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Yuan Xi, broken by the news, had gone crazy coupled with the pressure of the Yuan Clan losing Nanpi and having to retreat. The Zhen Clan had publicly raged, how could the Yuan Clan let their daughter perish? While privately, Zhen Yi had exhaled in relief. The tie was severed. The Zhen Clan was free to pivot its allegiance to Lie Fan without the stain of betrayal.
Now, Zhen Yi's brush moved with grim purpose as he penned the words that would pull her back into the world of the living, after almost a year of hiding.
"Spread the tale as we agreed. Zhen Ji survived the fire by divine mercy and has been recuperating since, that is why she had never come out to clarify. The maid who perished in her place was a loyal soul, and we shall honor her memory. But our daughter's return must be swift. Lie Fan has granted the Zhen Clan trading rights in the north, but his favor is conditional. He has asked for her presence in Xiapi, not as a prisoner, but as a guest. He wishes to... consider and evaluate her."
The brush paused.
Consider and evaluate her.
A polite fiction.
Lie Fan was no lovestruck fool, this was a political gambit, plain and simple. Zhen Ji's famed beauty, her wit, and the Zhen Clan's connections, all of it made her a valuable piece on the board. But the matter is that Zhen Yi think the truth was, if she refused him, the Zhen Clan's newfound privileges would likely evaporate like morning dew.
Zhen Yi exhaled sharply, his jaw tightening. He had raised his daughter to be shrewd, to understand the games of power that governed their world. But this, this was different.
Lie Fan was not the son of a regional warlord to be manipulated or placated like Yuan Xi with some sweet words or actions. He was the storm that had shattered the Yuan Clan, the architect of a rising empire. For Zhen Yi, he evaluate that such a man was not someone who took rejection lightly, seeing from past experiences and history.
"Prepare her," he wrote at last. "She must understand what is at stake. The carriage will arrive within the week or next week at the longest."
He signed the letter with a flourish, then pressed his seal into the wax, the Zhen Clan's insignia gleaming crimson in the lamplight. For a long moment, he simply stared at it, the weight of his choices pressing down on him.
Then, with a sharp clap of his hands, he summoned a messenger, one of the trusted guards who had escorted him from Nanpi. The man entered silently, bowing low.
"Deliver this to my wife with all haste," Zhen Yi murmured. "No one else is to see its contents."
The guard nodded, tucking the scroll into his sleeve before slipping out as soundlessly as he had come.
Alone once more, Zhen Yi turned to the window, gazing out at the sprawling city of Xiapi. Lanterns dotted the streets like fallen stars, the hum of nightlife drifting up from the markets below.
Lie Fan's capital was alive and, vibrant, a testament to the man's power. And now, his daughter would walk into the heart of it to elevate the Zhen Clan, like how she elevated the Zhen Clan when she was married to Yuan Xi.
Three days later, in the quiet seclusion of the Zhen family's countryside estate outside of Nanpi, the letter found its way into the hands of Lady Zhen.
She read it once. Then again. To ensure that she doesn't read the content of the letter wrong.
Then, without a word, she rose and made her way to the secluded pavilion where her daughter spent her days in study, embroidery, and literature.
Zhen Ji was there, as always, her silhouette framed by the open screens, the evening light gilding her profile. She was seventeen years old this year, had a vision of quiet elegance, her hair coiled in a simple knot but it didn't hide her beauty, and her robes were simple yet elegant. A book lay open in her lap, but her gaze was distant, fixed on some unseen horizon.
"Ji'er," Lady Zhen said softly.
Zhen Ji turned, her dark eyes flickering with something unreadable. "Mother."
Wordlessly, Lady Zhen extended the letter.
A beat of silence passed between the two of them. Then Zhen Ji took it, her fingers brushing the parchment with the same care one might afford a blade.
She then opened it and read it.
And as the words settled into her bones, her expression did not change. No shock, no anger, no fear. Only a slow, measured exhale, as if she had been waiting for this moment all along.
"So," she said, at last, her voice calm. "I'm to relinquish myself of my peaceful life and rise from the dead."
Lady Zhen's throat tightened. "Your father would not ask this of you if there were another way, Ji'er."
Zhen Ji's lips curved, not a smile, but something sharper. "There is always another way, mother. Just not one father is willing to take."
She set the letter aside and rose, her movements fluid, unhurried. Crossing to the edge of the pavilion, she gazed out at the gardens below, where the first fireflies of the evening had begun to dance.
"Lie Fan," she murmured. "The man who broke the Yuan Clan. The man who now holds the north in his fist." A pause. "And now, he wishes to consider and evaluate me for this political marriage."
Lady Zhen said nothing. There was nothing to say. She knew that her youngest daughter had sacrificed much more compared to her sisters and older brother, and that she as a mother had failed to protect her.
Zhen Ji turned then, her eyes meeting her mother's. "Tell Father I will go. But make sure he understands, I will not be a docile lamb led to slaughtered like when I marry Yuan Xi. If Lie Fan wishes to weigh my worth, then he will find I have my own scales."
