LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN TIGRESS
Chapter 75: Still a Girl

Chapter 75: Still a Girl

Shengli returned early from the East after taking a look since everything was already taken care of by Xing’s people. Even Shengli was amazed by the detailed stratagem she had put in effect for every scenarios. He didn’t have much to do except using his men to keep an eye on Lord Chu and the activities of Shihong in the East.

When he returned to the capital expecting to see the beautiful smile of his moon he was informed she was in the Zhong Manor and he went straight there to see her in the training grounds.

As expected she was happy to see him and for some reason he felt her eyes had lost that usual shine and brilliance and she looked weak. He wanted to ask her to take rest but seeing her excitedly going for a match with those men he decided to wait.

Lord Zhong was standing beside him admiring her and Shengli felt proud for some reason. It’s not like he was the one who taught her all this, right? But knowing she could achieve this much by her own efforts made him feel pleased.

As he was watching, Shengli could feel that her moves are a tad bit slower than usual and she felt a bit disoriented as he knows her every move and she would never take this much time to defeat these men.

As he suspected, he saw her suddenly fainting and Shengli’s mind didn’t think of anything but Xing and the fact that her head was going to hit the ground and his legs moved automatically to catch her before she hits the ground and he just lunged towards her, ignoring the halberds that was swinging around. He felt a sharp pain in his arm that was hit by one of the halberds but he ignored it and caught Xing before she fell on the ground.

Luckily all those men were skillful and they easily halted their moves as soon as they realised the situation.

Lord Zhong who was standing beside Shengli realised the danger only when Shengli shouted her name and lunged forward. Even he was shocked to see him moving that fast towards her without telling those men to stop first. Wouldn’t the first reaction of anyone would be to shout ’stop’ to those men first before getting to her? So in his eyes, he does not see anyone but her, even himself? Those men are trained and their weapon won’t hit her and he knows that too. In fact by intercepting them he would be the one in danger of getting hit by the weapons. So he wasn’t worried about the weapons hitting her but her falling down and he ignored his safety to hold her?

"Xing!.... Wake up... Xing..! Please....!", those were the words that were coming out of him and he was completely out of it.

Lord Zhong was worried too and he dispersed the men gathered around and called for their Manor’s physician and asked Shengli to pick her up and Xing was brought to Lady Zhong’s courtyard.

Shengli was sitting by her side worried to the bones and he was pale and had cold sweats. Lord Zhong and Lady Zhong who were worried themselves, composed themselves after seeing Shengli panicked and irrational not letting anyone near her. At least some of them should be rational!

Shengli was like a monster protecting his favoured treasure and had a cold aura around him as if he would tear anyone who gets close to her, all the while calling her name as a mantra.

The physician arrived and seeing the stand-offish person beside the patient and he dared not to get close.

Xing who woke up by now saw the incredibly scared look on Shengli and smiled and wiped the perspiration on his face with her sleeves. Shengli held her hand and placed it on his cheek, "You scared me, my love!", he whispered and let out a deep breath gently kissing her palm. Only now he felt like his life returned.

"I’m fine. I just got dizzy",she assured him and he tried to get her bangs straight with his usual smile returned, when they heard someone clearing their throat.

Xing realised she was not in her bed but somewhere else and she looked to her side to see Lady Zhong and only then she remembered that she was in the Zhong Manor.

"Hey boy! Are you going to let the doctor have a look or not?", Lord Zhong asked angrily making Shengli spring up and he stood to the side.

Lady Zhong realised this girl was acting different the entire day, being too tired, not eating properly and she remembered that she had the same symptoms when she was pregnant with Seiren.She started to have doubts when she saw how intimate those two were. They are young and in love after all. These kind of things happen, right? But if that is the case this would cause serious issues especially with her father and she was worried.

The doctor came near Xing and took her pulse and he looked confused.

"What’s wrong with the brat?", Lord Zhong’s authoritative voice was heard making the physician flinch in fear. He looked at Lady Zhong who was worried and expecting answers and Lord Zhong’s inquisitive demeanor. The physician didn’t even dare to look at the other person as he felt the fiery glare at his back.

The physicians hands trembled as he felt Xing’s pulse again. Clearly the person in front of him is in male attires and looks like a pretty boy. He heard gossips about how he had beat the first young master earlier too. So why is his pulse that of a woman?

"Are you a quack? Why can’t you say anything", Lord Zhong had lost his patience and shouted but was pacified by Lady Zhong.

The physician started to sweat buckets and wanted to faint himself so that he could escape this place.

"Oldman! It is his fault", Xing pointed at Shengli. She was proud of herself to arrive to this conclusion by her amazing medical expertise. Shengli was the one who made her heart act weird and making her hard to breath. So this fainting spell must be his doing by being present, right?

Lord Zhong looked at the confused Shengli in a death glare and he was about to pounce on him but was held firmly by Lady Zhong and Xing wondered why that Oldman must get this angry for her while the physician really wanted to disappear from this place worse than a warfield. He’d prefer a warfield now than being trapped in this confused situation.

