Reign of the Phoenix

Chapter 52 – Playing the Qin
Inside the inn room, Murong Zhining sat at the wooden table with her hands propping up her cheeks in resignation. Using the reason that he must be close to her to protect her, Chiyun Yuexuan had insisted on them staying in the same room. During this time, although he had been treating her with proper courtesy and even changed from his usual ice-cold temper to cater to her pleasure whenever he could, Murong Zhining was unable to overcome the shadow of fear in her heart.

She had experienced for herself his cold-blooded ruthlessness, his cruel measures which instilled fear that had lasted up until this very day. Murong Zhining’s eyes grew red rimmed. Even now, as the precious and noble princess of Shangxia, she still couldn’t escape his evil clutches. She dared not even run for fear that he would hurt her closest people. In her view, there was nothing that Chiyun Yuexuan didn’t dare to do. She was plagued with immense hatred for him, yet she had no choice but to comply under duress. Murong Zhining let out a powerless sigh.

Chiyun Yuexuan took out a long cloth bundle from the carriage and carried it into the inn. Entering their room, he carefully unwrapped the bundle, revealing a qin.

He carefully laid the instrument on the table, on his face hang a sloppy smile unbefitting of someone of his identity. “I’ve heard that Princess has an exceptional talent for the qin. Can you play a tune for me? So that I can worship you even more.”

The reticence on Murong Zhining’s face couldn’t hide her pride. “I’m not a songstress who sells my skill for your pleasure. If you want to listen to the qin, you better go to one of those places.”

Chiyun Yuexuan bowed his head with a smile. “Alright, then I’ll be the male entertainer to offer you a song. As the Book of Songs say, ‘Our fair lady, let the melody of strings warmly welcome her.’”

Chiyun Yuexuan sat down properly before the qin. Gracefully relaxing his arms, he set his long, slender fingers on the strings and began to stroke them.

Along with the music pouring out, he sang softly, “There is a beautiful person, one look at her and I could not forget. One day without seeing her, and the longing drives me mad. Like the feng in flight, I traverse the four seas to seek my huang. Unfortunately, milady is beyond reach. Let my qin substitute for words, and express the feelings in my heart. When will she accept my proposal, and relieve me from this anxiety? May my hope come true, may we join hands by fate. For if I could not soar with you, I shall perish.”

The high, sonorous melody perfectly harmonized with the low, heart-rending singing. Murong Zhining couldn’t help but be entranced as she listened.

After finishing the song, Chiyun Yuexuan saw Murong Zhining’s still intoxicated expression. He walked over and gently whispered into her ear. “Was my melody able to conquer you, Princess?”

Murong Zhining was frightened awake from her trance. As she came to her senses, she stepped back with her eyes rolling in anger. “Is General Chiyun following Sima Xiangru’s example, playing ‘Feng Yearns Huang’ to propose to Zhuo Wenjun? Too bad that you’re not Sima Xiangru, and I’m not Zhuo Wenjun.”

Chiyun Yuexuan flashed her a charming smile full of confidence. “That’s right, I’m better than that Sima Xiangru. Even before I played ‘Feng Yearns Huang’, Princess had already eloped with me.”

Murong Zhining’s eyes rested on the qin while she pouted in discontent. “When both of them are willing, that’s called eloping. What you’re doing is called kidnapping, or stealing. Sima Xiangru never forced Zhuo Wenjun to elope with him.”

Chiyun Yuexuan acted refined and scholarly, but his words sounded like that of a scoundrel, “At the end of the day, elopement is still elopement, no need to stress over it. Perhaps I should have my people care a little more about your foster mother? Or… teach that girl Cai Sang some rules?”

“You…” Now, Murong Zhining finally knew why people would say: ‘when a scholar bumps into a brute, all words of reasoning are useless.’

Suddenly, Murong Zhining’s almond eyes that had been resting on the qin shone brightly. She gently stroked the instrument and closely studied it. The qin body was gracefully curved. The wood of paulownia, as known as the phoenix tree, that made up the upper part gave off a faint green glow, while the lower part was made of catalpa wood that was relatively fine and smooth in nature.

The light in Murong Zhining’s eyes grew even more brilliant. Infatuated, she bent down to inspect the details and even ordered Chiyun Yuexuan while at it, “General, help me turn the qin over, I want to see its bottom.”

