Yuehwa watched with interest as Baixun single-handedly engaged in combat against the three assailants.
From his performance in the tournament, she had already established that his combat skills were not to be trifled with. However, watching him in action now, she came to realise that what she had seen earlier in the day had just been the tip of the iceberg. Baixun had obviously been holding back during the tournament, and the three assassins that he was entangled with were finding it extremely difficult to make any headway.
Unlike her more fluid style of combat, or Shoya's unpredictable and unorthodox moves, Baixun's strokes were more careful and measured, yet his sword moved with impressive precision. Even now while he was outnumbered, Yuehwa could tell that he still wasn't utilising his full capabilities. It was interesting, very interesting.
Exactly how good is he? she wondered to herself.
Given Shoya's current injuries, would he be able to defeat Baixun? She never had any doubts that the White Scorpion would come up tops in this competition, yet now she wasn't so sure.
It took Baixun less than a fraction of an hour to dispatch his three attackers. The final straw that broke the camel's back was when his sword pierced through the right shoulder of one of the men, just seconds after he had sent another flying against a wall. The three men exchanged glances with one another and decided to beat a hasty retreat.
"You're going to let them go?" Yuehwa opened her mouth to ask as she watched the three men in black vanish into the night.
"What else should I do?" Baixun turned to her and smiled. "Sound the alarm and set the palace guards on them? They'll probably bite their tongues and commit suicide the moment they get caught. By letting them go, at least I can get a message to whoever sent them and he'll know better than to try something so stupid again. Are you alright?"
He walked over to her side, studying her carefully from head to toe just to make sure she hadn't been accidentally injured in the process.
Yuehwa quickly turned to the side, a little embarrassed by the way he was looking at her so intently. "I'm fine, nothing to worry about," she mumbled. She picked up her feet and continued walking. "Do you know who those men were? Why did they want to kill you?"
Baixun shrugged, walking alongside her. "Who knows? Doesn't matter."
"You must have offended many people to be so nonchalant about having masked men chasing after you for your life," Yuehwa replied drily. "Are you some sort of gambler with a mountain of debt so the debtors keep sending people after you?"
Baixun only threw his head back and laughed, but beyond that, he didn't reply. Yuehwa knew that her words were most definitely far from the truth. No debtor would dare send assassins into the palace so casually, if only to kill an ordinary guard. The more she thought about it, the more curious she became. She cast a sideways glance at the man walking beside her, wondering what he was hiding beneath that smiling countenance of his.
"You're a surprisingly calm one," Baixun suddenly remarked. "I would have expected any lady to have started screaming for help after witnessing something like that."
"Why would I need to scream since those men weren't coming after me in the first place? If it was my life that they were after, then perhaps I might have screamed the entire palace down." Yuehwa knew that Baixun was trying to poke holes in her persona once again, and the sense of annoyance began to rise within her once more. "We get assassins in the palace from time to time, it's not the first time I've seen something like that," she fibbed. "I guess I'm lucky that I've escaped unscathed each time."
"I thought the Dahai palace was big, but looks like I was mistaken," Baixun said. "How is it that we're already back at the princess's quarters? Goodnight— You know what's funny? I don't even know your name!"
"That's because there's no need for you to know it," Yuehwa replied, marching away from him. "Goodnight, Baixun."
And good riddance.
#
The tournament dragged on day by day, and each day Yuehwa would stand behind that veiled curtain with the princess beside her, watching as one competitor after the next fell short of the bar and was booted out of the tournament altogether.
By the end of the week, there were only four men left standing: Shoya and Baixun were among them.
"Do you think Baixun will be able to defeat the White Scorpion?" Princess Naying whispered to Yuehwa as they watched the semi-final of the tournament proceed. Baixun had just stepped onto the court, with his opponent, a general from Jin bearing axes in both his hands, stepping in from the opposite side.
"Have you decided if you'd rather marry the prince of Gi or the prince of Feng?" Yuehwa replied with a question of her own. She popped open a couple of winter melon seeds and tossed them into her mouth.
Naying fell silent, her gaze floating to the sidelines where the princes sat watching. Ever since the start of the tournament when the king engaged the duo in some casual conversation, she had not heard another word from either of princes, nor had she had the opportunity to interact with them. In other words, both men were still strangers to her and it probably made no difference who it was she ended up having to marry.
Instead of answering Yuehwa's question, the princess kept her eyes peeled on the sparring that had begun on front court. The general from Jin was a huge fellow who towered at least one full head above Baixun, and despite the weight of the axes that he wielded, he was able to move deftly across the court, raining blow after blow onto his opponent.
When he narrowly missed having his ear chopped off by the general's axe, Naying clasped her hand across her mouth with a gasp. "Will he be alright?" she turned to Yuehwa and asked.
"Shh," Yuehwa hushed.
