The empress dowager merely looked bored and signaled a halt during lunch. After telling Ming He they will be back, she and the emperor left and rode back to the palace. Hu Xui and Li Bingbing welcomed them back. Li Bingbing had prepared a simple lunch in the empress dowager's favorite place, the sunroom where she and the late emperor used to have long talks over dinner or a game of chess.

The food was very simple, rice, two meats, pie and the emperor's favorite, strawberry jelly.

"You might as well join us for lunch," the emperor said, pulling the chair next to him. The empress dowager signaled to Hu Xui who sat down a bit uncomfortably. Li Bingbing took the remaining chair next to the empress dowager.

They didn't talk while eating but it was not an uncomfortable silence. The empress dowager had a special way of making people feel comfortable in her presence. She was enjoying her lunch so they enjoyed theirs. Even the emperor was smiling as he quietly finished his jelly.

"Did you advise Yi Hai to make free use of the kitchen?" the empress dowager finally opened the conversation. "We don't have a cook until tomorrow morning. They have to fend for themselves in the meantime."

"He's been informed about it, niang niang," Li Bingbing said.

"Okay, thanks."

The emperor finally finished his jelly.

"What about father's consort and my little brother?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.

"The duke paid a lot of money to get them back. One million each," the empress dowager said with a smile.

The two women gasped.

"Holy....that much?" Hu Xiu asked with rounded eyes.

"Uhmm. I'm getting you a good a.s.sistant, Little Gu," the empress dowager said, turning to her stepson. "You're going to be busy in the next six months so you need help."

"Okay," the emperor said.

"Your majesty, we might have a problem," Yi Hai's voice suddenly intruded in the silence. He stood by the door, stiff and very soldierly.

"Have you eaten?" the empress dowager asked. "Pull up a chair and join us."

"I'm not sure..." Yi Hai was very surprised at the empress dowager's casual invitation.

"Have a seat, commander," the emperor said.

Thus commanded, the leader of the palace guards took a seat and began eating. He felt very bizarre but as weird as the situation seemed to him, the emperor and his stepmother handled it with aplomb.

The empress dowager behaved like she was entertaining guests, getting up and going to the kitchen to get more food and keeping up a steady flow of conversation which made the three people feel more comfortable sharing a meal with the emperor.

"You were saying something about a possible trouble, commander?" the emperor finally set down his fork and looked at Yi Hai.

"I received a report that the duke and the prime minister's forces are coalescing to make trouble for the auction this afternoon," the commander said. "I suggest their majesties should reconsider their decision about going back there later. There might be trouble with these people."

"Gu Sheng?" the empress dowager turned to the emperor. "Your decision."

Yi Hai frowned. Didn't she understand what he was trying to say? It was dangerous to go out there in the open yet she was asking the emperor like he was merely being inconvenienced going to the park for a walk.

"Of course we're going back," the emperor said impatiently. "Don't worry, commander. We'll be careful."

The frown never left Yi Hai's face. The empress dowager saw it and laughed.

"We're such stubborn fools, aren't we, commander? Is that what you're thinking?"

The commander had the grace to look ashamed.

"No, your majesty. Nothing like that but I do think it's folly going back out there."

"Little Gu, I think the commander is right. You stay here and wait for us. No need to unnecessarily worry Yi Hai. I'll be fine on my own."

"But An Ning..." the emperor protested.

"Your majesty, it would really ease my mind if you stay behind and just wait here inside the palace. It could be really dangerous out there."

"What he's actually saying is it's okay for me to go out there since I'm not that important but it's another matter if you get hurt. That about right, commander?" the empress dowager mocked.

The commander hesitated but he was actually a very honest young man so he just nodded his head, refusing to say anymore.

"An Ning, why go out there then if it's really that dangerous? Just stay here with me. Let them fight it out among themselves," the emperor said, looking at his stepmother with a look of worry on his young face.

The empress dowager laughed.

"But where's the fun in that?" she said, flas.h.i.+ng a dimple. "I don't want to disappoint the people who went through all this trouble just to kill me. It's no fun."

"An Ning!" the emperor said sharply. "Don't joke like that."

"You are such a square, Little Gu. You know, anyone will think you're in your fifties if they hear you talk like that. Chill, dude."

"I cannot chill as you put it if you keep talking like this is not important. You are important, An Ning. At least, to me," the emperor said, then furiously turned his red face away when he encountered her mischievous smile.

"I love you, too," the empress dowager said, blowing him a kiss. The emperor fidgeted in his chair, embarra.s.sed yet pleased.

The three people listened to this banter with mixed feelings. Hu Xiu was smiling, Li Bingbing had a crease on her smooth forehead, while Yi Hai merely looked exasperated.

"Niang niang," Li Bingbing said, hesitating as if she didn't want to give offense yet must get something off her chest, "those girls...they're going to be alright, aren't they?"

