LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS 116 Execution Of The Plan

In the capital city, on a certain evening, amist the fragrance of cheap perfumes, low quality wine and incense laced with mild aphrodisiacs and pleasant music, two young men in soft silk robes were glaring at each other as if they had three lifetimes worth of grievances to solve.

Seriously! How pathetic is this brothel! Xing was p.i.s.sed. Heavenly Flowers Palace is the best of the best!

Xing and Seiren were drinking and wooing women in the brothel as they usually do. The people in the brothel were first worried to have these two in their place together. One is the popular Lord Táng who had solved a puzzle centuries old and the other one is the second young master of the Zhong family. But they didn't think too much of it because their reputation of visiting brothels preceded them and they were served well as they are said to always pay double.

The sky began to darken and the busiest time of the brothel arrived. There were a bunch of women dancing wearing a little less for the autumn and a beautiful girl was playing the zither melodically.

Just then Xing and Seiren received their cue and they started to engage in verbal battle.

"Lord Táng, heard you became a sissy lately! Not spending time with women like you used to.... Is your count going to stop at 998?", Seiren sneered, opening the fan he usually has in his hand.

Xing just smiled mockingly and ignored him as she usually does with him. So Seiren acted provoked and brought out all the insults he could think of.

" I'm waiting for you... Seiren..! My next woman will be your wife! ", Xing said with a smirk. She could see his brown eyes turning dark immediately and he lunged towards her. Although they were planning to provoke each other, she could see he was actually provoked greatly.

Xing avoided his punch and both of them continued to brawl inside the main hall of the brothel and the security tried to stop both of them and failed. The brawl continued to the outside and both of them were spewing profanities at each other and the entire street was watching them fight. They even brought the Zhong and Huang families in their verbal war and that gathered more crowd.

This was a proper looking brawl were none of them got actually hurt with four people holding each of them back and they were only shouting at each other pretending to lunge forward to hit each other. Seiren was scared to accidentally hit her and refused the idea of an actual brawl with fist fights. Not because she was a girl and he was a man but because Seiren wanted to live! He knew what Shengli would do if he accidentally hurts her. Even though it is not that he'd have a chance to remotely hit her! She is a better fighter than him! But still... Better be safe than sorry!

While they were tras.h.i.+ng each other distracting the entire street, an elite team of ten soldiers under the command of Zhong Huojin got out from a tunnel which they opened the entrance of, near this street. They placed the chest in the brothel and then they were generously distributing little shares of those 'treasury coins' to each and every inst.i.tution in that street. All these were done with surgical precision within minutes before anyone noticed them.

Every security in the street tried to stop the brawl but failed. There were many people who tried to watch the second master of the Zhong family fighting with the G.o.dson of the Prime minister and pa.s.sing comments of how the Zhong and Huang family had fallen out with each other.

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Meanwhile, In the Imperial Palace interrogation room,

"Bring me a paper and brush", the Emperor ordered the officials after having a good GO game with Rijun and they just stood there not moving. They were wondering till now, how the Emperor is this calm given the situation.

Is he that much of a fool not to understand the situation he is in? Without the Zhong and Huang family, he'd have no one to support him and the dynasty will change! Not to mention, his life is in their hands now!

"You don't want me to give orders to the Justice Department to search the Zhong properties? Or did your Lord Ran already give that order too?", the Emperor shouted at them and threw a bowl at them that smashed right by their feet making them jump in fright. His green eyes were looking at them like a predator glaring at its marked prey.

The officials who were smug till then felt weak in their knees.

Who is this person in front of us? He could make this expression too? And why is he this confident?

But they gathered their confidence and gave him the writing materials and he wrote the order and signed it with the Imperial seal.

A couple of those officials ran out to give the order to the justice department and the Emperor regained his calm composure and got back to his game with Rijun.

Rijun smirked knowing their end is near. This friend of his is a predator who catches his prey when they are unaware and he never misses once he set his eyes on them.

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While shouting at each other, Xing realised that when you don't actually hate a person, you'll run out of things to say against them soon. Seiren seemed to be low on profanities as well.

Just then an officer from the Imperial Patrol Unit came and tried to disperse the crowd. His underlings came and they helped him too.

The crowd slowly started to disperse when the patrol unit got involved. But Officer Xiang, the captain of the patrol unit, found a suspicious person in the crowd with drops of blood on his clothes and tried to arrest him.

