InterGalaxia (On Hold)

2.19

Chi YunQi paced around her bedroom in worry. She already knew this was coming but at the same time, it was like it never sunk in until it was too late. She was way too caught in the act of sex that she forgot that she was in the body of a woman, a healthy fertile woman. She drew her thumb into her mouth, nibbling the nail. This wasn't the only worry, there's a month to go before Chi YunLei returns to find her precious daughter has been spirited away to becoming the future Empress. As a woman of a different time period, one so far advanced than this one, Chi YunLei held her opinions on a lofty tower.

 She was of the assumption that these ancient people were ignorant and it caused her to have a narrow and superior view. Though she experienced hardship in her previous life, she still more or less had the safety net called 'knowledge', at least, she thought she did. As she viewed the people of this era in disdain, thinking of them as simple barbarians, the thought of her beautiful daughter being whisked away to become some Emperor's nominal wife, the thought would have her steaming out the ears. She felt her daughter deserved only the best and believed that nobody deserved her more than Chi YunLei as she can fully appreciate her with her modern standards.

 So, as Chi YunQi grew up, Chi YunLei made sure to instil in her daughter the notion of modern viewpoints as well the fact that everyone else of this era is a dog. "Qi-Er, you wouldn't want to marry a dog, would you?" Chi YunLei fixed a serious look on her face, staring down at the small girl kneeling before her on a prayer mat in the hall. Chi YunQi shook her head obediently, pandering to Chi YunLei's ridiculous assertion. The woman smiled proudly with narrowed eyes of satisfaction. She reached out and rubbed the crown of her daughter's hair. "You don't need to worry, you can just stay with Mother forever". Chi YunQi didn't deign her with an answer, just observed the woman who clearly displayed her desire to hide her away from everything in the name of 'protection'. 

Chi YunQi released her abused thumbnail from her mouth and stopped pacing. I've got a month to figure out how to deal with Chi YunLei. I already know someone is blocking the letters I've written to Chi Xia from leaving the Palace. It's probably that rascal. She gritted her teeth and lightly brushed her hand atop her flat abdomen. Clenching her fist, she approaches the desk in the corner of her room, taking a seat. Unfurling the parchment in front of her, she took a brush and grind her ink, writing up a brief message. She was sending a letter to her Master, using a secret code that she had showed him a few years ago, claiming if she'd need to communicate an important message, this is the code she'd use.

 It was a simple Caesar Cipher, replacing letters with numbers using the English Alphabet. There are 26 letters in the English Alphabet so she had to use numbers 1 through to 26 to represent each letter. Normally, A is equal to 1 and Z is equal to 26. 

However, in a Caesar Cipher, you 'shift' the letter or number over. In which case, A suddenly becomes 0, B becomes 1, C becomes 2; instead of A being 1, B being 2 and C being 3 etc. So, if the word 'the' is exchanged with it's corresponding numeric, normally it looks like this: 20-8-5. But with the cipher, it'd change to: 19-7-4. Once you get the hang of it, it becomes easy to decode if you understand the rules of the cipher. The cipher she uses isn't just a Caesar Cipher but also a Pigpen Cipher. They can look like grids or a giant 'X' in which letters were filled into the spaces. She uses it in an unconventional way, however,  the giant 'X' and grids are filled in with the numbers, the start of the word is indicated with a small arrow lined up next to the first letter, spiralling either clockwise or anticlockwise. Her message was simple: 

Y-U-N-Q-I    I-S    W-I-T-H  C-H-I-L-D

24-20-13-16-8    8-18    22-8-19-7    2-7-8-11-3. 

Y-U-N-L-E-I    W-I-L-L   R-E-T-U-R-N   S-O-O-N

24-20-13-11-4-8    22-8-11-11    17-4-19-20-17-13    18-14-14-13.