Tis a shorter chapter and I apologize, but my week has been swamped and will continue to be! But it's a long weekend this week (Happy Canada Day Weekend!!) so hopefully I can get another chapter in sooner.

Thanks for all those warm and lovely reviews. It is 1AM so...I apologize if there are grammar mistakes or confusion. Thanks!

Chapter 10: Midnight Skies

His hands curled into a fist and he lifted it to the doors in preparation to knock. When his wrist flung a bit forward, he pulled it back with his other hand quickly. "Maybe she has already gone to bed." He murmured to himself. Ling Tong ran his hand through his hair and grunted. It had been a long day but after he saw her run off when they got back to the castle gates, he was unsatisfied, hurt and confused. The events of Peach Gardens were special and he wouldn't believe that they were one sided. He spent a long time in his room, looking at the peach dumbfounded. He was ashamed of himself, for having feelings for another woman after declaring his intentions towards the very person's maid. But he had good reason to feel the way he did. He was attracted to Zhen Yi's beauty. In fact, Tong would even admit that he was mesmerized by her, put under a spell by her facial features. But that was about it. The few hours Yue Ting and he spent at the Peach Gardens were much more intimate and personal than the last few days he spent with Zhen Yi. It was odd but he guessed it was what Xiao Qiao called chemistry. She was a proclaimed expert at all of the relationship stuff after all, he had to believe someone.

Gathering all his courage, he raised his hand again when someone tapped on his shoulder. Panicked, he slowly cranked his head to the side and was relieved to see Zhen Yi. "What are you doing here Master Ling?" The panic returned and he was speechless. Zhen Yi's lips pursed a bit, "Are you here to see me!" she was setting him up in a trap.

"Yes I was!" And he fell right in. Zhen Yi turned crimson red.

"You are very sweet." She smiled, "But this is Lady Huang's room." Ling Tong suddenly felt suicidal.

"Dur. Er…"

"But Lady Huang must have told you I was in her room earlier, so you thought."

"That you were inside!" he finished off the sentence adding a very, very awkward laugh. He decided to change the subject, "What are you doing out here so late?"

"I've been resting all day." She held her petticoat closer to her neck, "So I'm not that tired anymore. I guessed you and Lady Huang had returned so I was going to go to the kitchen to see the peaches!"

"Right, you were very excited about it."

"Yes, I was very sad that I couldn't go, but I know you and Lady Huang would help me get the biggest and best peaches."

"That we did manage to do," he smiled at the three barrels they brought back, "The entire castle has enough peaches."

"Do you think we can go see them? I want to choose the best ones."

"Of course. I guess." He shrugged, with all the noise they were making Yue Ting must have been out cold inside.

The kitchen was located between the Centre and Easter quarters and they had made it all the way past the Centre gates when they heard two voices behind them. They turned around and noticed two figures, arm in arm walking towards the West quarters, engulfed in conversation. "Is that?" Zhen Yi was first to point out the similarities, "It is!" she exclaimed, "It's Lady Huang!" Ling Tong stood on his tip-toes and checked twice before feeling defeated.

"It is her…"

"Who's the person beside her?"

"Bo Yan." The name came out with hurt and betrayal, but Ling Tong knew he was being hypocritical about this entire situation.

"Master Lu Xun? I did not know they were so close!"

"Neither did I." He watched them disappear past the gates, "Late as always, Gong Ji." He whispered to himself.

"What'd you say Master Ling?"

"Nothing." He managed a faux smile before continuing the walk towards the kitchen area.

"So, tell me more about the Phoenix Assassin." Yue Ting asked on their way back.

"Huh?" Lu Xun replied, a little surprised at the sudden question.

"Well, the Cat, I mean Master Gan Ning told me you were an expert on the Phoenix."

"I wouldn't call myself a master." He turned a little red, "But it is odd for a lady like you to ask such things."

"Well, um. You know." Yue Ting searched her mind for an answer, "Well, ever since the attack." She lowered her voice to emphasize the atmosphere. "I always think, what if I came to Wu with them? Would I be dead?" Cry, fake a tear damnit! Turning her head and squeezing her eyes really hard, she managed to wet her eyes a bit before turning back to Lu Xun. "I'm sorry." She dabbed it with a clean part of her sleeve. Lu Xun's heart quickly melted.

