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

Chapter 10

Zhiwei emerged from the tunnels to find Gu Yan standing just outside. An imperial carriage was waiting.

Gu Yan bowed in greeting to Zhiwei.

Zhiwei nodded for him to rise.

"Well done finding the tunnel, Chief Gu," Zhiwei complimented.

"You are too kind," Gu Yan replied. "I have orders to escort you to Master Zong's school and see to it that you have all you need."

Zhiwei made an acknowledging hum. "Before we go, there is someone I would like to introduce you to, Chief Gu."

Gu Yan seemed perplexed.

Zhiwei turned halfway to look at Nanyi. "This is my personal bodyguard, the finest of Master Zong's students, the next generation of a less Bloody Pagoda, Gu Nanyi," she told Gu Yan.

Gu Yan gasped and froze.

"I know Ning Yi gave you proof he kept looking for your family. Now, I give you proof that you can be reunited," Zhiwei told him before stepping aside to reveal an equally surprised Nanyi.

Nanyi, for all his limited emotions, looked shell-shocked. He turned to Zhiwei, uncertain.

"I'm telling you the truth," Zhiwei responded to his unasked question. "Perhaps you would like to ride together on the way to Master Zong's." While the two men were still reeling from surprise, she climbed into her carriage.

Gu Yan cleared his throat and waved to one of his men who immediately brought two horses over. Gu Yan received the reins silently. He had yet to speak a word in response to the introduction. He continued to stare at Gu Nanyi in wonderment.

"I'm not sure what to say," Nanyi said, surprising himself at being the first to speak.

Gu Yan smiled weakly. "That makes two of us," he replied, offering Nanyi the reins to one of the horses.

"Thank you," Nanyi said. He rarely said words of thanks, but it felt appropriate.

The pair mounted their horses and guided them to the rear of the carriage as Ah Chou signaled the front riders to begin their journey.

"So tell me how you came to Lady Zhiwei?" Gu Yan asked.

"Master Zong found me abandoned after the fall of the Dacheng Empire," Nanyi told Gu Yan, completely devoid of emotion. "He raised me to be the best son of Bloody Pagoda. He said I made a great student because there was nothing holding me back. I could give myself wholly to training and mastering martial arts."

Gu Yan closed his eyes for a moment, overwhelmed by imagining the life Nanyi was barely even elaborating. "Did he not know who your family was?"

Nanyi shook his head. "Master Zong said he found me as a baby in the rubble of a fallen fortress, searching for survivors of the group of Huofeng assigned to protect the prince and flee with him. He never told me who my real parents were, but he told me he kept my family name while giving me a new name to go by."

Gu Yan was horrified. That was Sunhong's group. If Sunhong had spoken the truth, then he had killed Gu Yan's wife and left his son for dead. "I'm sorry" was all he could manage to say. His thoughts swirled with memories, regrets and questions. Why had Zong Chen kept his son, kept his name and trained him in the ways of the Bloody Pagoda?

"Sorry? Why?" Nanyi asked, unable to read Gu Yan's face.

"Sunhong left you for dead because of me," Gu Yan said, shame permeating every word.

"I am alive," Nanyi said simply. "Whatever Sunhong did to me because of you did not succeed."

"You have to know, I searched everywhere. There was no clue that you could have still been alive," Gu Yan said. He sounded as though he were pleading for understanding.