One thing that spies never told those they were recruiting was just how incredibly boring being a spy could be sometimes, Meng Feng thought as she surveyed her surroundings once again.
Being the consummate professional that she was, the ex-assassin had managed to find a spot that offered her both sufficient camouflage from curious eyes and a relatively clear view of the Green Hills Courtyard. She'd left Yanbei with plenty of time to spare, so she'd been able to settle down in the woods around the Yuwen family property and get a feel for the rhythm of the place.
The Wei spies were easy to avoid, and she was, of course, familiar enough with the ways of the Eyes of God to stay out of their way. Over the course of the past several days, she'd come to notice two distinct small groups of spies whose presence made her uneasy. She had her suspicions about their identities, but she didn't know which group was which and she couldn't be sure if her guesses were right anyway.
Even if she'd correctly guessed who the spies were representing, she didn't know what their interests were. Were they after information or blood? Were they, like her, trying to protect Green Hills and its inhabitants or did they want to start trouble? As usual, the answer was to just keep watching and waiting.
The increased activity around Green Hills told her that her wait was almost over and that Chu Qiao would likely be giving birth soon. She'd seen the messenger boy that Chu Qiao had brought back with her from Yanbei sprinting back to Red Hills like the entire Wei army was at his heels, so she figured that he'd been given good news and had gone back to tell it to Chu Qiao's soldiers.
The roar that had arisen from Red Hills shortly thereafter was amusing, and Meng Feng had not been surprised when the entire troop had shown up to support their general in person. They'd been standing there in full battle regalia for a couple of incense sticks and had maintained a strict, stern silence after loudly shouting "We're coming back with you!" several times to announce their presence to their beloved Chu Da Ren.
The raspy rustle that sounded behind her was so faint that she almost thought she'd imagined it. Fortunately for her, her reaction to "almost" was to instantly draw her sword and whirl around to face whatever was coming at her. A face-covered figure dressed in the same basic type of dark clothing as she was slashed its own sword at her throat and attacked her with a nearly silent fury.
Both of them wove webs of steel around themselves with their blades while trying to gain the upper hand over the other. Meng Feng was more than up to the challenge and spared a grim grin for anyone who might've mockingly said that nearly two years of palace living had made her soft. How she wished that some of those servants and officials could see her now, locked in a dance of death with a spy as competent as herself.
A rare opening presented itself, and she slashed inward at her opponent. The spy jumped backwards just in time to avoid a fatal strike, but Meng Feng's blade still pierced her opponent's robe and caused a rectangular seal to fall out. Her eyes widened as her brain registered the affiliation of her would-be assassin and she lashed out with her boot in an attempt to stop the fight. Her foot connected with her opponent's midsection as she'd hoped, and the figure went flying back into a tree.
"Stop!" she whispered, quickly sheathing her sword and holding her hands up. "I'm not your enemy."
A pair of piercing eyes glared into her own, but the figure reluctantly nodded its head. She inclined her own towards the seal lying on the ground.
"I know who your master is," she said, watching the spy's eyes widen in alarm. "If he is who I think he is, then we have a common goal. I'm going to remove two seals of my own so that you'll know who I am."
The figure nodded its understanding again, and Meng Feng slowly reached into her own robes and pulled out the two seals that she treasured above all others. The first one was her husband's, which declared its holder to be a personal representative of the ruler of Yanbei. The second was Yuwen Yue's, which identified her as a member of his personal guard.
The dark-clad assassin relaxed, sighing in either relief or resignation—or maybe a bit of both. Before it could say anything, however, the soft tread of footsteps alerted them to the approach of someone else. Meng Feng dove into her hiding place and pulled her former opponent inside with her, hoping that she'd judged her almost-killer right.
Both concealed figures stiffened in shock as another black-clothed figure appeared only a short distance from where they were hiding. The feature of the new-comer were obviously recognizable to both Meng Feng and the spy standing next to her.
Meng Feng wasn't a coward, but she also wasn't a fool. She knew that few could match her in combat, but that the person standing a stone's throw away from her was one of them. Her face firmed in resolve as she vowed that she'd fulfill her obligation to her husband and to her former master by making sure that this person didn't even get to set foot inside Green Hills Courtyard.
Mo'er was no fool. Everyone thought that he was just a little kid, but he knew that he hadn't been a child since he'd lost his entire family, had listened to the entire family of the girl who'd helped him be killed, and then ridden on the back of his now-father as he and his now-mother had avenged their deaths.
