All of a sudden, no one was too keen to draw the curtain to reveal the identity of the people frolicking on the bed. So Zi-ning decided to give them a hand. She sauntered over and flung the translucent drapes aside.

"Ah!"

A girl's high-pitched scream immediately pierced their ears.

The two figures on the bed separated, and audible gasps rang out across the room. The lingering effects of the Hundred Flower Powder finally faded away into the daylight, leaving the reality of the situation bare for all to see.

"Meisi?" Meiyan exclaimed, pointing one shaky finger at girl on the bed, now sobbing while desperate clutching the sheets to her chest.

"I don't know what happened! I was knocked out, and then, and then—"

Han Meisi broke down into a fit of tears, playing the perfect victim in the entire situation. It was not a lie, because she had been knocked out and delivered to the room. But she was certainly no victim.

After Zi-ning had escaped with Ahri last night, they had chanced upon Meisi lurking in the vicinity with her maidservant, waiting. She stopped to eavesdrop on their conversation, and that was when she discovered that Meisi had been the one who had planted the Hundred Flower Powder in the incense burner in her room. She didn't know what Consort Song had bribed her half-sister with, but it probably didn't take much. A jade bracelet, a jewelled hairpin perhaps. Meisi was superficial, and she hated Zi-ning for all the attention she had been receiving, so it was no surprise that she was easily wielded as a weapon by the concubine and the princess.

She had to give credit to Meisi for thinking on her feet and knowing when to grab on to a golden opportunity. Even as she was crying and loudly proclaiming that she knew nothing about how she got here, Zi-ning caught the girl sneaking glances in Situ Zhiren's direction, anticipating his reaction.

Zi-ning knew that look.

It was the same look she had seen on the faces of those eager servant girls and low-ranking concubines who tried to throw themselves at Ru-an in her previous life. But she had also seen how Ru-an had reacted, enough to know that Situ Zhiren would only do worse. Whatever fairytale Meisi was imagining in her head would soon transform into a nightmare.

While all this commotion was going on, the Hua prince had not so much as batted an eyelid. If he was angry at having been set up, he betrayed no such emotion. Instead, he calmly slipped on his robes and fastened his broad belt around his waist.

"Your Highness," Consort Song started, looking a little unsettled by the turn of events, "What exactly happened here? How could you commit such a... such a..." She sighed loudly, as if disappointed with his actions.

As the most senior member of royalty present, it was not against protocol for her to demand answers. Even though the girl had changed, the outcome of this debacle could still work in her favour—as long as Situ Zhiren played along with her plan.

"Is it acceptable to be barging into someone's private quarters in this manner here in Duan?" the prince said in a languid drawl. The more nonchalant he seemed, the more danger Zi-ning sensed brewing beneath the surface. Situ Zhiren was not someone who liked being manipulated.

"This is a temple, Your Highness. It is sacred ground. Even as a prince of another kingdom, it is highly inappropriate for you to be defiling the place like this!" the consort retorted, a sharper edge in her tone. "I'm afraid to say that I must report this matter to the king. We shall have to reconsider the engagement, given these unsavoury circumstances."

Behind her, Princess Xuan's eyes lit up in delight.

Fool, Zi-ning thought. If Situ Zhiren wasn't sure of who he had been set up by before, he would certainly know now. The consort and the princess were too hasty. Had they waited until they returned to the palace before making it known that they planned to use this matter to call off the engagement, perhaps they might have succeeded in pushing all responsibility to Meisi and tricking Situ Zhiren into believing they had no hand in this.

The right corner of the prince's lips tilted upwards in a scornful smile. His gaze shifted towards the innocuous incense burner sitting in a corner, although there would be no point in investigating that further. Hundred Flower Powder burned cleanly, and there would be no traces of it left by now. That was why the women of the harem liked to use it.

"Yes, I shall have much to discuss with the king after we return to the capital." He surveyed the many people in the room, and his gaze came to rest upon Zi-ning's face. She regarded him coldly for a brief moment, then turned towards the open window as if none of this concerned her. "In the meantime, I shall pay penance to the gods for... what did you say earlier? Oh yes, for defiling the place."

As the prince moved to leave, Meisi suddenly launched herself at him, clutching on to his arm. The sheet that had been wrapped around her came undone, shamelessly revealing her curves in front of everyone.

"Your Highness, please. What about me? I... I..."

Zi-ning sighed. Did Meisi genuinely believe that Situ Zhiren would care about her? Even if she were the most beautiful woman in the kingdom, a fairy descended from the heavens, she would still be treated as nothing more than a used dish rag. Men like him cared for no one except themselves, she thought bitterly. She had learned it the hard way.

Situ Zhiren stopped. Turning around, he bent over and grabbed Meisi coarsely by the chin, as if she were an ant he wanted to crush between his fingers. The hope that Meisi had in her eyes slowly gave way to fear.

"What about you?" he taunted.

"Your Highness," Lady Min intervened, stepping forward hesitantly. "Meisi might not be royalty, but she is still a daughter of a Minister. After what happened," she coughed lightly, "it will not be possible for her to find an alternative match. Perhaps you could consider..."

