Chapter Forty-Two: The Gold Kylin(1)

A mythical beast holds an unspoken promise.

A few seconds after Amah's departure, Yinchun arrived, with Jiang Wei in tow. The young man was armor-less, wearing instead a gold-embroidered coat of dark green brocade over his regular clothes. A shy smile sprang to his lips when he caught sight of the pretty girl in lotus-colored silk, seated decorously by her window.

The same pretty girl who now looked up, and returned his smile with a half-hearted one of her own. As Yinchun excused herself to go fetch some tea, Xi Tian greeted softly, "General Jiang." However, she failed to look at the trident wielder's face, and instead focused her attention on the cloth-covered object he held in his hands.

It was a medium-sized item, vaguely ovalish in shape—almost like a decorative glass egg on its tiny pedestal. Distressed that she couldn't identify the mysterious present, Xi Tian found herself completely missing Jiang Wei's how-do-you-do's as she tried instead to guess what it was that he had brought.

When she at last sensed that a perfunctory response from her would be required, she wasted no time prattling on cue, "Oh, how wonderful you are," before returning to her secret quest.

Jiang Wei blinked. Oh, how wonderful you are? Well, that was certainly a…unique answer to his simple question of, "How are you this morning?"

Just as Jiang Wei began to wonder whether his future wife was kidding around with him, and Xi Tian herself started to realize that her automatic reply may not have been entirely appropriate, Yinchun appeared to salvage the situation.

The sweet-faced handmaid returned to the room, carefully balancing a tea tray with two china cups. After she set her load down on a delicate sandalwood pedestal, she glanced over in her guest's direction and suggested politely, "Why don't you sit down, General?"

Xi Tian picked up where her attendant left off, rising slightly from her seat and chiming in, "Of course; what a terrible hostess I've been! General Jiang—qing(2)."

And she deliberately pointed to the most uncomfortable seat in her room—an antique bronze stool dating all the way back to the long-gone and short-lived Qin Dynasty. The pleasantly innocent smile on her face should be enough to mask her true intentions, she decided.

But Jiang Wei, unfortunately, happened to be one of the smarter men that Xi Tian would meet in her life. That boyish façade hid a quietly keen mind, and its owner had little trouble deducing from a single look that the chair he'd been invited to sit on was not going to do any favors to his body. Jiang Wei hesitated, glancing around at all the other seats in the room and sending an uncertain look at both mistress and maid.

Kind-hearted Yinchun smiled, as she crossed the room to stand behind an overstuffed chair beside the one her mistress was reclining on. Before she could invite Jiang Wei to sit there instead, however, Xi Tian's voice rang out in a teasing giggle: "General Jiang, don't tell me you're afraid of a poor little bronze stool?"

Jiang Wei blushed, and looked over in the other girl's direction, as Xi Tian added with a flirtatious bat of her lashes, "It was said that the First Emperor himself once sat upon it. I thought it only fitting that a gallant warrior such as yourself should occupy such an important chair."

What else could Jiang Wei do?

"Then, I will be honored to comply with your wish, Xi Gu Niang." He arched his lips into what he hoped looked more like a smile than an uncertain grimace, and obediently sat down on the Qin-era antique…

"Ow!"

…Only to hop off less than a second later.

Jiang Wei leapt up like a bolt of lightning, red-faced and wide-eyed. It took every ounce of self-control he had to not lace his hands around his bottom and rub painfully at the sore area, and he was forced to instead hover awkwardly above that demonic bronze stool. Xi Tian wasn't exactly making things easy for him; those roguish peals of laughter, slightly muffled behind their owner's rosy handkerchief, only made Jiang Wei's embarrassment that much more acute. Even Yinchun couldn't help but lower her head to hide her smile.

"I'm terribly sorry, General Jiang," Xi Tian sang out from behind her handkerchief, sounding too merry to truly be sorry. "Amah was teaching me how to embroider before your arrival, and she must have missed a needle or two when she was putting the materials away."

Jiang Wei winced, but did his best to take her too-late revelation in stride.

"That's all right," he said graciously. "I probably should have looked before I sat down anyway; I can hardly fault an elder for my own carelessness."

Xi Tian continued smiling innocently at him with lash-veiled eyes, not saying a word but not bothering to mask the amusement on her face, either. At last, Yinchun was compassionate enough to walk over to the clearly humiliated Jiang Wei and lead him to the original seat she'd invited him to sit on. For appearances' sake, the handmaid pulled out her own handkerchief and efficiently dusted it across the chair's surface, before stepping back and encouraging, "Please, General Jiang—qing."

