against his shoulder.

"What's the matter? Why're you saying sorry?" Her brother took her by the shoulders and studied her tear-stained face carefully. "Have you missed your big brother too much?" he teased, giving her one of his famously mischievous winks.

She shook her head, wiping the tears from her cheeks. She was sorry because she had failed to save him the previous time, because she had allowed Lady Min and Meiyan to take a knife to his heart without even realising.

Seeing Yongxing again made her feel happier than she had ever been since her rebirth. It was the first time she had truly felt lucky, that the heavens had been kind to her after all, because it had given her a chance to see her beloved brother again—and to change his destiny.

"Come, let's talk over there," she said, leading him over to the table she had been waiting at. She quickly poured them both fresh cups of jasmine tea.

"I was so surprised when I heard from the general that you had come to Anyang," Yongxing said. "And what is this I hear you did? Rescue Zhuiya from some plague?"

"It was nothing much. I only went there to assist the royal physicians."

"When did you become so brazen?" her brother chided, although his voice still remained indulgent. "I've heard about the situation in Zhuiya. If anything went wrong, you could have become seriously ill and even died there. I can't believe Father even agreed to let you go in the first place! I'll have to have a word with him the next time I return to the capital."

"There's no need for that. I'm fine now, aren't I? I'm even getting rewarded by the king." She smiled. "I'm all grown up now, Da-ge, you don't have to keep protecting me anymore. I can protect myself." And I'll protect you too.

Yongxing reached out and ruffled her hair affectionately. "Look at you. How long as it been since I last saw you? Why does it feel like you've grown up overnight?"

Because it's already been an entire lifetime, she thought.

They ordered a table full of the best dishes that Anyang had to offer—richly spiced deer meat, lotus seeds tossed with black fungus and garlic, roasted chicken wings and skewers—but Zi-ning would have been happy even if it were only plain buns in front of her. What mattered most today was the company. She spent the afternoon listening to Yongxing tell stories about his adventures with the border army, of how he had foiled enemy reconnaissance missions and rescued merchant convoys from sandstorms.

She hadn't been the only one who had grown up. Her brother had too. He was no longer the wide-eyed, naïve young boy that he had been when he left Huangcheng. After so many long, arduous months at the border, exposed to the harsh weather and biting winds of the southern wastelands, his skin was dry and sun-kissed, his cheeks slightly leaner, highlighting his naturally high cheekbones. He looked tired, but he also seemed much fitter and much happier than he had been before, and it brought her great comfort to see that he was doing well here.