Chapter Text
A girl in plain white clothes was walking down the stairs of a small house located near the late Gushan Sect’s court. She put down the lantern from her hands and took up a ladle to water the beautiful, blooming white azaleas scattered around the house. A small smile appeared on her face while she admired the fragrant flowers.
As she was walking up the stairs she felt a slight movement in her abdomen. She put one of her hands on the bump and caressed it gently.
“Qianqian!” A man standing at the top of the stairs called out to her. He was wearing black Wufeng attire and held a paper in his hand.
“You arrived earlier than usual.” She went up to him and took away the letter from his hand.
“I can’t stay for long. They probably won’t let me out alone next week… I’ll try to send someone else or tell them to hide the information at the usual spot.”
“It’s okay. I have a lot of things to do anyway. Right now what's important is to get the detoxifying medicine to the others. This should be the last dose.”
While they were talking they walked into the house. Shangguan Qian gave the man a west shaped material that was filled with a mixture of all kinds of medical herbs. He took off his upper clothes put the west on, then put on his clothes.
“After everyone takes this you should only come here if you have crucial information. We can’t take risks anymore. There’s only 5 months left everything should be going according to plan.”
“Isn’t that too early? You should be giving birth in 4 months… can you recover within just a month?” His eyes look concerned but he also seems scared.
He knows Qian doesn’t like when people question her plans but at the same time he is worried about her and the child. Shangguan Qian smiled but it didn't reach her eyes.
“I know what I’m doing and I can’t wait for longer. I don’t want to raise my child worried about someone unwanted showing up at my door threatening me with his life. I’ve had enough of living in fear.” She protectively put her hands on her stomach and fiercely looked into Zheng Tao’s eyes.
“He? How do you know it’s a boy?” He asked laughing trying to liven up the mood.
“It’s a maternal feeling.”
Zheng Tao remembered that a couple days ago he saw the Young Master in one of the nearby villages. They were told that he is doing his usual rounds of investigation but everyone in Wufeng knows that he is looking for his bride who escaped 3 months ago. That's why they keep track of him hoping that he'll lead them to the betrayer.
Tao doesn't know how to mention this to Shangguan Qian since the topic of him is still a sore spot of hers. Sometimes she'll listen to the news about him without any noticeable reaction but at other times... even just hearing his surname makes her shoot arrows from her eyes (or shoot real arrows if it's one of her worse days).
"Gong Shangjue was spotted nearby last Monday doing his regular rounds with some of his man." He didn’t dare to look into her eyes.
“Is Wufeng planning something against him?”
“No, they are just hoping he will lead them to you.”
Shangguan Qian sat down next to the table and poured herself a cup of warm water.
“Make sure he doesn’t find me. If he does I’ll have to come up with a completely different plan and I don’t have time for that.”
“Yes.” He put together his hands and bowed to her.
“I can’t get used to this.” She smiled.
“If you want everyone to respect you like a leader then you have to get used to it. I’m leaving.”
“Take care.”
Zheng Tao is the only person beside Hanya Qi who got somewhat close to Shangguan Qian out of the Wufeng assassins. Both of them were mentored by Hanya Qi ever since they were children. Tao always liked talking about his family who was murdered by Wufeng, in hopes of never forgetting the little details about them, if he shared those with someone.
When Shangguan Qian got to Wufeng she was very scared of the foreign place. Listening to his storied calmed her down and since she didn’t remember her own family she imagined herself as part of his.
As her memories started recovering she began thinking about ways to get her revenge. Zheng Tao was the only person she dared to talk to about her memories getting back because he was always very open about his hatred towards Wufeng.
When she escaped the palace she knew which areas belonged under his supervision so she went to find him and tell him about her plan. He told her that a small amount of people have been trying to come up with plans to overturn Wufeng from the inside, but no one was brave enough to lead the organization. They had to find the most suitable leader to end Wufeng once and for all, and they did... in the form of Shangguan Qian.
Shangguan Qian realized that one of the biggest obstacle was that their life depends on the antidote of the Fortnight Flies. However one day one of the people from their small organization wanted to take his own life by not taking the antidote. When he realized he survived the attack he didn’t dare to say anything to anyone, incase he would mislead the others so he decided to skip the antidote during the next attack as well. When he registered that he survived, and his inner skill seemed to be even stronger, he let the others know that Fortnight Flies were not poisonous.
When Shangguan Qian first heard about the news she immediately thought of how different things would’ve turned out if she knew this sooner. If the people at the palace told her sooner. Yun Weishan definitely knew about it that’s why she was so brave to stand on the Gong family’s side. But they didn’t even give a chance to her to decide. They used her as a pawn in their perfect little game and then made her out to be the villain. No one trusted her, which is understandable when it’s coming from the people who only saw her scheming and vicious side.
But Gong Shangjue was not one of those people. She told him about her real identity and her real intentions, leaving out the only part that would’ve made him instantly kill her that night at the dungeon. She felt betrayed and disappointed knowing that he didn’t even give her the benefit of the doubt, but she blamed herself even more for getting weak and thinking that someone like him would actually care about her.
She was convinced that the only reason why he is looking for her right now is because of the child. But the only time she’ll allow him to take the child away from her is if she dies.
The plan that she had been preparing has to be perfected before the war so she’ll come out of the fight alive. She wants to raise her baby with all the love her wounded heart can offer.
Until she became pregnant she only cared about herself and her revenge. She wouldn’t even have minded if she died while killing Dianzhu. But the little life in her belly made her plan out things with a lot more care than she originally would’ve.
She will take her revenge while protecting her own and her child’s life. Killing Dianzhu is not just for her sect it’s for all the innocent lives that were taken or tainted by this evil organization.