He ran into the brothel but was caught inside a small shed beside the brothel. Officer Xiang was shocked to see at least ten people with the token and guard uniforms of the Qui family inside the shed.

The man was arrested after finding a bloodied dagger on his person and sent to the justice department for investigation. Xing and Seiren smiled at each other satisfied as their plan had worked and its all left to the spy to do his part of the deal well.

Just then Xing felt a hand grab her around her waist and she gasped in surprise. She'd recognise that hand anywhere, even in an utterly dark room.

"You are back! ", she hugged around Shengli's neck and she was hanging on him with her feet dangling above the ground.

Shengli carried her and pressed her back on the wall of a nearby alley and kissed her, with his arms around her waist.

"Happy birthday, Hubby!", Xing smiled at him and he looked happy too. "Yeah! I'm twenty four now"

Xing kissed him wrapping her arms around his neck and only then she felt relieved, "I thought you'll be back early. I waited for you this whole time... ", she whined and puffed her cheeks cutely. She was no longer the trash talking playboy from a moment ago.

" Is that so?", he smirked and let her down. Xing slid down and stood on the ground with his forearms supporting on the wall behind her and she felt enveloped by him," I was watching my little wifey running around helping the Zhong family", he smiled.

"You knew?", she punched his chest and he pretended to be hurt, "Why didn't you meet me then?", she asked patting his chest where she hit him as if she was soothing his pain.

"I wanted to watch you", he kissed her and she pushed him,

"Ten years of just watching me had made it a habit for you", she tried to pinch his nose but he licked her hand and she whipped her hand away from him. This guy is getting more and more brazen each day!

"You!", she pointed her finger at him and he chuckled. He observed her face inch by inch and she felt hot forgetting the place she was in.

In fact Shengli got wind of the fact that the Ran family was planning against the Zhong family and he came back immediately to access the situation. He came to know of their plans to use this opportunity to depose the Emperor and he made necessary arrangements to stop that from happening the entire day by sending his people to guard the Emperor and Xing's father and brother.

Shengli had no plans of helping the Zhong family but since Xing was there, he knew she'll definitely help them and wanted to a.s.sist her but as usual, her plans were flawless and he only had a little hand in the timely arrival of Officer Xing. He really liked to watch her standing tall. It's beautiful!

Now what's left for him is to send her to a safe place to stay for tonight. Tonight the entire city is going to be in turmoil because of what happened in a little brothel in the city.

"The city won't be safe tonight. Your father and brother are trapped in the Palace and Zhong family will have a sleepless night tonight. I have to take care of a lot of things here, so I'll send you both to a safe place", Shengli told Xing.

"Why?", Xing asked confused, when did the situation got this serious?

"My little kitten! You don't realise what you have done today? Today you have digged a grave for the untouchable Ran Family. We'll be fools to not to use this chance to get rid of them!", he kissed her forehead.

"It's not me, though! It's Seiren and General Zhong who made this happen", Xing spoke her mind. She just drew a picture... Everything else was them right?

Shengli looked at Xing who actually believed what she said. This girl! If she didn't give the map of the underground tunnels, this plan wouldn't have been effective, right? Even Huojin cannot refuse that!

"Xing, I'll have to leave immediately. I'm being followed, ok? I'll send you and Seiren to a safe place for tonight",he said and turned to see Seiren searching for her and called him.

"Both of you stay together. The place you are going to stay tonight won't be safer for you otherwise", he said.

Xing and Seiren were confused and before they asked for an explanation, Shengli had disappeared.

Just then Officer Xiang walked towards them and Xing and Seiren pretended to fight again. Acting is a tedious job!

Officer Xiang bowed in front of those two, "Second Young Master Zhong, Lord Táng", he was polite, "It's that... Even though today we get to arrest a criminal, you two did disturb the public. So kindly follow me, just for tonight.. ", he stayed bowed in front of them.

"Prison?", Xing and Seiren shouted at the same time.

The place safer than the city is the prison?

Xing looked around to see Shengli on the top of a building and he nodded at her.

Whatever! Is this how good deed gets repaid?

Both Xing and Seiren who had seen all kind of luxuries, for the first time in their seventeen years of life, followed Officer Xiang to prison.

There is a first time for everything!