Compared to all the other sparring matches that had taken place thus far, this one was by far one of the most interesting of them. Her bet was still on Baixun to win, but the general from Jin was definitely giving him a run for his money. She could tell that the general was perhaps not as skilled as Baixun, but he made up for it with sheer size and force.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see the princess leaning forward anxiously, eyes widened to the size of bronze coins as she stared at the ongoing match.
"Princess," she said, "do you like Baixun?"
Hearing her question, Naying immediately flushed a bright shade of pink, turning to stare down at her shoes. "No," she fibbed. It hardly sounded convincing.
Yuehwa threw her head back and laughed. She wasn't surprised that the princess had taken a liking to Baixun. In fact, it wasn't only the princess—practically every other palace maid who had crossed paths with Baixun seemed be smitten with him. She could tell from the way all these girls would eagerly try to squeeze in a word or two with him whenever they bumped into him, and the way their eyes twinkled whenever they looked his way. Perhaps if she were a little more normal, she might have found Baixun attractive with his easy nature and charismatic smile, but she was the Phoenix and the Phoenix was far from an ordinary girl.
The match dragged on for over an hour, possibly the longest in the tournament so far. At the end, just as Yuehwa expected, Baixun emerged victorious with the tip of his sword pointing straight at the general's jugular, just a hair's breadth from claiming his life. With that, the referee sounded his horn and the match drew to a close.
With the end of the first semi-final match, next up was Shoya and his opponent, Yoo Mong, a moustached man who heralded from one of the noble families of Dahai itself.
Yoo Mong was the son of the Minister of Agriculture, and back in the days the minister used to be a navy commander, before he decided to switch to administration. According to Naying, Minister Yoo was one of the greatest warriors that Dahai ever had. Yoo Mong was his oldest son and the best fighter that Dahai had seen in recent days.
Yuehwa had seen this Yoo Mong fight in one or two matches over the past few days. He was pretty good, in fact he was very good with a sabre, but she had confidence in Shoya's abilities. What she wasn't so sure about was the condition that Shoya was in at the moment. Since the night she barged into his room and forced him to allow her to help with changing his bandages, she hadn't had the chance to speak to him again. All she could do was to watch from afar as he went about his matches, and it worried her slightly that he still looked a little paler than usual.
When the referee sounded his horn once more to signal the start of the next match, Shoya stepped up in his usual flowing white garb and mask.
Yuehwa frowned as she watched him slowly walk forwards. It was hardly noticeable if one wasn't looking closely enough, but his breathing was slightly erratic and his hand was clenched a little more tightly than usual around his weapon of choice, a bamboo flute.
Yuehwa had been extremely amused when she saw Shoya participate in the first of his sparring matches, armed with nothing but that flute. All the other competitors came with weapons of all shapes and sizes—swords, axes, sabres, spears—but all he had was a flute. It was so arrogant it was hilarious.
"Does the White Scorpion honestly think that a bamboo flute will be enough to defeat Yoo Mong?" the princess scoffed. "He must think too lightly of the number one warrior of our kingdom."
"Would you want to marry Yoo Mong?" Yuehwa asked.
"No!" Naying immediately exclaimed. Yoo Mong was seemingly perfect in every way and there was many a girl who would be more than willing to be his bride, but Naying had made it very clear to Yuehwa that she just didn't feel for him in that way.
"Then you'd best hope that the flute is enough."
Yuehwa didn't feel like talking to the princess right now. The girl was being too noisy while the match was going on and it was affecting her concentration. She turned her attentions back to front court, where Yoo Mong's sabre was clashing with Shoya's flute. This match was almost as intense as the one before, with the crowd on tenterhooks as the men went to and fro.
Yoo Mong's desire to win the match and progress to the final round was as clear as day. Every move that he made was out to kill, his sabre swinging for Shoya's head with all the force he could muster. Shoya deflected his attacks one by one, though it appeared as if he was at a slight disadvantage at the moment.
Yuehwa's hand gripped tightly onto the armrest of the princess's chair.
"Are you alright?" the princess looked at her curiously.
She didn't even hear the question.
What are you doing you idiot? Why are you just defending! You can't keep backing away and defending every blow he throws your way or else eventually you're going to lose!
Yuehwa was finding it difficult to stand still and watch the match. With every passing minute, she could see the colour slowly draining from Shoya's face and his moves becoming more and more laboured. If this continued dragging on then there was a high chance that Shoya would lose.
"It looks like Young Master Yoo is going to win this match, Your Highness," one of the princess's palace maids remarked.
"No he isn't!" Yuehwa lashed out, glaring at the bewildered girl. "The White Scorpion won't lose."
To her horror, Yoo Mong threw out a roundhouse kick that landed squarely on Shoya's chest. A mouthful of blood spurted out from Shoya's mouth as he staggered a couple of steps backwards, red droplets staining his pristine white top. An audible gasp came from the audience as they watched what appeared to be the ending moments of this match. At the sidelines, the prince of Feng wore a frown of displeasure on his face.
