There's Something I Have To Tell You (Rise of the Phoenixes)

Chapter 4

Later that evening, Zhiwei entered Mingying's room in the Wei residence.

"Mother?" she called.

Mingying looked up from where she had been putting clothes away in her cabinets. "Come in."

Zhiwei approached the woman she had called her mother all her life and knelt on the floor before her.

"What's the matter?" Mingying asked.

Zhiwei had thought about this conversation much since Ning Yi had told her the truth. She had oscillated between anger and sadness over and over. Tonight, she chose sadness. She bowed to Mingying with her face to the ground. "I'm sorry for the death of the son you never got to name. I'm sorry he died so I could live."

Mingying's eyes went wide. "Who told you?"

Zhiwei's eyes filled with tears. "It doesn't matter who told me, Mother."

Ming Ying reached for Zhiwei's hand to pull her to rise. "Please get up, Zhiwei."

Zhiwei's tears slipped down her cheeks as she raised her head and looked Mingying in the eye. "I'm so sorry," she whispered brokenly.

Ming Ying used her sleeve to wipe Zhiwei's tears away. "Gu Heng took him while I lay resting after giving birth. You did not. I raised you as my own, because that is what you became the moment he took our son."

Zhiwei cried harder.

Ming Ying drew nearer and hugged Zhiwei. "You are my daughter, even if I did not bear you."

Zhiwei was only a little relieved that she did not say anything about her being a princess. "Thank you, Mother, you are the only mother I have ever known." Her heart ached. It was true, and even if she and Ning Yi wanted to argue semantics over the vow she made so carelessly before, Zhiwei wanted Mingying's blessing nonetheless.

"You will always be my daughter," Mingying said.

"From this day forward, please let that be all I am to you," Zhiwei said cautiously.

"What do you mean?" Mingying asked.

"We did not fully discuss that day on the road," Zhiwei said. "I know that you and Master Zong summoned men to come rescue me. If Ning Yi had not come so quickly with summons," Zhiwei gasped as she spoke, more tears slipping down her face. "If he had not come, you all would have died to save me."

A tear rolled down Mingying's face.

"I know you wouldn't have done that even for Feng Hao," Zhiwei said with a sniffle. "Please, please never endanger yourself because of my blood. I am your daughter, you are my mother, and nothing more or less."

Mingying's brow furrowed as tears continued to trace her cheeks. "Zhiwei, you are a princess, whatever has happened. Bloody Pagoda swears its loyalty to you, no matter what. They swore it long before you were born. You cannot change that."

"What for, Mother? Will you use me to revive Dacheng? Is that why we came back to the Capital?" Zhiwei asked, her voice breaking.

Mingying sighed. "There are many people loyal to you here. They came when they heard we had sought refuge in your uncle's house."

Zhiwei shook her head. She did not want this. "No, we will not win."

"What would you have us do? Ning Shizheng has taken our kingdom from us!" Mingying exclaimed.

"How would you take it back? By bloodshed? You could have all died that day on the road if not for Ning Yi!" Zhiwei said.

"We would not be in this position if it were not for him!" Mingying seethed. "First, he makes Gu Yan turn his back on Dacheng and Bloody Pagoda, and then he uses you in his political games. It was mere restitution that he saved you on the road to losing your head, for the foolish games you played at the Royal Court."