Jiang Wei shot a brief glance at Xi Tian as if seeking her approval, and only when the mischievous girl nodded coyly did he finally sit down as instructed. No pricking needles awaited him this time, and the visibly relieved Jiang Wei took a few seconds to settle himself into a comfortable position before sheepishly repeating his greeting: "Ah…how are you this morning, Xi Gu Niang?"

"All right. A bit bored, I'll admit." The last part was uttered with a semi-meaningful tilt of one eyebrow; she was obviously not going to make this visit easy on him in the least bit.

"Oh. I…I see," Jiang Wei mumbled in a tiny voice, trying his hardest to stop fidgeting under her indifferent gaze.

"So what special occasion brings the Great General to come visit a silly little girl like me?" Xi Tian pouted convincingly, inwardly wondering what she had to do to send him running out of her room within the shortest amount of time.

Unfortunately, that last question was obviously not the way to go about accomplishing her goal. Jiang Wei's eyes lit up in a boyish smile, as he brought up the cloth-covered object he'd been carrying and set it on the little table between himself and Xi Tian.

"I was passing through the market just now, when I saw something that I thought you might like," he explained, and despite her earlier reservations, Xi Tian found herself inching closer to him, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Really? What is it?" she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Jiang Wei grinned, before whipping off the draping cloth with a flourish and revealing a well-polished copper cage. Perched inside was a fluffy green-and-gold parrot, a splash of showy crimson adorning its throat.

"Oh, it's so tiny…but how adorable!" Xi Tian couldn't help but coo, bending her face as close to the bird as she could without intruding on the little animal.

"I haven't thought of a name yet; perhaps you would like to do the honors?" Jiang Wei stammered bashfully, his cheeks flushing the same shade of red as the feathers around his present's neck when Xi Tian, in her efforts to befriend the parrot, unwittingly inched closer to the bird's owner in the process.

"Does it do anything?" she asked, only to have her question answered a second later when the parrot chirped, "Xi Gu Niang…pretty…Pretty Xi Gu Niang."

Xi Tian's eyes lit up with a delighted smile, and Jiang Wei found himself loosening up enough to comment shyly, "Well, at least it's more honest than the vendor I bought it from."

His compliment caused its receiver to pinken slightly, but before she could say anything, the still-unnamed parrot promptly ruined the moment by piping up, "Lin Gu Niang…also pretty…"

Jiang Wei paled, as Xi Tian's eyes narrowed and she turned around to face him with a viperous smirk gracing her lips.

"It's nothing!" the green-clad warrior spoke up nervously, before his future bride could ask any questions. "I just got the bird this morning…he wouldn't know anything…"

Going by the look on Xi Tian's face, it was obvious that Jiang Wei had just incriminated himself further with the second part of his statement. It didn't help that his parrot insisted on trilling, "Xi Gu Niang pretty…Lin Gu Niang prettier…"

Xi Tian frowned, and moved to stand before Jiang Wei.

"Lin Gu Niang, huh?" she demanded threateningly.

Jiang Wei hesitantly peeked up, while the stupid bird kept tweeting, "Lin Gu Niang pretty…Lin Gu Niang smart…"

"There's no—" Before Jiang Wei could continue, Xi Tian already had him by the ear and was energetically yanking him up from his seat.

"So who is this mysterious Lin beauty?" For such a harmless-looking girl, she certainly had a lot of strength in that arm of hers.

Jiang Wei winced, protesting, "There's no Lin Gu Niang—Ow!"

Xi Tian twisted on his poor defenseless ear, until finally, the boy conceded, "She's a handmaid in our household! She picked out the parrot in the market, and the bird must have formed a bond with her or something!"

"I'm not so sure that the bird was the only one to have formed a bond with her." Xi Tian wrinkled her nose at him in the most infuriating manner she knew.

"Xi Gu Niang, you have to believe me," Jiang Wei pleaded.

"Miss Xi Tian…" Yinchun's voice drifted off, as she tried to put in a good word for the young man.

"Wait—the parrot does other tricks too. Let me show you." Feeling Xi Tian's hands relax slightly emboldened Jiang Wei enough to tentatively wriggle his ear free from her grasp.

The youth stood up and tripped over to his copper cage, scrabbling around and searching for the latch that opened its tiny door. Finally finding it, he turned around to face Xi Tian once more as he prepared to win her back. That is, if he'd ever won her affections in the first place. She didn't exactly seem to be warming up to his clumsy charms. Jiang Wei kicked that troubling thought out of his head, and instead put on his most winning smile.

