Phoenix Rising

073

"H-h-ow is my brother? The ambush on the training mission—what happened?" Zi-ning asked, once she had managed to calm herself down.

"Yongxing is fine. Turns out that there wasn't an ambush after all. We suspect that someone had spread the false news with the intention of misleading us, so as to draw me into the mountain range. We did have a close encounter with a pack of wolves, but no harm came to anyone. Yongxing is back at the Nanmen camp now, so there's nothing for you to worry about," Zhenghuan replied. "Come, we should get you back to the city."

He kicked the side of his horse, bringing it back to a trot. Pulling on the reins, he turned them back in the direction of Anyang

"Why did you come out to the Harun dunes on your own?" he asked.

Zi-ning took a deep breath. Relief washed over her when she realised that it had been a false alarm, and that Yongxing was still alive and well. Why had she gone to the Harun dunes indeed? Her brows furrowed in a frown. "I overheard some men talking in town about my brother's contingent returning back to the Nanmen camp, having suffered severe casualties with many dead. One of them then advised me that it would be quicker to reach the Nanmen camp if I crossed the Harun dunes, which I later confirmed with a trader that I met near the city gates."

On hindsight, she had been far too hasty. Her worries and fears about history repeating itself, about her brother dying, had clouded her judgement. For that, she had almost paid the ultimate price.

"The bandits that attacked me—the said that someone had paid them to do it," she said.

"You're sure about that?"

Zi-ning nodded. "I offered to pay them to let me go, but they said that they had already been paid. Who would have done something like that..." If she was back in the capital, she would have suspected Lady Min and Meiyan, but this was Anyang. Was it possible that they had stretched their hands this far?

Zhenghuan's expression darkened. "I'll investigate," he replied. "Do you have any idea who it might have been?"

"No. I only just arrived in Anyang. I barely know anyone here. Unless..."

In her previous life, this thought would never have crossed her mind, because she had naively believed that everyone was good, that everyone was trying to help and support her. Now, she was acutely aware that even the most innocent of faces could hide a cruel heart.

"Who?" Zhenghuan demanded.

"I have no evidence of this," she caveated, "but the only person who has been openly hostile toward me ever since I arrived is... Enling." She turned to look at Zhenghuan with a scowl. "I wonder why."

He returned her accusation with a look of feigned surprise. "What do you mean? I never asked for her to place all that attention on me. You've seen how I treat her. She's nothing more than a little sister! And an annoying one at that." Behind his mask, his eyes narrowed. "If Enling is really behind this, then I'll have to have a word with Lady Du. She has already overstayed her welcome as it is."

"I have a question."

"Hmm?"

"Why is it that you always address the General as General, and Lady Du as Lady Du? Do you not call them Father and Mother?"

Zhenghuan's irises shifted uncomfortably. After a brief pause, he said, "The truth is that I'm actually only their adopted son. We are not related by blood."

"Really?" Zi-ning was truly surprised by this revelation. She had never heard anything to suggest that Zhenghuan might be adopted. From what she had observed, General Du and Lady Du seemed to treat Zhenghuan like he was their real son.