Seizing the opportunity, Yoo Mong quickly moved forward, his gleaming sabre raised into the air.
Just when it appeared as though the match had come to an end, something rather unexpected happened. Yoo Mong suddenly buckled at the right knee, causing him to lose his balance. In that split second, Shoya lunged forwards, his bamboo flute hitting Yoo Mong against the chest with such force that it sent the latter flying into the air, collapsing onto the ground metres away.
Yoo Mong never got up, and that was the true end of the match.
Stunned by the sudden turn of events, the referee took a couple of moments to gather his senses before he finally sounded the horn and declared the winner of the match. The crowd erupted in resounding cheers and applause and in the midst of it all, Shoya stood there calmly with his white sleeves blowing in the wind, bamboo flute by his side.
It happened ever so quickly that no one other than Yuehwa noticed it even happen. But just before he turned and left, Shoya looked straight at her through the veil and mouthed the words "thank you".
You're welcome, idiot.
#
The final round of the tournament was to take place the next day, and Yuehwa knew that Shoya was going to lose.
When everyone in the princess's quarters had blown out their lamps and gone to bed, she wrapped her cloak around her and snuck her way across the palace to where she knew she would find him. Since she had barged in once before, a second time really didn't matter.
To her surprise, when she reached Shoya's room, it was empty.
The candle in the lamp looked like it had been extinguished just moments ago, its wick still issuing tiny wisps of soot.
"Where did he go?" she mumbled to herself, turning to look around the courtyard for any sign of him. Save for the guard who was snoozing in one corner, there was no one to be seen.
Just then, her clever companion Ember, who had reluctantly followed her along on her night escapade just in case she got herself into trouble, let out a low chirp to catch her attention. He flew up to the roof and pointed his right wing in the eastern direction, where he had spotted a white shadow head towards just seconds ago. As much as he disapproved of Yuehwa getting herself into these sorts of messy situations, he quite liked the White Scorpion and his barbed wit and didn't want to see the fellow six feet under anytime soon.
Yuehwa took the hint and quickly made her way in the direction that Ember had pointed to.
Minutes later, she found Shoya standing in front of a familiar mountain tapestry at the back of an inconspicuous fabric storeroom. When she stepped into the storeroom, Shoya's first instinct was to fire one of his poisoned needles at her. She dodged to the side, and they narrowly missed.
"Hey! Did anyone ever tell you that it's rude to greet a friend with poisoned needles?" Yuehwa scowled.
"Of course, but that only applies to friends," Shoya replied. He didn't look the least bit perturbed to find out that it was her. "What are you doing here?"
"I went to your room to look for you but you weren't there. Ember showed me the way here."
"Don't make it a habit of bursting into a man's room unannounced. Not everyone is a gentleman like me. You can't blame a man for following his natural instincts if a girl invites herself in at the wee hours of night."
"Most of the men whose rooms I burst into unannounced are buried under a mound of dirt."
Yuehwa walked over to where Shoya was standing, looking up at the huge tapestry that hung in front of them. "Don't tell me you came all the way to Dahai to look for this tapestry? It's a little underwhelming."
"Go back to the princess's quarters, Yuehwa. This has nothing to do with you."
"I'm not going anywhere." Yuehwa folded her arms and glared at him stubbornly. It was annoying how he was talking to her like she was a little child that was incapable of anything except creating trouble. Who was the one who saved him this afternoon by shooting a winter melon seed at Yoo Mong's knee? And this was the sort of gratitude she was receiving in return. "I'm going to stay here until you tell me what you're trying to do. The final match of the tournament is tomorrow and you just spat blood in front of the whole world earlier, yet here you are trying to pull off some night heist despite it all? Do you honestly want to get killed by Baixun tomorrow?"
"Is that concern I sense in there?" Shoya raised an eyebrow. "If it is then there's no need for it. Whether or not I succeed in my 'night heist' or whether I die at the hands of the representative of Gi tomorrow is my business."
Yuehwa smacked him round the back of his head in annoyance. "Do I look like I care whether you die or not? No one chases the Phoenix away when she doesn't want to leave, it's a matter of principle, so there. I'm going to stick myself here whether you like it or not." She sat herself down on top of the chest that kept the bolts of liquid gold, giving him a stubborn look.
"Fine, then you leave me with no choice."
Shoya grabbed her by the right hand and the next thing Yuehwa felt was a tiny sting on her thumb. A tiny droplet of blood oozed out from the point where she had just been pricked with a fine silver needle.
"Ouch! What was that for?" she cried out, staring at him in disbelief.
All of a sudden, instead of one Shoya, he started slowly multiplying into two, four, eight Shoyas standing in front of her. In the background, the bolts of colourful fabric that lined the shelves were starting to melt into one another in a kaleidoscope of colours spinning round and round. All the Shoyas opened their mouths and said, "I'm sorry."
Yuehwa felt her entire world spinning, just before she blacked out completely.