"I understand. What do you want to know about the Phoenix?" Yue Ting thought for a second, what did she want to know about herself? Obviously she was curious about how the world perceived her but she also wanted to know what she had to be careful of in the future.

"Why I guess…I mean I know why but…it's surreal. Traveling with the Chen's one minute and then…"

"You wouldn't have been killed, Yue Ting." Well, no duh. She continued to play along. "The Phoenix only attacks those who have done wrong to the innocent." Yue Ting raised her eyebrow at his tone of voice, "Someone like you Yue Ting, would never be the victim of the Phoenix."

"Are you certain? How do you know what the Phoenix considers good or bad?"

"The Phoenix is a vigilante, does the work people can't do." After hearing that answer, she decided to toy with him.

"You sound like you condemn the Phoenix's actions. Are you sure you're not the Phoenix yourself?" Lu Xun suddenly stopped walking, pulling Yue Ting back. "Oh my, don't tell me you are!"

"No!" he retorted, "It's just…I really respect the Phoenix." This time it was Yue Ting's turn to stop walking. Respect her? A heartless assassin?

"Why's that?"

"My parents died before the Han collapsed and I lived with my Uncle all my life. We lived in a city where my Uncle served under the official Tao. When I was eighteen, my uncle got me accepted to Wu to learn from Master Zhou Yu and Master Lu Meng." Yue Ting noticed his eyes gaze into the moonlight, he continued on. "I spent a year in Wu being completely oblivious to the rest of the world and when I found out what was happening to my Uncle, it was too late."

"What happened to your Uncle?" She was secretly praying that she hadn't killed his Uncle or something along those lines. Except he said he respected her, he wouldn't respect her if she killed his Uncle.

"Official Tao was taxing commoners for personal use, when the scandal was exposed, my Uncle took the blame." It was all coming back to Yue Ting now, it was one of her very first few missions as the assassin. Things were messy and bloody but she had gotten the job done. Then she realized something, she wasn't known as the Phoenix Assassin until three years ago, how did he know Tao was killed by her?

"I'm so sorry." She put a comforting hand on his shoulder, "What happened to them?"

"He set up an entire show trial, my Uncle, Aunt, cousins and their families had to pay with their lives." Yue Ting felt a little chill go up her spine, this was the first time she had heard such a venomous tone from someone as calm and collected as Lu Xun. "I was protected by Wu so I didn't have to be killed, but my family was killed unjustified." She knew exactly how it felt to lose your family in such an unfair manner. "When Lord Sun Quan heard what happened to my family, he offered me his finest generals and men to put Official Tao in his place, but by the time we had got there we found out that he had been killed. Butchered, humiliated." Yue Ting flinched at the last statement because it wasn't any of those things. She just hadn't realized it took that much strength to kill someone.

"So you respect the Phoenix because of that?"

"He gave my family a justified rest."

"But…I thought the Phoenix had emerged three years ago? When you were nineteen…that was at least 5 years ago!"

"I've done a lot of research on the Phoenix in the last few years." He explained, "I connected a lot of murders of high, corrupted officials to the Phoenix. It's true that the Phoenix was main stream three years ago because he started to put a feather next to all his victims."

"A feather?"

"It was first a document or evidence proving the corruption because no one had realized the officials murdered was corrupted scum. Then I assume people were understanding that to explain the mystery deaths involved looking at all their financial and political documents. Then for some reason, feathers started to appear, perhaps as a reminder to why they had to die and justify the work." Yue Ting nodded, pretending to be fascinated by his statements. Instead she was amazed on how much Lu Xun knew about her, it sort of made her feel naked and exposed. Truth be told, he was right on about everything from the letters to the feather. Her first few years as an assassin were painful. Every city she visited, she heard the cries and curses people had against her for killing their beloved official. Under all the lies and corruption, the officials had pretended to care and Yue Ting was the one to blame. After all, she was only doing everyone a favour. She didn't want to see families destroyed or children orphaned because of people like them but that didn't faze out half the population.

"The Phoenix…is really something." Yue Ting managed to mumble out after a short period of silence.

"Yeah. I'd like to meet him one day."

"Would you?"

"Just to tell him thank you." Yue Ting smiled.

"I'm sure if the Phoenix was here, he'd say, You're Welcome."

Ow my shoulder just cracked.