Chapter Thirty-Five: Xi Tian's Confession
No longer able to hide behind the guise of an innocent handmaid, a girl finally admits to her true name and motives.
"Jia!"
Guan Ping hastily urged Red Hare on, even though his powerful mount hardly needed any prodding. The famous thousand-li stallion easily cut across the vast landscape of Southeast China, its hooves pounding against the ground like thunder, its sleek body moving at such a magnificent speed that from afar it looked no different from a blur of moving fire.
Atop the flame-coated charger, its youthful rider leaned forward in an effort to increase their speed, so that he was virtually half-standing on the saddle.
"Good boy." Guan Ping patted the sturdy neck of his father's steed, as they continued their race toward Jianye.
Soon enough, the faraway sounds of smashing waves drifted across the air. It wasn't long before horseman and horse both glimpsed their first sight of the Chang Jiang, stretching into the horizon like a never-ending green snake. Off in the distance, a tiny speck docked at the harbor bobbed whimsically in the frothy waters.
"Jia!" Guan Ping furiously shook the reins, and, with a tremendous burst of speed, Red Hare shot forward and leapt through the air in a graceful scarlet arc.
The captain of Shu's swiftest sloop, waiting patiently at port, barely had any time to glance up in surprise, before a massive thump shook his entire vessel from helm to stern. Red Hare seemed to suddenly materialize out of thin air, as Guan Ping expertly leapt off the saddle before his horse had completed its landing.
"Hurry," he urged the green-uniformed captain. "I must deliver this letter to General Zhao in Wu at once!"
He was marrying Orchid!
"…for rushing so hastily into marriage with that…that maid," Madam Cui's voice floated vaguely into Zhao Yun's ears, as the worthy matron sniffed delicately before turning her nose up in Xi Tian's direction.
Zhao Yun blinked twice, before forcing his mind back to the situation at hand. He was still standing in the middle of his guest apartment at the Wu palace. The dowagers from Changshan, nightmarishly enough, were still crowded before him. His soldier, Ouyang, was still trying to shrink inconspicuously into the shadows, looking as embarrassed as ever…
"That's right," another matriarch, the forever-nagging Madam Xue, took up where Madam Cui had left off. "And why did you not even write to us that you were planning to wed? Any one of us could have easily saved you from that matrimonial mess you've gotten yourself into! A warrior marrying a serving girl—hn! The very idea! Hn! I've never heard of such a preposterous notion!"
By now, Zhao Yun's face was a battleground between embarrassment and confusion. The third Tiger General shot a look at Xi Tian—his so-called fiancée—but his equally crimson handmaid looked even more upset than he. If he were to confront the ladies' wrath, then he would have to do so alone; it was obvious his alleged bride-to-be wasn't going to be of any help.
Zhao Yun bravely stepped forward, and coughed out, "I…I don't quite understand what you're talking about. Who wrote to Changshan announcing that I'm planning to, ah, marry Orchid?"
"Wrote to us!" Dowager Sun bawled vociferously. "You practically sent an entire parade to Changshan, announcing your engagement to the little vixen as if it were something to be proud of!"
"I did?" Zhao Yun repeated in disbelief.
"With Shu's blessings, it seems!" the miffed Madam Cui bemoaned. "Why, that officer in charge practically proclaimed to all of China that his general, the great Second Tiger of Shu, Zhang Yide, had sent him to personally tell the citizens of Changshan this 'felicitous' news of your engagement—since you were too busy to deliver them yourself. Aiya, and now we find out that the reason you were so busy is because you're here, cavorting around with your little handmaid…"
Dowager Sun once again pushed her way to the forefront of the group.
"Yun Er, why didn't you ever indicate that you were looking for a bride?" she practically yodeled out. "You could've had your choice of any of Changshan's finest young ladies, instead of having to settle for some lowly servant girl!"
"I—" Before Zhao Yun could protest, the fearsome old matron had stepped back and called out, "Ruan Er!"
A few moments of expectant silence followed her command, before a delicate figure in peach brocade appeared behind the doorway. At her mother's beckon, Sun Ruan Er(1), flanked on either side by a handmaid, entered at a demure pace and dipped down in a graceful curtsey before the mutely blushing Zhao Yun.
"Yun Er, you remember my daughter, Miss Sun Ruan Er, don't you?" Dowager Sun prodded.
When a bewildered Zhao Yun failed to reply, the stout old lady clucked her tongue and shifted the responsibility onto her own shoulders.
"Of course he does!" She turned to the crowd behind her and boasted proudly, "They were practically childhood sweethearts; the Heavens meant for them to be together! They even gave each other nicknames—she was his Ruan Gu Niang(2)! If that's not an indication of a devoted heart, then I don't know what is!"
Her assertion hardly seemed to sit well with the other ladies, however, as they all massed together and marched forward, as if to edge Sun Ruan Er out of the picture.
"Lady Dowager, with all due respect, what makes you think your daughter is good enough for our brave and mighty young dragon?" Madam Cui demanded haughtily.
Before the fire-breathing Dowager Sun could bluster out a comeback, the head of the formidable House of Cui had already summoned her own daughter forward.
"Yun Er, my own little girl, Feng Li, is now sixteen years of age, and has had her heart set on marrying a great hero ever since she was a child," she began bluntly, propelling forward a dainty, sylph-like beauty.