"What kind of man are you to do this to that brat? Shame on you! ", he cursed at Shengli and tried to get out of his wife’s grip, "Let go of me. I’ll kill him now", he shouted at Lady Zhong except his tone was gentler towards her.

Shengli who had no idea what he had done for Xing to blame him and Lord Zhong wanting to kill him was staring blankly and stood frozen. Even the physician is not saying anything! What kind of illness does she have?

Xing realised the tense situation and wondered what would make Lord Zhong this angry too. She also noticed the physician scared and confused. Just what is going on?

The confused Xing looked at Lady Zhong who was looking at her slightly happy and worried at the same time and realised that she had blamed her fainting on her lover and that made them come to the wrong conclusion. She looked at Shengli who was blankly staring at Lord Zhong who had pulled a whip out of somewhere to hit him yet he was not even moving.

Oh, no! My poor naive Prince doesn’t even realise the situation he is in, does he? He is not even refusing. I should save him! Xing decided as she knew Lord Zhong won’t stop before lashing him.

"Oldman, stop!", Xing shouted and tried to get off the bed but she still felt a bit dizzy and sat back on the bed, "We haven’t done anything that would make me pregnant", she tried to use as little words as possible to explain the misunderstanding and only then Lord Zhong paused his hands that had already in a striking pose with the whip.

Relieved after seeing that, Xing continued, "What I meant was that whenever he is near me my heart beat gets erratic and I can’t breath properly",she said and Lord Zhong looked at her with his thick eyebrows knitted and lips pursed, ’What is this brat blabbering now?’ That thought was clearly written on his face.

"But never mind he is like me too!", Xing looked at Shengli whose eyebrows were twitching. ’This girl! She accused me of such an indecent thing and still saying more weird things? Is she really stupid like Haru says?’

"Oh dear!", Lady Zhong chuckled and that broke the awkward situation, "This little girl! How simple!", she chuckled more hiding her mouth in her sleeves looking at Xing who really looked like a pure little lamb, blinking.

Of course no one noticed the sigh of relief the physician let out after realising he was not a quack. In the thirty eight years he had served the Zhong Manor, never once had he encountered such situation. He had treated deep cuts and even amputated limbs but a simple ailment like this made him doubt his own credibility. But knowing the one he had to treat is actually a woman made him gain his confidence back and he raised his voice,

"This young mast...", he cleared his throat, "This young miss fainted of anaemia and weakness . I can prescribe some medicines but healthy diet is important and will help the young miss in the long run", he said and wrote the prescription and excused himself.

"Anaemia?", Lord Zhong was not convinced and only after interrogating the physician some more time did he let him go.

" What is this? Who’s there? Send for that good-for-nothing AoTian... Tell him that I will raise this brat in my Zhong Manor from now on! Seems like he is lacking money to raise one little brat in his Manor!..Anaemia?... How shameful! ...", Lord Zhong’s shouts were heard clearly inside the room even though he was outside.

Lady Zhong was sitting beside Xing patting her hands and Shengli had a look of relief knowing her illness is not that serious.

" Mingxia... ", Lady Zhong gently patted Xing’s head. Xing looked at her and she knew that look too well as her mother and Lady Shaoyao looked at her the same way most of the times, the look filled with love and concern with a little worry.

" Yes, Lady Zhong ", Xing sat cross-legged on the bed facing Lady Zhong and she held Xing’s hand, "Dear, you are strong and fearless, smart too and there is no denying it. But you should remember you are a still a girl. I’m not saying this as a discouragement but it is a fact. You should take care of your health first and that should be your priority. You realise you are making everyone worried for you right? ", she took a deep breath," As a girl, your body is different from boys and you’ll have to be more careful with your diet if you want to keep on fighting and maintain your strength, right? Do you understand? ", she patted her cheeks and Xing nodded.

" Good girl!", Lady Zhong stood up," Stay here for a week. I’ll take care of you... I’ll tell the kitchen to prepare nourishing dishes for you. Just rest", she gave a meaningful look at Shengli who was leaning near the window with his arms folded and he gave a light bow.

"But father....", Xing asked. She didn’t want to stay here but could not refuse Lady Zhong as she really cares about her and she also knew her father will definitely not let her stay here.

"Your father will be handled by Lord Zhong. He’ll lose some of his teacups for it... Still...", Lady Zhong gave a playful smile and left. Xing only knew what she meant by losing teacups until she learned from Lord Zhong the next day that her father broke one teacup from every tea set he had carefully gathered and now all of them are useless as Lord Zhong liked to have eight cups per set.

After Lady Zhong left, Shengli sat beside Xing and Xing lied on his lap looking at the board of the canopy bed with some carvings with her knees bent.

"You scared me a lot, my moon! I thought...", his voice was shaking and he couldn’t continue as his cold palms gently caressed her forehead.