The Desert Threat by Yan Leisheng

Author:Yan Leisheng [Leisheng, Yan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Media Tie-In, Fantasy, Action & Adventure, Historical
ISBN: 9781839081736
Publisher: Aconyte
Published: 2022-10-03T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

“There’s Zhuma Fortress, Mr Wang,” Meng Gen sighed.

While she now knew the truth, she continued to call Shao Jun by her assumed name. As soon as the injured woman had been able to get up and climb into the saddle, the two women had discreetly crept out of the Mongol camp to head towards China. Once in sight of the border fortress, they had made a small detour onto a less frequented path to avoid the main road which was full of carts. The time to say their goodbyes had come.

“I don’t know how to thank you, Meng Gen,” Shao Jun said. “You’ve risked so much to help me…”

Even after the young woman had told her about Zhang Yong’s terrible plans, it still hadn’t been easy for the Mongol princess to betray her brother, but once she had made her decision, she hadn’t considered going back on it for even a moment. Nonetheless, her concern was written all over her face.

“Mr Wang,” she murmured, “will the Mongols and the Chinese ever get along?”

She knew the question was too big to have any real answer, but her anguish couldn’t have been any better expressed. It was even more relevant given that Zhang Yong’s dark designs were once again casting the shadow of war over the region… Deep down, Shao Jun was convinced that the responsibility for any conflict lay less upon the people than on the powerful who manipulated their passions.

“Princess,” she said after a moment of silence, “a wise man once told me to follow my heart when I felt lost.”

“Your heart?”

“Yes. You need to follow the path that makes you happiest!”

“When I was a child, Khan Bars Bolud, my dead father, fulfilled my every wish. But now, I can’t have the one thing which would make me happy… and I have no one to open up to.”

“Princess, there is a Chinese poem that says that ‘only three or four of the eight or nine worries that plague us can be shared’. The solitude of our secret gardens is our lot.”

Zhu Jiuyuan, Shao Jun’s first mentor, constantly overwhelmed by the collapse of the Society of the Mind and the weight of his exile, had often cited these lines by Fang Yue of the Song dynasty. Meng Gen’s level of Chinese didn’t usually allow her to read poetry, but this sentence was simple enough for her to understand its meaning. She repeated it to herself several times to memorize it, then turned her big black eyes to Shao Jun and spoke, her voice cracking with emotion, “Leave, Mr Wang, and never return!”

“Very well, princess, I will never return. I wish you happiness and a peaceful life.”

“I wish you nothing but good, Mr Wang, for you and your family.”

With this awkward formula, whose origin she couldn’t remember, the Mongol princess spurred her horse and leapt into a gallop across the steppe.

Alone with her thoughts and her guilt, Shao Jun bitterly regretted having lied to her about her identity. She hoped the

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