"Don't fall for her trap, Yun Er! I have never seen a clumsier, more empty-headed girl than that Feng Li!" Madam Xue cut in, shooting a dirty look in the Cui females' direction. "Rather, would you not prefer my daughter, Bai Yu? She is fair, virtuous, and sings as exquisitely as a nightingale—"
"Yun Er, my daughter, Mei Qin, is so lovely that she has all the men of Changshan fighting for her hand, and I can only rest knowing that she has a splendid warrior such as yourself to protect her—"
"Lovely? Hah! Your Mei Qin is merely a piece of duckweed, while my girl, Si Chun, is a graceful lotus—"
A cacophony of voices erupted, as grand dames jostled with each other, pushed their precious daughters forward, and generally bombarded the thunderstruck Zhao Yun with avowals that fortune-tellers and professional matchmakers had all deemed these beautiful maidens as suitable wives for him. Girls were everywhere—girls with porcelain skin and flowers in their hair, with sizeable dowries and impeccable pedigrees, with dewy-eyed blushes and some of the most overzealous mothers to be found in China.
Zhao Yun warily sidestepped the Misses Xue and Cui, when he suddenly noticed that someone was missing from this congregation of women. And not just any person—his own supposed fiancée was nowhere to be found.
"Orchid?" he called out, invoking a round of jealous huffs from daughters and mothers alike.
"Orchid!" Zhao Yun repeated, craning his neck for a better view of all the girls gathered around him when he failed to receive an answer.
His search ended at the back door of the room…a door which stood noticeably ajar. Zhao Yun's lips tightened into a grim line, as he realized that his handmaid must have slipped out sometime during the matrons' matchmaking madness. But why should she flee like this…?
Turning to Ouyang, Zhao Yun quickly instructed the young soldier to show the ladies to the guest courts. He then took off in the direction of his missing handmaid, amidst an outcry of, "Yun Er!" and, "Won't you meet my daughter so-and-so?"
Xi Tian ran blindly down the Wu palace's gardens, crushing delicate petals left and right as she sought escape from the obnoxious matriarchs…and from Zhao Yun's questions. And he would have questions for her, once he inevitably found her.
How could he not?
She continued to cut across Lady Wu's treasured flowerbeds, trampling with some sorrow over the sea of peonies and roses. How had things come to this? Everything was going along perfectly fine…until Dowager Sun had barreled in with her accusations that a mere little handmaid was trying to marry the great and valiant General Zilong.
Marry Zhao Yun? Xi Tian marry Zhao Yun!
She paused to regain her breath, and almost laughed out loud in disbelief. Marrying him would be the last thing her father wanted—for his one remaining daughter to be wed to an enemy warrior. Whoever had spread that scandalous rumor must have been drunk at the time…!
Xi Tian gave a soft groan of frustration, before resuming her flight. The green ribbon in her hair—the same ribbon that she'd won from Zhao Yun what seemed like a lifetime ago—fluttered over her face, obscuring her vision so that she finally tore it off and let it sail onto the ground beneath her feet.
She managed to cover a few more yards, before she was forced to stop in order to catch her breath again. Her lungs felt like they were trying to burn through her chest, and her temples throbbed with a nauseating dizziness that threatened to overwhelm her. Kneeling before a tiny brook, she took a few seconds to wait for her body to compose itself, and wryly observed her disheveled reflection in the silvery water.
When she saw the inevitable shadow of the young warrior she was trying to run away from, she felt too dull to even attempt a second escape. Her body was exhausted, her spirit even more so, and both her mind and heart were in a turmoil of confusion. Defeated, she simply continued to examine both their mirror images, only turning around when she heard him speak.
"Orchid," Zhao Yun began quietly, "what is going on?"
Xi Tian knew that he was trying to lock eyes with her, yet she desperately kept her own gaze fixed on the ground when making her reply.
"I don't know, General Zhao; I'm just as confused as you are." She heard more footsteps, and soon felt his warm hand on her skin as he spun her around and tilted her chin upwards so that she had no choice but to meet his eyes.
"Orchid." Her name became a command upon his lips, and she could not defy his soft voice.
Xi Tian looked up, and saw that he was crouching before her, one knee touching the ground between them. In his right hand rested the Fierce Dragon, while in the hand with which he'd turned her face toward him he held the single length of green silk she'd discarded a while back.
"Confused or not, you do know something I don't." Though his tone was gentle, it nevertheless did not change the fact that he had just accused her of deception.
Xi Tian shamefully tried to turn away, but Zhao Yun kept his hand on her chin, kept her looking into his eyes so that she could not hide behind the safety of an anonymous lie. The green ribbon between his fingers tickled her face, as he uttered his next words.
"Madam Cui mentioned that Zhang Fei was the one who ordered the false wedding announcement to Changshan," he mused aloud. "I know General Zhang can be aggressive and impetuous, and occasionally enjoys his wine perhaps a bit too liberally—but he's no fool. He had to have a reason for spreading false news of my alleged engagement, and more importantly, he had to have a reason for specifically choosing you as the bride, Orchid."
Xi Tian was silent for a long time. When she finally spoke, her voice was hushed with guilt and broken with regret.
"I suppose I should start at the beginning, then…and let the General know that my name is not Orchid," she started to confess in a tremulous whisper.
Zhao Yun dropped his hand from her face.
"Who are you, then?" he asked hoarsely, as if already knowing that he wouldn't like the answer.
Xi Tian took a deep breath. In the back of her mind, she'd always known that this moment would eventually arrive, yet nothing could have prepared her for the reality now confronting her in the face.
"General Zhao," she finally prompted, "have you already forgotten the old gentleman of Chang Ban Slope, who took you into his home almost one year ago…?"
1. In Three Kingdoms folklore, Sun Ruan Er was the name given to Zhao Yun's wife.
2. Miss; maiden.