Perhaps he could consider keeping her as a consort?

Someone of Meisi's birth could not possibly be considered for marriage by a prince, but it was still possible for her to be accepted into the prince's harem as one of his many women. Not that Zi-ning believed that was Lady Min's intention. Anyone who could vaguely read the room would be able to tell that Situ Zhiren was not interested in Meisi whatsoever, and that there was a simmering anger towards this situation that he was suppressing within. What Lady Min was doing was not kind. It was cruel.

Situ Zhiren let go of Meisi and straightened himself up. Then he threw his head back and laughed. Without giving any response, he strode out of the room and disappeared down the corridor.

"Mother, what did that mean? Did the prince accept your suggestion?" Meisi asked, confusion written all over her face.

Lady Min frowned, throwing the bedsheets back over Meisi. "Enough," she scolded. "Have you not embarrassed our family enough?" Turning towards Consort Song and the princess, she said, "I apologise on behalf of this disgraceful child. She has done something unforgiveable and I shall ensure that she is duly punished for it."

"But Mother, it wasn't my fault!" Meisi protested. "Your Grace, I did what you—"

"This is Minister Han's family matter, so I shall not interfere. However, it would do for you to educate your daughters better, Lady Min, to avoid staining the Han family name," Consort Song interrupted, addressing only Lady Min and treating Meisi as if she did not exist. "Come, Xuan-er, let's not dally here any further. This is not something that a well brought-up young lady should be seeing." The consort narrowed her eyes at Meisi in warning, then turned to leave the room, with Princess Xuan trailing along behind her.

For Meisi's sake, Zi-ning hoped that she would learn to keep her mouth shut, else Consort Song would have no qualms about lending a hand.

After the doors closed behind the consort and the princess, and only the members of the Han family remained, Meisi immediately burst out once again. "Mother, what's going to happen to me? The prince of Hua will marry me, won't he?" she cried.

Lady Min reached out and slapped the girl across the cheek. "Marry you?" she scoffed. "You honestly think that a prince would marry someone like you? After what you did, it would be a miracle if he even agrees to take you into his household."

"But I didn't ask for any of this! I was telling the truth. Someone knocked me out and when I woke up I was already—" Clutching her reddened cheek, Meisi spun to face Zi-ning. "It was you! You were the one who set me up. It was supposed to be you in the room, not me!"

Zi-ning pursed her lips together, pretending to look hurt by the accusations. "Meisi, how could you say that? Mother," she bit down on the word, letting the bitterness roll on her tongue, "has always ensured that we were taught the proper protocol and decorum expected of a young lady of nobility. It's bad enough that you were caught engaging in such a shameful act, and now you try to push the blame to me? It was a good thing I fell asleep in the prayer room last night while praying to the gods, instead of returning to these quarters."

"Were you really in the prayer room all night?" Lady Min asked, studying Zi-ning suspiciously.

Zi-ning nodded. "Hana and Ahri can be my witnesses," she said. "And there were also a few temple monks who saw me there." She had already aligned her statements with her two maidservants, and they had also intentionally ensured that some of the Ryoko monks saw them in the prayer room after she escaped.

Her step-mother scrutinised her expression carefully, searching for any signs of a lie. Eventually she turned her attention back to Meisi. "What's done is done. It doesn't matter how it happened," she snapped. "You've thoroughly embarrassed us in front of Consort Song and the princess. I'm sure your father and the Old Madam will have something to say about that when we return home. Put your clothes on and go back to your own room. I don't want to see you again until it's time for us to leave. Meiyan, let's go."

Lady Min and Meiyan swept out of the room, and a dishevelled Meisi followed shortly after, though not before giving Zi-ning a snooty look before she left. Zi-ning smiled in return. The girl still harboured dreams of becoming a princess. There was no harm letting her live in her delusions for a while longer.

#

A furious Situ Zhiren slammed the doors of his own quarters. He picked up a teacup and flung it against the wall, shattering the porcelain.

"Who do they take me for? Do they think I'm someone they can play with?" he growled.

It was obvious that the entire set-up had been engineered by the Duan consort and princess because the latter did not want to marry him, but that was not what angered him the most. What maddened him was that he was certain it was Han Zi-ning that had been the other subject of the ploy—he clearly remembered seeing her in the room last night, before the effects of the drug kicked in—but in the morning the girl had changed into someone else.

He did not intend to let the princess get away scot free, but he had wanted to keep Zi-ning in his pocket as well. That was why he had decided to come to Ryoko after receiving the "invitation" that supposedly came from her, despite knowing that it was a forgery.

Somehow, she had managed to slip through his fingers.

He thought of her cold smile and nonchalant responses towards the morning's fiasco, and he was certain that the girl had a hand in how things turned out. He hated it, the feeling of being a pawn in someone else's game.

Han Zi-ning, you think you're so clever? Just you wait. You're going to be mine, sooner or later.

And when that time came, he would make sure that it was a living hell for her.

*****

Author note: Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your support of this story! As a little surprise this week, I've put up a small "author-cast" of some of the main characters in Phoenix Rising on TikTok, so if you're interested, check it out on my profile @ amberwrites88 (the full link is also on my WP message board!)