"The Fifth Young Master hasn't stepped out of his room since Second and First Young Masters' return from the battlefield!" a maid whisper shouted to her companions as they made their way across the Tiang compounds. The night air was clammy and ominously taciturn to be exact. Only the sound of chirping crickets and shrilling cicadas erupted the tranquil atmosphere of the dark,starry night. A mournful wind swept across the compounds heading east leaving its ghastly whisper behind in the stillness of the night.

The moon was a crescent, sneaking a peak once in a while behind the dark clouds that impregnated the ebony skyline with its stars that shone like jewels. Everything was quiet except for the rushed tread of the three maids and their hushed whispers. What on earth where they doing in the middle of the night? The whole of the Tiang residence was fast asleep excluding the guards on patrol and the shadow guards that lurked in every corner of the residence ,within the consuming darkness that threatened to swallow a sea of people like hoovering beasts.

Ever since the incident that occurred seven years ago, the guards had been more wary of their surroundings and the people that got permission to enter in and out of the residence to visit the right hand General of the emperor, Tiang Feng. Any misgivings or troubles that sleeved within the Tiang compounds behind their backs, they would be held accountable so they were careful with whatever they did. Careful enough to avert themselves from getting on General Tiang's vicious side. As much as the right hand General was a pillar of strength to the empire,having had escorted triumphs of victorious battles and expanding the empire boundaries he was known as the cold-blooded ,bloodthirsty beast of bondage. His punishments were a hundred folds worse than death itself, callous and brutal like Su Lin's spiked whip. Being placed into his hands for literal punishment was no less than being placed in hell directly to be scotched by the eternal, lethal flames that leapt at anyone like a wild beast.

His way of punishment was like a malediction from the heavens meant to strike you down like a bolt of lightning. A similar incident happened before but the difference was that the culprits had successfully succeeded in their rooted plan.....assassinating the General's mother. She was burnt beyond recognition. Of course that was not the cause of her death. Her death was caused by a poisoned needle that had hit her vital points. The General went berserk over her death and he threatened to wreck the whole empire upside down until he laid his hands on the cowards who had assassinated his mother. What wrong had she committed to be ruthlessly assassinated like this? To be burnt beyond recognition? What insult had she planted into their seedbeds when she was merely a kind-hearted person who could barely raise a finger on an insect?

**The culprits did not get as far as the boarder that divided the empire of Yin from the kingdom of Feng. The army had mounted on them on black stallions that looked as if they had balls of blazing fire in their eyes with the General leading them on with such a mien of distaste and coldness. Simple logic was that the fear that hemmed them in was just playing game with them. The seven culprits were brought back to the punishment hall after being hurled behind galloping horses with their wrists tightened on the horses' saddles. The rest of the story was be known to the people.

One of her two companions nodded vigorously then added, "I also heard that he hasn't been eating the food sent to him by Her Lady Grace. Do you think he is sick?"

"I doubt it."

"But then how can we explain his behavior**?"

"Maybe he was cur-------The one who had been quietly listening to her two friends' gossip snapped out at them viciously like a wild dog, clipping them both on the ear. The other looked at her murderously pointing questioning fingers at her.

"Mei, why did you clip my ear?!"

"Do I need a reason to?" she replied nonchalantly, holding the lantern firmly in her hands. "Of course I need an explanation. You're always uptight and rigid!" the second one shrieked. Mei swept a glance at her two friends who were rubbing the sore part of the ears. She heaved a sharp sigh and the others went stiff instinctively, holding their guards for another blow if expected. "Make a sound out of those mouths of yours and you will see where your heads end up at," she warned them quietly, turning on her heel to head back at the maids house.

"You're no fun, Mei-jiejie," the both grumbled simultaneously before following the retreating figure of Mei.

A young man sat by the Shui Pavilion quietly scrutinizing the bamboo scroll in his hands. His delicate ,slender fingers trailed after every letter engraved on the scroll, his movements calculated. He looked like a sculpture that had been sculpted by the infamous Shang artists. He had thin eyebrows and a pair of beautiful black eyes that left a drowning like drunken-daze on whosoever looked into those hypnotic ebony eyes. His lips were of a cherry red blossoming colour and his hair that was tied into a simple ponytail was long and soft like silk. He had a slender, lean frame that completed a perfect veneers to hide his martial art skills. This frame made him look vulnerable and.....feminine? He hated it. Unlike his older brothers who were handsome and manly built like their father,he was cursed with this lithe body that was very much like a woman's What sin did he commit in his previous life to have himself poured a bucket of cold water by karma?

He placed the scroll on the wooden table in front of him with a tired sigh.

'How long does that old man Zhao want me in here?'

Teng Luo looked out through the open window with a tired expression on his face. He heaved yet another sigh. Standing up from the ground he took a quick glance at the lotus that swayed gently on the wind as though they were performing a dance. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips. No matter how many times he looked at the He Hua pond he could never get tired of its lavish beauty. '

'Such beauty and purity-Ah.'

He sighed again for the hundredth time that evening. The small smile that was playing at his lips suddenly vanished as a thought so unpleasant than cat pungent rushed into his mind like a swirling tornado.

'Fool! Admiring lotus flowers all night ,are you a woman?' a voice thundered in his ears, retorting him. Helplessly, Teng Lou dragged his feet back into his bad chambers, hands holding his head in their warm comforting mass as he muttered a mantra of incoherent words of doom.

"Mother.....Father.........Big brothers......I've been cursed! Cursed...Cursed.....Cursed.......Cursed!"