The words hung in the air, a promise and a warning. And as the sun dipped below the horizon, casting the pavilion into twilight, Lady Zhen could only bow her head in silent acknowledgment of her daughter's word.
Four days passed in the quiet countryside estate like sand slipping through an hourglass, too slow, yet too fast all at once.
Zhen Ji moved through her preparations with methodical precision, her expression unreadable as her handmaidens fluttered about, packing silks, jewelry, and books into lacquered chests. The room, once her sanctuary where she thought she could finally be free, free from her duty and expectations as the daughter of the Zhen Clan, now felt like a cage being dismantled piece by piece.
"Will you take the blue hanfu, my lady?" one of the maids asked hesitantly, holding up an embroidered robe.
Zhen Ji glanced at it, her fingers brushing the delicate stitching. A gift from Yuan Xi, back when they had just had their marriage ceremony, when she had been manipulating him and showing some affection to keep him under her control.
"Burn it," she said softly.
The maid paled. "M-my lady?"
Zhen Ji turned away, her voice cool. "I have no need for remnants of the past that remind me of a cage, now that I'm entering another one."
Outside, in the courtyard, Lady Zhen oversaw the final arrangements with a practiced eye. The carriage which was sent by Zhen Yi, a sturdy, gilded thing meant to announce the Zhen Clan's status, stood ready, its horses stamping impatiently. Around it, a contingent of elite guards stood at attention, their armor polished to a mirror sheen.
"Double the escort for the mountain pass," Lady Zhen instructed the captain, her voice low. "Bandits have been bold these past months."
The man bowed. "We've hired rangers as well, my lady. They know the roads better than any soldier."
Lady Zhen nodded, but her fingers twisted in the fabric of her sleeves. It wasn't bandits she feared. It was what awaited her daughter in Xiapi.
The doors to the estate slid open, and Zhen Ji emerged, her figure framed by the morning light.
She wore simplicity like armor, a plain but elegant hanfu of muted gray, her hair coiled in a simple knot, free of adornments. Yet even so, she carried herself with a quiet dignity that made the guards straighten unconsciously.
Lady Zhen stepped forward, her hands outstretched. "Ji'er—"
Zhen Ji sidestepped the touch, her movements smooth as water slipping past stone.
Lady Zhen's smile faltered, but she let her hands fall. "Keep yourself safe in Xiapi, okay? If you need anything, you can tell your father or send word to me."
Zhen Ji met her mother's gaze, her dark eyes unflinching. "Then I would ask to stay here with you. Can I, Mother?"
The words were a blade, sharp and precise.
Lady Zhen's breath caught. For a heartbeat, she wavered, then the weight of duty settled over her once more. She shook her head, her smile brittle as she knew she had pushed her daughter even further from her.
Zhen Ji's lips curved, though the expression held no warmth. Without another word, she turned and stepped into the carriage, her handmaidens following with hurried curtsies to Lady Zhen.
The door shut with a finality that echoed through the courtyard.
A flick of the reins, a crack of the whip, and the carriage rolled forward, the escort falling into formation around it. Lady Zhen stood motionless, watching until the dust swallowed the last glimpse of the procession.
Only then did she allow herself to weep.
Meanwhile, thenews of Zhen Ji survival traveled faster and spread wide at rapid rate.
By the time Zhen Ji's entourage reached the first way station to take a rest, rumors of her miraculous survival had already spread like wildfire through the northern provinces.
In teahouses and market squares, common folk marveled at the tale, how the heavens had spared the young widow, how a loyal maid had sacrificed herself in her stead. Some even claimed to have seen divine lights the night of the fire, proof that Zhen Ji was favored by the gods.
But the nobles and merchants exchanged glances over their wine cups, their smiles thin.
"Convenient, isn't it?" murmured a silk robed merchant to his companion. "The Zhen Clan cuts ties with the Yuan, pledges to Lie Fan, and now their 'dead' daughter who was daughter in law for the Yuan Clan, rises from the ashes?"
His companion snorted. "Zhen Yi always was a fox. This reeks of his scheming."
In the scholars' halls, the debate was more measured but no less pointed.
"If she truly survived," mused an elderly scholar, "why wait nearly a year to reveal herself? Unless hiding served a purpose."
A younger man, less cautious, smirked. "Or unless the fire was never an accident."
Zhen Ji paid no mind to the whispers swirling beyond the carriage walls when she heard of it. She spent the days in silence, her fingers tracing the pages of a book without truly reading. The landscape rolled by, verdant fields giving way to rugged mountains, the air growing crisper as they climbed toward Xiapi. At night, when the camp was quiet, she would step outside and gaze at the stars, her breath fogging in the chill.
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Name: Lie Fan
Title: Overlord Of The Central Plains
Age: 33 (200 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 1325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 951 (+20)
VIT: 613 (+20)
AGI: 598 (+10)
INT: 617
CHR: 96
WIS: 519
WILL: 407
ATR Points: 0