With nothing but boundless adoration in his eyes, Chiyun Yuexuan carried up the qin and let its bottom part face her.

Murong Zhining’s eyelashes fluttered as she observed at the instrument with absolute concentration. Through the sound hole at the bottom of the qin, she could clearly see the part inside the hollow soundbox where there were characters styled using the Seal script were carved – “Essence of Phoenix and Catalpa.”

Murong Zhining exclaimed aloud, “This is Green Damask! It’s actually the Sima Xiangru’s Green Damask!”

Chiyun Yuexuan watched Murong Zhining with great interest while she observed Green Damask. “I actually wish that I could be Green Damask so as to earn your attention. Princess truly has keen eyes for the qin. It’s indeed as Tuoba Lan told me – you’re really obsessed with Green Damask.”

Murong Zhining’s eyes moved from Green Damask onto Chiyun Yuexuan’s face in suspicion. She seemed to ponder about something.

“How did you acquire this qin? Was it… from Mister Lian?”

Chiyun Yuexuan carefully placed the qin back on the table. “Princess is brilliant, it’s indeed from Mister Lian’s house.”

Murong Zhining gaped in shock. “You… You robbed it with force?”

Chiyun Yuexuan pulled an indignant face. “How can you call it rob? I gave him 20,000 silver taels in notes.”

Murong Zhining pursed her lips. “An honorable man does not seize another’s beloved treasure. What you did is no different from robbery.”

Chiyun Yuexuan lowered his eyes docilely. “I left home too hastily and didn’t bring much money with me. When I return to Huayan, I’ll have people deliver some more money to Mister Lian. A good qin longs for good encounters. Only in your hands will such a peerless qin maintain its brilliance and avoid the fate of being buried by time.”

Murong Zhining gave Chiyun Yuexuan an angry punch on the chest. “That’s plain robbery! Mister Lian’s family doesn’t lack silver. They’d be so sad…”

Chiyun Yuexuan gently soothed her, “I assure you, what people like them love the most is still silver. Don’t worry, I won’t let him lose out. It’s not like I wanted to take his qin either, but my Little Tabby just happened to fancy it.”

Murong Zhining shoved him away. “I also fancy the moon and stars in the sky, I’ll have to trouble General to pick them for me please.”

Chiyun Yuexuan touched the back of his head, putting on a troubled face. “Princess wants a lot of things, don’t you. Give me some time to present them one by one. That’s right, last time you said you wanted to be the empress. Let me make you my empress first, then I’ll go pluck the moon for you.”

“I don’t want to be empress!”

“But you said it yourself. Whatever, then you just obediently be the general’s wife.”

“……”

Ignoring him, Murong Zhining once again settled her eyes on Green Damask with infatuation. She caressed the qin admiringly, and upon touching the strings, she couldn’t help herself.

Her right fingers gently pick on the strings, while her left fingers pressed, quivered, and slid along them. With her skillful movements and precise positioning, a wonderful melody flowed out like the graceful trill of a phoenix.

Chiyun Yuexuan’s eyes were half-closed as he listened with his very soul to the music that seemed to descend from the heavens. Inwardly sighing in admiration for her skills, he started to chant along with the notes, “The Phoenix flies, oh the sounds of its fluttering wings; carried by love, supported by the sky. The phoenix’s sings rain upon the hill; the phoenix tree grows tall with the brilliant sunrise.”

After the Murong Zhining finished the song, she was still immersed in it. The passionate look in her eyes made Chiyun Yuexuan’s thoughts go wild with his own fantasy. “I just finished ‘Feng Yearns Huang,’ and you immediately followed with ‘Two Phoenixes Fly Side by Side.’ May I ask, what did Princess mean by this? Do you want us to do as the phoenixes in your song? Just who is proposing by playing the qin?”

Murong Zhining pouted indignantly, “Is there some old tale to this ‘Two Phoenixes Fly Side by Side’ that I don’t know of?”

Chiyun Yuexuan gazed intently at her, his charming eyes overflowed with tenderness. “Oh Princess, your master must have been too embarrassed to tell you. Feng and Huang, respectively the male and the female phoenix, like human in love, they make love as they dance in the sky . Were you hinting at something by playing this song, Princess?”