"Just watch," he insisted, the tips of his ears burning bright red as his very much alive present continued singing the praises of that mysterious "Lin Gu Niang."

With fingers made gawky by his nervousness, the young warrior hastily unlatched the cage's wire door.

"It can do a hundred tricks," he repeated for what felt like the fourth or fifth time, as he carefully took the parrot out of its enclosure and let it rest on his hand.

Three things occurred next.

Firelight called out from the front doors, "Lady Dowager Jiang is here!"

Xi Tian and Jiang Wei both turned in the direction of her voice.

The parrot on Jiang Wei's hand squawked once, before flapping its wings…and promptly fluttering out the window, still going on about Lin Gu Niang and dropping a couple of tiny emerald feathers here and there.

"Hn! It can do a hundred tricks, can it?" Xi Tian placed one hand on her hips and lifted an eyebrow in annoyance.

Jiang Wei almost squeaked audibly when he heard the mixture of mockery and contempt in her voice, but before he could defend himself, his long-suffering ear was back in her vise-like grip. This time, she twisted so hard that Jiang Wei's face flared scarlet, while he winced and desperately tried to construct coherent apologies in his head.

"Or perhaps it's just flown off to serenade your precious Lin Gu Niang?" Xi Tian suggested, smiling so sweetly that both of them nearly went on sugar overload.

Fortunately for Jiang Wei, Firelight entered the room before he would be forced to answer that particular question. Unfortunately for the young man, however, his mother also appeared in the doorway not long after. Mother Jiang took one look at the incriminating green feathers and empty copper cage, then at her poor son, cringing in pain while his future wife yanked on his ear as if it were a bowstring, and immediately crossed her arms in disapproval.

"Wei Er, what have you done now?" the middle-aged woman clucked, shaking her head in almost tangible exasperation.

Xi Tian let go of the boy's ear when she heard his mother speak up, and Jiang Wei gratefully sprang up to a less pathetic position.

"Lady Dowager…I'm so sorry you had to see us like this—" Xi Tian started to apologize, her cheeks flushing pink with embarrassment at being caught in the middle of such a childish act.

Mother Jiang dismissed her with a kind smile and a reassuring, "Don't worry about anything, dear," before swinging around to direct her wrath at her son instead.

"I trusted you with our family heirloom, Wei Er, and you gave the poor girl some cheap bird instead?" she chided, as Jiang Wei reddened under his mother's onslaught of reprimands and baby names.

"I wanted to give Xi Gu Niang something more lively than jewelry," he mumbled. "Something she might enjoy."

Mother Jiang's face softened; she could never stay angry at her only son for long.

"That's very thoughtful of you, Wei Er. But next time, you might want to keep caged birds inside their cages if you want to bestow them to Xi Gu Niang," she laughed lightly. "Now, are you going to give her the real present, or do you also have a gift rabbit hidden beneath your coat that you want to try to impress her with?"

Jiang Wei blushed, but obediently stumbled over to Xi Tian and took from his pocket a small object wrapped in layers of varicolored handkerchiefs.

"This has been in my family for generations," he began in a soft voice, gently unfolding the delicate pieces of silk to reveal a gold kylin pendant on a slender chain. "I was hoping you would accept it as an…as an engagement present."

With her future husband, her future mother-in-law, and both her current handmaids all watching (and with Amah more likely than not secretly peering in from the garden!), how could Xi Tian tactfully decline?

"It's beautiful," she whispered, as she obediently dipped her head and allowed Jiang Wei to put the necklace on her.

His timid hands accidentally grazed against the soft skin of her neck, and when he reddened and hastily tried to pull back, he only wound up tangling them in her hair. Under all the watchful eyes, Xi Tian curved her lips into an indulgent half-smile, before reaching up and freeing Jiang Wei's hand from the dangers of her raven locks.

"How do I look?" She forced a high-spirited edge into her voice, as she stepped back to show off the gold kylin, now firmly clasped around her neck.

"Like the most divine young bride-to-be under the Heavens," Mother Jiang beamed, reaching forward and engulfing the girl in a happy hug. "Now everyone who sees it will know that you'll soon be a part of our family."

Yes, Xi Tian agreed in silence. And they'll also know that now I belong to Jiang Wei until I die.

1. A mythical creature, often called the Chinese unicorn. It had a vaguely deer-like body, with behooved legs and a single horn on its head, and was often depicted with flames surrounding its body. The kylin was said to be a peaceful creature, and its appearance was often interpreted as a good omen. Also known as qilin.

2. An expression used when inviting someone to do something (in Jiang Wei's case, to sit down).