Since that time, he'd been a calm, well-behaved boy who had taken his studies seriously and who had vowed to grow up strong so that he could fight all the bad people. He knew that he was too small to be a threat now, but all the bad guys had better watch out once Mo'er grew up. Then he'd do his best to make sure that no one else had to go through what he'd gone through.
Just because he wasn't a man yet, however, didn't mean that he didn't understand what was happening in his mom and dad's rooms this evening. He was supposed to be "doing his lessons," but since nobody else seemed to be doing what they were supposed to be doing, he didn't see any reason why he should be doing what he was supposed to be doing, either.
Mo'er was no fool, so he knew that his mom was going to have a baby because his dad had put it there and that his dad would help her to take care of it even though Grandfather wouldn't approve. Grandpa was grumpy, but Mo'er wasn't fooled. He'd seen Grandpa just a few minutes ago, lurking in the shadows where he thought no one could see him with Zhan Mou standing, as always, close behind.
But Mo'er had seen because Mo'er always saw. He'd learned the importance of looking closely at things and remembering what they looked like. He'd learned that not everything was what it seemed to be. His dad had taught him this lesson early and it had stuck. If he was going to grow up to fight the bad guys, he knew he had to be smarter than they were if he was going to succeed.
When people weren't trying to talk around the details of his mom's pregnancy, they were telling Mo'er things like that he shouldn't be jealous of his new brother or sister and that he was going to have new responsibilities as a big brother. He already knew all these things and had no intention of being jealous of someone who was someday going to have things that didn't belong to Mo'er anyway.
He also didn't worry about his mom and dad not loving him once the new baby was born. If there was one thing he knew about his adoptive parents, it was that they had plenty of love in them to go around. While his parents were busy, they always made time for him each day no matter what was going on. They had put a lot of time into teaching things he knew he'd need later in life when he became a man. He knew they'd help him to become a good man who would be able to help a lot of good people.
They gave him nice things like good food to eat, sturdy clothes to wear, and nice toys to play with. His favorite toys were the ones that were more like miniature weapons; both of his parents had found that funny. Most importantly of all, they gave him love—and respect, which was, to him anyway, at least as important.
Not too long ago, his mom had sat him down and told him that she and Dad had decided that he was old enough to know the truth about his parents' killers. She'd told him that they had been killed because his birth dad and some other men had lied to their future killers and had tried to run away from them. Then she'd said that the men who had ordered his parents to be killed were two men she'd killed herself when she'd fought to save Dad and their men at the icy lake.
He knew all about the icy lake; He Xiao, Yue Qi, and some others had told him what he was sure were shortened versions of what had happened when his mom had gone to save his dad from a trap set by the same men who'd killed his family and Xing Xing's family. His parents didn't really like to talk about the icy lake, so he knew better than to ask them about it.
After telling him the truth about his parents' killers, Mom had looked him in the eye and said that she'd told him this because she wanted him to be free of the desire to seek vengeance on their behalf. She knew that she'd once told him that she'd never blame him for anything he did to get even with his parents' killers, but since they were dead, he didn't have to worry about killing them. She'd told him that he alone was responsible for his own actions and that he should never hurt the innocent just to be able to kill the guilty.
In a way, his mom had given him the one thing that he knew she'd long wanted more than anything else: freedom. Mo'er knew that he could stand before his ancestors with pride since their deaths had been avenged, but he also knew that he'd only be able hold his head up high before them if he lived his life as a good man. He didn't know exactly what he would do when he grew up, but he did know that he wanted to fight bad guys. Not because he wanted to get revenge on anyone, but simply because it was the right thing to do.
He was, he acknowledged, like his parents in that way even though his mom hadn't given birth to him. Their protective natures could get them into trouble, but they could also make them do things like give hungry children food to eat even when they didn't have much to spare themselves at the time.
A loud yell sounded from his parents' rooms, and he winced. He knew that not much could hurt either of his parents, so if Mom was yelling, then things were serious. Still, he knew his mom would be able to handle anything that was happening because she was strong—and because, of course, his dad was with her. Together, they could do anything.
As the sun went down, Mo'er kept silent watch over the Courtyard. He did so from the shadows, however, because he always had.
Even when I first met my parents before they were my parents, he mused, I did so while standing in the shadows.
He knew that was a trait that would serve him well in whatever he decided to do in the future.