The Phoenix General

Chapter 2

 The moon was white, a white that possessed some sort of haunting glow that at the same time could have been perceived as comforting. Tonight, the moon was a full circle. It fit the mood quite well, it was a quiet night indeed. The leaves on the trees barely moved, there was next to no wind on this cool evening.

Inside Daming Palace, the emperor of China sat in front of a low table. He was wearing only his white inner robe which made him seem like some sort of silent ghost. Li FeiHong was known for being wise, beautiful, and intelligent. It was no wonder that many women found him handsome, hence his many concubines.

That night, Li FeiHong was looking at a large amount of documents that needed his approval. Though it was already late at night, he worked just as hard as if it were only morning. Outside the quiet room, he heard the gossiping of a couple court officials nearby. While normally he would have demanded silence, tonight the emperor heard something that had caught his attention.

"The son of Jin LanGuang? None of us have heard anything of him in a long time. Why are you suddenly so interested?" One voice spoke.

"It's just that I have not heard of this story once, up until today." The other man said.

"Well, LanGuang did not give too many details about what had happened. But I did hear that his former wife, Liu JiaYong had deceived him by replacing her stillborn child with a prostitute's. He was of course, enraged. For good reason! Deceiving a man like that, Liu JiaYong must have been a horrible woman!"

The other man agreed blindly.

"Because of her evil deed, she was thrown out of Daming Palace along with the bastard child." A sigh escaped the first man. "No one knows where they are now, but they are likely dead. There is absolutely no way that—"

Unfortunately, the court official never got to finish his sentence for he was interrupted by none other than the emperor himself.

"Gossiping about such matters outside my quarters. Have you no shame?" Li FeiHong's face was serious as it always was, but intimidating nonetheless. "Return to your quarters, and do not disturb me."

Without waiting for a response, the emperor returned to his own quarters and shut his door. And the court officials who had been speaking loudly just moments earlier rushed off, embarrassed at their shamelessness.

Back in his room, Li FeiHong mulled over the words he had heard. Who was this son that was thrown out of the palace? When did it occur? He could not recall any boy that was kicked out onto the streets along with his mother. In the morning, he decided, he would look over the records of the palace men and women over the years.

Seeing that the emperor had begun to put away the documents, a female attendant rushed to help.

"Go to sleep, Wu Yue. I can take care of this myself."

Reluctantly, the attendant left the emperor alone. After shuffling around the room to put away the items, Li FeiHong headed off to his bed to receive a well needed rest.

The next morning, Li FeiHong retrieved the book of records. He spent hours flipping through hundreds of pages before he found the name Jin LanGuang. It was written that he had inherited the position of court official, and had married a woman named Liu JiaYong. Together, they supposedly had a child named Jin Wei. However this was already twenty years ago. The abandoned child would have been over twenty by now, not far from FeiHong's age. It was no wonder that he had not heard of such an incident before, as he was not involved in the court's business during that time.

The emperor's legs ached from the hours of sitting when he stood up. He called together several of his most capable men. The men all kneeled and bowed their heads before their well respected emperor.