"I believe so," the empress dowager said.

"And the children..."

"Will stay with their mothers. It's all been planned, don't worry."

Li Bingbing sighed as if a burden had been lifted off her chest.

Yi Hai personally escorted the empress dowager to the plaza. The crowd had grown bigger by this time, almost reaching the big government building. The empress dowager took her place at the dais without fanfare. There were whispers when everybody noticed the emperor's absence but it all died down when the auction again started.

Two men in their late twenties ended up fighting over a girl, which was rather funny except that their argument got heated up so fast the two men started exchanging blows, furiously trying to beat each other to death. The fight escalated very quickly people had to scramble away to avoid being caught up in it.

Ming He tried to separate the combatants but one of the men threw a punch at him. Furious, Ming He threw a counter punch and before long he and other innocent bystanders accidentally hit by a stray punch angrily waded into the melee and joined the fight.

The guards scrambled to try and rein in the restive crowd but it was really getting rowdy. Yi Hai looked at the soon-to-be out of control riot on his hand and was torn. He glanced at the empress dowager who smiled and nodded her head.

"I'll be alright. Go," she ordered.

Without another word, Yi Hai jumped down the dais and waded into the crowd, his tall height giving him a vantage view of the fight.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a group of strange looking men streamed into the square. They stood out in the crowd because they were wearing red bandanas tied prominently around their waists as if they were part of a dancing group about to give a performance. The s.h.i.+ny long swords and sabers held in their hands, however, belied this first impression.

The fighting men had already caught sight of these intruders and one by one, they stopped and looked confusedly at the strange armed men. Yi Hai threw a panicked look at the empress dowager then anxiously waded back into the crowd to get to her.

He hadn't even taken a single step when the horde of armed men attacked. And their target was the empress dowager, who stood exposed with only a few guards by her side at the dais.

Screaming b.l.o.o.d.y murder, the throng flew in her direction. Yi Hai could only watch in horror as the horde swarmed the dais until the empress dowager disappeared from his sight.

What followed was surprising, surreal and/or f.u.c.king amazing based on different accounts from many witnesses.

The empress dowager looked as if she was already dead when the horde surrounded the dais. The bandana wearing men jumped on her and everyone thought, that was it, she was a goner. But then something strange happened. They heard a noise, which turned out to be the sound of a sword expertly slicing body parts.

Sliced body parts literally fell on the ground where the empress dowager and her a.s.sa.s.sins stood. They could see a part of an arm, a torso, and a sliced b.l.o.o.d.y head rolling down the steps. The blood flowed thick and fast, followed by bodies hacked and torn by the thin long sword.

The empress dowager stood in the middle of this carnage in her blood-splattered dress, her hair undone and falling down her back and shoulders. The long sword held competently in her right hand dripped with blood, her narrowed eyes shooting a formidable killing intent.

What remained of the a.s.sa.s.sins tried to scramble frantically away when the empress dowager moved towards them, her sword at ready. They tried to escape but the sword inexorably followed after them, hacking and slicing anything it touches.

Meanwhile, some of the a.s.sa.s.sins who got away from the empress dowager's merciless sword found themselves trapped inside the circle created by both the crowd and the palace guards. The palace guards were about to jump at them when a loud clanging sounded and soldiers bearing the crest of the Duke of Ziyen poured into the square from a long street adjacent to the government building.

There was a momentary stalemate as the three forces eyed each other uncertainly. Then the stalemate was broken when the vanguards of the duke's forces attacked the phalanx of the palace guards.

Heartened by their action, the bandana gang redoubled their efforts to cut down the empress dowager. She was still alone, in the middle of a small crowd, but the sword continued to hack and slice. Yi Hai tried to get to her but the duke's forces were pressing down hard on the guards and civilians, some of whom had taken arms in order to fight.

A big brawny soldier detached himself from the forces battling the phalanx guard when he caught sight of Yi Hai running towards the empress dowager. The soldier took out his big knife, preparing to throw it at Yi Hai's retreating back when a whoos.h.i.+ng sound suddenly alerted his ears. A short battle axe was flying in the air, flying directly at him. The brawny soldier only had time to wonder where the battle axe came from before the blade struck his skull and he fell to the ground dead.

Yi Hai looked back and saw the axe split the man's head open. The empress dowager reached his side by then but another soldier again lunged at her. Yi Hai, thinking that she had no time to evade the attack, tried to block it by moving in front of her.

The empress dowager gave an unexpected laugh, turned her sword sideways and caught the descending tip of the knife. Yi Hai's unexpected move, however, slowed the momentum of the sword so that instead of catching and flicking the knife away, the tip did a half turn and plunged unerringly into Yi Hai's left shoulder.

