Since that first day in the capital Cui Xi had not stepped foot in the Chrysanthemum Tower, but as the carriage rolled to a stop, she felt a finger of dread stroke up her spine. Shivering, she pulled her cloak against the wind and pushed the curtain aside.

 

What the hell was that? It feels like someone just walked over my grave…

 

Xiao Hei helped her out of the carriage, carefully handing her down into the snow.

 

“Please be careful, Mistress,” he sighed, as she moved towards the entry, boots crunching on the snowy steps.

 

A woman dressed in red stood in the front and she immediately moved to block the way.

 

“What business do you have here Miss?” asked the woman. “Are you looking to join our establishment?” she asked, her lips tipped up in a mocking smile.

 

Unfazed by the woman’s unfriendly look, Cui Xi smiled back.

 

“No, I want to leave a message for my Master. It’s urgent…” she began, but the woman interrupted.

 

“Oh? Looking for a man at a pleasure house? If your Master is within, I can call him out. What’s his name?” the woman asked, eyes bright with malice.

 

“My Master is also your Master. I wish to speak with the Second Lady.”

 

The woman stiffened, eyes narrowing.

 

“How impudent. I think it’s unlikely that a girl like you would have business with the Master of the Tower,” the woman snorted rather unattractively.

 

“Mistress, perhaps we are wasting our time here,” said Xiao Hei, his grip tightening on the hilt of the sabre thrust through his belt.

 

Cui Xi shook her head.

 

She pulled out the rectangle of silver hanging from her neck, showing the woman the moon and three stars.

 

“Go. Call out the Second Lady,” she said, coolly.

 

 

“What’s the matter?” said a male voice.

 

The woman looked like she was going to argue further, but a guard had suddenly materialized by her side. He glanced at the seal and then at Cui Xi and immediately bowed.

 

“Young Mistress,” he said, over cupped hands. “Please forgive Tan’er’s mistake. Please come this way.”

 

The woman looked shocked for a moment, and then stiffly curtsied with a bowed head.

 

“I will forgive it only this time. Do not block me again,” said Cui Xi as she swept past with all the bearing of a queen.

 

Xiao Hei smirked and followed.

 

It didn’t take the guard long to take them up the tower until they were almost on the top floor. Cui Xi thought she might die from climbing so many stairs, but since her conditioning was better now, she wasn’t panting. She realized that the long climb was probably a very subtle discouragement to overzealous guests. How like Master…she thought, allowing herself a small smile.

 

At the top of the stairs, the guard stopped and gestured to the single door at the end. Cui Xi nodded, and then the guard bowed and left.

 

She did not hesitate, flinging the door open, and striding in with Xiao Hei on her heels.

 

However, if the woman at the entrance had been difficult, it did not compare to the Second Lady of the Chrysanthemum Tower, Gu Jia Er. As soon as Cui Xi entered into the elegant sitting room, she instantly felt the temperature drop several degrees. The beautiful woman seated at the octagonal window did not turn to greet her. Instead she continued to smoke, spewing curling dragons of white everywhere.

 

Cautious, Cui Xi sat herself down and hooked one knee over the other. She did not normally observe the formalities, but in terms of rank she was still the Master’s disciple. Even Tao had to give way to her, and this woman should have been no different, but the beauty in the green dress did not bother to even acknowledge her. Instead she continued to stare out the window at the snow, smoking from a long stylishly carved pipe. The elegant hand that held the pipe was slender with two gold finger sheaths covering the ring finger and the pinky. The light bathing the woman’s face was so bright her features were almost white in the semi-darkness of the room.

 

Cui Xi squinted a little, judging that Gu Jia Er was in her late twenties. So, still young, but getting on for a courtesan. Her long hair was dark and only half bound, and a red lotus had been delicately centred between her painted brows. Long lashes framed light brown eyes that were set in a pretty oval face, but there was a bitter sharpness about her expression, like an expensive tea that had brewed too long.

 

“The Master is not here,” the woman said at last.

 

“But there is a way to get a message to him, is there not? I have an urgent matter,” Cui Xi said, trying to keep the ire out of her voice.

 

Gu Jia dragged on the pipe.

 

“Miss Wu, the Master is away.  Surely, the celebrated Cosmetics Goddess, lover of the Seventh Prince of Tiansheng should not be doing a useless thing here? The Master would be ashamed to find that you had lowered yourself to begging a mere prostitute for help,” Gu Jia Er laughed with disdain.

