Phoenix Rising

083

Zhenghuan sat in a private room in He's Jewellery, scrutinising the four-piece set that he had ordered a month ago, while he had still been in Anyang. A necklace, a bracelet and a pair of earrings, all fashioned out of rare freshwater pearls from Lake Xilun in the northern provinces of the kingdom. Besides that, there was also a single, elegant gold hairpin with an intricate lotus flower made out of gold filigree, from which a string of the same glistening pearls hung.

"This is embarrassing, you know that right?" his best friend Mingshen remarked, observing him with derision by the side. "Imagine if everyone found out that the great Shadow Lord was up here, fretting over women's jewellery. The reputation of our Shadow Army would be ripped to shreds immediately."

"How about I introduce someone to you, and then maybe you'd stop being so sour about things?" Zhenghuan replied. Looking up at He Jun, the shop's proprietor, and said, "This is excellent. Thank you for your hard work."

"Not at all, my lord," He Jun replied, bowing respectfully.

"Of course it's excellent. Who do you think designed it?" Mingshen interjected, a glint of pride filtering through his eyes.

Zhenghuan shot his friend a look of disdain. "Imagine if everyone found out that the fearsome Commander Zhang moonlights as a designer of women's jewellery," he said.

Mingshen shrugged. "It has made me a very, very rich man."

Other than the hairpin, which he slipped up his sleeve, Zhenghuan kept everything back in their sandalwood box and handed it back to He Jun. "Keep it in the vault for now. I'll send someone to pick it up the day before the ceremony," he said.

"Yes, my lord." He Jun took the box and promptly left the room.

Once the proprietor was gone, Zhenghuan pulled out the report from the bronze message tube that had been sitting by one side of the table, quickly skimming through it. It had come from the Wulihe branch of their intelligence network, bearing some unexpected news.

The king of Hua had passed on from a sudden heart attack, and crown prince Situ Zhiren was due to succeed the throne. It was no secret that the king of Hua was frail and not in the best of health, but he had certainly not been on the brink of death. Although there was no evidence to suspect foul play, the king's sudden demise still seemed rather suspicious.

"What do you think? Situ Zhiren got impatient?" Mingshen asked, after reading through the same report. "He was already king in all but name though."

"Who knows? Still, it's not good news for us. Situ Zhiren's ambitions are as clear as day. With him officially on the throne, the borders will no longer be peaceful."

There were several long-serving officials in the Hua court who were more moderate in their views, and had been vehemently opposing the crown prince's desire to launch any offensives against either Duan or Shon. In light of the fact that they had served loyally for decades under his father's rule, Situ Zhiren could not be too heavy-handed towards them, thus having to taper his ambitions somewhat. Now that the old king was dead, the leash was off. Zhenghuan had little doubt that all those officials who dared oppose Situ Zhiren would soon be done away with.

"He'll need to find a good reason to start a war though. He's only recently married Princess Xuan, so surely that will force him to at least delay his plans, unless he does not care about his reputation a single bit," Mingshen said.

"That is true. He might begin with Shon then, and leave us to the southern tribes for now." They already knew that Hua was colluding with the Eagle Warrior of the southern tribes in one way or the other. It was likely that Situ Zhiren would let the southern tribes do the dirty work of whittling away Duan's military strength first, before he swooped in as the biggest winner.