Yi Hai groaned and staggered and was caught by the empress dowager, who deftly turned her sword and sliced it thru the chest of the man holding the knife. She didn't even look as the man fell on his back. Instead, she supported Yi Hai and dragged him to the side of the platform where she propped him up against a wall.

The empress dowager then shocked Yi Hai to near fainting when she ripped open his collar and examined his wound.

"Thank G.o.d it's not serious," she said. "We need to have this cleaned immediately though."

Yi Hai was extremely agitated due to embarra.s.sment. His jacket and unders.h.i.+rt were open, baring his naked torso to her gaze. He wanted to cover himself up but she didn't seem to be bothered by his nakedness so he gradually relaxed but stiffened up again when he heard a voice.

"Little Yi! Where are you? Little Yi!"

The voice ended up in a choking sound when the woman saw Yi Hai.

"Little Yi!" she screamed. "Yi Ying! Yi Ying, he's here! Little Yi is here!"

The woman then hankered down beside the empress dowager and her hands immediately went all over Yi Hai's body like a pervert.

"Ma!" Yi Hai said, waving her hands clumsily. "I'm alright. I"m not hurt."

"You have blood on you," the woman said, her eyes tearing up. "My baby is hurt. My baby is hurt. Yi Ying, our son is hurt," she said, looking up at the man and sobbing brokenly.

The man knelt beside Yi Hai and examined his shoulder.

"It's nothing serious," he said, then looked at the sobbing woman before him. "Calm down, wife. It's only a graze. He'll live."

Yi Hai, who totally s.p.a.ced out when the elder man arrived, recovered his speech and asked: "What are you two doing here?"

Before the two people could say anything, however, the empress dowager intervened.

"You are his parents? Then can you carry him to the palace? That wound needs some attention immediately. Tell Little Gu to take care of him."

"Your majesty!" Yi Hai was shocked. "I can't leave you behind here. What will the emperor say?"

"That I can take care of myself and don't need you to worry about me?" she smiled. "Worry about me later, when you're better. Take the carriage and go. I'll see you at the palace later."

With that, she was gone. Yi Hai hesitated and looked at his father. The elder man sighed.

"Can you at least stand?"

"Yi Ying, no!" his wife said, her hand on his arm.

"Wife, our son is a soldier. And a soldier's job is to go into battle and finish the job even if he's injured. Go," he told Yi Hai, "I'm behind you. Wife, go to the carriage and wait for us there." He waited until he saw his wife got safely inside the carriage before following Yi Hai.

The two men hurried after the empress dowager who by then was surrounded by four men. They unsheathed their swords and prepared to wade in on the fight when suddenly, the fight was over. Just like that. The empress dowager had pulled what looked like a weapon and was holding it in her hand. She pointed the weapon at the man nearest her then a loud bang was heard. The man went down, a large hole on his chest. The three men stared dumbly at their fallen comrade and prepared to run. The empress dowager, however, had already pointed her weapon at their heads. They went down one after the other, the loud bang startling and freezing everyone within hearing.

Seeing what had happened to their dead companions, the rest of the bandana boys along with the duke's soldiers hastily retreated. The loud bang followed after them though. The empress dowager did not leave any of her a.s.sailants injured or alive. She shot them while they were running away, her aim deadly, her expression grim and forbidding.

The crowd watched as she walked over the fallen bodies and looked up the street leading to the house of the Duke of Ziyen. The street was quiet, the gra.s.s on the roadside swaying in the gentle breeze. The empress dowager gave a scornful laugh then pulled out a long thick tube from under her robe. The crowd watched perplexed as she knelt down and placed the thick tube on top of her right shoulder. She peered up the street again then some kind of an arrow-shaped thing shot out of the tube, traveling some distance away to land on the swaying gra.s.s.

There was a loud explosion that made everybody flinch. Then the sound of people screaming horribly, as if their souls were being pulled against their will to h.e.l.l, reverberated in the shocked silence. The empress dowager released another round. This time it hit the gra.s.s growing on a slight slope that led to the river. The sound of screaming this time was more wretched, more anguished. Then silence.

The empress dowager walked back to the stunned crowd, which parted and opened a path for her. Ming He, who was sitting on top of platform stairs, looked at her with an expressionless face. One eye had been blackened, his lip split by a fist. He looked like a pirate who had seen better days.

The empress dowager stopped when she was eye level with him.

"Resume the auction in an hour," she said, her voice rising so she could be heard by everyone in the square. "We'll finish this until all the harem women are sold off, do you understand?"

Ming He was silent but nodded after a while.

The crowd watched as the empress dowager walked towards her waiting carriage, two men following behind her. The three of them disappeared inside then the carriage moved and slowly wind its way to the palace. The crowd did not disperse, waiting for the appointed time when the auction reopens and the empress dowager resumes her place at the dais.