Murong Zhining instantly flushed beet red in mortification, hating the fact that she couldn’t find a hole to hide herself right away. She thought that Chiyun Yuexuan was a brute who only knew how to fight. Who could have expected him to be brilliant with the qin and also so well-versed in literature?

Seeing Murong Zhining too embarrassed to show her face to his satisfaction, Chiyun Yuexuan laughed out loud. “By the way, from now on, you’re only allowed to play this song to me alone.”

By simply misinterpreting the song deliberately, Chiyun Yuexuan successfully teased Murong Zhining big time.

As the night grew deeper, Murong Zhining lay stiffly on the bed heavily dressed. Behind her, Chiyun Yuexuan pulled the frightened girl into the blankets and gently took her into his arms. Murong Zhining struggled, refusing to comply.

Chiyun Yuexuan’s voice then sounded, gentle yet dangerous, “Don’t struggle. The more you struggle, the more dangerous of a situation you’ll be in.”

Clasping his long arm around her waist, pressing his face against the nape of her neck, his light and steady breathing swept by her ear at regular intervals. Murong Zhining felt like her back were pricked by pins and needles, as she was once again reminded of his malice and ruthlessness.

Murong Zhining involuntarily trembled a little. Chiyun Yuexuan had brutally robbed her of her first night, cruelly branded her, and even forced her to take a strong abortion medicine. Every scene played out in her mind like the pictures on a rotating lantern, going in a cycle without end.

As if feeling her fear, Chiyun Yuexuan soothed in a soft voice. “Are you having a nightmare? Don’t worry, I’ll never hurt you again.”

He gently neared and pressed his body onto her back, but Murong Zhining kept shrinking back toward the other side resistantly.

……

In the Imperial Study, Yan Feng was on edge while he waited for the report from the envoy who came to Shangxia to propose in his stead with an uneasy heart. He looked forward to the good news that Murong Zhining would agree to marry him, yet was afraid of her rejection. The wait was torturing him.

Qi Shangming poured a cup of tea and respectfully offered it to Yan Feng. “Your Majesty, please calm your heart a little. I’m getting dizzy from all of your walking back and forth. I’ve never known of an emperor as infatuated with love as you, honest. They all say a monarch’s love lasts from dawn to dusk, but Your Majesty’s love for Princess Fengyi is so loyal that I’m touched by its perseverance.”

Yan Feng anxiously fluttered his fan. “I’m truly out of my wits right now, my whole heart is hanging and can’t settle down. You tell me, will Princess Fengyi she… is there any chance that she’ll reject me?”

Qi Shangming’s bent even lower. “I dare not speak rashly about this. Of course, I hope it will go smoothly and Your Majesty can marry Princess Fengyi without trouble. But whatever the result is, I hope you can accept it with calm. If Princess Fengyi turns you down, I’m certain that she won’t accept the others’ proposals either. You can then wait for a little longer, and your sincerity will surely move her.”

Yan Feng nodded. “You’re truly the one who knows me best. Am I acting a little too impatient? I should have given her some more time, but when I heard that her father wanted to recruit a husband for her, I panicked.”

Qi Shangming respectfully bowed and said, “Regardless one is the emperor or a commoner, all marriages require one word – fate. If she is yours, you two will definitely spend the rest of your life happily together. Please be at ease, Your Majesty.”

……

After paying his respects to the emperor, He Cheng’an, the envoy Yan Feng sent to Shangxia, reported while his breath was still coming in gasps from all the hurry earlier, “This subject went to Shangxia to ask for Princess Fengyi’s hand in marriage in your stead, only to know that she had been taken by General Chiyun. General Chiyun left the king a letter saying Huayan is at war with the small countries at the southern borders, so he took Princess Fengyi as a hostage to make sure that Shangxia wouldn’t use this opportunity to attack Huayan, and that he would return her after the dispute is handled. Upon receiving this news, I dared not delay a second and rushed from courier station to the capital, changing several fast horses on the way, to report this news to Your Majesty as soon as possible.”

A buzz exploded in Yan Feng’s head. Nearly losing his footing, he quickly sought support from the table.

“Chiyun Yuexuan, it’s Chiyun Yuexuan again! Just what in the world does he want?!” Yan Feng’s palm heavily struck the table.