A Wuxia Tale: Blades and Flowers

Demands

(DAYU)

"You should tell me that that is a jest," I said while looking at Captain Wang with warning in my tone. I turned to Lady FeiXuan. She's the twins' mother's sister. She came to visit us from her family's ancestral domain in HaiNan and is now demanding an heir for their family. I smiled at her, "You see, I have a healthy sense of humor. I can understand if this all a jest you both agreed upon on."

"It is not a jest," Lady FeiXuan gave a pitying look. "I know this may seem confusing to you but Wang Dao and Wang Hua doesn't just belong to their Wang family. They belong to us as well. We recognize them as part of our clan. We are their kin too. My twin sister died giving birth to them. They are half ours."

I know that. I just...I never thought I had to contend with the maternal side of the twins because they were silent and living away while I was the one raising Dao and Hua. They never visited the twins, never interfered. They have never expressed interest on Dao and Hua...until now.

"Why? Why now?" I heard myself asking. I was so ready to dislike this woman, the twin sister of Dao and Hua's mother, but I never thought I will dislike her for a different reason, not because her face resembled that of the woman who once shared Captain Wang's bed and received his essence that they produced children.

Lady FeiXuan is one ethereal looking woman. Truly enchanting. She looks like an older but softer and more graceful version of Hua. Her almond shaped eyes, perfectly curved lips and blemish free alabaster skin looked even better than Hua's features. Her beauty shines but doesn't look intimidating. She has welcoming grace until she opens her mouth and spew words that directly conveys her demands from us.

"What do you mean?" Lady FeiXuan sighed. "Are you asking why we are now taking interest in my sister's children's future when we never bothered your family before? Is that it?"

"Yes," basically yes.

Lady FeiXuan nodded at Captain Wang. "Mainly because it was part of the deal General Wang presented to us when my sister died. He demanded us to agree that he will raise the twins without undue interference from us, but in return, when the twins are grown, we can have a say on their marriage prospectives." She explained.

"What? Why?" I turned to Captain Wang. He leaned close to whisper in my ear. "I will explain everything later." He said with a promise before turning to his sister in law. "Why are you demanding to have a say in Dao's marriage?"

Yes, that is the crux of the matter. This, woman, came here and demanded to us to let their family choose a bride for Dao. No, she demanded us to make sure Dao will marry the woman they will pick for my son.

The nerve.

Lady FeiXuan took a moment to reply. It gave me an expression that she is an intelligent woman who knows how to hold her side of the argument. "We don't have any objection on Hua marrying a Prince. After all, we are distant relatives of the Emperor. We are elated that Hua will marry Prince Jin. But you arranged that union entirely on your own. It was gracious of you to inform us about Hua's engagement after it all happened. We will not allow the same to happen to Wang Dao. We will have a say on the kind of wife he will have. No, we are the ones who will pick his bride for him."

I want to laugh. She's basically saying they took offense that we excluded them on Hua's engagement to Prince Jin and in retaliation, they will control Dao's fate. The nerve...

A sudden itch to kill crept into my blood. I looked the Lady FeiXuan with fresh eyes. I started measuring parts of her body. The distance between her eyes, the size of her head, the circumference of her neck, the thickness of her frame and chest...I started imagining ways I can stab her and watch her bleed to death in front of me.