 

Cui Xi nearly stood up in shock when Gu Jia Er turned a face full of hatred in her direction. The venom written so clearly on the woman’s face had no clear explanation. What the hell is this?

 

She slapped the tabletop, finally losing her temper. Standing up, Cui Xi moved so swiftly that Gui Jia Er gasped when she suddenly found Cui Xi right in front of her.

 

“Gu Jia Er! Just because Master is away doesn’t mean you can act this way! You think that I won’t tell him?” she demanded.

 

“Of course you will tell him, you burdensome child!” the woman hissed back. “How many times does the Master have to clean up your problems? Wu Cui Xi, you made enemies when you came to the capital! Is this how you handle your affairs? You are nothing but useless garbage that the Master picked up!”

 

The words stung and Cui Xi half-recoiled from the naked antagonism in the woman’s expression.

 

“He is away, likely fighting for his life, and here you are running around like a spoilt brat whose toys have been taken away! You knew when you took in those children that you could not protect them, but it was your arrogant belief that others would do so on your behalf. Yes, they would have been poor on the streets if you had left them, but you still put them in danger under the pretense of clothing, feeding, and employing them. You are the Master’s burden!”

 

Erupting internally, Cui Xi felt that her world had been shattered and then smashed back together all in the same moment. Her fist moved of its own accord and the deadly blade of the snake ring suddenly hovered a finger’s width away from Gu Jia Er’s face.

 

The woman only smiled mockingly.

 

For a long time, Cui Xi trembled with the urge to sink the point right into Gui Jia Er’s detestable eye, and her hand shook as she endeavoured to control the seething, simmering rage that burned under her skin. The knuckles of her hand whitened as she contemplated that challenging, smug face.

 

Xiao Hei stepped forward, but Cui Xi held a hand up. Slowly, she dropped the fist and stepped back. A blank wall dropped over her features as if her hand had never moved, as if Gui Jia Er’s words had not reached her.

 

“You’ve said enough. I’ll ask you one more time. Will you send the message?” she asked, her breathing the only indication that she had been in a murderous rage only a moment before.

 

“I won’t. Your own matters…look after them yourself,” Gu Jia Er responded coldly, turning her face once again to the light of the window.

 

“Very well. Gu Jia Er, I won’t forget what you’ve done today. If the children die…you will regret it during your lifetime,” Cui Xi said softly.

 

“Tch!” the woman spat. “You’re not that capable.”

 

Cui Xi gathered her cloak around her and turned away, but then she hesitated with one hand on the door frame.

 

“Is Master truly in danger?” she asked quietly without turning around.

 

Gu Jia Er’s laughter was soft and bitter.

 

“Wu Cui Xi…your heart…have you ever had him in it?”

 

Despite the roar in own her ears, she heard the deep sadness in the other woman’s voice.

 

Haaah…Jealously…it devours you from the inside out…thought Cui Xi, finally understanding the source of the woman’s ire.

 

But Gu Jia Er was right…if she wanted to save the children, then she would have to take responsibility. There was only one way to solve this.

 

Feeling empty, Cui Xi shut the door firmly behind her.

 

“Xiao Hei…Send a message into the East Palace.”

 

***

 

Dammit!

 

Zhao Ling Ye’s breathing came in sharply. He grimaced as he pushed on his chest with shaking fingers, trying not to be distracted as his heart skittered in his chest. Even over the ‘shaaaah’ sound of the underground river he was standing in, he could hear his heart thump unevenly. As he tapped a pressure point, the pain subsided allowing him to breathe out in relief.

 

However, he could not let his guard down as he pressed himself flat against the jagged rock formation of the cave. He deliberately made himself feel the sharpness that dug into his arm and leg, reminding himself of what was at stake. Then, he carefully pulled the cloth off the lower half of his face to get more air.

 

It’s getting harder for me…

 

Zhao Ling Ye realized that the drugs he had used to supress his condition would not hold out under this level of aggression. Slowing his breathing, he swallowed again, counted his breaths, and tried to circulate his internal force just a little bit. If he didn’t try to control things, he would go into a deviation. It had taken him years to repair even this little bit and to burst his fragile meridians now when he was so close…

 

“Master…no good…” the guard panted alongside him, a hand clamped around his bleeding arm. “You must leave!”

 

Zhao Ling Ye shook his head and wiped the blood trickling out of his nose. Exhausted and thoroughly soaked, he clenched his jaw with resolve.

 

“No. Not without the thing we came for…”

 

He smiled slightly.

 

So much trouble for a single flower…